---
title: "Pricing"
description:
  "Free, Builder, and Enterprise plans, with MCP Gateway, AI Gateway, and the
  developer portal included on every one. Compare tiers and estimate your
  monthly cost."
canonicalUrl: "https://zuplo.com/pricing"
sourceUrl: "https://zuplo.com/pricing"
pageType: "pricing"
generatedAt: "2026-11-10"
---

# Plans & Pricing

> Don't pay for a long list of features you'll never use. MCP Gateway, AI
> Gateway, and the developer portal are included in every plan.

## Get your pricing

An interactive estimator: slide to your real monthly request volume (10K, 100K,
1M, 10M, 50M; default 100K) to get custom pricing.

**Included on every plan**

- **MCP Gateway** — Authenticate, route & govern MCP servers. [Learn more](/mcp-servers)
- **AI Gateway** — Routing, caching & cost tracking.
- **Developer Portal** — Hosted on your domain.
- **Monetization** — Usage-based metered billing for your API. [Learn more](/monetization)

**What do you need?** (estimator inputs)

- SSO + RBAC (Enterprise) — Single sign-on with role-based access.
- Audit logs (Enterprise) — Full management audit trail.
- SLA guarantee (Enterprise) — 99.5% baseline, up to 99.999% on Enterprise.
- Developer seats — Your team, not your API's consumers. 2 included; more needs
  Enterprise.
- Custom domains — Free has none. 2 on Builder; more needs Enterprise.

### Starter (Free) — recommended at 100K requests/month

For individuals evaluating Zuplo or shipping a side project. **$0 / mo**, free
forever for ≤ 100K req/mo. No credit card. Analytics, logs & traces included.

- 100K requests / month
- 1 day of analytics, live logs & traces
- Up to 2 developer seats
- GitOps with GitHub

Sign up for free — no card required. Add billing only when you're ready to go
live.

## Switching from Kong, Apigee, or AWS API Gateway?

Most teams cut gateway spend by 40–70% in the first quarter. Here's what
changes.

### Zuplo vs Kong

| Typical pain                               | What Zuplo does                         |
| ------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- |
| Self-managed control plane                 | Fully managed — 60s to deploy           |
| Plugins in Lua, hard to share across teams | TypeScript-native policies in your repo |
| Manual scaling and cluster ops             | Auto-scaled across 300+ edge locations  |

[See the full Kong comparison →](/api-gateways/kong-alternative-zuplo)

### Zuplo vs Apigee

| Typical pain                    | What Zuplo does                          |
| ------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| XML & JSON-string policy config | Code-first config in your IDE            |
| Long onboarding & GCP lock-in   | Free tier, deploy from GitHub in minutes |
| Per-seat developer pricing      | Pay per request, not per seat            |

[See the full Apigee comparison →](/api-gateways/apigee-alternative-zuplo)

### Zuplo vs AWS API Gateway

| Typical pain                                   | What Zuplo does                                       |
| ---------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| Region-bound and AWS-only                      | Edge-native, multi-cloud and on-prem                  |
| Plumbing required for auth, rate limit, portal | Batteries included — auth, keys, portal, monetization |
| Cost grows fast with custom integrations       | Transparent usage pricing — no surprise egress        |

[See the full AWS API Gateway comparison →](/api-gateways/aws-api-gateway-alternative-zuplo)

## Customer outcomes: real teams, real numbers

[Rated 4.8 on G2](https://www.g2.com/products/zuplo/reviews).

> The move to Zuplo from our existing API Management vendor was easy — just over
> 2 months to switch mission critical systems, and we're saving over 70% on
> costs.
>
> — Ryan Waites, Senior Director @ Blockdaemon ([70% lower gateway costs](/customers/blockdaemon))

> We didn't touch a line of code, it's just plug and play. In just a couple of
> hours we had a great result and a fully working MCP server.
>
> — Miguel Madeira, CTO & Co-Founder @ Finsolutia ([<24h to first MCP server](/customers/finsolutia))

> With rate limiting, API key management, and documentation hosting, it saved us
> weeks of engineering time and let us focus on solving problems unique to our
> mission.
>
> — Tom Carden, Head of Engineering @ Rewiring America ([Weeks of engineering
> saved](/customers/rewiring-america))

> Zuplo gives us the flexibility to scale efficiently, ensure security and
> compliance, and reduce operational complexity so we can focus on building new
> capabilities.
>
> — Daryl Benzel, Staff Software Engineer @ Yext ([story](/customers/yext))

> Built-in policies, route editing, custom code, and Github version control make
> surfacing our backend APIs to the world a breeze.
>
> — Reece Preston, Managing Director @ iTicket ([Plug & play for backend APIs](/customers/iticket))

> Setting up an API in Kong was a lot of work. In Zuplo, it is very fast — you
> can do it in 10 seconds.
>
> — Gary Sommerhalder, CEO @ Copilot Travel ([10s to set up an API](/customers/copilot-travel))

## Compare every feature

One platform, one bill. Columns below are Free, Builder, Enterprise.

### Plans

- **Free** — Free / mo, no credit card. For individuals evaluating Zuplo or
  shipping a side project.
- **Builder** — $25 / mo. Solo entrepreneurs & hobbyists going live — not for
  teams.
- **Enterprise** — Custom, annual contract. Teams, scaling APIs &
  mission-critical workloads.

### Usage & Limits

| Feature              | Free | Builder                       | Enterprise                         |
| -------------------- | ---- | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Monthly requests     | 100K | 100K included ($100 per 100K) | Custom, volume discounts available |
| Custom domains       | None | $25/mo for 2 domains (max)    | Custom                             |
| Environments         | 5    | 10                            | Custom                             |
| Consumers & API Keys | 100  | 1000                          | Custom                             |
| Projects & Services  | 2    | 2                             | Custom                             |
| Data centers         | 300  | 300                           | 300                                |
| Developer seats      | 2    | 2                             | Custom                             |

Self-hosted / Dedicated is also listed as available on Enterprise.

