Growth Cost Simulator
How does your bill change from 1K to 1M users? We simulate real pricing curves for 54 services, revealing the exact growth stage where each tool gets expensive.
Not a calculator for today — a simulator for your future. Find the pricing cliffs before you hit them.
Supabase
BaaS50K MAU, 500MB DB, 1GB storage
$01K
$2510K
$2550K
$75100K
$280500K
$6001M
Breakpoint: 100K MAU — bandwidth and storage start adding up
Predictable pricing. Compute add-ons at scale.
At 100K: $75/moAt 1M: $600/mo
Firebase
BaaS50K reads/day, 10GB storage
$01K
$010K
$4550K
$120100K
$680500K
$1.4k1M
Breakpoint: 50K MAU — Firestore reads become the killer
Per-read pricing makes costs unpredictable. One bad query = surprise bill.
At 100K: $120/moAt 1M: $1.4k/mo
Clerk
Auth10K MAU
$01K
$2510K
$12550K
$250100K
$1.3k500K
$2.5k1M
Breakpoint: 10K MAU — $0.02/MAU adds up fast
Linear per-MAU pricing. No volume discounts until enterprise.
At 100K: $250/moAt 1M: $2.5k/mo
Auth0
Auth7.5K MAU
$01K
$07.5K
$24010K
$57650K
$1.1k100K
$4.5k500K
Breakpoint: 7.5K MAU — free cliff, then jumps to $240/mo
Steep cliff from free to paid. Enterprise pricing is opaque and sales-gated.
At 100K: $1.1k/moAt 1M: $0/mo
Vercel
Hosting100GB bandwidth, 100 deploys/day
$01K
$2010K
$2050K
$60100K
$350500K
$9001M
Breakpoint: 100K MAU — bandwidth overages kick in
Pro plan is flat $20. Overages hit at scale. Edge function invocations add up too.
At 100K: $60/moAt 1M: $900/mo
Railway
Hosting$5 free credit/mo
$51K
$1210K
$3050K
$55100K
$180500K
$3501M
Breakpoint: Gradual — usage-based, no cliffs
Most predictable. Pay for what you use, no surprise jumps.
At 100K: $55/moAt 1M: $350/mo
Stripe
PaymentsNo monthly fee, per-transaction only
$901K
$90010K
$4.5k50K
$9.0k100K
$45.0k500K
$87.0k1M
Breakpoint: Always — 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction
Assuming $3 avg transaction. Volume discounts available at $1M+/mo.
At 100K: $9.0k/moAt 1M: $87.0k/mo
Resend
Email3K emails/mo, 100/day
$01K
$010K
$2050K
$20100K
$80500K
$2001M
Breakpoint: 3K emails/mo — exits free tier at low volume
Cheap at scale. Priced per email sent, not per MAU.
At 100K: $20/moAt 1M: $200/mo
Datadog
Monitoring5 hosts, 1 day retention
$01K
$7510K
$22550K
$450100K
$2.3k500K
$4.5k1M
Breakpoint: Always expensive — per-host + log volume
Most expensive monitoring. Logs are a money pit. APM and synthetics billed separately.
At 100K: $450/moAt 1M: $4.5k/mo
PostHog
Analytics1M events/mo
$01K
$010K
$050K
$45100K
$250500K
$5001M
Breakpoint: 100K events/mo — generous free tier
Best free tier in analytics. Self-host for $0.
At 100K: $45/moAt 1M: $500/mo
Algolia
Search10K searches/mo, 10K records
$01K
$010K
$11050K
$220100K
$900500K
$1.5k1M
Breakpoint: 10K searches/mo — aggressive per-search pricing
Per-search pricing scales badly. Consider Typesense or Meilisearch at scale.
At 100K: $220/moAt 1M: $1.5k/mo
MongoDB Atlas
Database512MB shared cluster
$01K
$910K
$3050K
$57100K
$230500K
$4501M
Breakpoint: 512MB storage — shared cluster fills up fast
Shared → Dedicated is a big cost jump. Storage and IOPS costs compound at scale.
