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In this guide
- Key takeaways
- Is Vercel free for personal projects?
- What are the resource limits on the free Hobby plan?
- How does the free tier compare to the paid Pro plan?
- Who can use the free Hobby plan?
- What happens when I exceed the free limits?
- Should I start with the free tier?
- How to upgrade from Hobby to Pro?
- Where can I find the official limits?
Key takeaways
- Vercel’s Hobby plan is free forever for personal, non - commercial use.
- The free tier includes 100 GB bandwidth, 1 M edge requests, 4 h active CPU and 360 GB - hr memory per month.
- Only one developer can deploy; additional viewers are free.
- Exceeding limits pauses the project until you upgrade to Pro or pay for overage.
- For teams, production traffic, or advanced features you need the paid Pro ($20/seat/month) or Enterprise plan.
Is Vercel free for personal projects?
Yes - Vercel provides a free Hobby plan that you can use indefinitely for personal, non - commercial sites. The plan gives you unlimited personal projects, a CDN, automatic CI/CD, a Web Application Firewall and DDoS mitigation, but it enforces resource caps.
What are the resource limits on the free Hobby plan?
The Hobby plan caps bandwidth at 100 GB per month, edge requests at 1 M per month, active CPU time for serverless functions at 4 hours per month, and provisioned memory at 360 GB - hr per month. When any limit is reached the deployment is paused until the next billing cycle or an upgrade.
How does the free tier compare to the paid Pro plan?
| Feature | Hobby (Free) | Pro (Paid) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 / month (free forever) | $20 / seat / month |
| Team members | 1 deploying developer (viewer seats free) | 1 deploying seat included; extra seats $20 / month |
| Bandwidth | 100 GB / month (capped) | 1 TB / month included; overage $0.15 - $0.35 / GB |
| Edge requests | 1 M / month | 10 M / month included; overage $2 - $3 / M |
| Active CPU (Functions) | 4 h / month | No fixed allotment - usage billed after $20 credit |
| Provisioned memory | 360 GB - hr / month | No fixed allotment - usage billed after $20 credit |
| Function timeout | 10 s | 60 s |
| Project limits | Unlimited personal projects | Unlimited projects (team) |
| Support | Community docs | Email support (priority add - ons available) |
Who can use the free Hobby plan?
The Hobby plan is intended for a single developer building personal or hobby projects. Viewer seats can be added at no cost, but they cannot deploy. Commercial use, team collaboration, or production - grade traffic requires moving to Pro or Enterprise.
What happens when I exceed the free limits?
If you hit any of the Hobby limits, Vercel pauses the affected deployment until the next month’s quota refreshes. You can continue to view static assets, but serverless functions and dynamic traffic stop. Upgrading to Pro lifts the caps and adds pay - as - you - go overage pricing.
Should I start with the free tier?
If you are experimenting, building a portfolio site, or developing a small personal app, the free Hobby plan provides all the core features you need without cost. As soon as you need more bandwidth, team members, longer function timeouts, or guaranteed uptime, plan to upgrade to Pro.
How to upgrade from Hobby to Pro?
Log in to your Vercel dashboard, navigate to Account → Billing, and select the Pro plan. You will be asked for a payment method and the number of seats you need. Once upgraded, the new limits apply immediately and any paused deployments resume.
Where can I find the official limits?
Vercel publishes the exact caps on its pricing page and in the platform limits documentation. Refer to the Vercel Pricing page and the Limits section for the most up - to - date numbers.
All information is current as of September 2026 and sourced from Vercel’s official pricing and documentation pages.
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