Elastic Pricing FAQ

You asked them, we answered them - here are some of the frequently asked questions about Elastic’s pricing, support, and more.

Frequently asked questions

Can I try Elastic products and services for free?

Elastic Cloud: Yes. We offer a free 14-day trial of Elastic Cloud that starts the moment you create a cluster. It's simple to get up and running and includes a cluster with 8GB of RAM and 240GB of storage across our supported cloud providers.

Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud is available on Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS GovCloud (US), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The official Elasticsearch Service gives you access to:

  • Elastic solutions for enterprise search, observability, and security
  • Exclusive features such as cross-cluster search, machine learning, and index lifecycle management
  • Intuitive and creative visualization tools like Kibana Lens and Canvas

Just select the cloud provider of your choice for your deployment and you're on your way to simple management and powerful customization.

Self-Managed: Yes. From the very beginning, the Elastic Stack — Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash — has been free and open. Our approach is not only to make our technology stack available for free, but to make it open — housed in public repositories and developed through a transparent approach with direct involvement from the community.

You can download Elastic software and get access to both the OSS features as well as the free Basic features of our software at no cost. Free and open principles are ingrained into who we are and how we progress. We want our products to be used to learn, to develop, and to be run in production at scale. And that’s why many of our core features, products, and solutions are free, including free security features developed natively in the stack that are critical to ensure that every cluster is protected. But we go far beyond that, providing role-based access control and true multitenancy for Kibana, all for free. We believe that products developed in the open are more secure.

If you are interested in trying out features in the Gold, Platinum, or Enterprise subscription tiers, consider a free 14-day trial of Elastic Cloud or contact us.

Do you offer support?

Yes. Elastic Cloud Standard, Gold, Platinum, Enterprise, and Private subscriptions include varying levels of support for our Elasticsearch Service. See the Support section in the comparison table on the pricing page.

For self-managed customers, Gold*, Platinum, and Enterprise subscriptions include varying levels of support for the Elastic Stack. See the Support section in the comparison table on the pricing page.

Can I change my subscription level once I start using a paid Elastic subscription tier?

If you purchased an Elasticsearch Service monthly subscription, you can change your subscription level at any time from the Billing page in the Elastic Cloud console. Any upgrade to a higher subscription level (e.g. from Standard to Platinum) takes place immediately. Any downgrade to a lower subscription level takes place at the next invoice date. If you purchased an annual subscription, get in touch with your sales representative to change your subscription level.

For self-managed subscriptions, get in touch with your sales representative to change your subscription level.

Which pricing tiers are the Elastic Relevance Engine (ESRE) available under?

The full suite of Elasticsearch Relevance Engine (ESRE) tools are available under the Platinum or Enterprise licenses, including:

  • Semantic search with Elastic's Learned Sparse Encoder model
  • Using and managing ML models in Elastic
  • Hybrid ranking that combines retrieval techniques with Reciprocal Rank Fusion
  • Document and field-level security for granular access control

A subset of ESRE functionalities are also available under the Standard license, including:

  • Creating, storing, and searching dense vectors with Elastic's vector database
  • Store and search embeddings generated by third party LLMs.
  • BM25f token-based search ranking tools
  • Storing analytics for AI-enhanced applications

Elastic Cloud Specific Questions

How is pricing for Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud calculated?

Pricing for Elasticsearch Service is primarily based on the instance size of each component of the Elastic Stack, such as Elasticsearch nodes, Kibana nodes, APM server, etc. Each component that is running is charged per GB of RAM/hour. You can estimate your costs using our pricing calculator. This rate is based on the following dimensions:

  • Cloud provider
  • Cloud region
  • Elasticsearch nodes
    • Data nodes
      • High I/O
      • High storage
      • High CPU
      • High memory
    • Master nodes
    • Ingest nodes
    • Machine learning nodes
  • Kibana nodes
  • APM server
  • Instance size of each node (GB of RAM)
  • Number of availability zones

Additionally, snapshot storage costs and data transfer costs also apply:

  • Snapshot storage
    • Cloud storage costs
    • Storage API requests
  • Data transfer costs
    • Data transfer in
    • Data transfer out
    • Data transfer between nodes

How do I purchase Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud?

There are a few ways to purchase Elasticsearch Service. The best place to start is with a free 14-day trial. Once you're ready to commit, we have several subscription options available:

  • Monthly subscription: At any time during the trial or when your trial expires, submit your credit card information to begin your monthly subscription. You can choose between Standard, Gold, Platinum, and Enterprise subscription levels.
  • Annual subscription: When your free trial expires, contact us to sign up for your annual term (and get a discount). You can also obtain a multiyear subscription to save even more. New annual subscriptions are billed using the prepaid consumption model. To learn more, please contact us.

You may also purchase Elasticsearch Service through the AWS Marketplace, Microsoft Azure Marketplace, and Google Cloud Marketplace.

How does Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud annual subscriptions work?

All new annual subscriptions contracted directly from Elastic are billed using the prepaid consumption model and their usage is metered in Elastic Consumption Units. In this model, you purchase Elastic Consumption Units (ECU) upfront, and all subsequent usage is deducted from the ECU balance.

Is Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud available for purchase via the AWS Marketplace?

Yes. The AWS Marketplace allows SaaS vendors like Elastic to bill customers directly through their AWS account, meaning you don't have to set up a separate billing relationship with Elastic. Instead, existing AWS customers can subscribe to Elastic Cloud through our AWS Marketplace listing page.

