Kubecost Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Kubecost uses custom pricing as of June 2026 with 3 plans available. Contact Kubecost directly for a personalized quote. Plan: Foundations (free). Enterprise pricing is available on request. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: Yes
Kubecost offers 3 pricing tiers: Foundations, Enterprise Self-Hosted, Enterprise Cloud. The Enterprise Self-Hosted plan is large engineering organizations running kubernetes at scale who need full data control and enterprise support.
Yes, Kubecost offers a forever free plan as of June 2026. The free tier includes 8 features with limits on usage. Pricing verified from 1 sources by CostBench.
Kubecost's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- Unlimited clusters (up to 250 cores combined)
- 15-day metric retention
- Unlimited users
- Multi-cloud support (EKS, AKS, GKE, on-prem)
- CSP bill reconciliation
- Cost optimization insights
- Community support
- OpenCost integration
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like advanced automation
- You require premium support or SLA guarantees
- You need to remove branding or watermarks
- You need advanced integrations or API access
Hidden Restrictions on Free Plan
- Single cluster only
- 250 cores maximum
- 15-day data retention
- Community support only
- No multi-cluster aggregation
Free vs Paid: Which Do You Need?
Free Plan is Enough If...
- You're an individual or very small team
- You need only basic features
- You don't mind usage limits
- Branding on output is acceptable
- Community support is sufficient
You Need Paid If...
- Your team is growing beyond limits
- You need advanced features
- Professional branding is required
- You need priority support
- Integrations/API access is critical
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Kubecost free?
Yes, Kubecost offers a forever free plan with 8 core features included. However, there are limits on users and features that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Kubecost's free plan?
Kubecost's free plan includes: Unlimited clusters (up to 250 cores combined), 15-day metric retention, Unlimited users, Multi-cloud support (EKS, AKS, GKE, on-prem), CSP bill reconciliation, and 3 more features. Key limits include basic usage caps.
03 What's NOT included in Kubecost's free plan?
The free plan excludes: advanced features, premium support, and higher limits. You'll also have Kubecost branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Kubecost's free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like advanced automation, require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $0/per month.
05 Is Kubecost's free plan really free forever?
Yes, Kubecost's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit. However, feature and usage limits may restrict what you can do without upgrading to a paid plan.