{"rid":"compute/railway","card":{"rid":"compute/railway","eid":"railway","topic":"compute","slug":"railway","provider":"Railway","url":"https://railway.com/pricing","domain":"railway.com","category":"platform host","tier":"Free","verdict":"qualifies-with-caveat","vorder":1,"grp":"usable","confidence":"documented","binding":"volume-quota","identity_kind":"email","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":0,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest,cli","egress_metered":1,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-24T01:55:00.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-25","stale_on":"2026-11-24","n_evidence":15,"usd_month":2.06,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"Free plan at USD 0 a month with USD 1 of usage credit a month, 1 vCPU and 0.5 GB RAM per service, 0.5 GB of volume, 1 project, 3 services, 1 replica and 0 cu...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":0},"record":{"topic":"compute","per_object_cap":{"stated":"1 vCPU and 0.5 GB RAM per service on Free; 0.5 GB of volume; 4 GB maximum image size"},"interface":["rest","cli"],"interface_detail":"CLI and GraphQL API; ssh railway.new for the anonymous VM","tooling":"railway CLI, the GraphQL API, SSH; sandboxes have an idle timeout and checkpoints","chaining":"the only anonymous machine in this class, and a paid platform with a USD 5 Hobby floor beside it","limits_note":"Railway bills CPU at USD 0.00001929 per vCPU-second on active use and memory at the same rate per GB-second, so an idle service is cheap and a busy one is not.","reliability_note":"an account whose GitHub identity does not meet Railway's automatic verification gets restricted outbound access and a limited port set, with no appeal","confidence":"documented","verified_at":"2026-10-24T01:55:00.000Z","price_per_tb_month":null,"slug":"railway","provider":"Railway","url":"https://railway.com/pricing","category":"platform host","free_tier":{"stated":"Free plan at USD 0 a month with USD 1 of usage credit a month, 1 vCPU and 0.5 GB RAM per service, 0.5 GB of volume, 1 project, 3 services, 1 replica and 0 custom domains. A separate Free Trial gives a one-time USD 5 credit for 30 days.","unit":"mixed","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://railway.com/pricing","read_on":"2026-10-24"},"retention":{"stated":"the USD 1 credit does not roll over month to month; a stopped service is not billed"},"egress":{"terms":"USD 0.05 per GB of service egress, drawn from the same USD 1 credit","metered":true,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":"USD 50","source_url":"https://railway.com/pricing"},"limits":[{"kind":"volume-quota","value":"USD 1 of usage credit a month on Free; memory is USD 10 per GB a month","source":"https://railway.com/pricing"},{"kind":"per-object-cap","value":"1 vCPU / 0.5 GB per service, 0.5 GB volume, 0 custom domains, 3 services","source":"https://railway.com/pricing"},{"kind":"request-rate","value":"an unverified account gets a Limited Trial with restricted outbound network access and only a limited set of ports","source":"https://docs.railway.com/reference/pricing/free-trial"},{"kind":"per-ip-shaping","value":"egress USD 0.05 per GB","source":"https://railway.com/pricing"}],"identity_cost":{"kind":"email","detail":"the Trial needs no card: 'No credit card required'; a card is needed only to upgrade. An unverified GitHub login downgrades the trial's network access","country":null},"evidence":[{"url":"https://railway.com/free-vm.md","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"ssh railway.new gives a 2 vCPU / 2 GB VM with no account and no card; Railway identifies you by your SSH key"},{"url":"https://railway.com/free-vm.md","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"60 minutes to build, then 24 hours to claim; unclaimed boxes are deleted with their files; up to 3 boxes per IP per day"},{"url":"https://railway.com/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"Free plan is USD 1 of credit a month with 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM and a 4 GB volume; egress USD 0.05 per GB"},{"url":"probe:railway.new:22","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"TCP connect to railway.new:22 timed out twice from this host (8.2 s and 15 s), while hashbang.sh:22 connected in 0.4 s from the same machine, so the failure is the target's path and not this host's egress"},{"url":"https://railway.com/pricing","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"'Free - $0/month with $1 of monthly usage credits. Up to 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB per service, 1 replica, and 3-day log history', with a separate 'Free Trial - $5 in credits for 30 days', quoted"},{"url":"https://docs.railway.com/reference/pricing/plans","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted table, Free row: '1 | 0.5 GB | 1 vCPU | 1 GB | 0.5 GB | 4 GB' under Replicas, RAM, CPU, Ephemeral Storage, Volume Storage, Image Size"},{"url":"https://docs.railway.com/reference/pricing/plans","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Railway will delete your data ... Free or Trial plan | 30 days after expiry'"},{"url":"https://railway.com/pricing","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Free — $0/month with $1 of monthly usage credits.' and 'Memory $0.00000386 per GB/s | $10 per GB', 'CPU $0.00000772 per vCPU/s | $20 per vCPU'"},{"url":"https://docs.railway.com/reference/pricing/plans","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Not anymore as of March 30th, Railway requires the use of a post-paid card.'"