### MCP Gateway

| Feature                  | Free        | Builder | Enterprise      |
| ------------------------ | ----------- | ------- | --------------- |
| MCP Users                | Development | 5       | Up to Unlimited |
| Upstream MCP servers     | Development | 3       | Up to Unlimited |
| Virtual MCP servers      | Development | 3       | Up to Unlimited |
| Tool invocations / month | 1K          | 10K     | Up to Unlimited |

### AI Gateway

| Feature          | Free        | Builder | Enterprise |
| ---------------- | ----------- | ------- | ---------- |
| AI Gateway Users | Development | 5       | Custom     |
| AI Gateway Pools | 1           | 1       | Custom     |

Also listed: route to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google & more; real-time token usage &
cost tracking; universal AI API; fallbacks, load balancing, retries, routing;
semantic caching.

### Platform

| Feature                       | Free              | Builder     | Enterprise                              |
| ----------------------------- | ----------------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------- |
| Developer Portal MCP Servers  | 1                 | 1           | Custom                                  |
| GitOps integration            | GitHub            | GitHub      | GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, Azure DevOps |
| Analytics                     | 1 day             | 7 days      | 30 days (custom available)              |
| Log & trace history retention | Live (15 minutes) | 1 day       | 3 days (up to unlimited)                |
| Monetization                  | 100K events       | 100K events | Add-on                                  |

Add-ons: Audit logs, API Usage Audit logs, Federated Gateways ([docs](/docs/dedicated/federated-gateways)), secure tunnels /
mTLS / VPC Peering. Observability: 1 plugin included, optionally add more. DDoS Protection ([docs](/docs/articles/waf-ddos)): Basic on Free and Builder, add-on on Enterprise.

### Service & Support

- Service Level Agreement (SLA): 99.5% (up to 99.999%)
- Community support & chat
- Email & ticketed support
- Add-ons: Single Sign-On (SSO) & Role-Based Access, Premium Support (24x7x365),
  Support SLA, SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance, Business Associate Agreement (BAA),
  Custom Contracts & Redlines, Consulting & Onboarding Services

**Builder** is designed for solo entrepreneurs and hobbyists as a way to go live
— it is not a team plan. It caps at 2 custom domains, 2 developer seats and 1M
requests/mo. Teams, or anyone who needs SSO, an SLA or more headroom, need an
Enterprise agreement.

**Enterprise** is an annual contract, quoted to your usage on a call. The base
level Enterprise package includes an entry-level SLA of 99.5%, 1 million
requests, and 1 Observability integration. Volume discounts available on more
than 1M requests per month.

## Pricing FAQ

### Who is the Builder plan for?

Builder is designed for solo entrepreneurs and hobbyists — it's the $25/mo way
for one person to take an API live, not a team plan. It caps at 2 custom
domains, 2 developer seats and 1M requests per month, and it doesn't include
SSO, RBAC, audit logs or an SLA. If you're a team, or you need more headroom
than those ceilings, you need an Enterprise agreement.

### How much does Enterprise cost?

Enterprise is an annual contract, quoted on a call to fit your usage. The base
package includes an entry-level 99.5% SLA, 1 million requests per month, and 1
observability integration. Volume discounts apply above 1 million requests per
month, and add-ons such as SSO + RBAC, audit logs, premium support, monetization
and secure tunnels are priced individually — so the final number depends on your
usage and which add-ons you need.

### What happens if I exceed my request limit?

On the Free tier, requests beyond your limit will be rate-limited until the next
billing cycle. On the Builder tier, you can purchase additional request capacity
as needed - there's no hard cutoff - if you go over we'll reach out to help you
right size your plan. On Enterprise plans, usage limits are customized to your
needs with flexible overage options. Your API will never suddenly stop working
due to limits.

### How quickly can I get started?

You can deploy your first API in minutes. Sign up, connect your GitHub repo, and
Zuplo automatically deploys to 300+ edge locations. No credit card is required
for the free tier, and you get 100K requests per month to build and test your
API.

### Can I try enterprise features before committing?

Yes! Most enterprise features are available to try out without commitment - if
we see a lot of usage we'll reach out to help right size your plan. Some
features like SSO, analytics, and secure tunnels can be enabled in trial mode
for development and testing. This lets you validate that Zuplo meets your
requirements before signing an enterprise agreement. Contact us to enable a
trial.

### What deployment options are available?

Zuplo offers three deployment options: Managed Edge (default) runs across 300+
data centers worldwide and scales to handle any traffic volume. Managed
Dedicated runs on isolated infrastructure on your choice of cloud provider (AWS,
GCP, Azure, Akamai, and more) with custom networking like VPC peering and
PrivateLink. Self-Hosted lets you run Zuplo on your own Kubernetes cluster for
complete control. All options provide the same features and developer
experience.

### How is AI Gateway different from API Management?

AI Gateway is optimized for LLM API traffic with features like semantic caching,
token-based rate limiting, and model fallback. API Management is our
general-purpose solution for REST APIs with features like key management,
analytics, and developer portals. Many customers use both together.

### What support options are available?

All plans include community support via Discord. Enterprise plans offer email
and ticketed support, customizable support SLAs with response times as fast as
30 minutes, and 24/7/365 availability for critical issues.

## Next steps

Deploy your first API in 5 minutes. Free tier includes 100K requests/month. No
credit card. No sales call.

- [Start for free](https://portal.zuplo.com/signup)
- [Talk to an Architect](/schedule-call)