At 100K: $57/moAt 1M: $450/mo
PlanetScale
Database5B row reads, 10M row writes/mo (Hobby)
$01K
$3910K
$3950K
$99100K
$399500K
$7991M
Breakpoint: 5B row reads/mo — read-heavy apps hit this fast
Row read pricing catches many teams off guard. Branching feature drives adoption but complicates migration.
At 100K: $99/moAt 1M: $799/mo
Neon
Database0.5 CU compute, 3GB storage
$01K
$1910K
$1950K
$69100K
$250500K
$5001M
Breakpoint: 0.5 CU compute — free tier is very limited
Compute units (CUs) are the key variable. Cold starts on free tier can be 500ms+.
At 100K: $69/moAt 1M: $500/mo
Render
HostingFree with auto-sleep (15 min inactivity)
$01K
$710K
$2550K
$50100K
$185500K
$3701M
Breakpoint: Free tier auto-sleeps — first real cost at $7/mo
Simple pricing but free tier sleep ruins UX. $7/mo Starter plan keeps service alive.
At 100K: $50/moAt 1M: $370/mo
Fly.io
Hosting3 shared-cpu-1x VMs, 3GB storage
$01K
$510K
$1850K
$35100K
$140500K
$2801M
Breakpoint: Shared CPU limit — scale-to-zero helps keep free
Very developer-friendly. Machines API enables fine-grained cost control.
At 100K: $35/moAt 1M: $280/mo
Upstash
Cache/Queue10K commands/day, 256MB
$01K
$010K
$1050K
$20100K
$80500K
$1601M
Breakpoint: 10K commands/day — scales with usage
Per-command pricing. Kafka topic add-on billed separately. Great for serverless Redis.
At 100K: $20/moAt 1M: $160/mo
Axiom
Logging500GB ingest/mo, 30-day retention
$01K
$010K
$2550K
$25100K
$100500K
$2001M
Breakpoint: 500GB ingest/mo — generous free tier for small apps
Cheapest structured logging option. 90-day retention on paid. Query performance degrades on huge datasets.
At 100K: $25/moAt 1M: $200/mo
Sentry
Monitoring5K errors/mo, 1 user
$01K
$010K
$2650K
$80100K
$280500K
$5601M
Breakpoint: 5K errors/mo — free tier covers small apps
Team plan $26/mo for 50K events. Business plan needed for custom queries and dashboards.
At 100K: $80/moAt 1M: $560/mo
BetterStack
MonitoringUptime free (10 monitors), Logs free (1GB)
$01K
$010K
$2550K
$85100K
$200500K
$4001M
Breakpoint: 50K events/mo — logs + uptime combined pricing
All-in-one logging + uptime. Cheaper than Datadog for small-mid teams. Great Vercel/Next.js integration.
At 100K: $85/moAt 1M: $400/mo
Turso
Database500 DBs, 9B row reads, 8GB storage
$01K
$010K
$2950K
$29100K
$99500K
$1991M
Breakpoint: 500 DBs or 9B row reads — Scaler plan
Embedded replicas for sub-1ms reads. LibSQL (SQLite fork). Killer for edge-first apps.
At 100K: $29/moAt 1M: $199/mo
Convex
BaaS2 projects, 25K function calls/day
$01K
$010K
$2550K
$25100K
$100500K
$2501M
Breakpoint: 25K function calls/day — generous free tier
Replaces DB + realtime + scheduling. Per-function-call pricing. Great DX, vendor lock-in risk.
At 100K: $25/moAt 1M: $250/mo
Cloudflare Workers
Hosting100K requests/day
$01K
$510K
$550K
$5100K
$15500K
$351M
Breakpoint: 100K requests/day on free — then $5/mo flat
Cheapest compute at scale. $0.30/M requests after 10M included. Edge-native, sub-ms cold starts.
