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Paid plans start at $100/mo.
Akamai lists no free plan or free trial, and no starting price for the platform. A published CPU example is a 1 GB virtual machine at $0.0075 per hour, or $0.18 for 24 hours. Beyond compute, the bill depends on the products selected: storage, databases, Kubernetes, backups, load balancing and management are priced separately or have no published rate. Services are billed hourly or monthly, with invoices generally issued the following month.
01Every plan, line by line
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | — | Quote | AI training and inference workloads |
| CPU | — | Quote | Workloads needing configurable compute |
| Kubernetes (LKE) | — | Quote | Teams running managed Kubernetes |
| Accelerated Compute (VPUs) | — | Quote | Media transcoding workloads |
| Block Storage | — | Quote | Instances needing persistent storage |
| Object Storage | — | Quote | AI, CDN origin, and web apps |
| Backups | — | Quote | Instance backup needs |
| Images | — | Quote | Teams deploying custom images |
| MySQL | — | Quote | Teams needing managed MySQL |
| PostgreSQL | — | Quote | Teams needing managed PostgreSQL |
| Valkey | — | Quote | Teams needing managed Valkey |
| NodeBalancers | — | Quote | Workloads needing load balancing |
| Infrastructure management | — | $100 | Teams wanting managed cloud operations |
| Cloud consulting and migration | — | Quote | Teams planning cloud migration |
Add-ons and overages
- Infrastructure management: $100 per compute instance per month
- Older plans may incur transfer overages; rates not published here
- G8 and GPU accelerated plans have no bundled transfer or egress
- Example VM billing: $0.0075/hour; 24 hours totals $0.18
02What the plan grid doesn't tell you
Transfer and egress
GPU-accelerated plans have no bundled transfer or egress. Older plans may incur transfer overages, and the listed overage rates are not published.
Object Storage overage
Monthly outbound transfer is included before overage, but the Object Storage price and transfer overage rate are not published.
Infrastructure management
Managed cloud operations add $100 per compute instance per month, according to the pricing information.
Product-specific charges
Storage, backups, images, databases and NodeBalancers have separate billing bases or unpublished prices; request a service-by-service estimate.
03Which plan should you buy?
| If you are… | Get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| AI training and inference workloads | GPU | Includes NVIDIA GPUs, but has no bundled transfer or egress; budget for data movement separately. |
| Configurable compute workloads | CPU | Dedicated, Shared and High Memory options; a 1 GB VM example is $0.0075 per hour. |
| Teams running managed Kubernetes | Kubernetes (LKE) | Managed Kubernetes has no per-cluster fee; high availability or a dedicated control plane is available. |
04Is Akamai worth the money?
Akamai’s published CPU example gives teams a concrete compute reference, but it is not a platform-wide starting price. There is no listed free plan, and many services—including storage, databases and load balancing—have no published prices. Costs can rise with the chosen products, compute size, storage and transfer; GPU plans have no bundled egress. Ask Akamai for an estimate based on expected traffic and workload shape. The $100-per-instance monthly infrastructure management charge is worth including if you want managed cloud operations.
Akamai pricing FAQ
How much does Akamai Cloud cost?
Akamai lists no overall starting price. One CPU example is a 1 GB virtual machine at $0.0075 per hour, or $0.18 for 24 hours. Other product prices vary or are not published, so request an estimate for the services and workload you plan to run.
Does Akamai offer a free tier?
The pricing information lists no free plan or free trial. Teams evaluating Akamai should ask the vendor about any available evaluation arrangements and confirm the cost of their intended services before deployment.
How are Akamai cloud services billed?
The pricing information says cloud services are billed hourly or monthly by product, with invoices generally issued the following month. It gives no annual billing option. Check each service’s billing basis because compute, storage, management and other products may be priced differently.
Does Akamai charge for data transfer?
GPU-accelerated plans have no bundled transfer or egress. Older plans may have transfer overages, with rates not published in the pricing information. Object Storage includes monthly outbound transfer before overage; ask Akamai for applicable allowances and rates for your products.