Price checkMonthly
Basic$12/node/moCPU-optimized$42/node/moNVIDIA H100 GPU$3.39/node/mo
See all 6 plans

All DigitalOcean Kubernetes Plans & Pricing

Plan Monthly Annual Best For
Basic Not published Not specified
CPU-optimized Not published Not specified
NVIDIA H100 GPU Not published Not specified
General purpose Not published Not specified
Memory-optimized Not published Not specified
Storage-optimized Not published Not specified
View all features by plan (compare side-by-side)

Basic

CPU-optimized

NVIDIA H100 GPU

General purpose

Memory-optimized

Storage-optimized

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What does DigitalOcean Kubernetes actually cost you?

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Tier
Billing
Your projected cost$300per month · $12/unit × 25units
Year 1 license$3.6K12 months at this rate
At a glance

List price by tier (annualized, per unit)

Per-unit list price across DigitalOcean Kubernetes's plans, annualized. Custom-priced tiers show a hatched bar.

Basic$144/yr
CPU-optimized$504/yr
NVIDIA H100 GPU$40.68/yr
General purpose$756/yr
Memory-optimized$1.0K/yr
Storage-optimized$2.0K/yr
Quick Answer
Last verified:
High confidence

DigitalOcean Kubernetes costs $3.39 to $163 per month/node as of August 2026, with 6 plans available. Plans: Basic at $12/month/node, CPU-optimized at $42/month/node, NVIDIA H100 GPU at $3.39/month/node, General purpose at $63/month/node, Memory-optimized at $84/month/node, and Storage-optimized at $163/month/node. 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

DigitalOcean Kubernetes offers 6 pricing tiers: Basic, CPU-optimized, NVIDIA H100 GPU, General purpose, Memory-optimized, Storage-optimized. Paid plans include Basic at $12/month/node, CPU-optimized at $42/month/node, NVIDIA H100 GPU at $3.39/hour/node.

Compared to other container platforms & kubernetes software, DigitalOcean Kubernetes is positioned at the mid-market price point.

  • 18 documented hidden costs beyond list price
  • Contracts auto-renew — Users can cancel their Services account at any time through their account settings or by contacting DigitalOcean support to avoid future charges, but will be billed for resources until they are destroyed.
  • G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5 from 738 reviews (as of Jul 2026)
Last verified: | Sources: 1 pricing pages and reviews

How much does DigitalOcean Kubernetes cost?

DigitalOcean Kubernetes pricing ranges from $3.39 to $163/month/node across 6 plans. Plans include Basic at $12/month/node, CPU-optimized at $42/month/node, NVIDIA H100 GPU at $3.39/month/node, General purpose at $63/month/node, Memory-optimized at $84/month/node, Storage-optimized at $163/month/node.

DigitalOcean Kubernetes Pricing Overview

DigitalOcean Kubernetes has 6 pricing plans ranging from $3.39 to $163/month/node. The Basic plan costs $12/month/node. The CPU-optimized plan costs $42/month/node. The NVIDIA H100 GPU plan costs $3.39/month/node. The General purpose plan costs $63/month/node. The Memory-optimized plan costs $84/month/node. The Storage-optimized plan costs $163/month/node.

DigitalOcean Kubernetes contracts auto-renew.

There are at least 18 documented hidden costs beyond DigitalOcean Kubernetes's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.

This pricing was last verified in June 14, 2026 from 1 independent source.

See DigitalOcean Kubernetes Plans

DigitalOcean Kubernetes offers several node types with varying monthly prices. The available plans include Basic, CPU-optimized, NVIDIA H100 GPU, General purpose, Memory-optimized, and Storage-optimized.

Pricing is based on a per-node rate, with some plans priced per month and others per hour.

How DigitalOcean Kubernetes Pricing Compares

Compare DigitalOcean Kubernetes pricing against top alternatives in Container Platforms & Kubernetes.

Canonical Kubernetes (Charmed) $25-$9470/per machine per year View pricing → Portainer $99-$99/mo View pricing → VMware Tanzu Custom pricing View pricing →

Compare DigitalOcean Kubernetes vs Alternatives

Before committing to DigitalOcean Kubernetes, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.

VSCanonical Kubernetes (Charmed)
From $25/per machine per year

Compare pricing
VSPortainer
From $99/mo

Compare pricing
VSVMware Tanzu
Custom

Compare pricing

All DigitalOcean Kubernetes alternatives & migration guides

What Companies Actually Pay for DigitalOcean Kubernetes

Review scores
Trustpilot 2.1out of 5 (487)
G2 4.6out of 5 (738)
Third-party review aggregates, as of Jul 2026

Score gap reflects platform demographics — G2 surveys verified business users; Trustpilot is open to all, skewing toward support complaints.

Top pricing complaints
as infrastructure scales, DigitalOcean can become less cost-effective and feature-rich compared to larger hyperscale cloud providers like AWS or GCPexpectation for users to manage software internals on compute droplets themselves, rather than receiving direct support for these aspectsoccasional downtime and connection failuresgeneric responses from support

How DigitalOcean Kubernetes Pricing Compares

Software Starting Price Top Price
DigitalOcean Kubernetes $3.39/month/node $163/month/node
Canonical Kubernetes (Charmed) $25/per machine per year $9470/per machine per year
Portainer $99/mo $99/mo
VMware Tanzu Custom Custom
D2iQ (formerly Mesosphere) Custom Custom
Azure AKS $2.5/device/month $438/device/month

Browse all Container Platforms & Kubernetes pricing →

18 DigitalOcean Kubernetes Hidden Costs Beyond the List Price

Beyond the listed price, DigitalOcean Kubernetes has at least 18 documented hidden costs that can significantly increase total cost of ownership.

