Vercel Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Vercel costs Free to $20 per user/month as of March 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, Vercel offers a freemium plan as of March 2026. The free tier includes 10 features with limits on usage. Paid plans start at $20/user/month (Pro). Pricing verified from 12 sources by CostBench.
Vercel offers a freemium model with limited features; upgrade to unlock more.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- Import repo, deploy in seconds
- Automatic CI/CD
- Web Application Firewall
- Global automated CDN
- Fluid compute
- DDoS mitigation
- Traffic & performance insights
- 100GB Fast Data Transfer/month
- 1M Edge Requests/month
- 1M Function invocations/month
What's NOT Included (Paid Only)
- All Hobby features
- $20 of included usage credit
- Advanced spend management
- Team collaboration & free viewer seats
- Faster builds + no queues
- Cold start prevention
- Enterprise add-ons available
- 1TB Fast Data Transfer/month
- 10M Edge Requests/month
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like All Hobby features or $20 of included usage credit
- 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
- Vercel branding may appear on your content or communications
- Support is limited to community forums or email with longer response times
- Export options may be restricted or include watermarks
- API access is typically limited or not available
- Advanced reporting and analytics require paid plans
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 Pro Plan Comparison
| Hobby $0 | Pro $20/user/month | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 10 included | 9+ included |
| Support | Community/Email | Priority Support |
| Branding | Vercel branding | Your branding |
| Best For | Personal projects and web apps (non-commercial use only) | Teams building and scaling commercial apps |
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Vercel free?
Yes, Vercel offers a freemium plan with 10 core features included. However, there are limits on users and features that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Vercel's free plan?
Vercel's free plan includes: Import repo, deploy in seconds, Automatic CI/CD, Web Application Firewall, Global automated CDN, Fluid compute, and 5 more features. Key limits include basic usage caps.
03 What's NOT included in Vercel's free plan?
The free plan excludes: All Hobby features, $20 of included usage credit, Advanced spend management, Team collaboration & free viewer seats, Faster builds + no queues. You'll also have Vercel branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Vercel's free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like All Hobby features or $20 of included usage credit, require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $20/user/month.
05 Is Vercel's free plan really free forever?
Yes, Vercel'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.