Limits and Pricing for Image Optimization
This page outlines information on the limits that are applicable when using Image Optimization, and the costs they can incur.This pricing option is the default for all new teams created on or after February 18th, 2025. For teams created before February 18th, 2025, you will be given the choice to opt-in to this pricing plan or stay on the legacy source images-based pricing plan.
Image optimization pricing is dependent on your plan and on specific parameters outlined in the table below. For detailed pricing information for each region, review Regional Pricing.
| Image Usage | Hobby Included | Pro Included | Pro/Enterprise Additional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image transformations | 3K/month | 10K/month | $0.05 - $0.0812 per 1K |
| Image cache reads | 180K/month | 600K/month | $0.40 - $0.64 per 1M |
| Image cache writes | 60K/month | 200K/month | $4.00 - $6.40 per 1M |
This ensures that you only pay for the optimizations when the images are used instead of the number of images in your project.
Image Optimization on the Pro trial plan has the following limits.
| Image Usage | Pro Trial Included | Price (after limit hit) |
|---|---|---|
| Image transformations | 5K/month | N/A |
| Image cache reads | 300K/month | N/A |
| Image cache writes | 100K/month | N/A |
Image transformations occur with every cache MISS and STALE. The cache key is based on several inputs and differs for local images cache key vs the remote images cache key.
The total amount of Read Units used to access the cached image from the global cache, measured in 8KB units.
It does not occur for every cache HIT, only when the image needs to be retrieved from the shared global cache.
An image that has been accessed recently (several hours ago) in the same region will be cached in region and does not incur this cost.
The total amount of Write Units used to store the cached image in the global cache, measured in 8KB units. It occurs for every cache MISS and STALE.
You are billed for the optimizations when the images are used.
Image Optimization is free for Hobby users within the usage limits. As stated in the Fair Usage Policy, Hobby teams are restricted to non-commercial personal use only.
Vercel will send you emails as you are nearing your usage limits, but you will also be advised of any alerts within the dashboard.
Once you exceed the limits:
- New images will fail to optimize and instead return a runtime error response with 402 status code. This will trigger the
onErrorcallback and show thealttext instead of the image - Previously optimized images have already been cached and will continue to work as expected, without error
You will not be charged for exceeding the usage limits, but this usually means your application is ready to upgrade to a Pro plan.
If you want to continue using Hobby, read more about Managing Usage & Costs to see how you can disable Image Optimization per image or per project.
For Teams on Pro trials, the trial will end if your Team exceeds the limits outlined in Pro trial pricing. For more information, see the trial limits.
Vercel will send you emails as you are nearing your usage limits, but you will also be advised of any alerts within the dashboard.
Pro teams can set up Spend Management to get notified or to automatically take action, such as using a webhook or pausing your projects when your usage hits a set spend amount.
For all the images that are optimized by Vercel, the following limits apply:
- The maximum size for an transformed image is 10 MB, as set out in the Cacheable Responses limits
- Each source image has a maximum width and height of 8192 pixels
- A source image must be one of the following formats to be optimized:
image/jpeg,image/png,image/webp,image/avif. Other formats will be served as-is
See the Fair Usage Policy for typical monthly usage guidelines.
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