Does Railway have a free tier?

No — Railway has no free tier.

Railway

Deploy apps, databases and services from a canvas UI or CLI with usage-based pricing; popular with indie devs for its developer experience.

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Railway is a managed platform-as-a-service for deploying web apps, APIs, background workers, cron jobs, and databases from a Git repository or Docker image. It automatically provisions compute, networking, TLS, and environment variables, and uses its own Railpack builder (the successor to Nixpacks, now the default) to detect and build most language stacks without a Dockerfile. A visual Canvas interface lets teams connect services, databases, and environments within a single project view.

Key features

Git- and Dockerfile-based deploys with zero-config build detection via Railpack (successor to Nixpacks)
Managed databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis) provisioned from templates
Automatic HTTPS/TLS certificates and internal service discovery
Per-PR preview environments, with logs, metrics, and environment-variable management in the UI
Private networking for internal service-to-service communication
Visual Canvas for managing multi-service projects and monorepos

Specs

Category	Managed PaaS
Pricing model	usage-based
Free tier	No
Managed database	Yes
Regions	4+
Self-hostable	No
Docker-native	Yes
Git deploy	Yes
Open source	No

Last reviewed 2026-07-16 — see our methodology. Specs, pricing and free tiers change often, so confirm current details on the provider before deciding.

Pros & cons

Our editorial assessment — not vendor-stated facts.

Pros

Fast, low-configuration deploys that avoid Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code for common workloads
App, databases, networking, and environment config managed in a single UI
Usage-based billing charges for resources actually consumed rather than fixed instance sizes
Built-in preview environments and collaboration features suit small teams

Cons

Consumption-based pricing can be hard to predict and may spike under bursty or unexpected traffic
No built-in CDN or edge network, so globally distributed or latency-sensitive static delivery needs a separate CDN layer
Access controls are relatively coarse, which can limit larger orgs needing granular per-service or per-environment permissions
Publicized outages and degraded-performance incidents through 2025-2026 (Railway publishes post-incident reports) — check its current status before committing

Pricing

Hybrid model that pairs a flat monthly subscription (Hobby and Pro tiers, plus custom Enterprise) with usage-based billing for the CPU, memory, storage, and egress your services actually consume. Each plan's base fee doubles as an included usage credit of matching value, and consumption beyond that is billed on top. New accounts get a one-time, time-limited trial credit rather than a permanent free tier, so sustained use effectively requires a paid plan.

Who should use Railway?

Best for indie developers and small-to-midsize teams that want to ship full-stack apps and databases quickly without managing infrastructure or Kubernetes. Less suited to teams needing edge/CDN delivery, fine-grained access controls, or highly predictable fixed-cost billing.

Frequently asked questions

Does Railway have a free tier?: No — Railway has no free tier.
How much does Railway cost?: Hybrid model that pairs a flat monthly subscription (Hobby and Pro tiers, plus custom Enterprise) with usage-based billing for the CPU, memory, storage, and egress your services actually consume. Each plan's base fee doubles as an included usage credit of matching value, and consumption beyond that is billed on top. New accounts get a one-time, time-limited trial credit rather than a permanent free tier, so sustained use effectively requires a paid plan.
Who should use Railway?: Best for indie developers and small-to-midsize teams that want to ship full-stack apps and databases quickly without managing infrastructure or Kubernetes. Less suited to teams needing edge/CDN delivery, fine-grained access controls, or highly predictable fixed-cost billing.