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Last verified:
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Carbonite costs $8 to $8 per month as of November 2026. Plan: Basic at $8/month (billed annually). Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: No free tier available

Carbonite offers 1 pricing tiers: Basic. Paid plans include Basic at $8/month (billed annually). The Basic plan is individuals needing basic cloud backup for one computer.

Last verified: | Sources: 3 pricing pages and reviews
Know Before You Buy — See Carbonite Plans

Carbonite lists $8-$8/month, but hidden costs like implementation and support add to the total as of November 2026. Key hidden costs: large files automatically excluded from backup, single computer and drive coverage limitation, intentional restore speed throttling. Verified from 3 sources by CostBench.

Hidden Costs Breakdown

1

Large Files Automatically Excluded from Backup

critical addon

Carbonite excludes large files from backup by default without clearly notifying users. Users often discover this only when attempting to restore data, finding that their largest and most important files were never backed up. This exclusion happens silently during the backup process.

reddit · 2020-03-31

Carbonite -- another shit backup service that _excluded largest users files by default_ from the backup set. Not even kidding. Backup service my ass..

reddit · 2020-11-16

I personally despise it for this sole reason... the “hands off” backup service that would silently skip large files. Yeah, it was mentioned in the manual but who reads manuals? And this sort of defeats the purpose.

2

Single Computer and Drive Coverage Limitation

medium addon

Personal plans cover only one computer and do not automatically back up all attached drives. Users with two internal drives have lost data on the second unprotected drive. Backing up multiple computers or multiple external drives requires additional plan purchases or upgrades.

trustpilot · 2025-09-18

I've had carbonite for many years. I had a drive crash and felt confident all my files could be restored. WRONG! Carbonite apparently only backs up one drive. If your computer has two, you are screwed. I lost all my data and cannot even get a refund for a 2-year subscription that was paid in advance.

reddit · 2024-11-27

it appears that their pricing for personal users only includes one computer and one external drive. I'm backing up five external drives so already, I'm not even sure they handle my situation. If they do, I probably need to use a pro or business level account or pay some additional fee per drive, which then makes them unaffordable.

3

Intentional Restore Speed Throttling

critical support

Carbonite intentionally throttles data restore speeds to approximately 100-150KB/s, making large-scale data recovery impractical. The company does not disclose this throttling upfront and has denied it to customers until confronted with evidence. At throttled speeds, restoring 1.5TB of data takes over 4 months.

trustpilot · 2026-01-20

Only after I proved the bottleneck was on their end did they finally admit they intentionally throttle restores to 100-150KB/s. At this rate, my data recovery will take over 4 months. They also refused to ship a recovery drive to a US address to help an international customer.

trustpilot · 2025-10-10

It is downloading at 3.5 Mbps. My ISP supports 300 to 500 Mbps. Customer support will not admit they are throttling the download speed. I understand them not wanting people to use as a file transfer service, but this is way too slow.

4

NAS Device Backup Requires Expensive Server Plan Upgrade

high addon

After upgrading to Windows 11, at least one long-time customer reported that Carbonite Safe Core no longer backed up their NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices and that they were told to move to a server product to continue. Customers who relied on NAS backup under Windows 10 may need to move from a personal plan to a higher-priced server plan.

trustpilot · 2026-03-24

Carbonite Safe Core was backing up files from my 2 NAS devices for about 10 years under Windows 10. I upgraded to Windows 11 and all of a sudden Safe Core doesn't know how to back up NAS devices. They now claim I have to upgrade to their server product to back up NAS devices. Horse puckey. The server product is a file level backup as well.

5

Strict 30-Day Refund Window on Multi-Year Subscriptions

high compliance

Carbonite enforces a hard 30-day refund policy regardless of subscription length. Multi-year prepaid subscribers who experience product failure, OS incompatibility, or hardware failure after the 30-day window receive no refund for the remaining subscription period.

trustpilot · 2026-04-25

First of all, there's only a 30-day refund policy. Even if you buy a plan for 2 years and your computer dies, you cannot get that money back. Let's say in 30 days you can't figure out how to download the stuff or it just doesn't work on your computer. You can't get your money back.

trustpilot · 2026-02-04

I had purchased a one yr subscription And it appears to have stopped working after the IOS 26 update on my laptop. I tried to get this fixed by online as well as in person call. I did not feel comfortable of giving them remote access to my computer and asked to cancel the subscription And they refuse to provide any refund as they said it was after 30 days.

6

Weekend and After-Hours Support Blackout

medium support

Customer support is available only Monday–Friday 9am–6pm Eastern time. Backup failures, software crashes, or restore emergencies occurring on evenings or weekends have no resolution path until the next business day. Multiple users report being locked out of accounts over weekends with no recourse.

trustpilot · 2026-03-25

Unreachable except for M-F 9-5. Carbonite caused my computer to SHUT DOWN! It glitched and used all the system data on my computer, making it entirely unusable. It happened on a Friday night and was solved at Apple after 4 hours of wasted time! I removed Carbonite from both of my computers and am going with idrive.

trustpilot · 2025-09-29

When I try to find an agent to clarify, I'm told that the Carbonite office is open only between 9 AM - 6 PM Eastern and closed on weekends.

7

Price Escalation Without Service Improvement

medium overage

Multiple long-term customers report significant price increases over multi-year subscriptions while service quality has declined. Users who subscribed years ago report substantially higher current pricing alongside deteriorating support quality and product reliability.

trustpilot · 2025-10-03

Their customer service has gone down and down in quality and accessibility over the years while the price has of course increased.

reddit · 2021-08-16

I was sick of the high prices of Carbonite and the slow backups/recovery.

Frequently Asked Questions

01 What hidden costs should I budget for with Carbonite?

Beyond the license fee, budget for: Large Files Automatically Excluded from Backup (Complete data loss for files above size threshold); Single Computer and Drive Coverage Limitation ($4.91-$24/month per additional computer requiring backup); Intentional Restore Speed Throttling (20-40% of license costs in lost productivity; may require purchasing alternative recovery solutions); NAS Device Backup Requires Expensive Server Plan Upgrade (Server plans cost more than personal plans; the exact increase depends on the server plan chosen.); Strict 30-Day Refund Window on Multi-Year Subscriptions ($58-$300 in unrecoverable prepaid subscription costs depending on plan and term length (source dated Apr 2026)); Weekend and After-Hours Support Blackout (5-10% of license costs in unresolvable downtime incidents); Price Escalation Without Service Improvement (10-25% annual price increases reported by long-term users). Exact totals depend on your deployment size and negotiated terms.

02 Does Carbonite charge for implementation?

Implementation costs for Carbonite vary by deployment size and customization. Contact the vendor or check our sourced hidden-cost breakdown above for verified figures.

03 How much does Carbonite support cost?

Carbonite intentionally throttles data restore speeds to approximately 100-150KB/s, making large-scale data recovery impractical. The company does not disclose this throttling upfront and has denied it to customers until confronted with evidence. Estimated impact: 20-40% of license costs in lost productivity; may require purchasing alternative recovery solutions.

04 Are there overage or storage costs with Carbonite?

Multiple long-term customers report significant price increases over multi-year subscriptions while service quality has declined. Users who subscribed years ago report substantially higher current pricing alongside deteriorating support quality and product reliability. Estimated impact: 10-25% annual price increases reported by long-term users.

05 What add-ons cost extra with Carbonite?

Add-on pricing for Carbonite varies by feature. The sourced cost breakdown above lists any verified add-on costs we have.

Now You Know the Real Cost — See Carbonite Plans

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