A list of developer tool free tiers that were removed or cut in 2026, grouped by quarter, with dates and what changed.
Published 2026-03-27 · Reviewed 2026-11-02 · Tracking 513 pricing changes across 1,498 developer tools · Figures in the tables below come from our records for 1,498 developer tools
8 developer tool free tiers were removed in Q1 2026. 36 more were reduced or restructured. Here’s what changed and what’s still free.
But it’s not all erosion. The pattern: some vendors are removing free tiers, while competitors swoop in to capture displaced developers.
This list holds high-impact changes from January 1 to November 14, 2026. It includes 15 free tier removals, 16 cuts, and 8 deprecations or shutdowns.
What this section prints is decided by the calendar, not by anything the vendor did. A change is named here only once the date we hold for it has arrived, on or before 2026-11-14. Until then it is in the full change timeline.
| Vendor | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral AI | Removed | effective between 2026-11-01 and 2026-11-05 | Mistral's Free plan no longer includes API access. Free mode covers Vibe and Studio; creating API keys and calling th... Source ↗ |
| apiary.io | Deprecated | effective 2026-10-31 | Apiary reaches end of life on 2026-10-31, when Oracle stops the service and deletes remaining instances. Oracle annou... Source ↗ |
| Ollama Cloud | Removed | effective between 2026-10-26 and 2026-10-27 | Between October 26 and 27, 2026, Ollama replaced its Free plan and starter usage credits with a $0 Pay as you go plan... Source ↗ |
| Socket.dev | Reduced | effective between 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-19 | By October 19, 2026, Socket.dev's Free plan covers 1 dev seat, which Socket defines as an active developer who contri... Source ↗ |
| Tugboat | Removed | effective between 2026-08-24 and 2026-10-16 | Tugboat no longer offers its Free plan; its cheapest plan is Intro at $39 a month. Source ↗ |
| lensdump.com | Removed | effective 2026-10-10 | Lensdump's Terms of Service, effective 10 October 2026, create every new account on a paid plan; the Free plan cannot... Source ↗ |
| Browser Use | Reduced | effective 2026-10-04 | By October 4, 2026, Browser Use cut its one-time sign-up credit from $15 to $1. Its pricing page read "$15 once per p... Source ↗ |
| Vendor | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pipedream | Deprecated | effective 2026-09-30 | Pipedream stopped taking new signups and subscriptions for Workflows on 2026-09-30 and said Workflows and String will... Source ↗ |
| CockroachDB | Removed | effective 2026-09-15 | CockroachDB stopped offering its free Basic plan (50 million RUs and 10 GiB of storage free per month) to new deploym... Source ↗ |
| codesandbox.io | Reduced | effective 2026-09-07 | On September 7, 2026, CodeSandbox stopped including VM credits in its Free plan: new accounts get no free credits, so... Source ↗ |
| Cypress Cloud | Reduced | effective between 2026-08-28 and 2026-09-05 | The Starter tier, which is free, now includes 10 users instead of 50. Test results stay at 500/month and prompt execu... Source ↗ |
| OneSignal | Reduced | effective 2026-09-01 | OneSignal limited mobile push and in-app messaging on its Free plan to organizations with up to 1,000 monthly active ... Source ↗ |
| codehooks.io | Reduced | effective between 2026-07-11 and 2026-08-28 | The free tier now has significantly reduced API call limits (1/sec, 500/day). Previously 60/minute. Source ↗ |
| MiniMax | Deprecated | effective 2026-08-20 | MiniMax closed its paid Music Generation and Lyrics Generation APIs to new users on 2026-08-20, and says its free mus... Source ↗ |
| Basecamp | Reduced | effective between 2026-08-16 and 2026-08-19 | Basecamp cut its free plan from up to 20 users to 5, and now offers it as one free project for personal use. It still... Source ↗ |
| Google Content API for Shopping | Deprecated | effective 2026-08-18 | Google Content API for Shopping was sunset on 2026-08-18, and its requests have returned progressive errors since 202... Source ↗ |
| Algolia | Reduced | effective 2026-08-12 | Algolia replaced its Build plan with a Free plan between the pricing-page captures of 2026-08-10 and 2026-08-13; its ... Source ↗ |
