Limits, pricing history. Verified November 2026. Last updated 2026-11-05.
Cloudinary's free tier offers Media management — 25 credits/month (1 credit = 1 GB storage OR 1 GB bandwidth OR 1K transformations), up to 3 users. It's stable — the change we last considered recording was refused on 2026-10-09, and we read the page again on 2026-11-05 and confirmed the terms above.
The day we last read the vendor's page, and the day we last confirmed the terms we publish.
Free Tier Details
Media management — 25 credits/month (1 credit = 1 GB storage OR 1 GB bandwidth OR 1K transformations), up to 3 users
We read that on 2026-11-05 from https://cloudinary.com/pricing, and our check recorded: the page names Cloudinary as "cloudinary" and states "$0".
Cloudinary's Free plan needs no credit card. (From cloudinary.com/pricing, read 2026-10-23.)
Cloudinary launched Claimable Clouds on August 5, 2026. Its docs say: "A Claimable Cloud is a working Cloudinary environment that an AI agent can provision on a user's behalf, with no signup and no existing credentials." A Claimable Cloud expires in 24 hours if unclaimed and is deleted. Media delivery is limited to the provisioning machine's IP and up to three others, and usage caps are lower until a person claims it. Claiming converts it to a Free plan account with the same credentials. (From cloudinary.com/documentation/claimable_cloud_provisioning, read 2026-11-06.)
Cloudinary's usage limits are soft: warnings come near 90% of a quota, and an account that stays over after repeated notices may be disabled. A disabled account cannot upload or create new transformations; delivery may continue for a time but can also be blocked. (From cloudinary.com/documentation/programmable_media_asset_usage_data, read 2026-11-06.)
The Free plan caps image and raw files at 10 MB, video files at 100 MB, images at 25 megapixels, and the Admin API at 500 requests an hour. (From cloudinary.com/pricing/compare-plans, read 2026-11-06.)
One credit also equals 500 seconds of SD or 250 seconds of HD video processing. A transformation is counted when a derived asset is first created; later views of it do not add to the count. (From cloudinary.com/pricing/compare-plans, read 2026-11-06.)
When You'll Outgrow Cloudinary's Free Tier
When your usage exceeds the free tier limits, you'll need to upgrade.
Pricing Change History (0 recorded)
No recorded pricing changes for Cloudinary. This is a good sign — stable pricing.
We do not push notifications. Every change we record is readable the moment it lands, and the JSON answer carries an ETag — send it back as If-None-Match and an unchanged answer costs one 304.
Yes, Cloudinary offers a free tier: Free. Media management — 25 credits/month (1 credit = 1 GB storage OR 1 GB bandwidth OR 1K transformations), up to 3 users
What is Cloudinary's free tier?
Cloudinary's free tier is called "Free". Media management — 25 credits/month (1 credit = 1 GB storage OR 1 GB bandwidth OR 1K transformations), up to 3 users. Cloudinary's Free plan needs no credit card. (From https://cloudinary.com/pricing, read 2026-10-23.) Cloudinary launched Claimable Clouds on August 5, 2026. Its docs say: "A Claimable Cloud is a working Cloudinary environment that an AI agent can provision on a user's behalf, with no signup and no existing credentials." A Claimable Cloud expires in 24 hours if unclaimed and is deleted. Media delivery is limited to the provisioning machine's IP and up to three others, and usage caps are lower until a person claims it. Claiming converts it to a Free plan account with the same credentials. (From https://cloudinary.com/documentation/claimable_cloud_provisioning, read 2026-11-06.) Cloudinary's usage limits are soft: warnings come near 90% of a quota, and an account that stays over after repeated notices may be disabled. A disabled account cannot upload or create new transformations; delivery may continue for a time but can also be blocked. (From https://cloudinary.com/documentation/programmable_media_asset_usage_data, read 2026-11-06.) A disabled Cloudinary account can be restored within 30 days by choosing a plan that covers its usage. After 30 days, its environments, assets, metadata and settings are permanently removed. (From https://cloudinary.com/documentation/ts_why_is_my_account_disabled_and_how_can_i_recover_my_disabled_account, read 2026-11-06.) Cloudinary counts usage over a rolling 30-day window: current storage plus the last 30 days of transformations and bandwidth. There is no monthly reset date. (From https://cloudinary.com/documentation/ts_why_is_my_account_disabled_and_how_can_i_recover_my_disabled_account, read 2026-11-06.) The Free plan caps image and raw files at 10 MB, video files at 100 MB, images at 25 megapixels, and the Admin API at 500 requests an hour. (From https://cloudinary.com/pricing/compare-plans, read 2026-11-06.) One credit also equals 500 seconds of SD or 250 seconds of HD video processing. A transformation is counted when a derived asset is first created; later views of it do not add to the count. (From https://cloudinary.com/pricing/compare-plans, read 2026-11-06.)
Is Cloudinary's free tier reliable?
Cloudinary's free tier is considered stable.
Is Cloudinary's free tier good for production?
Cloudinary's free tier can be suitable for small production workloads and side projects. We rate it stable and it offers Media management — 25 credits/month (1 credit = 1 GB storage OR 1 GB bandwidth OR 1K transformations), up to 3 users, so it's a reasonable starting point. Monitor your usage against the limits and have an upgrade plan ready.
What changed in Cloudinary's pricing?
We refused the change we last considered recording for Cloudinary on 2026-10-09, then read the page again on 2026-11-05 and confirmed the terms we publish for it.
When will I outgrow Cloudinary's free tier?
When your usage exceeds the free tier limits, you'll need to upgrade. When you outgrow the free tier, evaluate paid plans against alternatives — sometimes a competitor's free tier covers what you need.
What category is Cloudinary in?
Cloudinary is categorized under Storage on AgentDeals.