Yes, wsrv.nl has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans. The free plan includes Uncached request limit of 2,500 images per 10 minutes per visitor IP, Server-side image caching for up to 31 days, typically at least 7 days, and Browser-side image caching for 1 year.
About
wsrv.nl is an image service for on-the-fly image resizing and transformation. It caches and serves processed images through a worldwide CDN, using nginx and libvips for image processing.
The service is free for anyone to use on the wsrv.nl domain, but it is offered as-is with best-effort support. The FAQ notes a request limit of 2,500 uncached images per visitor IP per 10 minutes, with a 1-hour block after that limit is exceeded. It also keeps logs for 7 days and caches processed images for up to 31 days, with browser caching set to 1 year.
- On-the-fly image resizing
- Worldwide CDN caching
- 2,500 uncached requests per 10 minutes
- 1-hour IP block after limit
- 7-day server log retention
- Up to 31-day server cache
- 1-year browser cache headers
- Open source BSD 3-Clause license
Free Tier Value
This free tier is a perpetual, publicly available service with no signup or credit card friction, so it has real ongoing value even though it is capped. The main limits are origin-domain filtering and an uncached-request cap of 2,500 images per 10 minutes per visitor IP, but the caching and long browser retention make it useful for small projects; that puts it at roughly a few dollars a month in practical value.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- Free image resizing service for anyone.
- Origin-domain filtering that blocks some source websites.
- Uncached request limit of 2,500 images per 10 minutes per visitor IP.
- Temporary IP block for 1 hour after exceeding the uncached request limit.
- Processed images kept in cache for a short time.
- Server-side image caching for up to 31 days, typically at least 7 days.
- Browser-side image caching for 1 year.
- Logs retained for 7 days on the processing server only.
See wsrv.nl pricing for current limits.
Common questions
Is wsrv.nl free forever?
Yes. wsrv.nl has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
Does wsrv.nl require a credit card?
No. You can start on wsrv.nl's free tier without entering card details.
What is wsrv.nl's free tier worth?
wsrv.nl's free tier is worth about $3.00 per month. That maps to an FTV score of 54/100. The FTV score is explained at freetier.co/ftv.