| Phase Two | Removed | effective 2026-07-30 | Phase Two shut down its free shared realms on 2026-07-30, 30 days after announcing it on 2026-06-30. Its cheapest pla... Source ↗ |
| Roboflow | Reduced | effective 2026-07-30 | Roboflow's free Public plan went from "$60/mo free credits" to "15 credits / month" between the Internet Archive's 20... Source ↗ |
| bonsai.io | Removed | effective between 2026-03-12 and 2026-07-28 | The free tier no longer exists. The lowest tier is now a 'Staging' plan at $15/month with 1 GB storage and 256 MB mem... Source ↗ |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | Reduced | effective 2026-07-28 | On 2026-07-28 Cloudflare took Kimi K2.6, Kimi K2.7 Code and GLM-5.2 off the Workers Free plan; they now need the Work... Source ↗ |
| Exa | Reduced | effective 2026-07-24 | Between 2026-07-17 and 2026-07-24, Exa replaced its free tier of up to 20,000 requests a month with $10 of credits a ... Source ↗ |
| Cerebras | Removed | effective 2026-07-16 | Cerebras's free access became a time- and credit-bounded trial for new accounts: $5 in credits after adding a verifie... Source ↗ |
| Pollinations.AI | Reduced | effective 2026-07-10 | Pollinations ended the free Pollen that refilled every hour on every account (0.01 to 0.4 Pollen an hour, by tier). F... Source ↗ |
| Vendor | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Tenor API | Deprecated | effective 2026-06-30 | Google Tenor API shut down on June 30, 2026, and new API key sign-ups stopped on January 13, 2026. Only the API ended... Source ↗ |
| Appwrite Cloud | Reduced | effective 2026-06-29 | Appwrite began deleting Free projects that stay paused for 90 days, with all their resources. Owners get email alerts... Source ↗ |
| Burnermail | Removed | effective 2026-06-27 | Burner Mail removed its public Free plan on 2026-06-27. New users must upgrade to a paid plan before creating burner ... Source ↗ |
| Google Gemini Code Assist | Removed | effective 2026-06-18 | Google stopped serving Gemini Code Assist for individuals, its free tier, on 2026-06-18. The IDE extensions and Gemin... Source ↗ |
| fivenines.io | Removed | effective 2026-05-15 | fivenines.io removed its Free plan (5 monitors, 1 team member, 1 month of data retention) between the archived copies... Source ↗ |
| Amplitude | Reduced | effective 2026-04-27 | Amplitude cut its free Starter plan from up to 10M to up to 2M events a month between the Internet Archive's copies o... Source ↗ |
| Claw.cloud | Deprecated | effective 2026-04-23 | ClawCloud Run shut down: its notice of April 23, 2026 suspended new sign-ups and purchases that day, and all services... Source ↗ |
| Alibaba Cloud Qwen Code | Removed | effective 2026-04-15 | Qwen Code's free Qwen OAuth tier was discontinued on 2026-04-15, and new requests on it are rejected. Qwen's docs poi... Source ↗ |
| Vendor | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| smartlook.com | Deprecated | effective 2026-03-31 | Smartlook shuts down on 2027-09-30. Source ↗ |
| Freshping | Removed | effective 2026-03-06 | Freshping shut down entirely. Free accounts disabled March 6, 2026. Paid plans expire at end of term. All data delete... Source ↗ |
| Xata Lite | Deprecated | effective 2026-02-28 | Xata retired Xata Lite, its original serverless platform with a 15 GB free plan, on 2026-02-28. It announced the reti... Source ↗ |
| Koyeb | Removed | effective 2026-02-26 | Koyeb withdrew its free Starter plan from new users after announcing on 2026-02-17 that it is joining Mistral AI: new... Source ↗ |
| Appwrite Cloud | Reduced | effective 2026-02-20 | Appwrite began pausing Free projects after 7 consecutive days with no development activity. Its pricing page had said... Source ↗ |
| Amplitude | Reduced | effective 2026-02-14 | Amplitude cut its free Starter plan from 50K to 10K monthly tracked users (MTUs) between the Internet Archive's copie... Source ↗ |
| X (Twitter) | Removed | effective 2026-02-06 | X replaced its Legacy Free API tier with pay-per-use pricing, announced 2026-02-06. Recently active free-tier users m... Source ↗ |
Changes with no known effective date are not in this list. They are in the full change timeline.
