electric-sql · thruflo · Mar 24, 2026
diff --git a/website/blog/posts/2026-03-24-electric-cloud-pricing.md b/website/blog/posts/2026-03-24-electric-cloud-pricing.md
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+---
+title: '...'
+description: >-
+  ...
+excerpt: >-
+  ...
+authors: [balegas]
+image: /img/blog/electric-cloud-pricing/header.jpg
+tags: [cloud, pricing]
+outline: [2, 3]
+post: true
+published: false
+---
+
+<!-- TLDR: State what shipped and the key benefit immediately. No setup.
+     The reader should know in 10 seconds: pricing is live, it's usage-based,
+     reads are free, and most simple apps run for free. -->
+
+Electric Cloud now has self-serve pricing. Sign up, pick a plan, start building — no sales call needed.
+
+Pricing is usage-based: you pay for writes and retention. Data delivery — reads, fan-out, concurrent users — is free, unlimited, and always will be. The PAYG plan waives bills under $5/month — that's 5&nbsp;million writes per month for free. Most hobby and simple production apps will run for free&nbsp;forever.
+
+:::info Key links
+- [Sign up for Electric Cloud](https://dashboard.electric-sql.cloud)
+- [Pricing details and calculator](/pricing)
+- [Electric Cloud docs](/docs)
+:::
+
+## Context
+
+<!-- Context: Brief orientation. Cloud has been battle-tested, platform has
+     expanded, and pricing signals the maturity that professional teams need
+     to commit. -->
+
+Electric Cloud has been running production workloads for months — long enough to be confident in the platform's reliability and cost structure. Cloud has evolved from a managed Postgres sync engine into a broader real-time data platform built on [durable streams](/products/durable-streams).
+
+We know many professional teams need to see published pricing before they commit to a platform. Now it's here.
+
+## How pricing works
+
+<!-- What's shipping: The meat of the post. Lead with the model, then the
+     tiers, then the "why reads are free" explanation. Concrete numbers
+     throughout. Keep it honest and straightforward. -->
+
+### The model
+
+Two base billing dimensions: writes and retention.
+
+- **$1 per million writes** to any stream. Each write is up to 10KB; larger messages auto-chunk.
+- **$0.10 per GB-month** retention.
+- **No charge** for reads, egress, fan-out, concurrent users, connections, or data&nbsp;delivery.
+
+Some services that run additional infrastructure have a service cost on top of the base write rate. [Postgres Sync](/products/postgres-sync) runs a dedicated replication engine to filter changes and match them to shapes. This has an additional cost of $2 per million writes emitted to the shape log. You're charged for the filtered output, not the raw replication input — one Postgres change landing on 100 shapes&nbsp;=&nbsp;100&nbsp;writes.
+
+See the [pricing page](/pricing) for the full breakdown and worked&nbsp;examples.
+
+### The tiers
+
+<!-- Tiers: Lead with what each tier gives you. Monthly fees act as prepaid
+     usage credits — make sure this lands clearly. -->
+
+- **PAYG** — $0/month. No commitment, no credit card upfront. Bills under $5/month waived.
+- **Pro** — $249/month (6-month commitment). 10% usage discount. Monthly fee acts as prepaid usage credit — you're not paying twice. Unlocks advanced features including hosted sub-queries for Postgres Sync and premium&nbsp;support.
+- **Scale** — $1,999/month (12-month commitment). 20% usage discount. Same prepaid credit model. Direct access to founders and hands-on support to accelerate your time to&nbsp;market.
+
+All tiers include unlimited reads and&nbsp;delivery.
+
+### Why reads are free
+
+<!-- Explain the architectural reason this isn't just marketing. CDN caching
+     and request-collapsing mean reads genuinely don't cost us proportionally. -->
+
+Electric delivers data through existing CDN infrastructure. Caching and request-collapsing handle concurrency at the edge — reads don't hit origin.
+
+Your costs scale with your writes — the data going in — not with your users or traffic. A stream with 10 readers costs the same as one with&nbsp;10,000.
+
+## What it costs in practice
+
+<!-- Two worked scenarios. Real numbers, honest assumptions. The pricing is
+     genuinely cheap, so let the numbers speak. -->
+
+### AI chat app with token streams
+
+<!-- Scenario: Durable streams only, base rate. Show that a real AI app runs
+     cheap on PAYG, and that all the users reading streams cost nothing. -->
+
+Assumptions: 1,000 MAU, ~30 conversations per user per month, AI responses streamed as ~50 writes each (~500 tokens chunked at ~10 tokens per&nbsp;write).
+
+- Writes: 1,000 &times; 30 &times; 50 = **1.5M writes/month**
+- Retention: ~1GB of stream history → $0.10
+- **Total: ~$1.60/month → waived on PAYG**
+
+At 10,000 MAU that's ~15M writes, $15/month. At 100,000 MAU, ~150M writes — on Pro with the 10% discount, $135/month, covered by the $249 prepaid&nbsp;credit.
