Fly.io pricing: Plans and cost breakdown for 2025

Fly.io pricing in 2025 is primarily usage-based, with standard support plans starting at $29 per month. Fly pricing ranges from effectively $0 (for tiny hobby usage) up to enterprise-level spend with premium support, depending on your usage and support needs.

Quick overview of Fly.io pricing plans

The Fly.io pricing model is pay-as-you-go. There’s no fixed compute plan. That said, Fly.io does offer support tiers and waives charges for very low usage, which works like a soft Fly.io free tier in 2025 for hobby projects. 

Here’s a quick look at Fly.io features and pricing:

* Charges typically begin once usage exceeds the waived ~$5/month threshold.
** Example: Small VM (256MB RAM) + 1GB storage + 50GB egress ≈ $3.15/month.

Fly.io pricing breakdown

Below is a breakdown of each available Fly.io pricing plan as of 2025, what it offers, and who it’s built for:

Pay-as-you-go

There’s no monthly fee. You pay based on what your app consumes: virtual machines (billed per second), storage (at $0.15 per GB), and outbound bandwidth (starting at $0.02 per GB). If your usage is under about $5 per month, charges are often waived. No commitment required.

Key features:

• Full access to Fly Machines, regions, and CLI
• Unlimited apps, orgs, and team members
• Community support only
• No SLA or uptime guarantee
• Requires a credit card to deploy

Who is this plan best for?

Ideal for solo developers, students, or hobbyists launching simple apps. The Fly.io free tier features are generous enough to run small projects at no cost. Developers building MVPs or exploring edge deployments will also benefit from the no-commitment, usage-first setup.

Standard support ($29/month)

Basic support plan with a 36-hour response time and technical architecture assistance, ideal for solo developers and early-stage teams.

Standard is the first paid tier. It focuses on giving small teams access to help without jumping into high-cost support.

Key features:

• Email support with 36-hour response SLA
• Technical guidance on architecture
• Same access to all infrastructure as the free tier
• No usage credits included
• No dedicated contact or real-time support

Who is this plan best for?

It’s a great fit for small startups moving from hobby to production. If you’re running paid apps or need a backup plan when forums fall short, this plan helps you stay supported without heavy costs.

Premium support ($199/month)

Better support with faster response times, dedicated Slack access, and quarterly architecture reviews for scaling apps.

Premium adds faster, more hands-on support and visibility into how your app performs on Fly.io.

Key features:

• 24-hour ticket response time
• 1-hour urgent issue response during business hours
• Private Slack channel with Fly.io team
• Quarterly architecture review sessions
• Dedicated support contacts

Who is this plan best for?

This is great for teams with real users and revenue. If you’re scaling a SaaS product or mobile backend, Premium gives you peace of mind and shortens the time to resolution when things break. It’s also the point where many startups start thinking about long-term cloud billing predictability.

Enterprise support ($2,500+/month)

Top-tier support with 24/7 response coverage, 15-minute emergency SLAs, and dedicated engineering contacts for mission-critical workloads.

Enterprise is designed for teams with 24/7 uptime needs and security compliance.

Key features:

• 24/7 support with 4-hour response guarantee
• 15-minute emergency SLA
• Private Slack and/or phone access
• Dedicated account manager and engineers
• Priority access to platform features
• Compliance and audit support

Who is this plan best for?

This plan is best for mid-size companies to large enterprises with serious infrastructure demands. If your app serves regulated industries, has financial implications, or you need uptime guarantees, this is the plan to look at. Most Fly hosting deployments don’t start here, but some grow into it.

Tailscale pricing on Fly.io

Fly.io supports private networking with Tailscale, which allows secure, encrypted communication between your machines without writing any VPN configs.

How does Tailscale pricing work on Fly.io?

Tailscale itself offers a free tier and paid business plans, but on Fly.io, you don’t pay extra to enable WireGuard tunnels between Fly-hosted machines in your app. That means:

• Encrypted machine-to-machine communication via Tailscale tech is included
• There’s no additional cost on top of your Fly.io usage
• If you integrate with external Tailscale networks or ACLs, you’ll need a Tailscale business plan

Which plan should you pick?