These are the most impactful free tier removals, reductions, and restrictions from Q1 2026. Each entry links to the vendor profile and lists free alternatives that still work.
Community image inactive, auth token required
LocalStack merged its Community and Pro images in March 2026 and pulling localstack/localstack:latest requires an auth token. The Community image's source code stays on GitHub, but the repository is marked inactive. The free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use. Source ↗
Figures as of 2026-03-23. Today's terms: our LocalStack listing.
Still free: Moto (open-source AWS mock), Testcontainers, AWS Free Tier
Free team collaboration killed — single-user only
Postman's free plan is now single-user only. Team collaboration (shared workspaces, collection sharing, team roles) requires the Team plan at $19/user/month. Previously, up to 3 users could collaborate for free. Source ↗
Figures as of 2026-03-01. Today's terms: our Postman listing.
Still free: Bruno, Hoppscotch, Insomnia, Thunder Client
Free plan (2,000 queries/mo) became $5 of free credit a month
Brave Search API's free plan (2,000 queries a month) became $5 of free credit a month, which covers 1,000 Search requests at $5 per 1,000. The credit requires attribution. Google Custom Search JSON API is closed to new customers and ends on January 1, 2027. Source ↗
Figures as of 2026-02-12. Today's terms: our Brave Search API listing.
Legacy free plan ended March 31
HCP Terraform's legacy free plan ended March 31, 2026. Users were transitioned to a free tier with a 500 managed resource cap, SSO, and policy enforcement. Source ↗
Figures as of 2026-03-31. Today's terms: our HCP Terraform listing.
Credits replaced with hard quotas, Pro price +33%
Windsurf replaced its flexible credits-based system with daily and weekly quotas and raised Pro pricing from $15 to $20/month. Free tier went from credits (flexible allocation) to hard limits on completions and chat messages. Source ↗
Figures as of 2026-03-19. Today's terms: our Windsurf listing.
Still free: Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Cline
Open-source GitHub repository archived
MinIO archived its open-source GitHub repository. All development moved to proprietary MinIO AIStor. No new Docker images, PRs, or contributions accepted. The open-source edition gets no bug fixes or security patches. MinIO's free option is now AIStor Free: one node, under a commercial licence. Source ↗
Figures as of 2026-02-12. Today's terms: our MinIO listing.
Still free: Ceph, SeaweedFS, GarageHQ
Free tier eliminated — pay-per-use only
X replaced its Legacy Free API tier with pay-per-use pricing, announced 2026-02-06. Recently active free-tier users moved to pay-per-use with a one-time $10 voucher. Only apps X classifies as Public Utility Apps keep free scaled access. Source ↗
Figures as of 2026-02-06. Today's terms: our X (Twitter) listing.
Still free: Bluesky AT Protocol, Mastodon API
Not everything is shrinking. These vendors expanded their free tiers or launched new ones — often in direct response to competitor removals.
Free tier launched as HCP Terraform alternative
Before Q1 2026: Gruntwork launched a free tier for Terragrunt Scale IaC orchestration, positioned as the HCP Terraform alternative. Includes GitOps, drift detection, and module update automation with up to 25 infrastructure units. Source ↗
Free projects increased from 10 to 100 before Q1 2026
Before Q1 2026: Neon raised the Free plan's project limit from 10 to 100 in seven steps between 2025-08-29 and 2025-12-19. Neon Auth became available on all plans, including Free, on 2025-12-12. Source ↗
Figures as of 2025-12-19. Today's terms: our Neon listing.
Storage 5x increase, per-seat charges removed
Unity DevOps (formerly Plastic SCM) expanded free tier significantly: storage increased 5x to 25 GB, 100 GB egress added (new), and per-seat charges removed. Source ↗
Figures as of 2026-03-01. Today's terms: our Unity DevOps listing.
