# Spiral pricing

> Spiral bills three meters: storage, writes, and queries. The unit rates are the same on both plans.

Prices are in US dollars. Units are decimal: 1 GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes, 1 TB is 1,000 GB, and 1 PB is 1,000 TB. A month is 30 days. Rate card v0.41.

## Rates

| Meter | Unit | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Spiral-managed storage | Physical GB-month | $0.023 ($23 per TB-month) |
| Storage, your bucket or external references | | No storage fee from Spiral |
| Writes | Logical GB | $0.040 for small batches, down to $0.020 for batches of 10 MB or more. Each batch bills at least 32 KB. |
| Managed output writes | Logical GB | $0.020 |
| Queries | Billable GB | $0.005 ($5 per TB) |

## Plans

Every plan includes the full product and the same unit rates. They differ on deployment, compliance, and support.

| | Scale | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum commitment | $1,000/month | $100,000/year |
| Unit rates | The rates above | The rates above |
| Mode | Multi-tenant | Multi- or single-tenant, or BYOC |
| Storage limit | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Spiral-managed storage | Yes | Yes |
| External file references | Yes | Yes |
| Your bucket | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 Type 2 report | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes |
| Customer-managed encryption | Yes | Yes |
| Private networking | No | Yes |
| Community and email support | Yes | Yes |
| Private Slack channel | Yes | Yes |
| Support hours | Business hours | 24/7 |
| Support SLA | No | Yes |
| Uptime SLA | No | 99.95% |
| Named support contact | No | Yes |

Launch is coming soon. Launch is Scale for your first project: the same product and rates, with community and email support. Launch will have a $100 monthly minimum. Each month will bill the greater of $100 or usage.

- External file references: External refs are catalog-only pointers to objects you already own, with no re-encoding and no copy. They carry no storage or per-reference fee from Spiral. Your cloud provider bills storage separately.
- Your bucket: Spiral writes every table into your own bucket and runs managed compaction on its own compute. Spiral charges no storage fee.
- Customer-managed encryption: In your own bucket, your data at rest stays in your account under your own KMS keys.
- Named support contact: Enterprise only: a named point of contact for support.
- Support hours, Business hours (Scale): 7:00–17:00 ET.
- Mode, single-tenant (Enterprise): Storage and compute are strongly isolated and dedicated to your workload.
- Mode, BYOC (Enterprise): Spiral’s managed compute runs inside your VPC: in-VPC compaction, and server-side execution where contracted. Client-side SQL and SDK data access run in your own processes. Your rows never leave your VPC.

Each month on Scale, you pay the larger of $1,000 or your usage. Enterprise sends monthly usage invoices and compares the year's usage with its $100,000 annual commitment at the end of the term. Usage counts toward each minimum. There is no platform fee and no prepaid credit.

## Billing rules

### Storage

Spiral-managed storage costs $0.023 per GB-month of physical bytes. Physical bytes are the bytes after compression, including file-format overhead.

Storage in your own bucket has no storage fee from Spiral. Your cloud provider bills that storage and its operations.

External references have no storage fee and no per-reference fee from Spiral. An external reference is a catalog entry that points to an object that you own. Spiral does not copy or re-encode the object.

Plan minimums apply to Spiral usage only. Spiral-managed storage counts toward the minimum, and storage that your cloud provider bills does not. For example, 100 TB of Spiral-managed storage on Scale costs $27,600 a year. With your own bucket, Spiral bills the $12,000 Scale minimum, and your writes and queries count toward it.

### Writes

Ordinary writes bill the logical bytes that you submit. Logical bytes are the uncompressed size under the Vortex convention, including representation overhead. Embeddings and other extension types use their storage arrays. Binary media counts its encoded payload, not decoded frames.

Each batch that you submit bills at least 32 KB. The rate per logical GB decreases from $0.040 at 32 KB to $0.020 at 10 MB, and larger batches keep the $0.020 rate. The rate applies to the whole batch. The same rates apply to appends and updates.

For a batch of B decimal KB, let x = clamp((B − 32) / (10000 − 32), 0, 1). The rate per logical GB is 0.020 + 0.020 × (1 − x)². The batch charge is max(B, 32) / 1,000,000 × rate.

| Batch size | Rate per logical GB |
|---:|---:|
| 32 KB | $0.04000 |
| 100 KB | $0.03973 |
| 1,000 KB | $0.03630 |
| 5,000 KB | $0.02503 |
| 10,000 KB | $0.02000 |

The table rounds the rates. The calculator uses full precision.

A write counts the keys and values that you submit, after a successful commit. This includes rows that a condition rejects. A partial update counts only the keys and fields that you submit. A delete counts the keys that you submit, including duplicate keys and keys that do not exist.

