DigitalOcean Kubernetes Pricing
Every DigitalOcean Kubernetes plan with its monthly and annual price, what it costs for common team sizes, and a calculator to estimate your own monthly cost before you buy.
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Plans and prices
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing (per month) | Per user or flat | Users | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control plane (standard) | Free | Free | — | No limit listed | Yes |
| Basic node | $12/mo | $12/mo | Flat | No limit listed | No |
| CPU-optimized node | $42/mo | $42/mo | Flat | No limit listed | No |
| General purpose node | $63/mo | $63/mo | Flat | No limit listed | No |
| Memory-optimized node | $84/mo | $84/mo | Flat | No limit listed | No |
| Storage-optimized node | $163/mo | $163/mo | Flat | No limit listed | No |
| GPU nodes (multi-GPU, B300, AMD) | Contact sales | Contact sales | — | No limit listed | No |
Prices last updated November 2026.
What each DigitalOcean Kubernetes plan includes
Control plane (standard)
- Worker nodes are billed separately
- Container Registry free up to 500 MiB
- Cluster autoscaler, including scale-to-zero node pools
- Cilium Hubble security and observability at no extra cost
- Managed control plane at no charge, including etcd and kube-apiserver
- Automatic or on-demand upgrades, maintenance windows and surge upgrades
Basic node
- Shared CPU, for variable workloads
- Price is per node, from $12 a month
- Bandwidth allowance is pooled across nodes
- At least two nodes recommended to avoid downtime
- Example sizes: 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk, 4,000 GiB transfer for $24 a month; 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM for $48 a month
CPU-optimized node
- Price is per node, from $42 a month
- Dedicated CPU with 2 GiB RAM per vCPU
- Premium CPU nodes get up to 10 Gbps outbound throughput
General purpose node
- Price is per node, from $63 a month
- Dedicated CPU with 4 GiB RAM per vCPU
Memory-optimized node
- Price is per node, from $84 a month
- Dedicated CPU with 8 GiB RAM per vCPU
Storage-optimized node
- Price is per node, from $163 a month
- Guaranteed local NVMe storage, up to 6.87 TiB
GPU nodes (multi-GPU, B300, AMD)
- Spot GPU node pools in public preview
- AMD MI300X and MI325X GPUs available by request or contract
- NVIDIA B300 and multi-node 8-GPU configurations available by contract
What DigitalOcean Kubernetes costs by team size
| Team size | 1 user | 5 users | 10 users | 25 users | 50 users |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | FreeControl plane (standard) | FreeControl plane (standard) | FreeControl plane (standard) | FreeControl plane (standard) | FreeControl plane (standard) |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges.
Add-ons
| Add-on | Monthly billing | Annual billing (per month) | Charged |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block Storage VolumesPersistent volumes for cluster workloads. Starting price shown. | $10 | Not listed | Per volume |
| Developer support planPaid DigitalOcean support with a target response time under 8 hours. | $24 | Not listed | Flat |
| High-availability control planeReplicated control plane with a 99.95% uptime SLA. Clusters on Kubernetes 1.36 and later have HA enabled by default. | $40 | Not listed | Flat |
| Load BalancerDigitalOcean Load Balancer provisioned for Kubernetes services. | $12 | Not listed | Per load balancer |
| Premium support planPaid DigitalOcean support with a target response time under 30 minutes. | $999 | Not listed | Flat |
| Standard support planPaid DigitalOcean support with a target response time under 2 hours. | $99 | Not listed | Flat |
Usage pricing
| Metric | Plan | Included per month | Price after that |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA H100 GPU worker node, on demand | GPU node | None | $4.41 per hour |
| Outbound data transfer overage | All plans | None | $0.01 per GiB |
| v5 worker node, starting rate | v5 node | None | $0.031 per hour |
DigitalOcean Kubernetes Pricing Calculator
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Cost breakdown
Estimated from the vendor's published prices, last updated November 2026. Actual costs may vary based on negotiated contracts. How we collect prices
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DigitalOcean Kubernetes pricing FAQs
No. The standard control plane is free. You pay for worker nodes, load balancers and volumes. An optional high-availability control plane with a 99.95% SLA costs $40 a month. It is enabled by default on clusters running Kubernetes 1.36 and later.
Inbound transfer is free. Each node includes an outbound allowance, for example 2,000 GiB on Basic nodes, and the allowances are pooled across the cluster. Overage costs $0.01 per GiB, and internal traffic is not billed.
Yes, DigitalOcean Kubernetes has a free plan: Control plane (standard).
DigitalOcean Kubernetes's Control plane (standard) plan includes Worker nodes are billed separately, Container Registry free up to 500 MiB, Cluster autoscaler, including scale-to-zero node pools, Cilium Hubble security and observability at no extra cost, Managed control plane at no charge, including etcd and kube-apiserver and Automatic or on-demand upgrades, maintenance windows and surge upgrades.
DigitalOcean Kubernetes lists 7 plans, including a free plan. The cheapest paid plan is Basic node, at $12/mo billed monthly.
DigitalOcean Kubernetes's Basic node plan, at $12/mo billed monthly, includes Shared CPU, for variable workloads, Price is per node, from $12 a month, Bandwidth allowance is pooled across nodes, At least two nodes recommended to avoid downtime and Example sizes: 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk, 4,000 GiB transfer for $24 a month; 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM for $48 a month.
DigitalOcean Kubernetes is free for 10 users on its Control plane (standard) plan.
No. Every DigitalOcean Kubernetes paid plan with a listed price is a flat monthly price, whatever the team size.
Nothing: billed annually, DigitalOcean Kubernetes costs the same per month as billed monthly.
Yes. DigitalOcean Kubernetes sells add-ons on top of its plans: Block Storage Volumes, Developer support plan, High-availability control plane and 3 more. It also charges by usage for NVIDIA H100 GPU worker node, on demand, Outbound data transfer overage and v5 worker node, starting rate, past what the plan includes.