Is Netlify free? What the Free plan's 300 credits cover in 2026
Short answer
Yes. Netlify's Free plan costs $0 and includes 300 credits a month, custom domains with SSL, and commercial projects. A production deploy, including each re-drop on Netlify Drop, costs 15 credits, and bandwidth costs 20 per GB. When the credits run out, every project on the account shows “Site not available” until the next billing cycle starts, then comes back on its own. For one HTML page made with ChatGPT or Claude, Convika's Free plan has no credit meter: publish up to 30 times a day, keep 50 form entries a month, see 90 days of visitor stats, and connect 1 custom subdomain, with commercial use allowed.
Free plan: no credit card, 10 pages, 50 form entries a month.
Netlify's pricing page still lists the Free plan at “$0 forever.” What $0 buys has changed. Accounts created since September 4, 2025 are on credit-based plans, and Free comes with 300 credits a month. Deploys, bandwidth, web requests, and functions all draw on that one balance, and when it reaches zero, every site on the account goes offline until the next billing cycle.
This page works through the credits for the case most people asking have: one HTML page, often made with ChatGPT or Claude and put online with Netlify Drop. It covers what each action costs, how long 300 credits last, commercial use, custom domains, and what happens at zero. Each fact comes from Netlify's pricing page and docs, read on October 11, 2026. Prices are in US dollars.
What the Free plan includes
| Netlify plan | Price | Credits a month | When the credits run out | Unused credits roll over |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 300, a hard limit | Every project pauses until the next billing cycle. Free can't buy more credits | No |
| Personal | $9 a month | 1,000 | Every project pauses, unless you buy a credit pack or have auto recharge on; either adds 500 credits for $5 | No |
| Pro | From $20 a month, with unlimited members | From 3,000 | Every project pauses, unless you buy a credit pack or have auto recharge on | Only on plans with 5,000 credits or more, for 1 billing cycle |
Every credit-based plan includes custom domains with SSL and unlimited form submissions. Free projects created on or after August 19, 2026 show a “Powered by Netlify” badge in the bottom-right corner, which you can turn off in the project's settings. Password protection is Pro only. Web Analytics keeps the current and past day of data on Free, and 30 days on Pro.
Credits pay for the following, according to Netlify's How credits work, updated August 12, 2026:
| What you use | Credits |
|---|---|
| A production deploy | 15 each |
| Bandwidth | 20 per GB |
| Web requests | 2 per 10,000 |
| Compute, for functions | 10 per GB-hour |
| AI inference | 180 per $1 of model usage |
| Form submissions | Free |
| Deploy previews, branch deploys, failed deploys, and rolling back to an earlier deploy | Free |
Netlify's credit docs don't mention Drop. This page counts a re-drop as a production deploy, because the Drop quickstart says each update publishes “a new live production version.” The balance resets at the start of each billing cycle. Netlify raised some of these rates on April 14, 2026: bandwidth went from 10 to 20 credits per GB and compute from 5 to 10 per GB-hour, web requests went from 3 to 2 per 10,000, and form submissions, which cost 1 credit each, became free. Articles written before then quote the old rates.
What 300 credits buy for a one-page site
A single HTML page uses credits in 3 ways: deploys, bandwidth, and web requests. Here's the arithmetic for 3 common cases.
Re-dropping the page after each AI edit
Counted as a production deploy, each re-drop costs 15 credits, and 20 of them use the whole month: 20 × 15 = 300. Ask ChatGPT or Claude for 10 rounds of changes, drop each version, and you've spent 150 credits, half the month, before anyone has visited. Rolling back to an earlier deploy costs nothing.
Steady traffic
At 20 credits per GB, 300 credits buy 15 GB of bandwidth if nothing else uses them. How far that goes depends on what Netlify serves on each visit.
- A page with its images hosted elsewhere. The sample waitlist page in Convika's free publishing tool is a 4.4 KB HTML file that loads Tailwind and its fonts from other CDNs, so Netlify would serve only that file. At 2 requests a visit, the page and the icon the browser asks for, 10,000 visits make 20,000 web requests, 4 credits, and move at most 0.05 GB, under 1 credit. That's about 5 credits for 10,000 visits.
- The same page with 1 MB of images on Netlify. Each 1,000 visits move about 1 GB, 20 credits, plus about 1 credit of requests. With no re-drops, 300 credits last about 14,000 visits; after 10 re-drops, about 7,000.
For a small page, the re-drops are what to count, unless the images are large and served from Netlify.
A page that gets shared widely
Say a post sends 30,000 people to that 1 MB page over a weekend. That's about 30 GB, or 600 credits, twice the month's budget. The account runs out around visitor 14,000, sooner if you re-dropped earlier in the month, and every project on it shows “Site not available” until the next billing cycle. Free can't buy more credits, so the way back before then is upgrading to Personal or Pro.
Is Netlify Drop free?
