Cast AI Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Cast AI costs Free to $1K per per month as of April 2026. 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
Yes, Cast AI offers a forever free plan as of April 2026. The free tier includes 5 features with limits on optimization. Paid plans start at $1000/per month base + $5/vCPU/month (Growth). Pricing verified from 2 sources by CostBench.
Cast AI's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- Unlimited clusters (no node/cluster limits)
- Real-time cost monitoring and reporting
- Savings estimate and recommendations
- Kubernetes cost allocation by namespace, label, workload
- No optimization automation
What's NOT Included (Paid Only)
- Everything in Free
- Automated autoscaling
- Spot instance management and interruption prediction
- Workload rightsizing (CPU/memory at millicore level)
- Bin packing and pod scheduling optimization
- Multi-cluster support
- Standard support
Free Plan Limits
| Limit | Free Plan | Paid Plans |
|---|---|---|
| optimization | Read-only recommendations; no automated changes | Unlimited/Higher |
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like Everything in Free or Automated autoscaling
- You require premium support or SLA guarantees
- You need to remove branding or watermarks
- You need advanced integrations or API access
Hidden Restrictions on Free Plan
- No automated optimization actions
- No autoscaling
- No spot instance automation
- Recommendations only — no hands-free execution
Free vs Paid: Which Do You Need?
Free Plan is Enough If...
- You're an individual or very small team
- You need only basic features
- You don't mind usage limits
- Branding on output is acceptable
- Community support is sufficient
You Need Paid If...
- Your team is growing beyond limits
- You need advanced features
- Professional branding is required
- You need priority support
- Integrations/API access is critical
Free vs Growth Plan Comparison
| Free (Monitoring) $0 | Growth $1000/per month base + $5/vCPU/month | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 5 included | 7+ included |
| Support | Community/Email | Priority Support |
| Branding | Cast AI branding | Your branding |
| Best For | Teams that want Kubernetes cost visibility and savings estimates before committing to optimization | Engineering teams ready to automate Kubernetes cost reduction across production clusters |
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Cast AI free?
Yes, Cast AI offers a forever free plan with 5 core features included. However, there are limits on optimization that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Cast AI's free plan?
Cast AI's free plan includes: Unlimited clusters (no node/cluster limits), Real-time cost monitoring and reporting, Savings estimate and recommendations, Kubernetes cost allocation by namespace, label, workload, No optimization automation. Key limits include optimization: Read-only recommendations; no automated changes.
03 What's NOT included in Cast AI's free plan?
The free plan excludes: Everything in Free, Automated autoscaling, Spot instance management and interruption prediction, Workload rightsizing (CPU/memory at millicore level), Bin packing and pod scheduling optimization. You'll also have Cast AI branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Cast AI's free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like Everything in Free or Automated autoscaling, require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $1000/per month base + $5/vCPU/month.
05 Is Cast AI's free plan really free forever?
Yes, Cast AI's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit. However, feature and usage limits may restrict what you can do without upgrading to a paid plan.