If you're building a prototype or a small hobby project, start with the pay-as-you-go model. You’ll get the essential Fly hosting experience and likely stay under the $5 threshold. It's simple, low-risk, and fully featured.

Once you go live or onboard users, consider Standard support. It’s cheap insurance when things go wrong and you don’t want to rely on forums. 

Teams with more uptime risk (or those scaling fast) should think about Premium. The Slack access alone can save hours. And if you’re dealing with compliance or enterprise-level stakes, go straight to Enterprise and talk to the Fly.io sales team.

A closer look at Fly.io’s usage-based pricing

Here’s a quick overview of Fly.io’s usage-based elements and their pricing:

Compute (VMs)

Machines are billed per second. A shared 256 MB instance costs approximately $0.0027 per hour, or around $1.94 per month if it runs continuously. Larger instances increase linearly in cost. Fly also offers reserved pricing at a 40% discount if you commit to using a machine type in a specific region for a year.

Storage

Persistent volumes are priced at $0.15 per GB per month. You pay for provisioned size, whether it’s full or not, and storage costs continue even if the VM is stopped.

Bandwidth

Outbound data starts at $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe. Other regions can cost up to $0.12 per GB. Inbound bandwidth is free. Regional transfers and private traffic between Fly apps are usually discounted or included.

Add-ons and services

Services like Fly Postgres, Redis, and object storage are charged separately. A small database may cost $2 to $ 5 per month. High-availability setups can cost $80 or more per month. You can also add static IPs, SSL certificates, or even a Kubernetes cluster for extra charges.

Example usage costs

Running a basic web app with 1 small VM, 1GB of storage, and 50GB of bandwidth would cost roughly $3–4/month. If your total stays below ~$5, Fly often waives the invoice.

Note: To estimate your monthly bill more accurately, you can use the Fly.io pricing calculator. It lets you input machine sizes, hours, bandwidth, storage, and support options to see a real-time cost preview.

Hidden costs, usage limits, and gotchas

While Fly.io is clear about how it bills, some costs and limits aren’t immediately obvious, especially for new users. Here's what to keep in mind:

Overage charges

There are no automatic hard limits on usage. If you deploy more VMs or scale up unexpectedly, you will be billed for the extra compute, storage, and bandwidth. Fly doesn’t cut you off when you exceed a threshold, so it’s up to you to monitor your deployments and keep an eye on the usage dashboard.

Customers on paid support plans are eligible for some forgiveness if accidental overages occur, but new users without a support tier should be cautious.

What would you actually pay?

Here are typical costs based on real-world usage:

• Basic hobby app: 1 VM, light traffic. Around $3–5/month (possibly waived)
• Active startup app: 2–3 VMs, moderate storage, and traffic. Typically $20–40/month
• Scaling product with support: 5+ VMs, databases, premium support. Can range from $100 to $250/month or more

Actual costs depend on how long your machines run, how much bandwidth you use, and what support level you choose. Fly.io gives you visibility into your live usage, but there’s no hard ceiling unless you set one up manually.

Fly.io pricing compared to alternatives

Compared to Supabase and Glide, Fly.io pricing gives developers more control over infrastructure, resource allocation, and real-time scaling. It’s built for applications that need full server environments, with pay-as-you-go billing for compute, storage, and bandwidth. 

Supabase is designed around hosted PostgreSQL databases and API services. It uses fixed-tier pricing with included usage caps. There’s no granular, usage-based metering for storage or bandwidth, meaning teams often hit hard limits before they’re ready to scale.

Glide is a no-code app builder where pricing is tied to usage metrics like row counts, collaborators, app updates, and storage. Plans start at fixed rates and require upgrades as usage increases. Unlike Fly.io, Glide doesn’t offer low-level infrastructure access.

Here’s how the three compare:

Supabase storage pricing includes 1GB of file storage in the Pro plan, with additional space billed at a fixed rate. Backup, PITR (point-in-time recovery), and extended database sizes are only available in higher-tier plans.

