# Free to start, pay as you go

> Datalab now has a free tier and pay-as-you-go pricing. Start parsing for free with a monthly usage allowance, then pay only for the pages you actually process — no subscription, no minimum, no plan to pick.

- Canonical: https://www.datalab.to/blog/free-to-start-pay-as-you-go
- Published: 2026-06-18
- Authors: Vanessa Chan, Ashish Uppala

We're excited to launch a **free tier** with **pay-as-you-go** pricing for Datalab. We've heard your interest in a flexible plan that lets you test on smaller volumes before scaling up, without committing to a fixed monthly rate. Our free tier enables exactly that — start parsing for free, no subscription or commitment needed.

## Free, every month

Accounts in our free tier come with a monthly usage allowance you can spend across any of our processors:

- **$20/month** on a work email
- **$10/month** on a personal email

Credits reset at the start of each 30-day cycle. It's designed so you can run a full POC from start to finish — proving accuracy on your own documents before anyone has to add a card. The free tier comes with a rate limit of 25 requests per minute.

## Need more? Pay for exactly what you use

When you outgrow the free allowance, add a card and switch to pay-as-you-go. There's no plan to pick and no minimum. You're billed only for the pages you actually process.

Rates are now per-processor and additive, so you only pay for the steps you run. For example, if you convert then extract a 1,000-page document, it's $4 + $6 = $10. A few of the new rates (per 1,000 pages):

- **Conversion**: $4 fast/balanced, $10 accurate
- **Extraction**: $6 fast, $25 balanced (balanced adds a compute surcharge on complex schemas — none for most documents, typically $0–$2)
- **Segmentation, track changes, form filling, spreadsheets, document creation**: $6
- **Custom processors**: $20

You can see the full rate card, with worked examples, at [datalab.to/pricing](https://www.datalab.to/pricing).

## For teams and enterprises

If you're scaling up, our **Team** plan is $400/month and includes $400 of usage per month, production rate limits, clickthrough BAA/DPA, a SOC 2 report, and more custom processors.

## Get started

Create a free account and run your first document in minutes. We can't wait to see what you build.

[Start for free →](https://www.datalab.to/auth/sign_up)