At 100K: $5/moAt 1M: $35/mo
Cloudflare Pages
HostingUnlimited bandwidth, 500 builds/mo
$01K
$010K
$050K
$0100K
$0500K
$01M
Breakpoint: Never for static — unlimited bandwidth free
Truly free for static sites. Functions pricing mirrors Workers. Best value for Astro/Next static export.
At 100K: $0/moAt 1M: $0/mo
Netlify
Hosting100GB bandwidth, 300 build minutes
$01K
$1910K
$1950K
$69100K
$350500K
$9001M
Breakpoint: 100GB bandwidth — overages at $55/100GB
Pro plan $19/mo. Bandwidth overages hit hard at scale. Serverless functions priced per invocation.
At 100K: $69/moAt 1M: $900/mo
Lemon Squeezy
PaymentsNo monthly fee, per-transaction only
$501K
$50010K
$2.5k50K
$5.0k100K
$25.0k500K
$50.0k1M
Breakpoint: Always — 5% + 50¢ per transaction
Assuming $10 avg transaction. Merchant of Record handles VAT/tax. Higher take rate than Stripe but saves compliance cost.
At 100K: $5.0k/moAt 1M: $50.0k/mo
Paddle
PaymentsNo monthly fee, per-transaction only
$501K
$50010K
$2.5k50K
$5.0k100K
$25.0k500K
$47.5k1M
Breakpoint: Always — 5% + 50¢ per transaction
Assuming $10 avg transaction. MoR like Lemon Squeezy. Better for established SaaS. Volume discounts at scale.
At 100K: $5.0k/moAt 1M: $47.5k/mo
WorkOS
Auth1M MAU free (AuthKit), SSO extra
$01K
$010K
$050K
$0100K
$0500K
$01M
Breakpoint: SSO connections — $125/connection/mo
AuthKit free for auth up to 1M MAU. Revenue comes from SSO/SCIM connections. B2B-focused.
At 100K: $0/moAt 1M: $0/mo
Mux
VideoNo free tier (pay as you go)
$01K
$6010K
$30050K
$600100K
$3.0k500K
$6.0k1M
Breakpoint: Always — $0.007/min encoding + $0.04/GB delivery
Best video API DX. Per-minute encoding + per-GB delivery. Scales linearly. Consider Bunny Stream for 60% savings.
At 100K: $600/moAt 1M: $6.0k/mo
Cloudinary
Media25 credits/mo (~25GB bandwidth)
$01K
$010K
$9950K
$249100K
$499500K
$9991M
Breakpoint: 25 credits/mo — transformations eat credits fast
Credit-based pricing obscures real cost. Plus plan $99/mo. Enterprise at volume. Consider imgix or Bunny Optimizer.
At 100K: $249/moAt 1M: $999/mo
Twilio
CommunicationsFree trial credit ($15)
$81K
$8010K
$40050K
$800100K
$4.0k500K
$7.5k1M
Breakpoint: Always — per-message/call pricing
Assuming 1 SMS/user/mo at $0.0079/msg. Voice adds up fast. Volume discounts at 1M+.
At 100K: $800/moAt 1M: $7.5k/mo
SendGrid
Email100 emails/day
$01K
$010K
$1950K
$40100K
$90500K
$2501M
Breakpoint: 100 emails/day — free tier is tight
Essentials at $19/mo for 50K emails. Pro at $90 for 500K. Deliverability can be inconsistent vs Postmark/Resend.
At 100K: $40/moAt 1M: $250/mo
Postmark
Email100 emails/mo
$01K
$1510K
$5050K
$85100K
$285500K
$4851M
Breakpoint: 100 emails/mo free — then $1.25/1K
Best deliverability. Per-email pricing. $1.25/1K emails. No marketing email allowed (transactional only).
At 100K: $85/moAt 1M: $485/mo
Anthropic API
AI/LLMNo free tier (prepay)
$101K
$10010K
$50050K
$1.0k100K
$5.0k500K
$9.5k1M
Breakpoint: Always — per-token pricing, Sonnet most popular
Assuming ~1K tokens/user/mo on Sonnet 4. Prompt caching cuts input cost 90%. Haiku 3.5 is 10x cheaper for simple tasks.
