Plans & Billing
Pricing tiers, compute dimensions, and billing details.
Phemeral offers a Free tier and a Pro tier. Plans are billed per organization.
Plan Comparison
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0/month | $20/month |
| Team members | 1 | Unlimited |
| Projects | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Deployments | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Requests | 1M included | $0.50 per 1M |
| Compute (RAM GB-hours) | 10 GB-hours included | $0.11 per GB-hour |
| Data transfer | 10 GB included | $0.15 per GB |
| Build minutes | 500 minutes included | $0.04 per minute |
| Build cache retention | 10 days | 100 days |
| Managed Postgres | Not available | Up to 20 database clusters per project, usage-based |
| Overage behavior | Paused at limits | Usage-based billing beyond included amounts |
Free Tier
The Free tier is assigned to every new organization. It includes a set amount of compute resources each month. When your usage reaches the included limits, deployments are paused until the next billing cycle.
- 1 team member (the organization owner).
- Unlimited projects and deployments, subject to compute limits.
- Resource caps: 1M requests, 10 GB-hours compute, 10 GB data transfer, 500 build minutes.
Pro Tier
The Pro tier removes seat limits and switches to usage-based billing beyond a monthly credit.
- Unlimited team members.
- $20/month compute credit applied to usage-based charges.
- Usage beyond the credit is billed at the per-unit rates listed above.
- No hard pausing — your deployments continue running and you are billed for actual usage.
- 100-day build cache retention (vs. 10 days on Free).
Compute Dimensions
Phemeral tracks resource usage across four dimensions:
| Dimension | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Requests | Per 1M requests | HTTP requests to your deployments |
| Compute | RAM GB-hours | Memory allocated to your running VMs, measured over time |
| Data transfer | GB | Outbound data from your deployments |
| Build minutes | Minutes | Time spent building your deployment images |
Long-Lived Connections (WebSockets & SSE)
WebSocket and Server-Sent Events connections are metered across the same dimensions as ordinary traffic:
- Each connection counts as one request when it opens.
- An open connection keeps your deployment running, so it accrues compute (RAM GB-hours) for the entire time it stays open — including idle periods with no messages.
- Data transfer is metered on outbound data sent to the client.
See WebSockets & Server-Sent Events for keep-alive and reconnection guidance.
Managed Postgres
Managed Postgres database clusters are billed on a usage-based model.
Phemeral meters three dimensions per cluster:
| Dimension | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | RAM GB-hours | Memory allocated to the cluster, measured over time |
| Storage | GB-hours | Data stored in the cluster, measured over time |
| Egress | GB | Outbound data transferred from the cluster |
Clusters scale to zero after five minutes without traffic, so a cluster that is not serving traffic accrues no compute charge while it is scaled to zero. Storage continues to be metered while data is retained.
Upgrading
To upgrade from Free to Pro:
- Go to the Pricing page or your organization's billing settings.
- Select the Pro plan.
- Complete checkout.
After checkout, your plan is immediately updated. The monthly compute credit is applied.
Managing Your Subscription
Once on a paid plan, you can manage your subscription through the Customer Portal:
- View invoices and payment history.
- Update your payment method.
- Cancel your subscription.
To access the portal, go to your organization's billing settings and click Manage Subscription.
Billing Cycle
Subscriptions are billed monthly. At each renewal:
- Compute usage for the previous period is finalized.
- A new monthly compute credit is applied.
- An invoice is generated for any usage beyond the credit.
Payment Failures
If a payment fails:
- Your subscription enters a past due state.
- Phemeral retries the charge over a period of time.
- If payment is recovered, your subscription returns to active status.
- If payment is not recovered, the subscription is eventually canceled.
Cancellation
When you cancel a paid subscription:
- Your organization reverts to the Free tier at the end of the current billing period.
- Existing deployments may be affected by Free tier resource limits following the downgrade at the end of the current billing period.
- No further charges are incurred after the current billing period.