DigitalOcean price increase 2022: the $5 Droplet became $6
DigitalOcean raised prices on July 1, 2022. It was the first price change in the company's history. The classic $5 Basic Droplet went to $6 a month, a 20% increase, and most Basic Droplets went up by the same 20%. DigitalOcean added a new $4 Droplet with 512MB of memory as the new entry point. Snapshots, Load Balancers, Reserved IPs, and Custom Images went up on the same day. Live plan data is on the DigitalOcean pricing page on SaaS Price Watch.
Old and new prices
Basic Droplets (regular CPU), per month. Old prices are from the Droplet pricing page in May 2022. New prices are from the same page in August 2022.
| Basic Droplet | Old price | New price | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 512MB, 1 vCPU | not offered | $4 a month | new plan |
| 1GB, 1 vCPU | $5 a month | $6 a month | +$1, 20% |
| 2GB, 1 vCPU | $10 a month | $12 a month | +$2, 20% |
| 2GB, 2 vCPUs | $15 a month | $18 a month | +$3, 20% |
| 4GB, 2 vCPUs | $20 a month | $24 a month | +$4, 20% |
| 8GB, 4 vCPUs | $40 a month | $48 a month | +$8, 20% |
| 16GB, 8 vCPUs | $80 a month | $96 a month | +$16, 20% |
General Purpose Droplets rose by a smaller step. The 8GB General Purpose Droplet went from $60 to $63 a month, a 5% increase.
Over a year, the 1GB Droplet went from $60 to $72, $12 more. The 4GB Droplet went from $240 to $288 a year, $48 more.
What DigitalOcean said
The May 16, 2022 blog post says: "for the first time there will be a price change on some of our products from July 1, 2022, combined with the introduction of a new, more affordable $4 Droplet."
The July 1, 2022 release notes say the prices of Droplets, Snapshots, Load Balancers, Reserved IPs, and Custom Images increased. The same note lists no change to Spaces, backups, volumes, the Container Registry, or App Platform.
Who it hits and when
- All Droplet customers, new and existing, from July 1, 2022.
- Snapshots, Load Balancers, Reserved IPs, and Custom Images went up on the same date.
- Spaces, volumes, backups, the Container Registry, and App Platform had no change in this round.
- We do not list the Managed Database and Kubernetes changes here. We could not match old and new prices to a source we can cite.
What to do before your renewal
DigitalOcean bills by usage, so there is no renewal date. The new prices apply to the next bill.
- List your Droplets and their sizes in the control panel.
- If a Droplet runs a small test or a static site, check if the $4 Droplet fits it.
- Delete old snapshots and unused Reserved IPs. Both cost more after July 1, 2022.
- Compare the same size on other hosts. Our Linode price increase 2023 guide and Hetzner price increase 2026 guide show what other clouds did. Our OVHcloud price increase 2026 guide covers VPS and dedicated server rises at OVHcloud.
FAQ
When did DigitalOcean raise prices? On July 1, 2022. DigitalOcean announced the change on May 16, 2022.
How much did the DigitalOcean $5 Droplet go up? It went from $5 to $6 a month, a 20% increase. The specs (1GB memory, 1 vCPU) stayed the same.
Can I buy a $5 DigitalOcean Droplet today? No. The cheapest Basic Droplet after the change is $4 a month with 512MB of memory. The 1GB Droplet costs $6 a month.
Did existing DigitalOcean customers pay the new price? Yes. The change applied to all customers from July 1, 2022. The release notes say the new prices were in effect from that date.
Which DigitalOcean products did not go up in 2022? The release notes list no change to Spaces, backups, volumes, the Container Registry, or App Platform.
How we check
We read the DigitalOcean blog post, the July 1, 2022 release notes, two archived copies of the Droplet pricing page, a Motley Fool report, and the live pricing page on October 25, 2026. SaaS Price Watch tracks the DigitalOcean pricing page and records changes. Get an alert when a SaaS price changes.
Checked 2026-10-25. Prices and policies change. Confirm on the source before you buy.
Sources
- https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/new-4-dollar-droplet-updated-pricing
- https://docs.digitalocean.com/release-notes/snapshots/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20220501/https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets
- https://web.archive.org/web/20220801/https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets
- https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/05/16/digitalocean-first-price-increase-20-percent/
- https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets
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