At 100K: $1.0k/moAt 1M: $9.5k/mo
OpenAI API
AI/LLMNo free tier (prepay)
$81K
$7510K
$37550K
$750100K
$3.8k500K
$7.0k1M
Breakpoint: Always — per-token pricing, GPT-4o dominant
Assuming ~1K tokens/user/mo on GPT-4o. Batch API 50% cheaper for async. GPT-4o-mini 15x cheaper for simple tasks.
At 100K: $750/moAt 1M: $7.0k/mo
Groq
AI/LLM14.4K req/day (Llama models)
$01K
$010K
$6050K
$120100K
$600500K
$1.2k1M
Breakpoint: 14.4K req/day on free — generous for dev
Fastest inference (2000+ tok/s). Cheapest open-source LLM hosting. Free tier covers prototyping.
At 100K: $120/moAt 1M: $1.2k/mo
Together AI
AI/LLM$5 free credit
$51K
$5010K
$25050K
$500100K
$2.5k500K
$4.8k1M
Breakpoint: Always — per-token, cheapest for OSS models
Best for fine-tuned OSS models. Llama/Mistral inference at $0.20-0.88/M tokens. Serverless or dedicated.
At 100K: $500/moAt 1M: $4.8k/mo
Grafana Cloud
Monitoring10K metrics, 50GB logs, 50GB traces
$01K
$010K
$2950K
$99100K
$299500K
$5991M
Breakpoint: 10K metrics + 50GB logs — free tier generous
Best Datadog alternative. Free tier covers small teams. Pro at $29/mo. Self-host Grafana + Loki for $0.
At 100K: $99/moAt 1M: $599/mo
New Relic
Monitoring100GB ingest/mo, 1 user
$01K
$010K
$4950K
$99100K
$399500K
$7991M
Breakpoint: 100GB ingest/mo — then $0.35/GB
Generous free tier (100GB). Per-GB ingest pricing scales better than Datadog per-host. Full observability stack.
At 100K: $99/moAt 1M: $799/mo
Meilisearch
Search1K documents, 10K searches/mo
$01K
$010K
$3050K
$60100K
$240500K
$4801M
Breakpoint: 1K documents or 10K searches — Build plan
5x cheaper than Algolia. Cloud Build $30/mo. Self-host for free. Typo-tolerant, fast. Best OSS search.
At 100K: $60/moAt 1M: $480/mo
Typesense
SearchSelf-host free (OSS)
$01K
$010K
$2050K
$60100K
$200500K
$4001M
Breakpoint: 10K records or 1M searches — Bandwidth tier
Cheapest managed search. Typesense Cloud from $20/mo. Sub-50ms search latency. Strong Algolia alternative.
At 100K: $60/moAt 1M: $400/mo
Livekit
Realtime5K participant-minutes/mo
$01K
$5010K
$20050K
$400100K
$1.8k500K
$3.5k1M
Breakpoint: 5K participant-minutes — then per-minute pricing
Best open-source WebRTC. Self-host for free. Cloud pricing per participant-minute. AI agent integration built-in.
At 100K: $400/moAt 1M: $3.5k/mo
Expo
MobileFree (OSS), EAS: 15 iOS + 15 Android builds/mo
$01K
$010K
$9950K
$99100K
$99500K
$991M
Breakpoint: EAS Build limits — 15 iOS builds/mo free
Framework free and OSS. EAS Production $99/mo for CI/CD. OTA updates free up to generous limits. Essential for React Native.
At 100K: $99/moAt 1M: $99/mo
Better Auth
AuthUnlimited (OSS)
$01K
$010K
$050K
$0100K
$0500K
$01M
Breakpoint: Never — self-hosted, BYO database
Zero auth cost at any scale. Trade-off: build your own UI + handle session storage. Uses your existing DB.
