UpCloud pricing is fixed server plans per hour with a monthly cap, or flexibly configured servers per core and memory, MaxIOPS, Standard and Archive storage per gigabyte, Managed Kubernetes with a free or hourly control plane, managed databases and object storage per hour, and a fair-use limit for outbound traffic instead of a price per gigabyte; everything is deducted hourly from a prepaid balance in euro. On the bill the server plans that run through the month and so pay their cap dominate; traffic does not appear as a line at all.

Pricing dimensions

UpCloud deducts the cost of the running resources from the account balance every hour; a server plan costs per hour one 672nd of its monthly price and never more than that price in a month. The provider's pricing page can only be read in a browser; the prices here come from the provider's cost calculator for the Helsinki zone, in euro without tax, and the documentation states the rules.

noyesA server planPer hour one 672nd ofits monthly priceMore than 672 hoursin the month?The hours: a plan deletedafter three days pays72 hoursThe monthly price,the capDeducted every hour fromthe prepaid balance ineuro; no line for outboundtraffic, only a fair-uselimit
A plan pays one 672nd of its monthly price per hour until the cap, deducted hourly from the prepaid balance, and traffic never appears as a line
DimensionUnitWhat drives itOptional
Server plansHour per plan, the monthly price divided by 672, capped at the monthly priceFamily Starter (Standard storage, IPv4 included), Premium (AMD, MaxIOPS) or Cloud Native (compute only); cores and memoryNo
Flexible configurationHour per core and per memory blockThe API's price list carries server_core and server_memory per zone; the legacy flexible plans bill outbound traffic per GB and are closed to new customersYes
StorageGB per hour by classMaxIOPS, Standard and Archive; included in Starter and Premium plans, separate on Cloud Native; backups per GBNo
Public IPv4Included in Starter and Premium plans; per month on Cloud NativeEUR 3.46 per month in the calculator for Cloud Native; further addresses per hour; IPv6 free, one per serverYes
Outbound trafficA fair-use limit per plan instead of a price per GBDeveloper 1 TB, General Purpose, High CPU and High Memory 1 to 50 TB by size, Cloud Native up to 100 TB; inbound and private freeNo
Managed KubernetesHour per control planeDevelopment free up to 30 nodes without high availability; Production up to 120 nodes with high availability per hour; worker nodes as server plans with at least 2 GBYes
Managed Object StorageHour per unit of 250 GBFrom 250 GB, growing in steps of 250 GB; outbound traffic freeYes
Managed databases, load balancers, gatewaysHour per planPlan and size on the pricing pageYes
Windows ServerEUR 12.00 per month per server in the calculatorLicence per serverYes

The fixed plans are the rule. A Starter plan with 1 core, 2 GB and 20 GB of Standard storage costs EUR 6.00 per month, a Premium plan with 1 core, 2 GB and 25 GB of MaxIOPS EUR 12.00, with 2 cores and 4 GB EUR 26.00, with 4 cores and 8 GB EUR 52.00; Cloud Native separates compute from storage and network, 2 cores with 4 GB cost EUR 15.00 there, 4 cores with 8 GB EUR 32.00, with storage and IPv4 on top. The hourly price is the monthly price divided by 672 hours, and a plan that runs all month pays the monthly price; a plan deleted after three days pays 72 hours. Flexible configurations are priced by the API per core and memory block, and the older flexible plans bill outbound traffic per GB, which no longer applies to new customers. What instance families mean at the hyperscalers is in virtual machines and instance families.

Traffic is this provider's trait: public egress costs nothing but falls under a fair transfer policy with a limit per plan, from 1 TB on the smallest to 100 TB on Cloud Native, to which all plans of an account contribute; the documentation does not say what happens beyond the limit, only that it applies. Inbound traffic, private traffic in SDN networks and the Utility Network's traffic are free. Included traffic and flat pricing models sets this model beside the other providers' allowances. Managed Kubernetes charges only the control plane in its Production variant, the worker nodes are server plans, as containers and Kubernetes describes for the hyperscalers; object storage grows in blocks of 250 GB and charges no egress.

Invoices, exports and APIs

UpCloud runs on a prepaid balance: whoever wants to create resources needs a balance, topped up by hand or by automatic payments from a threshold, and every hour the costs are deducted. The default currency is euro; payments in another currency are converted at the day's rate, shown in the Control Panel, and accounts can be kept in EUR, GBP, USD or SGD. When the balance runs low, UpCloud warns the billing contact and, once it is projected to last seven days, every contact; the balance can go negative, servers are eventually shut down, and IP addresses, storage and backups keep being charged. Invoices for purchased credits and for monthly usage sit in the customer account; disputes must be raised within 30 days. How VAT reaches such invoices is in VAT and reverse charge.