Still free: Git LFS, Perforce, GitHub
Four clear patterns emerge from the 51 changes we tracked in Q1 2026:
Companies that built on open-source are closing the source. MinIO archived its repo. LocalStack ended Community Edition support, and the repository is now inactive. HashiCorp's BSL license change (2023) continues to ripple.
Examples: MinIO, LocalStack, HashiCorp/HCP Terraform
Flexible credit systems are being replaced by fixed quotas. This makes 'free' more predictable but less useful — you can't burst when you need to.
Example: Windsurf. Netlify and Vercel moved the other way: Netlify's plans are now credit-based (the Free plan has 300 credits a month), and Vercel's Pro plan includes $20 of usage credit a month.
Team collaboration features are being paywalled while individual use stays free. The message: work alone for free, pay to collaborate.
Example: Postman
APIs that were free for years are adding billing. Some add credits, some go straight to metered billing. The $0 API era is ending.
Examples: X API, Brave Search API, Xero API, Spotify API
Stick with vendors that have a strategic reason to stay free — Cloudflare, GitHub, Grafana Cloud. See our Free Tier Risk Index for stability scores.
If you’re building on a free tier, have a migration plan. HashiCorp announced the end of HCP Terraform's legacy free plan on December 17, 2025, about three and a half months before it ended on March 31, 2026. Budget for paid tiers or self-hosted alternatives.
Take advantage of expanded startup programs: Cloudflare $350K, Google Cloud $350K. These are more reliable than consumer free tiers. See our Free Startup Stack Guide.
51 pricing changes tracked between January 1 and March 31, 2026. Sorted by date (newest first).
| Vendor | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| odrive | Removed | effective 2026-03-31 | odrive free tier discontinued effective March 31, 2026. Previously free unified cloud storage sync across multiple pr... Source ↗ |
| HCP Terraform | Restructured | effective 2026-03-31 | HashiCorp's legacy free plan for HCP Terraform reached end of life on March 31, 2026. Legacy free plan users were aut... Source ↗ |
| smartlook.com | Deprecated | effective 2026-03-31 | Smartlook shuts down on 2027-09-30. Source ↗ |
| Restructured | effective 2026-03-30 | Standalone Google Developer Program Premium stopped renewing on personal (@gmail.com) accounts: annual plans after 20... Source ↗ | |
| HeyForm | Removed | effective 2026-03-29 | HeyForm ended its hosted free plan between 2026-03-01 and 2026-03-29, when its site relaunched. Paid plans start at $... Source ↗ |
| Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL | New Free Tier | effective 2026-03-25 | Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless added to AWS Free Tier — managed PostgreSQL-compatible database now available at no cost... Source ↗ |
| LocalStack | Restricted | effective 2026-03-23 | On 2026-03-23 LocalStack ended support for its Community edition. From that date its latest image needed an account a... Source ↗ |
| CertKit | Reduced | effective 2026-03-21 | CertKit cut its Free plan from 3 host agents to 1 between 2026-02-19 and 2026-03-21. Source ↗ |
| Firebase | Deprecated | effective 2026-03-19 | Google announced the sunset of Firebase Studio (formerly Project IDX) on 2026-03-19. New workspaces and signups stopp... Source ↗ |
| xAI (Grok) | Reduced | effective 2026-03-19 | Between 2026-03-18 and 2026-03-19, xAI put Grok Imagine image and video generation behind a paywall for free Grok use... Source ↗ |
| Windsurf | Restructured | effective 2026-03-19 | Windsurf replaced credits-based pricing with daily/weekly quotas (Mar 19, 2026). New tiers: Pro $20/mo (was $15), Tea... Source ↗ |
| Neon | Expanded | effective 2026-03-13 | Neon's Free plan went from one member per organization to unlimited members. Source ↗ |
| GitHub Copilot | Restricted | effective 2026-03-12 | Student plan now managed under dedicated 'GitHub Copilot Student' plan. Premium models (GPT-5.4, Claude Opus, Claude ... Source ↗ |