Watch for 18 hidden costs
  • Worker Nodes (Droplets) $12/month
    high 1 source
    industry "Other node types, such as CPU-optimized, general-purpose, memory-optimized, storage-optimized, and NVIDIA H100 GPU nodes, have higher starting prices, ranging from $42/month to $3.39/hour per node"
  • High Availability for Control Plane $40/month
    medium 1 source
    industry "High Availability (HA) for the Control Plane: While the basic control plane is free, enabling High Availability for the control plane costs an additional $40/month, prorated hourly"
  • Block Storage $10/month
    medium 1 source
    industry "Block Storage: Persistent data storage for your Kubernetes clusters starts at $10/month"
  • Load Balancers $12/month
    medium 1 source
    industry "Load Balancers: Integration with DigitalOcean Load Balancers is charged separately, starting at $12/month per node"
  • Bandwidth Overage $0.01/GiB
    low 1 source
    industry "Load Balancers: Integration with DigitalOcean Load Balancers is charged separately, starting at $12/month per node"
  • Backups 20%
    low 1 source
    industry "The price increases with the number of nodes in your cluster; for example, three general-purpose nodes at $63/month each would cost $189/month"
  • Container Registry Overage
    low 1 source
    industry "Container Registry: The DigitalOcean Container Registry is free up to 500 MiB"
  • Egress and Cross-Zone Traffic
    medium 1 source
    industry "Egress and Cross-Zone Traffic: These are often cited as hidden costs in Kubernetes deployments across cloud providers"
  • Orphaned Volumes
    medium 1 source
    industry "Orphaned Volumes: Unused or detached storage volumes can continue to accrue costs if not properly managed"
  • Excessive Logs/Metrics Ingestion
    medium 1 source
    industry "Excessive Logs/Metrics Ingestion: High volumes of logs and metrics can lead to additional costs for storage and processing"
  • Idle GPUs
    high 1 source
    industry "Idle GPUs: If GPU resources are not fully utilized, they can represent an inefficient cost"
  • Engineering Time
    critical 1 source
    industry "Engineering Time: The time and effort required to operate and manage Kubernetes clusters, including optimization and troubleshooting, represent a significant implementation cost"
  • Dedicated Egress IP (App Platform) $25 per month
    low 1 source
    industry "Dedicated Egress IP (for App Platform): If an application requires a stable outbound IP for allowlisting, it costs $25 per month per app"
  • NFS Shared Storage
    low 1 source
    industry "NFS Shared Storage: Charged at the same rate as DigitalOcean NFS."
  • Managed Databases $15+/month
    medium 1 source
    industry "These include: * Load Balancers: Start at $12/month per node."
  • Operational Overhead
    high 1 source
    industry "Operational Overhead: While the Kubernetes control plane management is free, operational overhead can include observability ingestion and the engineering time required to operate clusters."
  • Unused Resources
    medium 1 source
    industry "Unused Resources: Although DigitalOcean offers features like Nodepool Scale-to-Zero to automatically scale node pools to zero when idle, unused resources can still contribute to costs if not managed."
  • Billing Minimums for Node Pools $0.01 per node
    low 1 source
    industry "Billing Minimums: Node pools have a minimum charge of 60 seconds of usage or $0.01 per node, whichever is greater."
Tip

Ask your DigitalOcean Kubernetes sales rep about these costs upfront. Getting them in writing before signing can save you from surprise charges later.

Full hidden costs breakdown →

Intelligence sourced from 3 independent sources
industry Trustpilot Consumer reviews G2 B2B reviews
Key claims include inline source attribution. Data verified against multiple independent sources. 19 source citations total.

DigitalOcean Kubernetes Contract Terms

DigitalOcean Kubernetes contracts auto-renew. Changes require Users can cancel their Services account at any time through their account settings or by contacting DigitalOcean support to avoid future charges, but will be billed for resources until they are destroyed.. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.

Contract Terms
Auto-Renewal Yes
Cancellation Notice Users can cancel their Services account at any time through their account settings or by contacting DigitalOcean support to avoid future charges, but will be billed for resources until they are destroyed.
Minimum Commitment DigitalOcean Kubernetes generally operates on a pay-as-you-go model with no long-term commitments required.
Based on 1 verified source

DigitalOcean Kubernetes Pricing FAQ

01 What is the cheapest DigitalOcean Kubernetes plan?

The NVIDIA H100 GPU plan is priced at $3.39 per hour/node, which is the lowest listed price.

02 What are the monthly prices for DigitalOcean Kubernetes plans?

The Basic plan costs $12.0 per month/node, CPU-optimized costs $42.0 per month/node, General purpose costs $63.0 per month/node, Memory-optimized costs $84.0 per month/node, and Storage-optimized costs $163.0 per month/node.

03 Does DigitalOcean Kubernetes offer annual discounts?

The provided pricing data does not include information on annual discounts.

Is this pricing incorrect? — we'll verify and update it.