Yes, DigitalOcean Container Registry has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans. The free plan includes Store up to 1 container registry repository and Use up to 500 MiB of storage. FreeTier.co estimates the free tier at about $2.00/mo.
About
DigitalOcean Container Registry is a managed private registry for storing and managing container images alongside DigitalOcean infrastructure. It is designed to support modern application delivery workflows by keeping images close to Kubernetes clusters and other DigitalOcean services for faster, more reliable deployments.
The service integrates directly with the Docker CLI and DigitalOcean Kubernetes, making it straightforward to build, push, and pull images as part of continuous deployment pipelines. It also supports private repositories, role-based access control, and encrypted storage to help teams manage container assets securely.
- Private container image storage and management
- Direct integration with Docker CLI workflows
- Seamless compatibility with DigitalOcean Kubernetes and App Platform
- Role-based access control for team access management
- Encrypted storage and secure image transfer
Free Tier Value
This free tier is a capped starter offering, not an uncapped forever plan: it includes one repository and 500 MiB of storage, with no overage option. Compared with the $5/month Basic plan, that is roughly 20% of the cheapest paid tier’s value, so about $2/month is a fair buyer-facing estimate. A credit card is required to create the account, which adds some friction even though the tier itself is permanently free.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- Store up to 1 container registry repository.
- Use up to 500 MiB of storage.
- Pay no storage overage charges on the free tier.
See DigitalOcean Container Registry pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Starter
- repositories
- 1
- storage
- 500 MiB
- storage overage
- N/A
- 1 repository
- 500 MiB storage
- No storage overage charges
Basic
- repositories
- 5
- storage
- 5 GiB
- storage overage
- $0.02/GiB
- 5 repositories
- 5 GiB storage
- Storage overage billed at $0.02/GiB
Professional
- repositories
- Unlimited
- storage
- 100 GiB
- storage overage
- $0.02/GiB
- Unlimited repositories
- 100 GiB storage
- Storage overage billed at $0.02/GiB
Pricing extracted from DigitalOcean Container Registry's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
Common questions
Is DigitalOcean Container Registry free forever?
Yes. DigitalOcean Container Registry has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
What happens when you exceed DigitalOcean Container Registry's free tier?
You move to a paid plan. DigitalOcean Container Registry's cheapest paid plan is Basic at $5 / month.
What is DigitalOcean Container Registry's free tier worth?
DigitalOcean Container Registry's free tier is worth about $2.00 per month. That maps to an FTV score of 36/100. The FTV score is explained at freetier.co/ftv.