| Plunk | Reduced | effective 2026-03-07 | Free tier reduced from 3,000 to 1,000 emails/month. Plunk's home page said "Send up to 3000 emails for free every mon... Source ↗ |
| Freshping | Removed | effective 2026-03-06 | Freshping shut down entirely. Free accounts disabled March 6, 2026. Paid plans expire at end of term. All data delete... Source ↗ |
| Zenkit | Removed | effective 2026-03-06 | Zenkit removed its free Personal plan from its pricing page between 2026-02-03 and 2026-03-06. Plus, Team, Business a... Source ↗ |
| HostedScan | Removed | effective 2026-03-05 | HostedScan removed its Free plan (Lite Scans, up to 3 targets) between 2026-01-25 and 2026-03-05; Basic, with a free ... Source ↗ |
| Compare JSON | rebranded | effective 2026-03-03 | DiffJSON was renamed Compare JSON between 2026-02-26 and 2026-03-03, and diffjson.com now 301-redirects to comparejso... Source ↗ |
| Xero Developer API | Restricted | effective 2026-03-02 | Xero retired its revenue-share model on 2 March 2026 for five plans priced by connections and data egress. The free S... Source ↗ |
| Google Gemini API | Restricted | effective 2026-03-02 | Accounts opened after 2026-03-02 cannot spend the $300 Google Cloud welcome credit on the Gemini API or AI Studio. Source ↗ |
| Postman | Restricted | effective 2026-03-01 | Free plan now single-user only. Team collaboration (shared workspaces, collection sharing) requires paid plan at $19/... Source ↗ |
| Unity DevOps | Expanded | effective 2026-03-01 | Free tier significantly expanded: storage 5x increase to 25 GB, 100 GB egress added (new), per-seat charges removed. ... Source ↗ |
| Xata Lite | Deprecated | effective 2026-02-28 | Xata retired Xata Lite, its original serverless platform with a 15 GB free plan, on 2026-02-28. It announced the reti... Source ↗ |
| incidenthub.cloud | Reduced | effective 2026-02-28 | Between 2026-02-10 and 2026-02-28, incidenthub.cloud cut its free tier from 10 monitors to 5 and dropped its status p... Source ↗ |
| Koyeb | Removed | effective 2026-02-26 | Koyeb withdrew its free Starter plan from new users after announcing on 2026-02-17 that it is joining Mistral AI: new... Source ↗ |
| Appwrite Cloud | Reduced | effective 2026-02-20 | Appwrite began pausing Free projects after 7 consecutive days with no development activity. Its pricing page had said... Source ↗ |
| Atlassian | Restructured | effective 2026-02-17 | Data Center pricing increased 15-40% across Jira, Confluence, and JSM. New DC licenses end March 30 — cloud mandatory... Source ↗ |
| Conversion Tools | Reduced | effective 2026-02-16 | Conversion Tools cut registered free users from 30 to 10 conversions a day (300 to 100 a month) between captures of 2... Source ↗ |
| Amplitude | Reduced | effective 2026-02-14 | Amplitude cut its free Starter plan from 50K to 10K monthly tracked users (MTUs) between the Internet Archive's copie... Source ↗ |
| Microsoft Partner Developer Benefits | Restructured | effective 2026-02-13 | Per-user monthly Azure credits eliminated, replaced with organization-level bulk Azure credits. Visual Studio license... Source ↗ |
| Brave Search API | Reduced | effective 2026-02-12 | Brave replaced its free plan's 2,000 queries a month with $5 of free credit a month on each plan. Search costs $5 per... Source ↗ |
| MinIO | OSS Killed | effective 2026-02-12 | MinIO marked its open-source repository "NO LONGER MAINTAINED" on 2026-02-12 and archived it on 2026-02-13, ending th... Source ↗ |
| Spotify API | Restricted | effective 2026-02-11 | Premium subscription now required for development mode, test users cut from 25 to 5 Source ↗ |
| MeScrum | Deprecated | effective 2026-02-07 | MeuScrum, a free scrum and kanban tool, was replaced by a holding page between 2026-01-15 and 2026-02-07. Its login a... Source ↗ |
| X (Twitter) | Model Change | effective 2026-02-06 | Pay-per-use pricing model introduced alongside existing fixed tiers. Legacy free tier users migrated to pay-per-use w... Source ↗ |