Yes, to drop. Netlify Drop takes a folder, a zip, or a single HTML file with no account and no card. If you drop without signing in, Netlify's Drop quickstart, updated July 28, 2026, says the URL “is protected with a temporary password until you claim it.” Once you claim the project by signing in or signing up, it runs on your account's plan. For an account created since September 4, 2025, that's the Free plan and its 300 credits.
To update a claimed drop, you drag the new folder under Production deploys, and the quickstart says the changes “automatically publish to a new live production version.” Netlify's credit docs don't mention Drop by name. This page reads a re-drop as a production deploy, which costs 15 credits; no test drop was made to confirm it.
Teams created on or after July 28, 2026 also start new projects private, and Make public works once the project has 1 successful production deploy (project visibility docs, updated October 7, 2026). Why a Netlify Drop link asks for a password or says you don't have access covers both screens.
Can you use Netlify's Free plan commercially?
Yes. Netlify's Free plan announcement from November 12, 2024 says: “On the Free plan, you can deploy commercial projects, personal sites, or other creative explorations you want to share on the web.” The post predates the credit-based plans, and the credit-based plan docs, updated September 1, 2026, add no limit on the kind of use. Two other free plans do limit it:
- Vercel Hobby is “restricted to non-commercial personal use only.” Can you use Vercel's Hobby plan for a commercial site? goes through what counts.
- GitHub Pages isn't for running “your online business, e-commerce site,” or SaaS. Can you use GitHub Pages for a commercial or business site? goes through the rules.
Custom domains on the Free plan
Yes. Netlify lists “Custom domains with SSL” on Free, and its plan docs include custom domains with SSL support on Free, Personal, and Pro. You buy the domain itself from a registrar.
When the credits run out
- Visitors see “Site not available.” On Free, once the balance is used up, all of the account's web projects are paused, and each one shows a
Site not availablepage. - Forms and deploys stop too. Paused projects take no web requests, traffic, or form submissions, and you can't trigger new production deploys (billing FAQ, updated October 7, 2026).
- They come back on their own. Netlify's resume paused projects doc says: “At the start of your next billing cycle, your web projects will automatically resume and start accepting form submissions, web requests, and more.” The cycle starts on the day you opened your Netlify team, not on the 1st of the month.
- Free can't buy credits. To come back sooner, upgrade. Netlify Personal, at $9 a month, has 1,000 credits a month, and you can buy more: a credit pack of 500 for $5, or auto recharge, which is off by default and buys 500 for $5 whenever the balance runs out.
Accounts created before September 4, 2025 stay on Netlify's Legacy plans unless they switch, and a switch to a credit-based plan can't be undone. Legacy Free has no credits. It includes 100 GB of bandwidth and 300 build minutes a month, both hard limits, and 100 form submissions per site a month (Legacy plan docs, updated January 10, 2026). That's why older articles say Netlify's free plan includes 100 GB.
The same page on Convika
Convika hosts landing pages, one HTML page each, and keeps what happens on them. It has no credit balance for hosting. For a single page made with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, that changes 6 things:
- Publishing has no meter. Uploading a page uses no credits, and the Free plan allows 30 publishes a day. Ask your AI for 10 rounds of changes and publish each one; nothing counts down.
- Traffic doesn't take the page offline. Past 10,000 pageviews in a month, the page keeps serving. Stats stop until the next month, and a notice at the bottom of the page says the site has reached its monthly traffic limit.
- The form keeps the entries. Click Add a form to my page, and Convika adds a form that stores each entry, emails it to you, and exports to CSV.
- You see 90 days of visitor stats: visits, referrers, UTM campaigns, devices, countries, and button clicks.
- The page can go on your own subdomain, such as
www.yourbrand.com, with the SSL certificate issued for you. - Commercial use is allowed on every plan, Free included, under section 7 of the terms, including a client's page you build, host, and bill for.
Upload the .html file in the dashboard, up to 2 MB, or paste its code. Claude, Claude Code, and Codex can also publish the page for you through Convika's MCP server. They sign in to your Convika account with OAuth, so you never paste a deploy token or API key into the chat, and they can read the page's visits and form entries back to you. The Free plan includes 10 pages, with a small “Powered by Convika” badge. Pro, at $12 a month after a 14-day free trial, removes the badge and the monthly cap on form entries.
Where Netlify fits better: a framework app, functions, or a site with several routes. Convika hosts one HTML page per site, and custom domains are subdomains such as www.
To see your page on Convika before you sign up, drop the .html file or paste its code below. You get a private preview link that works for 7 days, with the page's scripts and forms off until you keep it with a free account. The same box is on the free HTML publishing tool.