+
+All the users *reading* those streams cost nothing. 100 users or 100,000 users on the same stream — same&nbsp;price.
+
+### Real-time SaaS dashboard with Postgres Sync
+
+<!-- Scenario: Postgres Sync with base rate + $2/M service surcharge.
+     Show that a structured SaaS app is also very cheap. -->
+
+Assumptions: 500 active users on a project management-style dashboard, syncing a handful of shapes&nbsp;each.
+
+- Initial shape loads are served from the CDN cache after the first request — reads are free.
+- Database changes: 50,000 row changes/month, average change matches 10 shapes = 500,000 emitted writes.
+- Replication cost: 500K writes &times; $3/M = $1.50
+- Shape log writes from initial queries: ~1M rows → $1.00
+- Retention: ~2GB → $0.20
+- **Total: ~$2.70/month → waived on PAYG**
+
+One Postgres change landing on 100 shapes = 100 writes — but you're only charged for what gets emitted after filtering, not the raw replication&nbsp;traffic.
+
+## Get started
+
+<!-- Get started: Short and actionable. -->
+
+Sign up at [dashboard.electric-sql.cloud](https://dashboard.electric-sql.cloud) — start on PAYG, free below $5, no credit card required. See all the details on the [pricing page](/pricing), including a calculator to model your&nbsp;workload.
+
+Already on Electric Cloud? You'll have received (or will receive) an email confirming when billing is enabled for your&nbsp;workspace.
+
+***
+
+- [Sign up for Electric Cloud](https://dashboard.electric-sql.cloud)
+- [Pricing details and calculator](/pricing)
+
+<!-- DELETE EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE BEFORE PUBLISHING -->
+<!-- ===================================================== -->
+
+<!--
+## Intent
+
+- **What is this post about?** Electric Cloud now has self-serve pricing.
+- **What's interesting?** Developers want to know what it costs to run on
+  Electric Cloud. Usage-based pricing with free reads/delivery is genuinely
+  different and cheap.
+- **Reader takeaway:** Electric Cloud has pricing live. They understand how it
+  works. They believe it's cost-efficient — no egress charges, cheapest way
+  to do data delivery into clients.
+- **CTAs:** Sign up (dashboard), see pricing page.
+- **Authority:** We are the founders of Electric. We build Cloud.
+
+## Title brief
+
+Sentence case. Straightforward, not clever. Communicate: pricing is live,
+it's for Electric Cloud. Direction: "Electric Cloud pricing is live" or
+"Pricing for Electric Cloud". Short.
+
+## Description brief (SEO, no HTML, <160 chars)
+
+Convey: Electric Cloud has self-serve pricing. Usage-based — pay for writes
+and retention. Reads, fan-out, and data delivery are free and unlimited.
+
+## Excerpt brief (blog listing card, max 3 short sentences)
+
+Hit: pricing is live, usage-based with free delivery, most simple apps run
+free on PAYG forever.
+
+## Image prompt
+
+Dark background. Concept: pricing / cost transparency, or the writes-in /
+reads-free model. Brand colors: #D0BCFF (purple), #00d2a0 (green),
+#75fbfd (cyan). 16:9 aspect ratio (~1536x950px), center-center composition.
+Use /blog-image-brief for a detailed prompt.
+
+## Pricing page brief: Postgres Sync cost breakdown
+
+Capture these mechanics on the pricing page (FAQ or dedicated section):
+
+**Base write rate:** $1/million writes to any durable stream (including
+shape logs).
+
+**Postgres Sync service surcharge:** Additional $2/million for writes
+emitted through the Electric sync engine. This covers the replication
+engine that processes logical replication data, filters changes, and
+matches them to shapes for partial replication.
+
+**What counts as a write for Postgres Sync:**
+1. Initial shape query results — charged at $1/M rows (results are written
+   to the shape log)
+2. Subset query results — charged at $1/M (charged to relay results, even
+   though not technically written to log)
+3. Live replication data — charged on *emitted* writes (after filtering /
+   matching to shapes), NOT ingested writes off the replication slot. One
+   Postgres change hitting 100 shapes = 100 emitted writes.
+
+**Effective rate for Postgres Sync replication writes:** $3/million
+($1 base + $2 service surcharge) for writes emitted to the shape log
+from logical replication.
+
+**Key message:** You pay for the work the system does for you (filtering,
+matching, delivering), not for raw throughput off your database.
+
+## Asset checklist
+
+- [ ] Header image (needs creating)
+- [ ] Validate worked scenario assumptions (MAU, write counts)
+
+## Typesetting checklist
+
+- [ ] Non-breaking spaces and hyphens to avoid widows/orphans
+- [ ] Title in sentence case
+- [ ] Check title, image, and post at different screen widths
+- [ ] No LLM tells
+
+## Open questions
+
+- Exact numbers for the two worked scenarios — are the MAU/write
+  assumptions validated?
+- Should the post link to a changelog or release notes for the billing
+  system?
+- Header image — use /blog-image-brief for a detailed prompt?
+-->