Cloudinary vs ImageKit Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Cloudinary | ImageKit | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $99/mo | $9/mo |
| Number of plans | 4 | 4 |
| Free plan | ||
| Free trial | — | — |
| Pricing model | usage-based | hybrid |
Free
- Upload widget, API, and search
- Remote fetch, auto-backup, and revision tracking
- Image and video transformations
- Video transcoding and adaptive streaming
- High performance delivery through a CDN
- Support — forums, tickets, and email
- Access to free add-ons
- Access to MCP servers
Plus
Popular- Backup to your own S3 bucket
- Auto-tagging based search
- Access to free and paid add-ons
- Expedited support
- Allowlist/Blocklist asset access
- Role-based multi-user administration
Advanced
- Custom domain (CNAME) support
- Optional HTTPS SSL Certificate
- Authentication Options
Enterprise
- Security and compliance review
- Multi-CDN and enterprise grade infrastructure
- Enterprise SLAs and support
- Designated customer success manager
- Custom contracts and invoicing
- User management (SSO, provisioning API)
Forever free
- 20 GB bandwidth
- 3 GB DAM storage
- 500 video units
- 650 extension units
- 2 users
- 500 purge requests
- Access to all media optimizations, transformations and streaming features with monthly limits
- Limited AI-powered operations every month
- Limited Creative Automation exports every month
- Integrated media library storage
- Community Support
Lite
- 40 GB bandwidth
- 10 GB DAM storage
- 500 video units
- 650 extension units
- 3 users
- 1000 purge requests
- Overage allowed for bandwidth and storage
- Higher upload and processing limits
- Email support
Pro
- 225 GB bandwidth
- 225 GB DAM storage
- 5000 video units
- 4000 extension units
- 5 users
- 1000 purge requests
- Overage allowed for all core items like bandwidth, storage, AI-transformations, and more
- Custom domain name like images.example.com
- Advanced search, sharing and collabroation in DAM
- Unlimited AI-powered operations every month
- Unlimited Creative Automation exports every month
- Automatic AVIF optimization available on-demand
- Even higher upload and processing limits
- One-time 30-minute implementation consultation with our team
Enterprise
- Single Sign-On (SSO) & multi-account setup
- Advanced Security with IP, geo, and referrer-based allow or block lists
- URL Endpoint functions for custom URL rewriting
- Path policies in DAM for governance
- Origin shield for external origins
- Custom CDN integration
- Dedicated customer success manager
- Dedicated integration support
- Custom processing limits
- Phone and Slack support with custom SLAs
Cloudinary vs ImageKit FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- ImageKit is the cheaper option, starting at $9/mo vs $99/mo for Cloudinary.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Cloudinary uses usage-based pricing, while ImageKit goes with hybrid. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. ImageKit: They're undercutting Cloudinary's mid-market pricing while offering a comparable feature set, positioning as the developer-friendly alternative that doesn't punish you for growing. The separate DAM tab is a smart move to compete with standalone DAM tools without muddying the core media optimization pitch.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for Cloudinary and ImageKit and let you know when something moves.