Netlify and Convika side by side
| Plan | Price | What's metered | Cost of publishing a new version | Past the limit, visitors see | Form that keeps entries | Stats kept | Custom domain | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netlify Free | $0 | 300 credits a month, shared by deploys, bandwidth, requests, and functions | 15 credits | “Site not available” on every project until the next billing cycle | Yes, unlimited | Web Analytics, current and past day | Yes, with SSL | Yes, says its 2024 announcement |
| Netlify Personal | $9 a month | 1,000 credits a month | 15 credits | “Site not available” on every project, unless you buy a credit pack or auto recharge is on | Yes, unlimited | Netlify's pages differ: 7 days or 24 hours | Yes, with SSL | Yes |
| Netlify Legacy Free (accounts from before September 4, 2025) | $0 | 100 GB of bandwidth and 300 build minutes a month | No credits; builds count against the 300 minutes | The plan stops at a hard limit | 100 submissions per site a month | Paid add-on, $9 per site a month | Yes, with SSL | Yes |
| Convika Free | $0 | 10,000 pageviews a month, for stats | Nothing; up to 30 publishes a day | The page, with a traffic-limit notice at the bottom; stats stop until the next month | Yes, 50 entries a month, with CSV export and an email for each | 90 days: referrers, UTM campaigns, devices, countries, and button clicks | 1 subdomain, such as www | Yes, section 7 of its terms |
| Convika Pro | Pro costs $12 a month, or $108 a year, after a 14-day free trial | Pro includes 100,000 pageviews a month, then $2 per 10,000 more | Nothing; up to 100 publishes a day on Pro | The page | Yes, no monthly cap | Up to all time | Unlimited subdomains | Yes |
Which one to pick
- A site with several routes, a framework, or functions, redeployed a few times a month: Netlify Free. Count each deploy as 15 of your 300 credits.
- A Netlify site that gets traffic spikes: Netlify Personal at $9 a month. Turn on auto recharge, so a spike buys credits instead of pausing every project.
- One HTML page from ChatGPT or Claude that you'll edit often, with a form for signups: Convika's Free plan, with no credit budget to count your edits against.
- A personal project that never sells anything: Vercel Hobby or GitHub Pages work too, within their rules on commercial use.
Frequently asked questions
Is Netlify free forever?
Netlify's pricing page lists the Free plan at “$0 forever,” and nothing in its docs puts a time limit on it. What's limited is usage: 300 credits a month on accounts created since September 4, 2025. When they run out, every project on the account pauses until the next billing cycle.
Is Netlify Drop free?
Yes. Netlify Drop takes a folder, a zip, or a single HTML file with no account and no card, and the URL stays behind a temporary password until you claim it. After you claim it, the project runs on your account's plan, so on Free each re-drop is a production deploy that costs 15 of your 300 monthly credits.
How many credits does Netlify's free plan include?
300 a month, as a hard limit with no auto recharge. A production deploy costs 15, bandwidth 20 per GB, web requests 2 per 10,000, and compute 10 per GB-hour. Form submissions, deploy previews, branch deploys, failed deploys, and rollbacks cost nothing.
Does Netlify Drop use credits?
Netlify's credit docs don't name Drop, but its Drop quickstart says an update you drop under Production deploys publishes a new production version, and each production deploy costs 15 credits. The traffic to a dropped site uses credits for bandwidth and web requests like any other Netlify project.
Can I use Netlify's free plan for commercial use?
Yes. Netlify's Free plan announcement says “you can deploy commercial projects, personal sites, or other creative explorations,” and its credit-based plan docs add no limit on the kind of use. Vercel's Hobby plan, by contrast, is for non-commercial personal use only.
Can I use a custom domain on Netlify's free plan?
Yes. Netlify's Free plan includes custom domains with SSL. You buy the domain from a registrar and point it at Netlify.
What happens when Netlify credits run out?
On Free, every web project on the account pauses and shows a “Site not available” page. Paused projects take no traffic or form submissions, and you can't publish production deploys. They resume on their own at the start of the next billing cycle, or sooner if you upgrade to a paid plan.
Do Netlify credits reset every month?
Yes, at the start of each billing cycle, which begins on the day you opened your Netlify team rather than on the 1st. Unused monthly credits don't roll over on Free or Personal. On Pro plans with 5,000 credits or more, they roll over for 1 billing cycle. Credits you buy as packs or through auto recharge roll over to later months.
Are Netlify Forms free?
Yes, on credit-based plans: Netlify made form submissions free and unlimited on April 14, 2026, where each used to cost 1 credit. Legacy Free accounts get 100 submissions per site a month. A paused project takes no submissions until it resumes.
Is there free hosting without credits that can pause my site?
Yes, for a single page. Convika's Free plan has no credit balance: the page keeps serving past its 10,000 pageviews a month, with stats paused and a notice at the bottom until the next month. It includes 10 pages, 50 form entries a month, 90 days of visitor stats, 1 custom subdomain, and commercial use, with a small badge. Cloudflare Pages also serves static files with free, unlimited requests, but stores no form entries for you.