- Atlas Core has three tiers: Free (0 USD, 512 MB), Flex (from 0.011 USD per hour, capped at 30 USD a month) and Dedicated (from 0.08 USD per hour for an M10).
- The old shared M2 and M5 tiers and Serverless instances are gone: Atlas stopped supporting them on 22 January 2026 and migrated them to Flex or other tiers.
- Dedicated clusters are billed hourly by tier, then backups (per GB per month), data transfer (per GB), extra storage, extra nodes and extra regions are added on top.
- Prices differ by cloud provider (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and region, so price the exact provider and region you will use in MongoDB's calculator.
How MongoDB Atlas pricing works
MongoDB Atlas pricing is pay as you go: clusters are billed hourly and invoiced monthly. The cluster tier sets the base hourly price, and MongoDB's cluster configuration documentation lists the other factors that change the bill: the cloud provider and region, the cluster tier and any added storage capacity or speed, Cloud Backups, the BI Connector, and the number of nodes. Multi-region clusters cost more, depending on the number and location of the extra regions.
MongoDB now groups Atlas into two deployment options. Atlas Core is the familiar model (Free, Flex and Dedicated). Atlas Infinite is a public-preview option for M10 and larger clusters that separates compute from storage; MongoDB lists it from 0.09 USD per hour (starting at 65 USD a month). This guide focuses on Atlas Core, which is what most teams buy today.
Atlas tiers: Free, Flex and Dedicated
The three Atlas Core tiers suit different stages of an application. MongoDB's pricing page describes Free as for learning and exploring, Flex for application development and testing, and Dedicated for production applications.
| Tier | Storage | Compute | Billing | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 512 MB | Shared | Free forever | One per project; no backups; 10 GB in and 10 GB out per rolling 7 days |
| Flex | Up to 5 GB | Shared | Hourly by ops/sec tier, 8 to 30 USD per 30 days | Hard limit above 500 ops/sec; data transfer included |
| Dedicated (M10 to M700) | 10 GB to 4 TB per node | 2 to 96 vCPUs, 2 GB to 768 GB RAM | Hourly per tier, plus storage, backups and transfer | Sharding beyond 4 TB |
Flex tier pricing (the replacement for serverless)
Flex replaced the shared M2 and M5 clusters and Atlas Serverless. MongoDB stopped allowing new M2, M5 and Serverless instances in February 2025, and as of 22 January 2026 Atlas no longer supports them. Flex is billed hourly based on operations per second: the base price covers up to 100 ops/sec with 5 GB of storage and unlimited data transfer, and higher throughput moves the cluster into higher hourly tiers, with a cap of 30 USD a month. Above 500 ops/sec there is no higher tier; Atlas enforces a hard limit instead.
Because Flex pricing is volume-discounted and capped, a Flex cluster suits development, testing and small applications with uneven traffic. Once you need more than 5 GB or steady throughput above 500 ops/sec, MongoDB's documentation says to switch to a Dedicated cluster.
Backups, data transfer and other Atlas costs
Backups. Cloud Backups on Dedicated clusters are billed per GB per month of snapshot storage. MongoDB lists ranges by provider: 0.14 to 0.19 USD per GB on AWS, 0.34 to 0.65 USD on Azure and 0.08 to 0.12 USD on Google Cloud, depending on region. Snapshots are incremental where the provider supports it, so the stored size depends on how much data changes.
Data transfer. On AWS, MongoDB lists 0.00 to 0.01 USD per GB within the same region, 0.02 to 0.15 USD between regions and 0.09 to 0.16 USD out to the internet. Free and Flex clusters are not charged for outgoing data transfer. Exporting a backup snapshot to object storage costs 0.125 USD per GB on top of the provider's transfer charge.
Everything else. Extra storage, faster storage, analytics and read-only nodes, extra regions, Search Nodes and add-ons such as Online Archive or Data Federation are billed separately. Support plans are also separate. To compare document hosting on other platforms, see our sibling guide on MongoDB hosting (related pages below) and DynamoDB vs MongoDB.
How to keep MongoDB Atlas costs down
- Start on Free or Flex and move to Dedicated only when you hit the storage or throughput limits.
- Keep applications in the same region as the cluster, since cross-region and internet transfer are billed per GB.
- Right-size the tier and use Atlas auto-scaling bounds rather than over-provisioning for peak load.
- Set backup retention deliberately, because snapshot storage is billed per GB per month.
- Watch multi-region and extra nodes, which multiply the base cluster cost.
For broader context on managed database pricing across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, see the related pages below. For document versus relational design trade-offs, see MongoDB vs PostgreSQL.
Pricing
Prices from the provider's official pricing pages, checked 8 October 2026, region AWS, as shown on the default tab of the MongoDB pricing page (MongoDB notes Search Node prices are based on us-east-1), in USD, excluding tax. List prices only; discounts, commitments and your actual usage change the bill.
