Captured November 4, 2026 at 1440px wide.
Blacksmith plans and prices
| Plan | Price | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu x64 | $0.004 | /min |
| Ubuntu ARM | $0.0025 | /min |
| EnterpriseFor enterprises that need to scale—premium SLAs and dedicated white-glove support. | — | |
| Docker layer caching | +$0.50 | /GB/mo. |
| Sticky disks | +$0.50 | /GB/mo. |
| Static IPs | +$100 | /IP/mo. |
As printed on the page captured November 4, 2026.
How does Blacksmith pricing work?
The value metric is the runner minute, priced by operating system and machine size. Tabs for 'UBUNTU', 'WINDOWS' and 'MACOS' sit beside a 'vCPU:' selector of 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32, and the cards show the rate for the chosen combination: 'Ubuntu x64 $0.004 /min' and 'Ubuntu ARM $0.0025 /min' at the default 2 vCPU. Packaging is thin by design. Both pay-as-you-go cards share the same features, '3,000 free min/mo.', '2x faster hardware', '4x faster cache downloads' and 'GitHub Actions observability', and the same add-ons: 'Docker layer caching (+$0.50/GB/mo.)', 'Sticky disks (+$0.50/GB/mo.)' and 'Static IPs (+$100/IP/mo.)'. Enterprise adds service on top: '99.9% SLA', '24/7 priority support', 'Dedicated Slack channel' and 'Enterprise-grade concurrency'.
The motion is self-serve with a sales path. The hero pairs 'TRY FOR FREE' and 'No credit card required.' with 'CONTACT OUR TEAM', and the same pair closes the page under 'Start with 3,000 free minutes per month or book a live demo with our engineers'. A '/ HOW THE MATH WORKS' band explains the headline saving before any price appears. Below the cards come an Ashby quote on support response time, a row of customer quotes, two application forms, a 'Startup discount' and an 'OSS' program, and a logo strip. The page reads as a migration offer: every section answers a team already paying for CI minutes elsewhere.
Under the hood, Blacksmith prices against a reference rate the buyer already knows. 'Cut runtime by 50%' and 'Cut per-minute cost by 33%' multiply into 'Together: 67% savings', so speed is a pricing lever: on a per-minute meter, faster hardware lowers the bill as surely as a lower rate. ARM at 75% savings against 67% for x64 steers workloads toward the cheaper-to-serve architecture. Storage and IPs sit on separate meters, per GB-month and per IP-month, which keeps the runner rate simple and charges persistent resources by their own unit. Worth borrowing: the savings arithmetic shown as three short steps, and eligibility criteria printed openly for discount programs.
What does Blacksmith's pricing page do well?
- '/ HOW THE MATH WORKS' shows the headline saving as arithmetic: 'Cut runtime by 50%' plus 'Cut per-minute cost by 33%' equals 'Together: 67% savings'
- OS tabs and a 'vCPU:' selector set the machine before the price appears, so the rate on the card matches the runner the buyer plans to use
- Each card prints its saving beside the rate, '67% total cost savings' on x64 and '75% total cost savings' on ARM
- The startup program states its criteria, 'Under 100 employees', 'Under $50 million raised' and 'Under 5 years in business', next to a three-field form
- The closing CTA restates the free allowance in the headline: 'Start with 3,000 free minutes per month or book a live demo with our engineers'
What does Blacksmith's pricing page reveal about its pricing strategy?
- On a per-minute meter, '2x faster hardware' halves billed minutes, so performance and price are the same lever
- ARM at $0.0025 /min against $0.004 /min for x64 prices the cheaper-to-serve architecture to win more workloads
- Add-ons billed per GB-month and per IP-month keep persistent resources on their own meters, apart from the runner rate
- Enterprise is defined as 'All Pay-as-you-go features +' service terms, so custom pricing centers on SLAs, support and concurrency
- A customer quote, 'The amount we pay an engineer per minute is far higher than any CI minute', reframes the CI bill against engineering time
Learn with Orb
- ProductPrice modeling Blacksmith's per-minute rate changes with the 'UBUNTU', 'WINDOWS' and 'MACOS' tabs and a 'vCPU:' selector, with add-ons like 'Static IPs (+$100/IP/mo.)' on their own units, the dimensional rates Orb's price modeling handles without re-engineering billing.
- GuidePay-as-you-go pricing for SaaS '3,000 free min/mo.' and 'TRY FOR FREE' with 'No credit card required.' open a pay-as-you-go plan at $0.004 /min, the low-barrier structure Orb's pay-as-you-go guide lays out.
