Dify Cloud Pricing: Plans, Free Tier, and When to Self-Host

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What is Dify cloud pricing and how does it work?
• What is the Dify cloud pricing free plan (Sandbox)?
• What are Dify cloud pricing plans for professionals?
• How does dify.ai cloud pricing compare across tiers?
• When should you self-host Dify instead of using cloud?
• How do you self-host Dify if you're technical?
• How do cloud and self-hosted costs compare?
• How do you choose between Dify cloud and self-hosting?
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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Introduction

Dify has become a go-to platform for building generative AI applications without heavy engineering. Whether you are a solo developer or a team shipping production apps, understanding Dify cloud pricing and when self-hosting makes sense is key. The platform offers clear tiers: a free Sandbox, paid Professional and Team plans, and enterprise options, plus the ability to run Dify on your own infrastructure. This guide walks through dify cloud pricing plans, the dify cloud pricing free plan, and how to decide between cloud and self-hosting.

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What is Dify cloud pricing and how does it work?

Dify cloud pricing is built around fixed monthly plans plus included message credits and features, rather than pure usage-based billing. That gives you predictable costs instead of surprise bills when traffic spikes.

The main unit of consumption is message credits. Each credit represents an API call to a language model, so the number of credits you get per month caps how much you can use built-in LLM calls before paying for overages or upgrading. Beyond credits, tiers differ by team size, number of applications, knowledge base storage, and support level.

Dify.ai cloud pricing currently has four cloud tiers: Sandbox (free), Professional, Team, and Enterprise. Each step up adds more credits, higher limits, and better support. Enterprise is custom-priced. All tiers let you connect your own model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, and others); your subscription covers the Dify platform, while you still pay model providers for API usage separately.

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What is the Dify cloud pricing free plan (Sandbox)?

The Dify cloud pricing free plan is called the Sandbox Plan. It is meant for trying the platform and building small projects without spending anything.

You get 200 message credits and 200 times GPT free trial access, so you can run chatbots, text generators, and other apps against OpenAI and other providers. The Sandbox Plan supports multiple model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Llama2, Azure OpenAI, Hugging Face, Replicate), so you can test different backends. You can create up to 10 applications and use 5MB of vector storage with a 50-document upload limit for knowledge bases.

Limitations include a daily cap of 500 message requests, no custom tools, standard (not priority) document processing, and only 10 annotation quota and 15 days of log history. Support is community forums only. For learning the product or building a proof of concept, the dify cloud pricing free plan is enough; for production or teams, you will likely need a paid tier.

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What are Dify cloud pricing plans for professionals?

The Professional Plan is the first paid tier and the usual starting point for serious use. It is priced at $59 per month and scales up from the free plan in almost every dimension.

You get 5,000 message credits per month (25 times the free tier), support for up to three team members, and 50 applications. Knowledge base limits go up to 500 documents and 5GB storage, with a knowledge request rate limit of 100 requests per minute. Document processing uses priority instead of standard, annotation quota rises to 2,000, and log history is unlimited. You also get up to 10 custom tools and email support instead of community-only.

The Team Plan costs $159 per month and targets growing teams. Message credits double to 10,000, and team capacity can go much higher (sources vary, but it is aimed at teams of multiple developers and stakeholders). Knowledge storage increases to 1,000 documents and 20GB, and the knowledge request rate limit reaches 1,000 per minute. Custom tools are unlimited, and you get priority email and chat support plus SSO authentication and more white-label options.

These dify cloud pricing plans suit small and mid-size teams that want predictable costs and managed infrastructure without running Dify themselves.

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How does dify.ai cloud pricing compare across tiers?

A quick comparison helps you see where each tier fits.

Sandbox (free): 200 message credits, 10 apps, 5MB vector storage, 50 documents, 500 daily message requests, community support. Best for experimentation.

Professional ($59/month): 5,000 credits, 3 team members, 50 apps, 5GB storage, 500 documents, priority document processing, unlimited logs, 10 custom tools, email support. Best for small teams and production apps with moderate usage.

