Short answer: Render charges for two things: a workspace plan (Hobby $0/mo, Pro $25/mo, Scale $499/mo, Enterprise custom) plus compute for each service you run. An always-on web service starts at $7/month (512 MB RAM), managed Postgres at $6/month, and a Redis-compatible Key Value store at $10/month. There is a free tier for web services, Postgres and Key Value, but free web services spin down after 15 minutes idle and free Postgres databases expire after 30 days.
All prices below are from render.com/pricing and Render’s free tier docs, checked on November 12, 2026. Render bills compute prorated to the second.
Render workspace plans
The workspace plan is a flat monthly fee. It decides team features, included bandwidth and build minutes. It does not include any compute: every service is billed on top.
| Hobby | Pro | Scale | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0/mo + compute | $25/mo + compute | $499/mo + compute |
| Team seats | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Services | Up to 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth included | 5 GB, then $0.15/GB | 25 GB, then $0.15/GB | 1 TB, then $0.15/GB |
| Build minutes included | 500/mo, then $5 per 1,000 | 1,000/mo, then $5 per 1,000 | 5,000/mo, then $5 per 1,000 |
| Custom domains | 2, then $0.25/domain/mo | 15, then $0.25/domain/mo | 25, then $0.25/domain/mo |
| Horizontal autoscaling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Log retention | 7 days | 14 days | 30 days |
Enterprise is custom-priced and adds uptime SLAs and a dedicated account team. If a Pro or Scale workspace has no services and no activity in a month, Render waives that month’s plan fee.
Web service and worker pricing
Web services, private services and background workers share one price list. The smaller tiers:
| Instance | CPU | RAM | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Less than 1 | 512 MB | $0 (limits apply) |
| 0.5c-512mb | Less than 1 | 512 MB | $7/mo |
| 1c-2g | 1 | 2 GB | $25/mo |
| 2c-4g | 2 | 4 GB | $85/mo |
| 2c-8g | 2 | 8 GB | $135/mo |
| 4c-8g | 4 | 8 GB | $175/mo |
Larger instances go up to 12 CPU and 96 GB RAM ($1,500/mo). Persistent disks cost $0.25 per GB per month and only work on paid instances.
Render Postgres pricing
| Instance | CPU | RAM | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Less than 1 | 256 MB | $0 (expires after 30 days) |
| 0.1c-256mb | Less than 1 | 256 MB | $6/mo |
| 0.5c-1g | Less than 1 | 1 GB | $19/mo |
| 1c-2g | 1 | 2 GB | $40/mo |
| 1c-4g | 1 | 4 GB | $55/mo |
| 2c-8g | 2 | 8 GB | $100/mo |
Storage is billed separately at $0.30 per GB and can be expanded. Point-in-time recovery covers 3 days on Hobby and 7 days on Pro and above.
Render Key Value (Redis) pricing
| Instance | RAM | Connections | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 25 MB | 50 | $0 (in-memory only) |
| 256mb | 256 MB | 200 | $10/mo |
| 1g | 1 GB | 250 | $20/mo |
| 3g | 3 GB | 3,000 | $60/mo |
Cron jobs and static sites
Cron jobs are billed per minute while they run, from $0.00016/minute on the smallest instance (512 MB RAM). A job that runs for one minute every hour costs about $0.12 a month at that size. Static sites are free to deploy, but their traffic counts against the workspace’s included bandwidth and build minutes.
Is Render free? What the free tier really includes
Yes, for hobby use. Render’s free tier covers web services, one Postgres database and one Key Value instance per workspace, plus unlimited static sites. Render itself says not to use free instances for production. The limits that matter:
- Web services spin down after 15 minutes without traffic. The next request wakes the service, which takes about a minute. Visitors see a loading page meanwhile.
- 750 free instance hours per workspace per month. If you use them up, Render suspends your free web services until the next month.
- Free Postgres expires 30 days after creation. You then have 14 days to upgrade to a paid instance before Render deletes the database. It has a 1 GB storage cap and no backups.
- Free Key Value is in-memory only. A restart wipes the data, and upgrading a free instance to paid also loses its data.
- No persistent disk, no SSH, no scaling past one instance on free web services, and outbound SMTP ports 25, 465 and 587 are blocked.
- Bandwidth still counts. Without a payment method on file, going over the included bandwidth suspends your free services for the rest of the month.
Upgrading the workspace plan does not lift these limits. Only moving the individual service to a paid instance does.
What a typical app costs on Render
Take a small always-on app: a Node.js or Python API, a Postgres database and a Redis-compatible cache, on the smallest paid instances.
| Item | Hobby workspace | Pro workspace |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace plan | $0 | $25 |
| Web service (0.5c-512mb) | $7 | $7 |
| Postgres (0.1c-256mb) | $6 | $6 |
| Key Value (256mb) | $10 | $10 |
| Monthly total | $23 + storage and overages | $48 + storage and overages |
Add Postgres storage at $0.30/GB, and bandwidth at $0.15/GB once you pass the included amount. A team that needs more than one seat has to be on Pro, so for most teams the realistic floor is $48 a month before traffic.
How Render compares
If you are weighing Render against Heroku, our Heroku vs Render comparison covers features and migration. For Railway and Fly.io, see Render vs Railway vs Fly.io. If cold starts on the free tier are the deal-breaker, we list options in Render alternatives without cold starts.
Render pricing FAQ
How much does Render cost per month?
From $0. A single always-on web service on the Hobby plan is $7/month. A web service with Postgres and Key Value is $23/month on Hobby or $48/month on Pro, before storage and bandwidth overages.
Does Render’s free tier need a credit card?
No card is needed to create free instances. When you add one, Render runs a $1 verification charge and refunds it. Without a card, going over the included bandwidth suspends your free services instead of billing you.
Does the Render free tier sleep?
Yes. Free web services spin down after 15 minutes with no inbound traffic and take about a minute to spin back up. Paid instances stay on.
How long does free Render Postgres last?
30 days from creation, then a 14-day grace period to upgrade. After that Render deletes the database and its data.
How is Render compute billed?
Per service, prorated to the second. If you run a paid web service for 24 hours and delete it, you pay for 24 hours. Cron jobs and workflows are billed only while they run.