Compaction and routine maintenance are included. They add no query or write charge. Internal batch splits do not change the batch minimum or the rate. An idempotent retry of the same batch adds no charge.

### Managed writes, imports, and transformations

Managed imports and standalone transformations bill their input reads as queries. Their output bills at the bulk rate of $0.020 per logical GB, with no batch minimum. This includes the first import of data from external references.

Enrichments, derived columns, and index builds bill only their logical output, at $0.020 per GB. Their input reads add no query charge.

A managed write never costs more than an ordinary write of the same logical output. This comparison excludes input reads.

An operation is managed when it is reproducible and Spiral controls the output path. Client-side computation can qualify through the same path. Opaque client-side transformations bill their input reads and ordinary writes for their outputs.

Managed transformations bill the full logical output that Spiral stores. SQL mutations bill the affected keys and the submitted fields as ordinary writes. Outputs in Spiral-managed storage also bill physical storage.

### Queries

A query costs $0.005 per billable GB, or $5 per TB. The rate is the same on both plans, and for hosted SQL, client-side SQL, and SDK access, on Spiral’s compute or on yours. Hosted SQL execution is included. There is no per-query minimum and no separate vector-search rate.

Spiral calculates billable bytes for each file version in each worker scan: `billable GB = min(4 × P, L)`. P is the physical GB from completed source requests. L is the logical size of the whole file. The bill is the sum of these charges. The 4× multiplier is a pricing weight, not a measured compression ratio.

If a tabular file has no logical size available, `billable GB = 4 × P`, with no ceiling. Usage reports identify these bytes. For external MCAP, video, images and other opaque files, L is the full object size.

These count:

- Completed source requests, including storage-cache hits.
- Requested metadata.
- Bytes already delivered, even if a filter then removes them.

These do not count:

- Unused read-ahead, and gaps between coalesced ranges.
- Data that the query already holds, such as retained dictionaries, pruning results, and cached results.
- Internal transfers, shuffles, buffer reuse, and result delivery.
- Earlier automatic attempts. Each retryable unit of work bills the completed reads of its last attempt only.

Internal threads, chunks, and reader reopens share one ceiling per worker scan. Separate workers have separate ceilings, even when they divide one file. A new source scan gets a new ceiling, also inside the same transaction.

For example, a file holds 1 TB of logical data and 100 GB of physical data. One full scan on one worker costs $2, and three separate scans cost $6. Inside one scan, reads of 100, 200 and 300 GB cost $2, $4 and $5.

A training epoch that sends new source requests bills again. An epoch that reuses a retained corpus adds no charge.

A resumed prepared stream bills its completed source requests as ordinary queries. This includes repeated reads of the part that completed before.

If a hosted query fails because of a confirmed Spiral fault, we credit that query’s usage charge. Customer cancellations and failures in clients that you control keep their completed-read charges. A credit does not remove the plan minimum.

A scan reports all its usage in the billing period in which it finishes.

### Retention

Versions in Spiral-managed storage inside your retention window bill as physical storage. The default window is 365 days on both plans. Setting it per table is planned. Versions outside the window do not bill, even if cleanup is late. Reads of any retained version bill as queries.

### Egress and transfers

Transfer charges from Spiral-managed storage appear on the Spiral bill at cost, with no markup. They depend on the provider, the region, and the destination. Your cloud provider bills transfers from your own bucket. Neither plan includes a transfer allowance.

Hosted SQL returns small results, which can reduce transfers. Client-side SQL and SDK reads move source bytes to your compute.

## Example estimates

The calculator's workloads at their default sizes. Usage is before the plan minimum.

| Workload | Plan | Stored | Written | Read | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---:|
| Analytics team | Scale | 5 TB in Spiral-managed storage | 2 TB/month | 75 TB/month | $1,655/month |
| Observability | Scale | 30 TB in Spiral-managed storage | 150 TB/month | 15 TB/month | $3,990/month |
| Observability: more queries | Scale | 30 TB in Spiral-managed storage | 150 TB/month | 150 TB/month | $6,690/month |
| 40 PB catalog | Scale | 40 PB in your bucket | 1 GB/month | 83.3 TB/month | $1,667/month |
| LLM training | Scale | 2 TB in Spiral-managed storage | 83 GB/month | 6.7 TB/month | $114/month |

## Questions

### Pricing and commitments

**Why is there a minimum commitment?**

Each plan starts at a minimum spend, and your usage counts toward it. There’s no platform fee or prepaid credit on top.

**What do I pay when my usage is more than the minimum?**

You pay for your usage at the published rates. For example, if your Scale usage in a month is $1,400, your bill for that month is $1,400.

