Free tier & pricing

Every Koo account includes an always-free allowance: one web service, one Postgres database, and one Redis cache, each at 0.5 vCPU / 1 GiB. This page explains how the allowance works, what the paid plans add, and how a monthly bill is composed.

Free, for life

When you sign up, your account can run — at no cost, with no card on file:

• one web service
• one Postgres database
• one Redis cache

Each runs at the free unit: 0.5 vCPU and 1 GiB of memory. There is no trial clock and nothing to cancel.

How the free allowance works

The allowance is a price deduction, not a reserved shape. Each free credit is worth the free unit (0.5 vCPU / 1 GiB) and attaches to one running service of its type. At billing time the credit deducts min(price(free unit), price(service)) from that service's monthly line:

• Run the service at the free unit (or smaller) and the line is fully covered: $0.
• Upsize the service and you pay only the difference above the free unit. You never lose the free share by growing.

You get one free service of each type, and it applies to your largest running service of that type — so the free share always lands where it saves you the most. If you run several services of a type, only the largest is covered; no line goes below $0. The credit is a monthly amount and doesn't carry over between periods.

Paid plans keep the same allowance — upgrading never takes the free services away. Paid plans also include a monthly compute credit: a fixed dollar amount that comes off your compute bill after the allowance. See the Monthly compute credit row in the comparison table below.

Worked example: upsizing your free service

1. You deploy a web service at the free unit (0.5 vCPU / 1 GiB). The free credit covers it fully: $0 for the month.
2. Traffic grows, so you upsize the service to 2 vCPU / 4 GiB. The free credit keeps deducting its value, so the service bills price(2 vCPU / 4 GiB) − price(free unit), charged at the end of the month. The first 0.5 vCPU / 1 GiB stays free. Because compute is metered by the fraction of the month a service runs, if you upsize partway through the month you pay the higher price only for the part it ran upsized.
3. Things quiet down and you downsize back to the free unit. The service bills $0 again.

Today, the Free plan's resource ceilings cap at exactly the allowance, so step 2 requires a paid plan. Self-service upgrade from the console is rolling out Coming soon — until then, the Free plan lets you run the free-unit services but nothing larger.

Compare plans

Plans differ in seats, app and resource ceilings, features (custom domains, private apps, auto-deploy from Git), and log and metrics retention. Every number below renders live from the current pricing config:

Service resources & prices

Every service picks explicit CPU and memory from a discrete ladder (memory up to 8 GiB per vCPU), with a predictable monthly price linear in CPU + memory. Some example combinations:

Postgres and Redis price their compute the same way; disk is a separate volume provisioned with the service.

What a monthly bill looks like

Your bill has two parts. Your subscription — the plan's base price plus any seats beyond the plan's included count — is charged up front each period (monthly, or annually at about 17% off, applied to the plan and seat lines only). Compute is billed separately at the end of each month, in arrears: the monthly price of each running service × the fraction of the month it ran, minus the free allowance, then minus your plan's monthly compute credit.

On the Free plan running within the allowance, compute works out to $0 — a real but no-charge invoice, nothing to think about, and no card required. You manage your plan and payment details from billing.

FAQ

Is it really free forever?

Yes. The allowance is part of the pricing model, not a promotion — it has no expiry date and no usage clock. The free services keep running and keep billing $0 for as long as your account exists.

What happens when I upsize?

You pay only the difference above the free unit: the credit keeps deducting price(free unit) from the service's line no matter how large the service gets. Downsize back to the free unit and the service is fully covered again.

Does a second account get free services too?

No. Free credits attach to your primary account — the first account created for you at signup. Any additional accounts you create pay list prices from their first service. This is what lets the allowance be unconditional on the primary one.

Do I need a credit card?

No. Signing up and running the free allowance requires no payment method. You add one only when you move to a paid plan or run services beyond the allowance.

What are the limits?

The comparison table above lists each plan's ceilings — apps, seats, resources, retention, and features. Separately, abuse limits exist and are enforced: services used for cryptomining, attacks, or other resource abuse are suspended per the acceptable use policy.

Ready to claim the allowance? Deploy your first app in the quickstart.