Dedicated prices are the base hourly prices for the default storage of each tier. MongoDB notes that actual pricing varies with deployment requirements, configuration and location, and that Azure and Google Cloud prices differ from AWS.
| Tier | Specification | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 512 MB storage, shared RAM and vCPU | 0 USD (free forever) |
| Flex, 0 to 100 ops/sec (base) | Up to 5 GB storage | 0.0110 USD per hour (8.00 USD per 30 days) |
| Flex, 200 to 300 ops/sec | Up to 5 GB storage | 0.0288 USD per hour (21.00 USD per 30 days) |
| Flex, 400 to 500 ops/sec | Up to 5 GB storage | 0.0411 USD per hour (30.00 USD per 30 days) |
| M10 | 10 to 128 GB, 2 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs | 0.08 USD per hour |
| M20 | 20 to 256 GB, 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs | 0.20 USD per hour |
| M30 | 40 to 512 GB, 8 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs | 0.54 USD per hour |
| M40 | 80 GB to 1 TB, 16 GB RAM, 4 vCPUs | 1.04 USD per hour |
| M50 | 160 GB to 4 TB, 32 GB RAM, 8 vCPUs | 2.00 USD per hour |
| Atlas Infinite (preview) | M10 and larger, decoupled storage | From 0.09 USD per hour |
Flex cluster for a side project with a busy spell
- Under 100 ops/sec for 20 days, then 200 to 300 ops/sec for 10 days
- Data under 5 GB; data transfer included in Flex
- Excludes taxes and support plans
| Item | Basis | Estimated per month |
|---|---|---|
| Base tier | 24 hours x 20 days x 0.0110 USD | 5.28 USD |
| 200 to 300 ops/sec tier | 24 hours x 10 days x 0.0288 USD | 6.91 USD |
| Estimated total | 12.19 USD for the 30 days (Flex is capped at 30 USD a month) |
Small production app on an M10 (AWS)
- M10 with default storage, running 730 hours
- 20 GB of backup snapshots, priced at the AWS range of 0.14 to 0.19 USD per GB-month
- 50 GB a month out to the internet, at the AWS range of 0.09 to 0.16 USD per GB
- Excludes extra storage, extra nodes, support and taxes
| Item | Basis | Estimated per month |
|---|---|---|
| M10 cluster | 730 hours x 0.08 USD | 58.40 USD |
| Cloud Backups | 20 GB x 0.14 to 0.19 USD | 2.80 to 3.80 USD |
| Internet egress | 50 GB x 0.09 to 0.16 USD | 4.50 to 8.00 USD |
| Estimated total | 65.70 to 70.20 USD per month, depending on region |
Growing workload on an M30 (AWS)
- M30 with default storage, running 730 hours
- Backups and data transfer excluded to show the tier cost alone
| Item | Basis | Estimated per month |
|---|---|---|
| M30 cluster | 730 hours x 0.54 USD | 394.20 USD |
| Estimated total | 394.20 USD per month before backups and transfer |
Worked examples are estimates calculated from the list prices above; they are not quotes or measured bills.
Frequently asked questions
Is MongoDB Atlas free?
Atlas has a Free tier that costs nothing indefinitely, with 512 MB of storage and shared compute. It is limited to one per project, cannot be backed up by Atlas and has data transfer limits, so it suits learning and prototypes.
How much does MongoDB Atlas cost per month?
A Flex cluster costs between 8 and 30 USD for 30 days depending on throughput. A Dedicated M10 is 0.08 USD per hour, about 58 USD for 730 hours, and MongoDB's page shows it starting at 56.94 USD a month; backups, data transfer and extra nodes come on top.
What replaced Atlas Serverless?
Flex clusters. MongoDB stopped new Serverless, M2 and M5 deployments in February 2025 and ended support on 22 January 2026, migrating existing instances.
Is MongoDB Atlas pricing the same on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud?
No. Prices depend on the cloud provider and region; for example MongoDB lists backup storage at 0.14 to 0.19 USD per GB on AWS but 0.34 to 0.65 USD on Azure. Price your exact provider and region.
Does Atlas charge for data transfer?
Dedicated clusters pay per GB for data transfer, with same-region traffic cheapest and internet egress most expensive. Free and Flex clusters are not charged for outgoing data transfer.
Sources
- MongoDB pricing
- Atlas docs: Flex cluster costs
- Atlas docs: Cluster configuration costs
- Atlas docs: Data transfer costs
- Atlas docs: Free cluster limits
- MongoDB Atlas database
Checked 8 October 2026.
How we research cloud database guides: our editorial method. CodeWithSQL earns nothing from the providers mentioned.