Render Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Render costs Free to $499 per month as of July 2026, with 4 plans available including a free tier. Plans: Hobby (free), Pro at $25/month, and Scale at $499/month. Enterprise pricing is available on request. 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: Yes
Render offers 4 pricing tiers: Hobby, Pro, Scale, Enterprise. A free plan is available. Paid plans include Pro at $25/month, Scale at $499/month. The Pro plan is teams deploying production-grade apps and agents.
Yes, Render offers a forever free plan as of July 2026. The free tier includes 8 features with limits on services and bandwidth. Paid plans start at $25/month (Pro). Pricing verified from 7 sources by CostBench.
Render's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- Deploy up to 25 services
- 5 GB of bandwidth included
- Single-service previews
- Global regions & CDN
- Custom domains with free TLS
- Firewall & DDoS mitigation
- Chat support
- Plus compute costs
What's NOT Included (Paid Only)
- All Hobby features
- Unlimited team members
- No service maximum
- 25 GB bandwidth included
- Full-stack previews
- Horizontal autoscaling
- AWS private links & OIDC
- Isolated environments
- Workspace audit logs
Free Plan Limits
| Limit | Free Plan | Paid Plans |
|---|---|---|
| services | 25 | Unlimited/Higher |
| bandwidth | 5 GB/month | Unlimited/Higher |
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like All Hobby features or Unlimited team members
- 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
- Render 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 $25/month | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 8 included | 10+ included |
| Support | Community/Email | Priority Support |
| Branding | Render branding | Your branding |
| Best For | Individuals building personal projects and prototypes | Teams deploying production-grade apps and agents |
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Render free?
Yes, Render offers a forever free plan with 8 core features included. However, there are limits on services, bandwidth that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Render's free plan?
Render's free plan includes: Deploy up to 25 services, 5 GB of bandwidth included, Single-service previews, Global regions & CDN, Custom domains with free TLS, and 3 more features. Key limits include services: 25, bandwidth: 5 GB/month.
03 What's NOT included in Render's free plan?
The free plan excludes: All Hobby features, Unlimited team members, No service maximum, 25 GB bandwidth included, Full-stack previews. You'll also have Render branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Render's free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like All Hobby features or Unlimited team members, require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $25/month.
05 Is Render's free plan really free forever?
Yes, Render'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.