At 100K: $0/moAt 1M: $0/mo
Polar
PaymentsNo monthly fee, per-transaction only
$401K
$40010K
$2.0k50K
$4.0k100K
$20.0k500K
$40.0k1M
Breakpoint: Always — 4% per transaction (MoR)
Assuming $10 avg transaction. Merchant of Record. Lower take than Lemon Squeezy (4% vs 5%). Built for devtools/digital products.
At 100K: $4.0k/moAt 1M: $40.0k/mo
Hetzner VPS
HostingNo free tier (cheapest CX22 at €3.79/mo)
$41K
$410K
$1550K
$30100K
$80500K
$1601M
Breakpoint: Never cliffs — flat VPS pricing
Cheapest hosting per-compute. Self-managed. 20TB traffic included. ARM servers (CAX) even cheaper.
At 100K: $30/moAt 1M: $160/mo
Coolify
HostingFree (self-hosted)
$51K
$510K
$1550K
$30100K
$80500K
$1601M
Breakpoint: VPS cost only — Coolify is free OSS
Coolify adds $0 to your VPS costs. PaaS UX on bare metal. Combine with Hetzner for cheapest managed hosting.
At 100K: $30/moAt 1M: $160/mo
Inngest
Background Jobs25K function runs/mo
$01K
$010K
$2550K
$50100K
$150500K
$3501M
Breakpoint: 25K function runs/mo — then usage-based
Event-driven background jobs with retry, scheduling, throttling. Pro at $25/mo for 100K runs. Replaces BullMQ + cron.
At 100K: $50/moAt 1M: $350/mo
Trigger.dev
Background Jobs5K tasks/mo, 30s max duration
$01K
$010K
$3050K
$60100K
$200500K
$4501M
Breakpoint: 5K tasks/mo — then usage-based
Long-running background tasks (up to 5min on Hobby, 5hr on Pro). v3 architecture is Kubernetes-based. Self-host option available.
At 100K: $60/moAt 1M: $450/mo
Axiom
Logging500GB ingest/mo, 30-day retention
$01K
$010K
$2550K
$25100K
$100500K
$2001M
Breakpoint: 500GB ingest/mo — generous free tier
Cheapest structured logging. 90-day retention on paid. Vercel + Netlify native integration. Query language similar to Kusto.
At 100K: $25/moAt 1M: $200/mo
PocketBase
BaaSUnlimited (OSS, self-hosted)
$01K
$010K
$550K
$10100K
$30500K
$801M
Breakpoint: Never — self-hosted, VPS cost only
Single Go binary. SQLite-backed. Free forever on any VPS. Cost = VPS only. Scaling limited by single-server architecture.
At 100K: $10/moAt 1M: $80/mo
Cerebras
AI/LLMFree tier with rate limits
$51K
$5010K
$25050K
$500100K
$2.5k500K
$4.8k1M
Breakpoint: Always — per-token, but fastest inference
2000+ tok/s on Llama-3.3-70B. Custom silicon = lowest latency. Comparable cost to Together AI but 5-10x faster output.
At 100K: $500/moAt 1M: $4.8k/mo
Cloudflare R2
Storage10GB storage, 10M Class A ops/mo
$01K
$010K
$550K
$10100K
$40500K
$801M
Breakpoint: 10GB storage — then $0.015/GB/mo
Zero egress fees. S3-compatible API. 10x cheaper than S3 for read-heavy workloads. Best value object storage.
At 100K: $10/moAt 1M: $80/mo
Bunny CDN
CDN/Media14-day free trial
$01K
$110K
$550K
$10100K
$40500K
$801M
Breakpoint: Pay-as-you-go — $0.01/GB from $1/mo minimum
Cheapest CDN by far. Bunny Stream for video at $0.005/min encoding. Bunny Optimizer for image transforms. 60% cheaper than Cloudinary for media.
At 100K: $10/moAt 1M: $80/mo