Digitalocean Slashes AI Inference Pricing 67% on Gradient Platform
What happened
Between the Apr 6, 2026 and Apr 13, 2026 captures of Digitalocean's pricing page, Pulse recorded 2 changes: Sign-up credit offer changed from $200 for 60 days to $5 for 90 days. The 'Get started for free' section replaced with 'Start building today' with no free credit offer shown; Gradient AI Platform starting price decreased from $0.15/M tokens to $0.05/M tokens, a 67% reduction in the per-token inference rate. Pulse files it as a pricing change (freemium change, price decrease) with a downward direction. Pulse's latest capture (Nov 9, 2026) lists Droplets at $4, Spaces Object Storage at $5, Volumes Block Storage at $10, Cloudways Managed Hosting at $11 and Kubernetes at $12.
It lands 4 days after Digitalocean's previous change, "Digitalocean launches free Cloud Security Posture Management tool" (Apr 9, 2026). Before that Pulse recorded "Digitalocean slashes Network File Storage prices 50% with new tiered plans" (Mar 23, 2026), "Digitalocean GPU Droplets jump 26% to $1.88/hr on multi-month contracts" (Mar 3, 2026) and "Digitalocean sets $0.01 floor on per-second Droplet billing" (Feb 18, 2026). Digitalocean has been tracked since 2024-10-01.
In the same window Google Cloud, Aws and Vultr also changed their Cloud & DevOps pricing pages. Those moves are listed further down, and the Pulse Agent can compare them side by side.
- Changed—Free tier$200 for 60 days$5
- −67%InferencePrice$0.15/M tokens$0.05/M tokens
| Plan | Field | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Free tier | $200 for 60 days | $5 | Changed |
| Inference | Price | $0.15/M tokens | $0.05/M tokens | −67% |
Values as written on Digitalocean's public pricing page in the two captures Pulse compared; where the page states no number, the cells give the wording before and after.
Evidence
The two captures Pulse comparedFull-page captures of Digitalocean's pricing page (digitalocean.com) from Apr 6, 2026 and Apr 13, 2026; the change is marked in the lower part of the page, where inference price reads $0.15/M tokens and then $0.05/M tokens.
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The two full-page captures with this change marked up are free with an account.
Digitalocean, the last 90 days
Full history- Jul 5, 2026PackagingDigitalOcean launches Evaluations: LLM-as-a-Judge pricing, pay per token used
- Jul 2, 2026Price decreaseDigitalOcean: AI Inference price cut 67% ($0.15->$0.05/M) + new Security (CSPM)
- Jun 8, 2026PackagingDigitalocean rebrands AI Platform to Inference for broader ML reach
- Apr 13, 2026Price decreaseDigitalocean Slashes AI Inference Pricing 67% on Gradient Platform This change
- Apr 9, 2026PackagingDigitalocean launches free Cloud Security Posture Management tool
- Apr 3, 2026Price increaseDigitalOcean: committed GPU Droplet price raised to $1.88/GPU/hour
- Mar 23, 2026Price decreaseDigitalocean slashes Network File Storage prices 50% with new tiered plans
- Mar 3, 2026Price increaseDigitalocean GPU Droplets jump 26% to $1.88/hr on multi-month contracts
- Feb 18, 2026Price increaseDigitalocean sets $0.01 floor on per-second Droplet billing
Across Cloud & DevOps in the same window
All Cloud & DevOps changes- Google CloudNov 9Google Cloud Datastudio overhauls token allocation to per-user tiers, caps free…
- Google CloudNov 9Google Cloud Looker shifts Conversational Analytics tokens to per-user allocations
- AwsNov 9Aws Mwaa adds per-second billing for Customer Managed Tasks in Serverless
- VultrOct 19Vultr drops 4x and 8x NVIDIA A16 GPU tiers, jumping from 2x straight to 16x
- VultrSep 28Vultr: NVIDIA A16 2-GPU tier RAM cut 128GB→120GB
Questions about this change
Did Digitalocean raise prices in April 2026?
No — prices went down. Between Apr 6, 2026 and Apr 13, 2026 Digitalocean's pricing page showed 1 price cut: Inference: $0.15/M tokens → $0.05/M tokens (−67%).
What changed on Digitalocean's pricing page between Apr 6, 2026 and Apr 13, 2026?
Free tier: $200 for 60 days → $5, changed; Inference price: $0.15/M tokens → $0.05/M tokens (−67%). Pulse compared the captures it took on Apr 6, 2026 and Apr 13, 2026; the before/after table above lists each item as written on the page.
How often does Digitalocean change its pricing?
Pulse recorded 4 other pricing-page changes for Digitalocean in the 90 days before this one; the previous change was "Digitalocean launches free Cloud Security Posture Management tool" on Apr 9, 2026; Digitalocean has been tracked since 2024-10-01.