| X (Twitter) | Removed | effective 2026-02-06 | X replaced its Legacy Free API tier with pay-per-use pricing, announced 2026-02-06. Recently active free-tier users m... Source ↗ |
| Cloudflare Queues | New Free Tier | effective 2026-02-04 | Queues added to Workers free plan — message queuing now free Source ↗ |
| Firebase | Restricted | effective 2026-02-03 | Cloud Storage for Firebase now requires the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan, in effect from February 3, 2026. Projects on th... Source ↗ |
| GitHub Copilot | Restructured | effective 2026-02-01 | Premium request model introduced across all tiers. Free: 50/mo, Pro: 300, Pro+: 1,500, Business: 300/user, Enterprise... Source ↗ |
| Vercel | Restructured | effective 2026-02-01 | New Pro projects now default to Turbo build machines (30 vCPUs, 60GB memory) at $0.126/minute — 9x more expensive tha... Source ↗ |
| Restructured | effective 2026-01-27 | Google began folding Google Developer Program Premium's benefits, including Google Cloud credits, into Google AI Pro ... Source ↗ | |
| Google Programmable Search Engine | Restricted | effective 2026-01-20 | Free full-web search being discontinued. Free tier restricted to max 50 domains per search engine. Programmable Searc... Source ↗ |
| serveo | Reduced | effective 2026-01-20 | By January 20, 2026, serveo had a Free Plan of 3 active tunnels, with an interstitial warning page, and a paid Pro pl... Source ↗ |
| PythonAnywhere | Restructured | effective 2026-01-15 | PythonAnywhere dropped its $5-a-month Hacker plan, so the base paid plan is $10 a month. New free accounts lost MySQL... Source ↗ |
| LambdaTest | rebranded | effective 2026-01-12 | Rebranded to TestMu AI (testmuai.com), freemium plan preserved. TestMu AI: "LambdaTest rebranded to TestMu AI on Janu... Source ↗ |
| Appwrite Cloud | Reduced | effective 2026-01-08 | Appwrite cut its Free plan from five functions per project to two. Projects that already had more keep them, but cann... Source ↗ |
| Cloudflare Durable Objects | Restructured | effective 2026-01-07 | SQLite storage billing began for Durable Objects — previously free during beta Source ↗ |
| AWS | Restructured | effective 2026-01-03 | EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML GPU prices increased ~15% across regions. p5e.48xlarge went from $34.61 to $39.80/hr (US E... Source ↗ |
| Atlassian Forge | Restricted | effective 2026-01-01 | Forge platform moved from free to consumption-based billing for compute and storage Source ↗ |
| Fly.io | Restructured | effective 2026-01-01 | From January 2026 Fly.io bills volume snapshot storage at $0.08/GB a month after the first 10 GB free each month; aut... Source ↗ |
| DigitalOcean | Expanded | effective 2026-01-01 | Droplets moved from hourly to per-second billing (with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher) Source ↗ |
Data Source & Methodology
This tracker is powered by AgentDeals’ track_changes tool, which monitors 513 pricing changes across 1,498 developer tools. 161 of them were written by the scheduled re-read of the vendor's page; the other 352 were read by hand from the vendor's pricing page or official announcement on the day they were recorded. Change types: free_tier_removed, limits_increased, limits_reduced, new_free_tier, new_tier, open_source_killed, pricing_model_change, pricing_postponed, pricing_restructured, product_deprecated, rebranded, restriction.
Impact is scored as high (affects thousands of developers or eliminates a widely-used free tier), medium (meaningful change to limits or pricing structure), or low (minor adjustments). Sources linked for each entry.
Missing a change? File an issue and we’ll add it.
This tracker covers 2026. For real-time tracking of all 513+ pricing changes, use our Changes Timeline or subscribe to the Atom Feed.
For risk scores on specific vendors, see the Free Tier Risk Index.