Table of Contents
Plans and prices, from the API
Linode publishes its plan catalog at an unauthenticated API endpoint, which is what this table is read from (September 2026). Shared-CPU instances, US regions, monthly price with the hourly rate that the monthly figure caps:
| Plan | Monthly | Hourly | vCPU | RAM | Storage | Transfer | Backups add-on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nanode 1GB | $5 | $0.0075 | 1 | 1 GB | 25 GB | 1 TB | $2 |
| Linode 2GB | $12 | $0.018 | 1 | 2 GB | 50 GB | 2 TB | $2.50 |
| Linode 4GB | $24 | $0.036 | 2 | 4 GB | 80 GB | 4 TB | $5 |
| Linode 8GB | $48 | $0.072 | 4 | 8 GB | 160 GB | 5 TB | $10 |
| Linode 16GB | $96 | $0.144 | 6 | 16 GB | 320 GB | 8 TB | $20 |
| Linode 32GB | $192 | $0.288 | 8 | 32 GB | 640 GB | 16 TB | $40 |
The ladder doubles price with memory all the way up, which makes Linode easy to budget and expensive at the bottom relative to fixed-price hosts. The API also carries per-region surcharges for two non-US regions (Jakarta and Sao Paulo); none of the US regions carry one. Storage type is not stated in the API and is not claimed here.
Dedicated CPU and high-memory lines
Two lines matter beyond the shared plans. Dedicated CPU reserves the cores for one instance: Dedicated 4GB is $36 (2 cores), 8GB $72 (4 cores), 16GB $144 (8 cores), 32GB $288 (16 cores), with the same transfer allowances as the shared plans at the same memory. That is the line for CI runners, video encoding, compilers and anything that runs cores flat out; it prices in the same range as Hetzner's dedicated CCX line in the US (CCX13 at $50.99 for 2 cores and 8 GB) and above the shared-CPU plans by 50 percent at the same memory. High memory starts at $60 for 2 cores and 24 GB, for caches and in-memory databases. The API also lists GPU, premium and accelerated classes, priced per region, outside this review.
Ten US regions
From the regions API (September 2026): Miami (us-mia), Los Angeles (us-lax), Washington DC (us-iad and us-iad-2), Seattle (us-sea), Chicago (us-ord), Dallas (us-central), Newark (us-east), Atlanta (us-southeast) and Fremont (us-west). Backups, block storage and Kubernetes are listed as available in all ten. Premium plans and premium NodeBalancers are listed in the newer regions (Miami, Los Angeles, both Washington DC regions, Seattle, Chicago) and not in the older four (Dallas, Newark, Atlanta, Fremont); GPU instances are listed in Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Newark and Atlanta.
No other provider on this site has ten US regions; Vultr has nine. For a US-only audience that wants a server in a specific metro, Linode and Vultr are the two that can usually oblige, and the US datacenter guide covers which metro to pick.
Transfer: pooled, inbound free
Akamai's documentation describes the model. Each instance's monthly allowance is added to a pool for the account, global or per data center; the documentation lists "All inbound network transfer" under "Free unmetered network transfer"; and you are "only billed for additional network transfer if your usage exceeds the global or data center-specific pools during a billing period". A single busy instance can therefore exceed its own allowance without charge while quieter instances leave room in the pool. Overage is billed by region at a rate on the pricing page, which could not be retrieved by our tools and is not quoted here. Distributed compute regions are the exception: transfer there is not pooled.
Linode under Akamai
Akamai announced an agreement to acquire Linode in February 2022 for about $900 million and completed the acquisition in March 2022. The platform is now marketed as Akamai Connected Cloud, with documentation at Akamai's TechDocs and the Linode brand kept on the console and plan names. What a buyer sees: the same API and plan ladder as before, more regions than Linode had on its own, premium and GPU lines, and Akamai's CDN, security and edge products next door. What a buyer should not assume: that anything about pricing or support is guaranteed by the acquisition; the plan data above is the promise, and the rest is Akamai's to change.
What is included, and what is extra
- Included: hourly billing capped at the monthly price; a public API and CLI; the Linode Cloud Manager console; an IPv4 address; pooled transfer with free inbound; the ten US regions at one price.
- Add-ons: backups at $2 to $240 a month by plan (from the API), block storage, NodeBalancers, managed Kubernetes (LKE) node pools priced as the underlying instances, with the LKE control plane priced on Linode's pricing page.
- Not offered: Windows images (none among the 35 public images in the images API); a fixed-price introductory tier; a stated refund policy that our tools could retrieve.
Against Vultr, DigitalOcean and the fixed-price hosts
| Provider, plan | 1 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB | US regions | Billing | Backups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linode | $5 | $12 | $24 | 10 | Hourly, monthly cap | $2 to $5 add-on |
| Vultr | $5 | $10 | $20 | 9 | Hourly | Add-on |
| DigitalOcean | $6 | $12 | $24 | 2 | Per-second, monthly cap | Percentage add-on |
| InterServer | No 1 GB plan | $3 | $6 | 3 cities | Monthly, no refund | Separate product |
| OVHcloud | No 1 GB plan | No 2 GB plan | $5.35 | 2 | Monthly, 6 or 12 months | Daily, included |
| Hetzner (US) | No 1 GB plan | $20.49 | $37.49 | 2 | Hourly, monthly cap | Add-on |
Among the cloud platforms, Linode is priced with DigitalOcean and above Vultr, and it has the most US regions of the three. Against the fixed-price hosts it is not close on hardware per dollar, and it is not meant to be: the buyer who wants $3 for 2 GB and one server that runs all month is on the wrong page, and the cheapest VPS page is the right one.
Who should pick Linode
- A team that scripts infrastructure and wants a stable API, a CLI and Terraform support with ten US metros to choose from.
- Workloads that need dedicated cores at a known price: Dedicated 4GB at $36 or 8GB at $72, billed hourly.
- Managed Kubernetes on a budget through LKE, with node pools on the same plan ladder.
- Anyone already on Akamai for CDN or security, who wants compute in the same account.
- Not the single small server for a website or a bot; InterServer, OVHcloud or Contabo do that for a fraction of the price.
Verdict and rating
Linode is a well-run developer cloud with the broadest US footprint on this site, a plan ladder you can read from an API, hourly billing, and the ownership of a large public company. Its prices are platform prices: $12 for 2 GB and $24 for 4 GB against $3 and $6 at InterServer, and $2 to $4 more than Vultr at the same sizes. Rating for US buyers: 4.3 out of 5. Credit for the ten regions, the dedicated and high-memory lines, pooled transfer with free inbound, and a versioned public API. Held down by price at the small sizes, backups as a paid add-on, and a pricing page and terms our tools could not read, which leaves the refund question unanswered here.
Choose Linode if regions, API and dedicated cores matter and the price is a rounding error against your time. Choose Vultr if you want the same shape of product for a little less. Choose InterServer or OVHcloud if you want one server that runs all month for the least money.