Image and video storage, transformation and CDN delivery paid for with 25 monthly credits; 1 credit is 1 GB of storage, 1 GB of bandwidth or 1,000 transformations.
Verified ·Oct 15, 2026
Free allowance
What the free plan includes, as the provider states it.
- credits / month
- 25
- One shared pool: 1 credit = 1,000 transformations, 1 GB managed storage, 1 GB viewing bandwidth, 500 s SD or 250 s HD video processing.
- storage
- 25 GB
- Upper bound: only if all 25 credits go to storage; storage, bandwidth and transformations share the same credits.
- bandwidth / month
- 25 GB
- Upper bound: only if all 25 credits go to viewing bandwidth.
- transformations / month
- 25K
- Upper bound: only if all 25 credits go to transformations. Each unique derived asset counts once.
- max image file size
- 10 MB
- max video file size
- 100 MB
The fine print
Each verdict links to the quote it rests on.
- Free for
- As long as you stay within the limits
- At the limit
- You are asked to upgrade
- Spending cap
- None needed: the free plan cannot bill you
- Idle projects
- No pause rule documentedLimits are soft: Cloudinary warns and asks you to upgrade; continued overage can partially and then fully disable the account.
- Data retention
- No deletion rule documented
- Card at sign-up
- Not required
- Identity check
- An email address
- Commercial use
- Allowed
- Mainland China
- Partly reachableGreatFire rates cloudinary.com as mixed. The default delivery host res.cloudinary.com reads accessible over HTTPS but opens only sometimes over plain HTTP, and some image URLs on it are disrupted. The upload API host api.cloudinary.com has not been tested. Cloudinary says its global CDN, which serves every plan including Free, excludes China.
- Sign-up regions
- No restrictions documented
- Quotas apply per
- Account
Alternatives
Other free plans for the same need, ranked by the same neutral rules.
Changes
- Correction
Better: Mainland China reachability corrected: not verified → partly reachable
- Oct 15, 2026
- Awaiting review
- Free