The API offers three pieces of cost data. GET /1.3/price returns the list prices per zone in the account's currency, as hourly prices per server plan, per core and memory block, per storage class, per IPv4 address and per outbound transfer, plus licences per core. GET /1.3/account returns the account's balance and resource limits. An endpoint for the monthly billing summary returns, by the documentation, amounts, hours and details per resource in the account currency. Together that yields usage per resource and month with a price, not per hour; what becomes of it for FOCUS columns is in collecting cost data from European providers. A dated pricing page for 2026-11-16 exists on the website; what changes on that day could not be read without a browser on the read date.

Levers

Configuration

The family is the first lever: Starter costs half of Premium for 1 core and 2 GB but brings Standard storage instead of MaxIOPS and another CPU generation; rightsizing here means choosing family and plan. The monthly cap makes short-lived servers cheap and permanent ones predictable; switched-off servers keep paying their storage and IP addresses, so delete what is not needed, as idle and orphaned resources describes. Cloud Native pays when storage and network are cut differently from the plans.

Purchase option

The cap at 672 hours is the built-in commitment; the documentation names no reservations or savings plans. The lever is therefore whether a server should run all month, and the automatic top-up of the balance, which avoids suspensions.

yesnoyesnoShould the serverrun all month?It pays its cap: afixed figure per monthDelete it when done: itpays its hours; stopped,it keeps paying storageand IP addressesAutomatic top-upof the balance set?No suspensionA low balance warns, thenservers are shut down whilestorage and IPs keepbeing charged
The cap is the commitment, so the questions are whether a server runs all month and whether the balance tops up by itself before servers are shut down

Architecture

Outbound traffic costs nothing but has a fair-use limit per plan; whoever delivers large volumes picks plans with a higher limit or Cloud Native instead of calculating on a price tier that does not exist. Private SDN networks and the Utility Network are free and without a volume limit. The free Development control plane suffices up to 30 nodes without high availability.

Where it goes wrong

  • Balance empty, servers off. Symptom: servers stop suddenly. Cause: the balance is used up; the warnings went to the billing contact, automatic payments were not set.
  • Switched off but charged. Symptom: a stopped server keeps causing deductions. Cause: storage, IP addresses and backups are billed regardless of the server's state.
  • The monthly cap at 672 hours. Symptom: the hourly price times 744 exceeds the monthly price. Cause: the hourly price is the monthly price divided by 672; from 672 hours the cap applies.
  • The fair-use limit reached. Symptom: a notice about the transfer policy instead of an invoice line. Cause: egress has no price but a limit per plan; the documentation does not name the consequences beyond it.
  • An old flexible plan. Symptom: a traffic line per GB on an old account. Cause: the flexible plans of past years bill outbound traffic per GB; new customers do not get them.
  • Object storage in 250 GB steps. Symptom: 260 GB cost two units. Cause: billing runs in blocks of 250 GB per hour.
  • The payment's rate. Symptom: a top-up in pounds yields fewer euros than expected. Cause: conversion at the day's rate, which the Control Panel shows at payment.

Example

List prices from the cost calculator for the Helsinki zone, euro without tax, read on 2026-10-21: a Starter plan with 1 core, 2 GB and 20 GB of Standard storage costs EUR 6.00 per month, one with 2 cores, 4 GB and 30 GB EUR 12.00, one with 4 cores, 8 GB and 40 GB EUR 20.00; a Premium plan with 2 cores, 4 GB and 50 GB of MaxIOPS EUR 26.00, with 4 cores, 8 GB and 100 GB EUR 52.00, with 8 cores, 32 GB and 300 GB EUR 192.00; a Cloud Native plan with 2 cores and 4 GB EUR 15.00 plus EUR 3.46 for the public IPv4; Windows Server EUR 12.00 per server and month. The figures show that the Premium plan with 2 cores and 4 GB costs per hour 26 divided by 672, that is EUR 0.0387, and is capped after 672 hours, that Premium costs a good twice Starter at the same configuration, and that no item for outbound traffic exists.

Sources

Read on 2026-10-21. Prices: UpCloud cost calculator, Cloud Servers, Pricing page. Billing: Account balance, Network billing, Managed Kubernetes billing, Managed Object Storage billing, API: Pricing, API: Accounts.