The Pulumi CLI is open source and free, and Pulumi Cloud's Individual edition is free forever with state management and unlimited projects. Team costs $40 a month with roughly 500 resources included and $0.1825 per extra resource per month for up to 10 users; Enterprise is $400 a month with about 2,000 resources and unlimited users.

Does Pulumi have a free plan?

Yes. Pulumi offers a free tier with limits; paid plans unlock higher usage or team features.

What are the main drawbacks of Pulumi?

The trade-offs we noted: Programming languages allow complexity to creep in; Smaller community than Terraform; State management still needs care.

When should you not use Pulumi?

Skip Pulumi if: You have thousands of resources and want flat pricing — resources are metered hourly; You need audit logs and drift detection below the $400/month Enterprise edition; You want the CLI only: it is open source and free, so Pulumi Cloud is optional.

Developer Tools

Pulumi

Infrastructure as code in real languages.

What it is

Pulumi defines infrastructure in real programming languages, so you get loops, functions and type checking instead of a template dialect. Real languages mean real abstractions: shared modules, unit tests and type checking against your cloud resources. The counter-argument is that infrastructure becomes a program, and a program can be over-engineered in ways a template cannot.

Pulumi pricing

Pulumi publishes 1 plan. Paid tiers start at $400/user/mo.

Pulumi plans and published prices, taken from the vendor’s pricing page.
Plan	Price	What the vendor’s page says
Enterprise	$400/user/mo	Enterprise $400/month with ~2,000 resources, unlimited users, $0.365 per resource, audit logs, drift detection

Prices read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-08. Vendors change plans without notice — check the source before you budget. Source

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Key features

General-purpose languages
Defines resources in TypeScript, Python, Go or C# instead of a template dialect.
Managed state
Tracks resource state in a hosted or self-managed backend with locking.
Multi-cloud providers
Uses one workflow across major cloud and SaaS providers.

Strengths and trade-offs

What works well

Real languages with real tooling
Type checking catches mistakes before deploy
Covers all major clouds

Where it falls short

Programming languages allow complexity to creep in
Smaller community than Terraform
State management still needs care

Who it is for

Teams whose infrastructure logic has outgrown a declarative template.

Pick it or skip it

Pick Pulumi if

Individuals who want hosted state management free forever with unlimited projects
Teams up to 10 that want $40/month with about 500 resources included, then $0.1825 per resource
Engineers who prefer TypeScript, Python, Go or C# to HCL for infrastructure code

Skip it if

You have thousands of resources and want flat pricing — resources are metered hourly
You need audit logs and drift detection below the $400/month Enterprise edition
You want the CLI only: it is open source and free, so Pulumi Cloud is optional

Our verdict

A good fit for engineers who would rather write code than templates. Terraform is easier to hire for.

Frequently asked questions

Is Pulumi free?: The Pulumi CLI is open source and free, and Pulumi Cloud's Individual edition is free forever with state management and unlimited projects. Team costs $40 a month with roughly 500 resources included and $0.1825 per extra resource per month for up to 10 users; Enterprise is $400 a month with about 2,000 resources and unlimited users.
Does Pulumi have a free plan?: Yes. Pulumi offers a free tier with limits; paid plans unlock higher usage or team features.
Who is Pulumi best for?: Teams whose infrastructure logic has outgrown a declarative template.
What are the main drawbacks of Pulumi?: The trade-offs we noted: Programming languages allow complexity to creep in; Smaller community than Terraform; State management still needs care.
When should you not use Pulumi?: Skip Pulumi if: You have thousands of resources and want flat pricing — resources are metered hourly; You need audit logs and drift detection below the $400/month Enterprise edition; You want the CLI only: it is open source and free, so Pulumi Cloud is optional.

What we checked

Public APIOffers a documented API you can build against.Yes
Mobile appHas a native app for iOS or Android, not just a mobile website.No
Open source / self-hostableSource is open and the tool can be run on your own infrastructure.Yes
SSO (SAML)Supports SAML single sign-on on at least one plan.Yes

“Not checked” means exactly that — we have not verified it, and we do not guess.

Evidence and freshness

Status: Vendor pricing page verifiedReviewed: 2026-09-08

Pulumi — Pricing ↗
Checked 2026-09-08 · Supports: Individual free forever: state management, unlimited projects and stacks, 500 workflow minutes, Team $40/month with 40 credits (~500 resources), up to 10 users, $0.1825 per resource/month, $0.50 per secret, Enterprise $400/month with ~2,000 resources, unlimited users, $0.365 per resource, audit logs, drift detection, Business Critical custom with self-hosting; open-source CLI free

Limit: Vendor pricing page was reviewed by an editor on this date; this record is not a ToolCompare benchmark. Prices and limits change.

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