Glide pricing scales based on app complexity. For example, the Maker plan ($49/month) allows up to 50,000 rows and 25 GB of storage, while the Business plan ($199/month) expands that to 100,000 rows and 100 GB.

If you’re looking to build your usage-based pricing infrastructure — whether for internal tools or a customer-facing product — Orb is a billing platform worth checking out. Orb helps teams meter usage and build flexible billing systems similar to what Fly.io uses under the hood.

Is Fly.io pricing fair?

Yes, Fly.io pricing is fair, especially for developers who want cost control and don’t need a fixed-tier model. You only pay for the compute, storage, and bandwidth you actually use, and small projects often fall below the $5/month threshold, making it effectively free to start.

The billing model is transparent. Pricing is published per unit, and the Fly.io calculator helps forecast costs based on your setup. There are no surprise fees, and support plans are clearly separate from infrastructure charges.

That said, usage costs can add up quickly at scale. Apps with high memory needs or bandwidth-heavy workloads may see larger bills if not monitored. There’s no automatic cap, so it’s on the developer to manage resources and review usage.

Support pricing can be confusing at first. $29 unlocks email help but doesn't include credits or faster responses. Still, the value per dollar is strong, especially for teams that want full control without enterprise-level overhead.

FAQs 

How do you use Fly.io’s deployment calculator?

You can use Fly.io’s deployment calculator to estimate monthly costs based on VM sizes, hours, bandwidth, storage, and support levels. Just input your expected usage, and it shows a real-time price preview. It’s useful for planning and avoiding billing surprises.

Is Fly.io no longer free?

Fly.io no longer offers a traditional free plan, but usage under ~$5/month is often waived for new accounts. You still need a credit card to deploy, and all resource usage is metered. Legacy users may retain older free allowances.

Is Fly.io open source?

Fly.io itself is not fully open source, but it supports and contributes to open source tools like the Flyctl CLI and Nix-based build systems. Many of its building blocks are open or self-hostable. However, the full Fly platform is proprietary.

Where does Fly.io run?

Fly.io runs applications on its global edge network, with data centers in over 30 regions across North America, Europe, Asia, and more. You can deploy apps close to your users for better latency. Specific regions can be selected per deployment.

Build billing like Fly.io with Orb powering your pricing

Fly.io built its pricing to reflect usage in real time, without locking developers into rigid tiers or legacy billing logic. If you're building a product with similar needs, Orb is the infrastructure that helps you do it right.

Orb supports the full lifecycle of modern pricing, from defining value metrics to testing monetization strategies to delivering clear, customer-facing invoices. It helps you scale pricing without rebuilding your backend or relying on brittle homegrown solutions.

Here’s how Orb can help you launch pricing models like Fly.io’s and evolve them over time:

• Test pricing changes before you commit: With Orb Simulations, you can test with pricing logic using actual product usage data. Run parallel pricing scenarios, forecast revenue impact, and compare performance, all without deploying code changes.
• Define pricing with clarity: With Orb’s SQL-based pricing editor, business and product teams can define billing logic based on any usage event, whether that’s compute hours, API calls, or outbound data. No hardcoded logic. No reliance on dev time.
• Bill accurately, invoice confidently: Orb decouples pricing logic from your product infrastructure so you can scale without worrying about inaccuracies. Features like transparent customer invoicing, audit trails, and granular event mapping make it easy to support usage-based models.
• Stay agile with version control and rollout tools: Orb helps you manage pricing like a product. Whether you're introducing a new tier or revising how you charge for storage, Orb makes it simple to test, iterate, and ship changes safely.
• Sync billing with finance, product, and ops: Orb’s platform works across teams. Finance gets reporting and revenue attribution. The Product team can adapt pricing without slowing down development. And ops teams no longer have to triage billing gaps or integrate many systems.

If you want to launch pricing models like Fly.io, Orb helps you do it without complex engineering. Explore Orb’s flexible pricing tiers and build a monetization engine that scales with your product, your team, and your market.