Hobby plan, $0 a month plus compute. Free web services (512 MB RAM, 0.1 CPU) spin down after 15 minutes without traffic, with 750 free instance hours per workspace a month. One free Postgres database (256 MB RAM, 1 GB storage, 30-day expiry) and one free Key Value instance (25 MB, not continuously persisted to disk) per workspace. 5 GB bandwidth/month included then $0.15/GB; without a payment method on file, Render suspends Free services for the rest of the month instead. 500 build minutes/month. Up to 25 services, unlimited projects with 2 environments each. Pro is $25 a month plus compute.
- Render's docs say not to use Free instances for production applications. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-10-05.)
- Free web services cannot send outbound traffic on ports 25, 465, or 587, commonly used for SMTP. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-10-05.)
- A free Postgres database expires 30 days after creation and becomes inaccessible. You then have a 14-day grace period to upgrade to a paid plan before Render deletes it with all its data. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-10-05.)
- Free Postgres databases have no backups of any kind. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-10-05.)
- A free web service loses any changes to its local filesystem, such as uploaded images or a SQLite database, every time it redeploys, restarts or spins down, and it cannot attach a persistent disk. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-10-05.)
- If a workspace uses all 750 free instance hours in a month, Render suspends all of its free web services until the start of the next month. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-10-12.)
- Render's free web services need no credit card. (From render.com/articles/platforms-with-a-real-free-tier-for-developers-in-2026, read 2026-10-22.)
- Render Sandboxes runs isolated microVMs for agents and untrusted code. It is available on every plan including Hobby, billed at $0.12 per active CPU hour plus $0.038 per hour for memory for the default size. (From render.com/pricing, read 2026-10-29.)
- A Hobby workspace allows 100 concurrent sandboxes by default. There is no maximum session length on any plan, including Hobby. (From render.com/pricing, read 2026-11-07.)
- Render Sandboxes is in public beta. During the beta, sandboxes have no public URL and no private network to other Render services. (From render.com/docs/sandboxes, read 2026-10-29.)
- Render offers Free instances only for static sites, web services, Postgres and Key Value. Background workers and cron jobs need a paid compute plan. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)
- Render bills for build pipeline minutes used beyond the monthly included amount, unless the spend limit is reached. Without a payment method or at the limit, Render disables new builds for the rest of the month, and services keep running on their existing builds. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)
- Render free web services lack scaling beyond one instance, persistent disks, edge caching, one-off jobs, and SSH or dashboard shell access. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)
- Render free web services cannot receive private network traffic. They can send private network requests to data stores and paid services in the same region. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)
- Render workspace plan upgrades do not remove free instance limits. A service's compute plan is changed separately. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)
- While a Free web service is spun down, Render serves a standard disallow-all /robots.txt response. These requests do not reach the service or trigger a spin-up. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)
- A free Render Key Value instance loses its data when upgraded to a paid compute plan. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)
- Render Free web services allow rollbacks to only the two most recent previous deploys. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)
- Render may suspend free web services with unusually high outbound traffic, such as accessing external databases or APIs. Moving to a paid plan restores the service. (From render.com/docs/free, read 2026-11-05.)