Cloudinary
Image and video management platform with URL-based transformations, storage, DAM and CDN delivery, billed in monthly credits.
- Headquarters
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Parent jurisdiction
- 🇺🇸 United States
- EU self-serve plan
- No / not documented
- GDPR DPA
- Yes
- Billing
- subscription
- Free tier
- 25 credits/month (e.g. 25k transformations or 25 GB bandwidth), no credit card
- Open source
- No
- Website
- cloudinary.com
- Source last checked
- 2026-10-06
- Pricing evidence
- Modeled rates
Pricing
Published rates converted using workload assumptions. Read the notes. Shared storage, transformation and bandwidth credits; assumes 1 MB per original image. Stored originals accumulate over time. How to read these estimates.
| Plan | Base fee / month |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| Plus | $99 |
| Advanced | $249 |
Allowances, plan limits & calculation details
Rates are shown at their recorded precision. A zero means no charge in this calculation; the vendor may charge for things we leave out. See the notes for usage assumptions and currency conversions.
Free
- Shared usage allowance
- 25 credits shared across the modeled inputs
- Base fee / month
- $0
- Included source images (thousands)
- 0
- 1k source images
- $0
- Included transformations (thousands)
- 0
- 1k transformations
- $0
- Included bandwidth / month (GB)
- 0
- Bandwidth / GB
- $0
- Modeled plan limits
- ≤ 25 unique source images / month (thousands); ≤ 25 transformations / month (thousands); ≤ 25 image bandwidth / month (gb)
Plus
- Shared usage allowance
- 225 credits shared across the modeled inputs
- Base fee / month
- $99
- Included source images (thousands)
- 0
- 1k source images
- $0
- Included transformations (thousands)
- 0
- 1k transformations
- $0
- Included bandwidth / month (GB)
- 0
- Bandwidth / GB
- $0
- Modeled plan limits
- ≤ 225 unique source images / month (thousands); ≤ 225 transformations / month (thousands); ≤ 225 image bandwidth / month (gb)
Advanced
- Shared usage allowance
- 600 credits shared across the modeled inputs
- Base fee / month
- $249
- Included source images (thousands)
- 0
- 1k source images
- $0
- Included transformations (thousands)
- 0
- 1k transformations
- $0
- Included bandwidth / month (GB)
- 0
- Bandwidth / GB
- $0
- Modeled plan limits
- ≤ 600 unique source images / month (thousands); ≤ 600 transformations / month (thousands); ≤ 600 image bandwidth / month (gb)
Credit-based. Free 25 credits/month, Plus $99/month ($89 billed yearly) for 225 credits, Advanced $249/month ($224 yearly) for 600 credits; Enterprise is custom. One credit = 1,000 transformations OR 1 GB managed storage OR 1 GB image bandwidth (2 GB video bandwidth on paid plans). Self-serve plans have no metered overage: above the credit allowance you are asked to upgrade or move to Enterprise, so the plans are modelled as hard caps. Credits are one shared pool; the calculator checks the sum of storage, transformations and image bandwidth (e.g. 200 GB + 50k transformations = 250 credits, above Plus's 225). Source images are stored in Cloudinary, so they use storage credits for as long as they are kept (cumulative, not per month). source_k limits assume ~1 MB per original (1,000 images = 1 GB = 1 credit). There is no per-image fee. EEA data residency is available to Enterprise customers only (cloudinary.com/trust). The DPA applies to all subscription customers.
What companies report paying
What other customers have paid for Cloudinary, with sources. Their usage, features and discounts may differ from yours; these are not quotes.
- $72,150/yr · Vendr median for Cloudinary; range $29,238-$358,360; 65 purchases (header: 74 deals handled); avg savings 14%; page 'Last updated: February 2026'
“Median buyer pays $72,150 per year Based on data from 65 purchases, with buyers saving 14% on average. Median: $72,150 $29,238 $358,360 Low High”
Vendr purchase data, Oct 2026 - $24,000/yr · Annualized from $2k/month; founder of a product asking about image text overlays; plan type and usage not stated
“(I pay $2k a month to Cloudinary!)”
Hacker News, Dec 2025
Managed alternatives
At 50K unique source images / month, 500K transformations / month, 2,000 GB image bandwidth / month. Adjust usage and requirements.
No managed cost estimate is available for this option at the selected usage.
- Bunny Optimizer: $354/yr estimatedPublished rates
- Cloudflare Images: $2,460/yr estimatedModeled ratesConverts delivery requests to bandwidth assuming 100 KB per delivered image. Cached deliveries still count.
- Vercel Image Optimization: $2,880/yr estimatedModeled ratesCache-write cost assumes 100 KB output images. Cache behavior, sizes and regional rates change cost.
- Netlify Image CDN: $3,528/yr estimatedPublished rates
- imgix: $6,393/yr estimatedModeled ratesConverts credits to images and bandwidth assuming 1 MB per origin image; origin-cache retention changes storage cost.
No cheaper managed estimate matches your filters. Adjust your usage or compare with your actual contract bill.
The price difference leaves out migration costs, operating costs and any features you’d need to replace.
Self-hosted options
Operating cost is not estimated. These options are not counted as savings against managed services.
Want a European-owned provider? See European alternatives to Cloudinary among european image processing providers.
Compare Cloudinary
Found a wrong rate or plan restriction? Report a correction with a current source.