Pricing Overview
SingleStore uses a credit-based, usage-driven pricing model built around its Helios cloud platform. There are three editions -- Shared, Standard, and Enterprise -- each charged per compute credit consumed. The Shared tier is free and runs on shared infrastructure, making it a genuine way to test workloads before committing budget. Standard starts at $0.99 per credit-hour, while Enterprise jumps to $1.49 per credit-hour and adds disaster recovery, audit logging, and encryption key management. Actual monthly spend depends heavily on workspace size, hours of uptime, and storage volume. SingleStore does not charge for data ingress, which is a meaningful differentiator when you are loading terabytes from cloud object stores. Reserved pricing (prepaying for capacity) saves roughly 25% over on-demand rates. We think the model rewards teams that right-size their workloads, but it punishes those who leave oversized clusters running idle around the clock.
Plan Comparison
| Feature | Shared (Free) | Standard ($0.99/credit-hr) | Enterprise ($1.49/credit-hr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workspace type | Shared | Dedicated | Dedicated |
| SQL and programmability | Full | Full | Full |
| Read-replicas | No | Yes | Yes |
| Database branching | No | Yes | Yes |
| Monitoring retention | Basic | 30 days | 30 days |
| SLA | None | 99.9% (1 AZ) / 99.99% (2 AZ) | 99.9% (1 AZ) / 99.99% (2 AZ) |
| Support | Self-service | Standard | Premium |
| Online PITR | No | No | Yes |
| Smart DR | No | No | Yes |
| Audit logging | No | No | Yes |
| CMEK (customer-managed encryption keys) | No | No | Yes |
The Shared tier is genuinely useful for prototyping and small-scale analytics, but production workloads belong on Standard at minimum. We recommend Enterprise only when compliance or disaster recovery requirements demand it -- the 50% premium over Standard adds up fast at scale. Enterprise unlocks point-in-time recovery and customer-managed encryption keys, both of which matter for regulated industries like finance and healthcare.
Reserved workspace pricing starts at $374/month for the smallest S-00 instance (2 GB memory, 16 GB storage) and scales to $17,958/month for an S-12 (96 GB memory, 768 GB storage). On-demand pricing runs about 25% higher across all workspace sizes, so teams with predictable workloads should commit to reserved capacity.
Hidden Costs and Considerations
Storage is billed separately from compute credits, and the cost scales with volume. While SingleStore does not charge for data ingress, your cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure) still bills for egress. Multi-AZ deployments for the 99.99% SLA effectively double your compute cost since you are running two availability zones. Reserved pricing locks you in -- if workloads shrink, you are still paying the committed rate. Teams that need high availability should budget for at least 2x their base compute estimate. Finally, keep in mind that workspace sizing is not infinitely granular; you pick from fixed tiers, so you may end up paying for more memory than you strictly need.
Cost Estimates by Team Size
| Team Size | Typical Workspace | Memory | Storage | Reserved Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small team (dev/test) | S-00 | 2 GB | 16 GB | $374/mo |
| Growing startup | S-0 | 4 GB | 32 GB | $748/mo |
| Mid-size analytics | S-1 | 8 GB | 64 GB | $1,497/mo |
| Growth-stage production | S-2 | 16 GB | 128 GB | $2,993/mo |
| Large-scale / enterprise | S-4 | 32 GB | 256 GB | $5,986/mo |
| Heavy workloads | S-8 | 64 GB | 512 GB | $11,972/mo |
These figures assume a single workspace running 24/7 on reserved pricing. On-demand rates run approximately 25% higher. Add a second availability zone for the 99.99% SLA and the bill roughly doubles. Most production teams we have seen land in the S-1 to S-4 range, putting realistic monthly spend between $1,497 and $5,986. Teams just getting started with SingleStore can begin on the free Shared tier and graduate to an S-00 reserved workspace at $374/month once they need dedicated compute and an SLA.
How SingleStore Pricing Compares
| Database | Free Tier | Entry-Level Paid | Pricing Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| SingleStore | Shared (free, shared infra) | $374/mo (S-00 reserved) | Credit-based, per hour |
| Neo4j AuraDB | AuraDB Free (limited) | $65/mo (Professional) | Instance-based |
| InfluxDB | Community Edition (self-hosted) | $250/mo (Cloud) | Usage-based |
| MotherDuck | Free (1 user) | $25/mo (Pro) | Per-seat + compute |
SingleStore is the most expensive option at entry level -- $374/month versus $25 to $250 for competitors in the data warehouse category. That gap reflects its positioning as a unified transactional and analytical database, not a single-purpose tool. If your workload genuinely needs sub-millisecond query latency on mixed OLTP and OLAP data, the premium pays for itself by eliminating a separate analytics layer and the ETL pipeline connecting the two. If you only need one side of that equation -- pure analytics or pure transactions -- cheaper alternatives exist and will serve you well.
We see SingleStore as a strong fit for teams that would otherwise run two or three databases to cover transactions, analytics, and vector search. The consolidation savings in infrastructure management, reduced data movement, and simpler architecture can offset the higher sticker price. For teams with smaller budgets or simpler workloads, MotherDuck at $25/month or the free InfluxDB Community Edition will get the job done without the overhead.