Credits
Last checked:Northflank always-free tier: No cash credit; free Developer Sandbox plan
creditssandboxnorthflankgpu
A platform for deploying services, jobs, and databases on managed or bring-your-own cloud infrastructure, with GPU workloads available. Official site
Northflank always-free tier, the facts
| Amount | No cash credit; free Developer Sandbox plan |
|---|---|
| Grant type | Always-free tier, no expiring credit |
| Expiry | Not stated officially |
| Payment method required | Yes |
| Withdrawable as cash | No |
| What I ran on it | Not tested yet |
Filed under: GPU cloud free creditsAI sandbox free credits
Good for
- Running a couple of small services and a database free on the Developer Sandbox plan
- Teams that want a path from free tier to GPUs on the same platform
Not for
- Starting without any payment method: all users must add one to create resources
- Free GPU time: GPU workloads require a $50+ credit purchase
Northflank’s free offering is the Developer Sandbox plan: 2 services, 2 jobs, 1 addon, and up to 1 bring-your-own-cloud cluster, at no cost. There is no signup cash credit. And despite the plan being free, every user must add a payment method to create resources, regardless of plan; Northflank describes this as identity verification. Checked against the official pricing and billing docs on 2026-09-02.
No signup credit, and what credits mean here
On Northflank, “credits” are something you buy: the minimum credit purchase is $50 and the maximum is $10,000. If you have seen Northflank listed among providers with free credits, read that carefully; the free part is the Developer Sandbox plan’s included resources, not a dollar balance. Contrast that with the Daytona $200 credit or the E2B Hobby $100, which are actual signup balances with no card required.
GPUs exist, behind a $50 gate
Northflank publishes GPU rates: as of 2026-08-21, L4 at $0.80 per hour, A100 40GB at $1.42, A100 80GB at $1.76, H100 at $2.74, and RTX PRO 6000 96GB at $3.00 per hour. But the docs state that GPU workloads require a $50 or greater credit purchase to unlock access. So the cheapest possible route to a Northflank GPU is $50 of prepaid credit. One more operational rule from the docs: GPU services stop immediately when credits run out.
The payment method requirement
The official rule is that all users must add a payment method to create resources, even on the free plan. I mark this entry cardRequired yes on that basis and mirror the wording “payment method” rather than narrowing it to a credit card.
Choose or skip
Choose Northflank if you want a free tier that can grow into paid GPU workloads on the same platform and you do not mind adding a payment method on day one. Skip it if you are hunting for no-card signup credits, because there is no cash grant here.
What I have done with it
Not tested yet. This page reports only what the official pages state.
For the broader decision between sandboxes, serverless, and VPS, read how to choose compute. Every grant I track is on the credits index.
What changed here
Added Northflank: No cash credit; free Developer Sandbox plan.
Plus 1 recheck that found nothing changed. Every row links to the full record on the changelog, with the official page it was checked against.
Related entries
Daytona: $200 in free compute
E2B: $100 (one-time)
Render: 750 free instance hours per month
Koyeb: One free web Service, no cash credit
Sources
Last checked:All numbers on this page come from the official pages above, checked on the date shown. If a figure is not stated there, this page says "Not stated officially" instead of guessing.