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Paid plans start at $203/mo.
CockroachDB has no free plan, but its pricing page lists a 30-day trial with $400 in credit. After that, Standard and Mission Critical are billed by usage, with costs driven by compute and additional charges for storage, backups and data transfer. A Standard example is $203 per month for 2 vCPU and 100 GB; Mission Critical lists $1,528 per month for 12 vCPU and 100 GB. Treat examples as estimates, not fixed quotes.
01Every plan, line by line
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | — | $203 | Most applications |
| Mission Critical | — | $1,528 | Production needing highest availability |
Add-ons and overages
- Change data capture: Standard $0.006/vCPU-hour; Mission Critical $0.023/vCPU-hour
- Physical cluster replication: Mission Critical $0.023/vCPU-hour; limited access
- Cluster virtualization: Mission Critical $0.023/vCPU-hour; in preview
- Storage, backups and data transfer are billed separately based on usage
02What the plan grid doesn't tell you
Storage and data transfer
Storage, backups and data transfer are billed separately based on usage, so the listed vCPU rate is not the full bill.
Change data capture
CDC is listed at $0.006 per vCPU-hour on Standard and $0.023 per vCPU-hour on Mission Critical.
Replication add-on
Physical cluster replication is listed at $0.023 per vCPU-hour on Mission Critical and has limited access.
Rate discrepancy
Standard’s pricing card lists $0.092 per vCPU-hour, while a feature table says from $0.057. Confirm the applicable rate with Cockroach Labs.
03Which plan should you buy?
| If you are… | Get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Trial or proof of concept | 30-day trial | The trial includes $400 in credit; confirm its terms and the costs after the trial ends. |
| Most applications | Standard | Shared infrastructure, a 99.99% availability SLA, and AWS and GCP deployment are listed. |
| Highest-availability production | Mission Critical | Dedicated infrastructure, a 99.999% multi-region SLA and a 30-minute P1 support response are listed. |
04Is CockroachDB worth the money?
CockroachDB can be worth paying for when an application needs distributed SQL and resilience across regions, and the alternative would be building and operating sharding and failover yourself. The trial gives teams a limited way to evaluate the service, but there is no free plan. Self-hosting may suit teams that need to operate in their own environments, but confirm the current license and compare infrastructure, staffing and support costs. Before buying, model compute, storage, backups, transfer and add-ons against your expected workload.
CockroachDB pricing FAQ
Is CockroachDB free?
CockroachDB has no free plan in the listed pricing. Cockroach Labs offers a 30-day trial with $400 in credit. Standard and Mission Critical are usage-based plans, and storage, backups and data transfer are billed separately.
How much does CockroachDB Standard cost?
A listed Standard example costs $203 per month for 2 vCPU and 100 GB. Its pricing card lists $0.092 per vCPU-hour, while a separate feature table says from $0.057 per vCPU-hour. Confirm the rate that applies to your deployment.
How much does Mission Critical cost?
The listed example is $1,528 per month for 12 vCPU and 100 GB, at $0.162 per vCPU-hour. The plan includes dedicated infrastructure and a 99.999% multi-region SLA. Storage, backups and data transfer are billed separately based on usage.
How is CockroachDB billed?
Usage is metered by the minute and billed monthly. Pay-as-you-go is billed in arrears; annual or committed-use contracts buy credits upfront. Storage, backups and data transfer are separate usage charges, and some features have additional per-vCPU-hour rates.