},{"url":"https://railway.com/pricing","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Free Trial — $5 in credits for 30 days to try Railway. No credit card required. Up to 2 vCPU / 1 GB per service'; 'Free — $0/month with $1 of monthly usage credits. Up to 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB per service'; sandbox table 'Free Trial | 10 | 2 vCPU / 2 GB | 2 vCPU / 2 GB | 5 min'; 'CPU | $0.00001929 per vCPU/s (active use)'."},{"url":"https://railway.com/pricing","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Free | $0 | $1/month | 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB | 1 | 3 days' and 'Free Trial | $0 | $5 one-time credit (30 days) | 2 vCPU / 1 GB'"},{"url":"https://railway.com/pricing","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Memory | $0.00000386 per GB/s | $10 per GB', 'CPU | $0.00000772 per vCPU/s | $20 per vCPU', 'Egress | $0.05 per GB'"},{"url":"https://railway.com/pricing","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted platform limits table: 'Free | 1 | 3 | 1 | 500 MB | 0 | 1' for projects, services, members, max volume, custom domains, concurrent builds"},{"url":"https://docs.railway.com/reference/pricing/free-trial","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'After 30 days passes or $5 is spent, the free trial reverts to the Free plan, which provides $1 of free credit per month.'"},{"url":"https://docs.railway.com/reference/pricing/free-trial","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'services on the Limited Trial have restricted outbound network access and only a limited set of ports are available'"}],"verdict":"qualifies-with-caveat","notes":"Arithmetic: 0.5 GB at USD 10/GB/month is USD 5 a month, or USD 0.00685 an hour; USD 1 is 146 hours, 6.1 days. The corpus recorded 4 GB of volume on Free, which today's plan table contradicts: the Free plan's maximum volume is 500 MB and it allows 0 custom domains. What is not established is whether an exhausted Free credit stops the service or merely stops billing for it; the docs say a stopped service is not billed but do not name the exhaustion behaviour.","extras":{"shape":{"vcpu":1,"ram_gib":0.5,"disk_gib":0.5,"gpu_class":null,"gpu_count":null},"billing_model":"usage-credit","granularity":{"min_billed_s":1,"rounding_s":1},"session_cap":{"wall_clock_min":null,"idle_reap_s":null,"restart_required":false,"note":"no sleep: the service runs until the credit or the plan limit stops it"},"keep_rate":{"value":1,"basis":"memory remains billable while a VM waits for work","source":"https://railway.com/pricing"},"persistent_storage":{"included_gib":4,"price_gib_month":"USD 0.15","durability":"volume","survives_stop":true,"survives_destroy":false,"max_retention":"unclaimed boxes are deleted"},"network_out":{"allow_outbound":true,"allow_inbound_listen":true,"ports":"the service port plus TCP proxying; the Limited Trial restricts outbound to a limited port set","static_ip":false,"ipv6":false,"per_session_bytes":null},"free_tier_kind":"monthly-usage-credit","m10h_usd":2.06,"m24h_usd":5,"price_arithmetic":"0.5 GB x USD 10/GB/month = USD 5.00 a month at 24/7; 10 h a day is 0.5 x 10 x 30 / 730 x 10 = USD 2.06; USD 1 of free credit covers 146 h","probe_result":"railway.new:22 timed out; see evidence probe:railway.new:22","census_rows":["railway-free-vm"],"burst_x":1,"wave2":{"verdict_change":"trial-only -> qualifies-with-caveat on 2026-10-22"},"shape_note":"1 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM, 1 GB ephemeral plus 0.5 GB volume, as the vendor's Free row states","term":"monthly","credit_usd":5,"credit_monthly_usd":1,"credit_months_at_shape":0.013,"credit_hours_at_shape":9.6,"credit_expiry":"the USD 5 expires after 30 days; the USD 1 resets monthly"},"binding":"volume-quota","binding_note":"USD 1 a month against a memory rate of USD 10 per GB a month is 0.1 GB-months: a 0.5 GB service runs 146 hours, six days, and then the credit is gone.","tier":"Free","confidence_note":"plan table, credit and per-resource rates read on the pricing page today; the trial and the Limited Trial restriction on the free-trial docs page today"},"claims":[{"path":"$.extras.m10h_usd","kind":"price","num":2.06,"unit":null,"per":"month","currency":"USD","usd":2.06,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.extras.m24h_usd","kind":"price","num":5,"unit":null,"per":"month","currency":"USD","usd":5,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":0.5,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:volume-quota","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[1].value","kind":"limit:per-object-cap","num":0.5,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[2].value","kind":"limit:request-rate","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[3].value","kind":"limit:per-ip-shaping","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[],"history":[{"hid":"history/2026-10-22T144500Z/compute-railway-free-plan-and-trial.md","when":"2026-10-22T14:45:00Z","status":"corrected","title":"Railway has a permanent free plan beside its 30-day trial"}],"drift":[]}