DigitalOcean Pricing 2026
Complete pricing guide with plans, hidden costs, and negotiation tips
DigitalOcean pricing varies by team size and features, ranging from $0 to $40 per month in 2026. Your actual cost depends on the tier you choose, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: Yes
- Billing: Monthly and annual (save 15-20%)
- Hidden costs: Add ~35% for implementation, support, and training
DigitalOcean offers 5 pricing tiers: Free, Droplet (Basic), Droplet (Standard), Droplet (Advanced), Enterprise. Standard paid plans include Free at $0/month, Droplet (Basic) at $4/month, Droplet (Standard) at $12/month. The Droplet (Basic) plan is small applications.
Compared to other cloud infrastructure software, DigitalOcean is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.
DigitalOcean is a developer-focused cloud infrastructure provider known for its simplicity, transparent pricing, and excellent documentation. Founded in 2011, it serves over 600,000 customers and is particularly popular with startups, small businesses, and individual developers who want cloud computing without the complexity of hyperscalers like AWS or Azure.
DigitalOcean Droplet pricing starts at $4/month for a basic 512 MB instance and scales to $640/month for high-end configurations. As of January 2026, DigitalOcean switched to per-second billing for all Droplets. CPU-Optimized plans start at $42/month, General Purpose at $63/month, and Memory-Optimized at $84/month, all with dedicated CPU resources and generous transfer allowances.
All DigitalOcean Plans & Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Free 0 | Learning and testing |
| Droplet (Basic) | $4 /month | $48 /month | Small applications |
| Droplet (Standard) | $12 /month | $144 /month | Growing applications |
| Droplet (Advanced) | $40 /month | $480 /month | High-traffic applications |
| Enterprise | Contact | Contact | High-scale operations |
View all features by plan
Free
- $5 free credits monthly
- Core cloud services
- Limited resources
Droplet (Basic)
- 1GB RAM
- 1 vCPU
- 25GB SSD
- Per-second billing
Droplet (Standard)
- 2GB RAM
- 2 vCPU
- 60GB SSD
- Per-second billing
Droplet (Advanced)
- 8GB+ RAM
- 4+ vCPU
- 160GB+ SSD
Enterprise
- Custom infrastructure
- Dedicated support
- HGX B300 GPUs
Get a custom DigitalOcean quote
Enter your work email and we'll send you a detailed cost breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
01 How much does DigitalOcean cost?
DigitalOcean Droplets start at $4/month for a Basic Droplet with 512 MB RAM. A 2 GB Premium Intel Droplet costs $18/month. CPU-Optimized plans start at $42/month and General Purpose plans at $63/month. All plans include generous outbound transfer allowances.
02 Does DigitalOcean have a free tier?
DigitalOcean does not have a permanent free tier, but new users typically receive $200 in free credits valid for 60 days. This allows testing multiple Droplet sizes and managed services before committing.
03 What hidden costs should I expect with DigitalOcean?
Key hidden costs include backup fees (20-30% of Droplet cost), extra bandwidth at $0.01/GiB, block storage volumes at $0.10/GB/month, load balancers at $12/month, and managed databases starting at $15/month. Billing continues for powered-off Droplets.
04 How does DigitalOcean billing work?
As of January 2026, DigitalOcean uses per-second billing with a 60-second minimum. Monthly costs are capped at 672 hours (28 days). You're billed for Droplets even when powered off because resources remain reserved. Destroy unused Droplets to stop charges.
05 DigitalOcean vs AWS: Which is better?
DigitalOcean is simpler and cheaper for straightforward workloads: a 2 GB Droplet costs $18/month vs. similar AWS instances at $30+/month. AWS offers far more services and global reach. DigitalOcean is better for developers and small teams; AWS for complex enterprise needs.
06 Is DigitalOcean good for production?
Yes, DigitalOcean is production-ready with 99.99% uptime SLA on Droplets. CPU-Optimized and General Purpose Droplets provide dedicated resources suitable for production. Managed databases, load balancers, and Kubernetes (DOKS) support production architectures.