Is Netlify free? What the Free plan's 300 credits cover in 2026

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; at zero, every site on the account goes offline until the next billing cycle, then comes back on its own.

The page works through the credits for the most common case: 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, the badge, password protection, and what happens at zero. Netlify's pricing page and docs were read on October 23, 2026, and each quote below carries its doc's own “last updated” date; the credit rates are the same as on October 11. Prices are in US dollars.

What Netlify's Free plan includes

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, per Netlify's How credits work, updated August 12, 2026.

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 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. The arithmetic for 3 common cases follows, and What happens when Netlify credits run out adds up a whole month of deploys and traffic.

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 spend 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.

• Images are 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. About 5 credits for 10,000 visits.
• The same page hosts 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

A post sends 30,000 people to that 1 MB page over a weekend. That is about 30 GB, or 600 credits, twice the month's budget. The account runs out around visitor 14,000, sooner after earlier re-drops, and every project on it shows “Site not available” until the next billing cycle. Free cannot 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 up, it runs on your account's plan: for an account created since September 4, 2025, 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). The FAQ answer 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 for commercial use?

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. The credit-based plan docs, updated September 1, 2026, add no limit on the kind of use. 2 other free plans do limit it:

• Vercel Hobby is “restricted to non-commercial personal use only.” The page 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. The page Can you use GitHub Pages for a commercial or business site? goes through the rules.

Custom domains on Netlify's Free plan

Yes. Netlify lists “Custom domains with SSL” on Free. Its plan docs include custom domains with SSL support on Free, Personal, and Pro. You buy the domain itself from a registrar, or from Netlify as a paid add-on; Can I use my own domain on Netlify's free plan? covers what that costs.

The badge and password protection on the Free plan

The badge. New public projects on Free show a “Powered by Netlify” badge. Netlify's badge docs, updated August 19, 2026, say “It is on by default for projects on Free plans created on or after August 19, 2026,” and that it appears “in the bottom-right corner of any page of the project.” Removing it costs nothing: turn it off under Project configuration → General → Powered by Netlify badge, and “The change takes effect on the next request. You don't need to redeploy the project.” Netlify is rolling the badge out gradually, so a new Free project may not show it yet, and projects created before August 19, 2026 have it off.

Password protection. Not on Free. Netlify's Password Protection docs, updated October 7, 2026, say “Password protection isn't available on Credit-based Free and Personal plans.” What each plan can do:

The private option comes from Netlify's project visibility docs, updated October 7, 2026: “On a Free and Personal plan, private projects can only be seen by the Team Owner.” On Convika, a password for each page comes with Pro, at $12 a month.

When Netlify credits run out

• Visitors see “Site not available.” on your page. On Free, once the balance is used up, all of the account's web projects pause, and each shows a Site not available page.
• 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, updated September 3, 2026, 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.

The warnings Netlify sends before the pause, and each way back, are in What happens when Netlify credits run 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 Free allows 30 publishes a day. Ask your AI for 10 rounds of changes and publish each one; nothing counts down.
• Free includes 10,000 pageviews a month. Once your pages reach 10,000 in a month, editing and analytics pause, and 7 days later the pages stop until the month ends or you upgrade; Convika emails you at 80% first. This applies from sign-up to a workspace created on or after October 23, 2026 (Japan time), and from November 1, 2026 to one created before then.
• 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.
• 90 days of visitor stats. You get 90 days of visits, referrers, UTM campaigns, devices, countries, and button clicks.
• Your own subdomain. 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 is 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 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. Free includes 1 published page, with a small Convika bar at the bottom. Pro removes the bar and shows every form entry. Pro costs $12 a month.

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.

Drop the .html file right below or paste its code to see your page on Convika before signing up. You get a private preview link that works for 3 minutes, 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

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?

Yes, Netlify's pricing page lists the Free plan at “$0 forever,” and nothing in its docs puts a time limit on it. Usage is what has a limit. Accounts created since September 4, 2025 get 300 credits a month. When they run out, every project on the account pauses until the next billing cycle.

Is Netlify Drop free?

Yes, Netlify Drop is free. It takes a folder, a zip, or a single HTML file with no account and no card. The URL stays behind a temporary password until you claim it. After you claim it, the project runs on your account plan. 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?

Netlify's Free plan includes 300 credits a month as a hard limit with no auto recharge. A production deploy costs 15 credits. Bandwidth costs 20 per GB, web requests cost 2 per 10,000, and compute costs 10 per GB-hour. Form submissions, deploy previews, branch deploys, failed deploys, and rollbacks cost nothing.

Does Netlify Drop use credits?

Yes, a claimed Netlify Drop project uses credits. Netlify's credit docs do not name Drop. Its Drop quickstart says an update you drop under Production deploys publishes a new production version, and each production deploy costs 15 credits. 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, you can use Netlify's Free plan for commercial use. 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, the Free plan includes custom domains with SSL. You buy the domain from a registrar and point it at Netlify.

Does Netlify's free plan add a badge to my site?

Yes, new public projects on the Free plan show a “Powered by Netlify” badge in the bottom-right corner. Netlify's badge docs say it is on by default for Free projects created on or after August 19, 2026, and the rollout is gradual. You can turn it off for free under Project configuration → General → Powered by Netlify badge, with no redeploy.

Can I password-protect a site on Netlify's free plan?

No, Netlify's docs say “Password protection isn't available on Credit-based Free and Personal plans.” A shared password needs Pro, from $20 a month. On Free, you can make a project private instead, and then only the Team Owner can see it.

What happens when Netlify credits run out?

When 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 cannot 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, Netlify credits reset at the start of each billing cycle. Your cycle begins on the day you opened your Netlify team rather than on the 1st. Unused monthly credits do not roll over on Free or Personal. On Pro plans with 5,000 credits or more, they roll over for 1 billing cycle. Credits bought as packs or through auto recharge roll over to later months.

Are Netlify Forms free?

Yes, form submissions are free 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, you can host a single page on Convika's Free plan with no credit balance. Free includes 10,000 pageviews a month. Once a month's pageviews reach 10,000, editing pauses, and 7 days later the page stops until the month ends or you upgrade, from sign-up for a workspace created on or after October 23, 2026 (Japan time), and from November 1, 2026 for an earlier one. It includes 1 published page, 50 form entries a month shown, 90 days of visitor stats, 1 custom subdomain, and commercial use, with a small Convika bar. Cloudflare Pages also serves static files with free, unlimited requests, but stores no form entries for you.