Simply click on the orange button which says 'Continue to Subscribe' at the top of the Elastic Cloud page, sign into your AWS account, and then start using Elastic Cloud. You'll benefit from a 7-day free trial period which allows you to deploy globally in minutes across any of the AWS regions Elastic supports. After 7 days, all usage charges will be billed directly to your AWS account. Pricing information is available on our AWS Marketplace page.

Going through the AWS Marketplace is a good option for customers wanting a single point of billing for their SaaS services or customers who are unable to establish a direct billing relationship with Elastic.

Additionally, your investment in Elastic draws against your AWS Enterprise Agreement purchase commitment. You can monitor and analyze your Elastic spend from the billing and usage page within the Elastic Cloud Console.

Is Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud available for purchase via the Google Cloud Marketplace?

Google Cloud customers can provision Elasticsearch Service's Standard, Gold, and Platinum monthly and annual subscriptions through the Google Cloud Marketplace. Elastic will show up as a line item on your consolidated monthly bill. Best of all, your investment in Elastic counts toward your committed spending agreement with Google Cloud.

Is Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud available for purchase via the Azure Marketplace?

Microsoft Azure customers can provision Elasticsearch Service’s Standard, Gold, and Platinum monthly subscriptions through the Azure Marketplace, consolidate their bill with spending on other Azure services, and have it drawn down 100% from existing MACC contracts.

Elastic on Microsoft Azure is a fully managed SaaS service that provides managed Elasticsearch and Kibana.

Is Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud available in the FedRAMP Marketplace?

Yes, but think of our listing more as a directory of certified Cloud Service Offerings (CSO) that are FedRAMP authorized, versus a cloud provider marketplace where existing customers transact with the cloud provider.

Is the free Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud trial available on the AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure Marketplaces?

Yes, we now have a 7-day free trial available on AWS which allows you to deploy globally in minutes across any of the AWS regions Elastic supports. Simply click on the 'Continue to Subscribe' orange button at the top of the Elastic Cloud page on the AWS Marketplace, sign into your AWS account, then start using Elastic Cloud. Note: the free trial includes provision of a single deployment and you will not be charged for the first 7 days.

A free trial is also available through the Elastic website on our free trial page.

Is data transfer less expensive using various Elastic private connections?

To continue helping customers meet their stringent security and compliance regulations, Elastic has built several private connections. Currently, Elastic Cloud supports AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link, and Google Cloud Private Service Connect. Elastic does not add any additional charges above standard private connection pricing. We believe that the primary reason you should choose any of these private connection options is for security reasons. Please contact your Cloud Service Provider representative for pricing questions or more information.

Can I use Elasticsearch Service features that belong to a higher subscription level?

To use features that belong to a higher subscription level, you must upgrade your subscription. Additionally, you can’t downgrade to a lower subscription level if you are using features specific to your current level.

What is the free allowance on Elasticsearch Service?

The free allowance provides each Elasticsearch Service deployment with the ability to enable the following:

  • 1GB Kibana instance
  • 1GB machine learning node
  • 2GB Enterprise Search instance
  • 1GB APM server

Increasing the size of the Kibana instance or machine learning node along with changing the amount of availability zones will incur additional cost.

Does Elasticsearch Service come with commercial features such as security and machine learning?

Yes. Depending on your Elastic Cloud subscription level, customers can access different features across our solutions for enterprise search, observability, and security.

What do I do if I need to change the size of my cluster at a later time?

You can scale your clusters both up and down from the Elastic Cloud user console or our REST API whenever you like. Resizing of your cluster is transparently done in the background without any downtime. However, please note that if you scale your cluster down, you must ensure that the downsized cluster can handle your Elasticsearch memory and disk quota requirements.

Are REST API calls rate-limited or limited to a maximum number of requests?

While REST API calls are rate-limited, there is no maximum to the number of requests.

Can I spin up any capacity I want?

Yes. We support large deployments, but we do have service limits in place. If you find you need more capacity enabled, please contact us. The default service limit is 976GB of RAM to protect users from spinning up excessive capacity by mistake. These can be removed by contacting support.

What cloud provider platforms and regions do you support?

Elastic Cloud is available on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Check our documentation for a complete list of supported regions.

Am I charged differently depending on the deployment template?

Yes, deployment templates are predefined with specific virtual hardware that the Elastic Stack runs on. The virtual hardware can be priced differently depending on the hardware profile. See our pricing calculator for more details.

How does my price change as I scale my deployments?

Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud has a linear pricing model that makes it easy to understand what the new costs are going to be as you scale. This means a high-I/O configuration with 8GB of RAM will cost eight times as much as a high-I/O configuration with 1GB of RAM. Additionally, if you deploy across three availability zones, your cost is three times as high compared to a single availability zone.

You can estimate the cost of your deployment using our interactive pricing calculator.

What are snapshot storage and data transfer costs?

Snapshot storage and data transfer costs are automatically added to your bill based on metered usage in GB. Visit the Elastic Cloud deployment pricing table for more information.

What do the i3, 1, l32sv2, and other prefixes mean on my Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud bill?

These prefixes represent the underlying virtual hardware that your deployments are provisioned on. We deploy each component of the Elastic Stack on optimized hardware to ensure optimal performance.


* The self-managed Gold Subscription tier is no longer available for new customers; only Elastic Cloud Gold is available. Customers with existing self-managed Gold Subscriptions will continue to be supported through the end of its current subscription term.