- GuideAn expert's guide to enterprise pricing for SaaS Enterprise is 'All Pay-as-you-go features +' a '99.9% SLA', '24/7 priority support' and 'Enterprise-grade concurrency', the service-led custom tier Orb's guide to enterprise pricing explains.
Questions about Blacksmith pricing
How much does Blacksmith cost?
Blacksmith's pricing starts at $0.0025/min. The page shows 3 plans, including a free plan, with the top plan priced through sales.
What pricing model does Blacksmith use?
Blacksmith prices by usage. Buyers can sign up on their own or go through the sales team. Its plans are aimed mainly at developers.
Does Blacksmith have a free plan?
Yes, Blacksmith has a free plan. Paid plans start at $0.0025/min.
Does Blacksmith offer an annual discount?
Blacksmith's pricing page shows a single billing period. The listed prices start at $0.0025/min. Terms for the plans priced through sales are set with the sales team.
How is Blacksmith's pricing page laid out?
The page shows 3 plans. The breakdown above marks 14 points on it: 7 things it does well and 7 insights into the pricing.
What do Blacksmith's runner add-ons cost?
Blacksmith lists three add-ons on both pay-as-you-go cards. Docker layer caching and sticky disks are each "+$0.50/GB/mo.", and static IPs are "+$100/IP/mo.". They are billed on their own units, apart from the per-minute runner rate.
How does Blacksmith arrive at 67% savings over GitHub Actions?
The page shows the math in three steps: "Cut runtime by 50%" because runners are 2x faster, and "Cut per-minute cost by 33%" against GitHub per-minute pricing. Together they give "Together: 67% savings", since half the minutes at two-thirds the rate is one third of the bill. Ubuntu ARM is listed at "75% total cost savings".
Who qualifies for Blacksmith's startup discount?
The startup program is for companies "Under 100 employees", "Under $50 million raised" and "Under 5 years in business". The page says "After signing up, reach out for a discount", and an application form asks for a name, work email and GitHub org name. A separate OSS program supports projects with an "Actively maintained public repo", a "Permissive OSS license" and "Clear community usage".
From the page as captured November 4, 2026. Current prices are on blacksmith.sh
Alchemy
$0.52/1M CUAlchemy prices blockchain infrastructure on one published rate, $0.52 per 1 million compute units, and sells peak throughput as its own meter: $160 for each 5,000 CU/s block above the 300 RPS that Pay as You Go includes. A working estimator itemizes compute, included capacity and overage into a monthly total, so a developer can model the bill before signing up.
Algolia
From $0.50/1K search requests (after 10K free)Algolia prices hosted search on two meters, search requests and records, and prints the included allowance and the overage rate for both on every pay-as-you-go card. Grow and Grow Plus share the same allowances and record rate, and the request rate carries the AI: '$0.50 per additional 1K search requests' for keyword search, '$1.75' for keyword search with AI capabilities. A usage estimator with sliders for both meters now turns those rates into a starting monthly price per plan, while Elevate sits apart as an annual plan with volume-based discounts.
Augment Code
$20/mo flatAugment Code sells a flat team subscription with usage inside it: Standard is '$20/month flat, no per-seat charge' and Business '$100/month flat', each covering up to 50 seats and loading the same dollar amount of usage every month. Usage is measured in dollars, and the FAQ publishes the formula: LLM inference at 'the provider's public API list price', 'a flat 40% fee on LLM usage (no fee on compute)', and Cosmos compute time. The plan is a prepaid wallet shared by the whole team.
Braintrust
$249/moBraintrust pairs a flat platform fee, $0 on Starter and $249 a month on Pro, with four metered dimensions: model credits, processed data, scores and data retention. Each included allowance sits on the card beside its overage rate, and users, projects and experiments are Unlimited on every tier, so the bill follows traced traffic while headcount stays free.
Browserbase
$20/moBrowserbase sells four plans that each bundle a block of browser infrastructure, concurrent browsers, browser hours, agent runs, search and fetch calls, and bill past it at the plan's rate: Developer at $20/mo includes 100 browser hours 'then $0.12/browser hr', Startup at $99/mo includes 500 'then $0.10/browser hr'. The hero promises 'no caps or throttling', so the subscription is a usage commitment with a discounted overage curve.
Convex
$25/developer/moConvex pairs a developer seat with a full resource rate card. Free & Starter runs at 'Free or $0/month and pay as you go', Professional is '$25 per developer/month' with larger allowances and lower unit rates, and Business & Enterprise opens at a '$2,500 monthly minimum'. Below the cards, every compute, storage, I/O and egress meter is priced per plan, with a region selector that sets the multiplier.