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There's a free plan; paid tiers are quoted.
DuckDB's open-source project costs $0 per month and per year under the MIT License, which permits personal and commercial use. The project lists no usage limits for this option, and no paid plans are published for the core database. There is no per-query or per-seat bill listed for DuckDB itself. For production, budget separately for the systems you run around it, such as compute, storage and data transfer, and confirm the terms of any third-party or managed services.
01Every plan, line by line
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free & Open-Source (MIT License) | $0 | $0 | Personal and commercial database use |
02What the plan grid doesn't tell you
Compute and hosting
DuckDB can run on devices and servers. The infrastructure you choose to run an application or server remains a separate cost.
Storage and transfer
The database works with local files and object storage. Check the costs charged by your storage or cloud provider.
Engineering and operations
Teams operating their own deployment should budget for integration, monitoring, backups and recovery work.
Related services
The core project's free price does not establish the price or terms of other providers or services in the DuckDB ecosystem.
03Which plan should you buy?
| If you are… | Get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Personal project | Free & Open-Source (MIT License) | The project is free, permits personal use and lists no usage limits. |
| Commercial application | Free & Open-Source (MIT License) | The MIT-licensed project permits commercial use without a listed software charge. |
| Production team | Free & Open-Source (MIT License) | The core project remains free; budget separately for infrastructure and verify any service-provider terms. |
04Is DuckDB worth the money?
DuckDB is worth evaluating when you need an analytical SQL database inside an application or want to work with data files directly. The free MIT-licensed project permits commercial use, so there is no DuckDB software bill to justify for a typical deployment. Self-hosting is a fit when your team can operate the surrounding infrastructure and validate production requirements. If you need managed hosting, formal support or service commitments, confirm those terms and prices with the provider; they are not part of the published core-project price.
DuckDB pricing FAQ
Does DuckDB cost anything to use?
The open-source DuckDB project is listed at $0 per month and per year under the MIT License. The licence permits personal and commercial use, and the project lists no usage limits. Infrastructure and third-party services are separate expenses.
Does DuckDB charge per query or by usage?
The open-source project has no listed usage limits and no published per-query, per-request or compute charge. It does not have a published bill that grows with database usage. Costs for the infrastructure or other services you operate are separate.
Can I use DuckDB commercially for free?
Yes. The DuckDB project is MIT-licensed, and commercial use is permitted. The listed price for the open-source project is $0. Review the MIT licence and separately check the terms and pricing of any other service or dependency in your stack.
Are there paid DuckDB plans?
The vendor does not publish paid plans for the core DuckDB project. The published option is Free & Open-Source (MIT License). Ask any provider offering managed services or support to confirm its own prices, usage limits and terms.