**What do I pay when my usage is less than the minimum?**

You pay the minimum. Scale bills the larger of $1,000 or your usage each month. Enterprise sends monthly usage invoices and compares the year’s usage with its $100,000 annual commitment at the end of the term.

**Do rates change during a commitment?**

No. Your signed term keeps its rate card until renewal. A move to Enterprise starts a new 12-month term on the rate card that applies at that time.

**Why does Enterprise cost more?**

The unit rates are the same on both plans. Enterprise has a larger annual commitment, and it adds BYOC, private networking, 24/7 support with SLAs, and a named point of contact for support.

**Do you give discounts for larger commitments?**

Yes. We negotiate rates for large commitments, prepayment, or longer terms. The standard Enterprise commitment has no automatic discount, and the calculator shows list rates.

**Can we do a proof of concept before an annual commitment?**

Yes. Scale has the full product and a $1,000 monthly minimum with no annual commitment. You can use it for a proof of concept and stay on it as your workload grows.

### Billing and metering

**What are logical and physical bytes?**

Physical bytes are the bytes after compression. Logical bytes are the uncompressed size, as Vortex measures it. For a video or other file that Spiral keeps as it is, the logical size is the file’s size. Spiral-managed storage bills physical bytes, queries bill from the physical bytes they read, and writes bill logical bytes.

**How are queries billed?**

A query costs $0.005 per billable GB, or $5 per TB. For each file in each worker scan, billable bytes are 4 × the physical bytes read, up to the logical size of the file. For example, one full scan of a 20 GB video costs $0.10, and a 1 GB read from it costs $0.02.

**How are writes billed?**

Writes cost $0.04 per logical GB for small batches and $0.02 per GB for batches of 10 MB or more. The rate decreases smoothly between these sizes, and each batch bills at least 32 KB. Compaction and routine maintenance are included.

**How are imports and transformations billed?**

A managed import bills its input reads as queries and its output at $0.02 per logical GB. Index builds, Enrichments, and derived columns bill only their output, with no charge for the input reads.

**Do failed queries or retries cost extra?**

No. Automatic retries add no charge, because each unit of work bills only the reads of its last attempt. If a hosted query fails because of a Spiral fault, we credit the charge for that query.

**Do older versions of my data cost more?**

Versions in Spiral-managed storage inside your retention window bill as storage. The default window is 365 days. Setting it per table is planned. Versions outside the window do not bill, even if cleanup is late.

**Is vector or index search a separate charge?**

No. Index reads and the base-data reads that follow use the query rate. Index builds bill their output at $0.02 per logical GB.

**What about egress?**

We pass transfer charges from Spiral-managed storage through at cost, with no markup. They depend on the provider, the region, and the destination. If you use your own bucket, your cloud provider bills transfers directly.

### Infrastructure and deployment

**Should I use Spiral-managed storage or my own bucket?**

Spiral-managed storage costs $0.023 per physical GB-month, or $23 per TB-month, after compression. Your own bucket has no storage fee from Spiral, and your cloud provider bills that storage. Write and query rates are the same for both, and your writes and queries count toward the plan minimum either way. Storage in your own bucket does not count, because Spiral does not bill it.

**What are external file references?**

An external reference is a catalog entry that points to an object you already own, such as a video file. Spiral does not copy or re-encode the object, and there is no storage or per-reference fee. A catalog write bills the catalog row, and reads of the object bill as queries.

**Which regions can Spiral run in?**

We confirm the provider, the region, and the expected transfer costs with you during setup. Both plans support Spiral-managed storage and your own bucket. On Enterprise, Spiral’s managed compute can also run in your VPC.

**How does Spiral keep my data secure?**

When your tables are in your own bucket, Spiral’s control plane holds only metadata: names, versions, commit history, and grants. Each storage credential that Spiral signs covers one table and expires within 15 minutes, so your jobs never hold a long-lived bucket key. People sign in through your SSO, and each agent or pipeline signs in as its own workload, with its own role.

You can request our SOC 2 Type 2 report.

[Read the security docs](https://docs.spiraldb.com/docs/platform/security)

**Do you support air-gapped deployments?**

Our standard deployments are not air-gapped. They use a small multi-tenant control plane that holds only metadata, and on Enterprise, BYOC can run that control plane in your own account. For highly sensitive or national-security work, we can discuss an air-gapped option with you.

### Getting started

**How do we get started?**

Choose Build on Spiral and tell us what you store and what reads it. We’ll set up a call, get your first workload running, and help you choose Spiral-managed storage or your own bucket.

## More

- [Pricing page and calculator](https://spiraldb.com/pricing)
- [All posts as markdown](https://spiraldb.com/sitemap.md)