Team ($159/month): 10,000 credits, larger team capacity, 20GB storage, 1,000 documents, 1,000 knowledge requests per minute, unlimited custom tools, priority support, SSO, more white-labeling. Best for teams that need collaboration and higher limits.

Enterprise: Custom pricing. Typically unlimited credits, applications, and team members, with SLA, dedicated support, and advanced security and compliance features. Best for large organizations with strict requirements.

Dify.ai cloud pricing is designed so you can start free and move up as your usage and team grow, without lock-in; the open-source base means you can also move to self-hosting later if that fits better.

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When should you self-host Dify instead of using cloud?

Self-hosting Dify makes sense when control, cost at scale, or compliance matters more than convenience.

If you have strict data residency or data governance requirements, keeping everything on your own infrastructure can be mandatory. Regulated industries (finance, healthcare, government) often need this. Self-hosting also gives you full control over upgrades, backups, and security hardening.

Cost-wise, at high volume the math can favor self-hosting. Cloud message credits and per-seat pricing add up; if you run many applications or millions of API calls, your own servers plus model API costs can be cheaper than paying for equivalent cloud tiers. That only holds if you have (or can hire) people to run and maintain the stack.

Finally, if you need custom integrations, air-gapped deployments, or special networking, self-hosting is the way to go. Cloud is better when you want to focus on product and leave infrastructure to Dify, or when your usage is small to medium and you value predictability and support.

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How do you self-host Dify if you're technical?

Dify is open source, so you can run it on your own servers or cloud VMs. The project provides Docker-based deployment, which is the most common path.

You need a host with Docker and Docker Compose (or a Kubernetes setup if you prefer). Allocate enough CPU and memory for the API server, worker processes, and the vector database (e.g. Weaviate, Milvus, or Qdrant). You also need object storage (e.g. S3-compatible) for files and a relational database (PostgreSQL is typical). The exact requirements depend on the number of apps, document volume, and request rate.

Installation usually involves cloning the repo, configuring environment variables (database URLs, storage, API keys for model providers), and bringing up the stack with Docker Compose. You then point your domain at the server and, if desired, put a reverse proxy and TLS in front. Once running, you use the same Dify UI and workflows as on cloud; the difference is you manage updates, backups, scaling, and security yourself.

If you are technical and already operate similar services, self-hosting Dify is straightforward. If not, the operational burden can outweigh the cost savings, and Dify cloud pricing may be the better trade-off.

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How do cloud and self-hosted costs compare?

For small teams, cloud usually wins. A team of three on the Professional Plan pays $59/month ($708/year) plus whatever they spend on model APIs. That is often far cheaper than hiring someone to run and secure a self-hosted deployment.

For medium teams, the comparison is closer. At $159/month the Team Plan is still manageable; self-hosting starts to pay off when you have many apps, high message volume, or existing DevOps capacity. You save on per-credit and per-seat fees but take on server costs, storage, and engineering time.

For large organizations with heavy usage and in-house infrastructure, self-hosting can be cheaper and more flexible. You pay for compute, storage, and model APIs, but not for Dify’s markup on credits or seats. The breakeven depends on your usage pattern and how you value engineering time versus subscription fees.

Agencies serving many clients sometimes use cloud (e.g. Professional or Team) and pass platform costs to clients; margins can stay healthy if usage stays within plan limits. If a few clients drive most of the usage, self-hosting or careful plan selection becomes important.

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How do you choose between Dify cloud and self-hosting?

Start with your constraints. If compliance or data residency requires everything on your infrastructure, self-hosting is the only option. If you need to ship quickly and lack DevOps capacity, cloud is the pragmatic choice.

Then look at scale and cost. Low or uncertain usage favors cloud: fixed monthly cost and no ops burden. High, predictable usage and existing platform or DevOps teams make self-hosting more attractive. Run the numbers for your expected message volume, team size, and application count against the dify cloud pricing plans and your estimated self-host costs (servers, storage, labor).

Finally, consider strategy. Dify’s open-source nature means you are not locked in; you can begin on cloud and move to self-hosting later, or start self-hosted and switch to cloud if operations become a burden. Choosing Dify cloud pricing or self-hosting is not irreversible, so you can align the decision with your current priorities and revisit as things change.

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