---
name: satellite-pricing
title: Satellite pricing for locations and services
description: IBM Cloud Satellite provides a flexible way for you to consume IBM Cloud services in any location, with no charges for unassigned hosts and no separate fees for Satellite management capabilities.
last-updated: 2026-08-14
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Satellite pricing for locations and services
{: #sat-pricing}

IBM Cloud Satellite provides a flexible way for you to consume IBM Cloud services in any location, with no charges for unassigned hosts and no separate fees for Satellite management capabilities.
{: shortdesc}

Flexible consumption
:    No charges are incurred for hosts that are attached to a location, but not assigned to a resource. You can have as many hosts waiting in your location without being charged for future growth. As soon as you unassign a host from a resource, you are no longer charged for that host. Keep in mind that hosts can be automatically assigned to services, depending on your setup.

Application and networking capabilities at no additional charge
:   You do not have separate charges for Satellite management capabilities for the locations, hosts, such as endpoints, configuration versions and subscriptions, or other Satellite resources.

## Satellite locations
{: #pricing-satloc}

Review the following table for pricing details. For more information, see the detailed [Pricing model](https://cloud.ibm.com/satellite/overview){: external}

| Type of charge | Locations created after 15 November 2022 | Locations created before 15 November 2022 | What the charge covers |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Location management fee | A flat fee for the location, charged hourly. | Per vCPU hour of the hosts that are attached to the location. | The benefits of IBM Cloud Satellite, such as to create the cluster on any compatible infrastructure that you want; tooling to consistently deploy apps, storage drivers, and endpoints across the location; integration with IBM Cloud platform tooling such as IAM; continuous monitoring by IBM Site Reliability Engineers; access to IBM Cloud support; and more.  |
| Infrastructure fee | Varies by provider | Varies by provider | The underlying infrastructure that you bring to Satellite is your own, and might have its own charges. Consult your infrastructure provider for more details, such as about the storage, compute, and networking of the hosts in a cloud or on-prem environment. |
{: caption="Satellite location control plane charges." caption-side="bottom"}

## Satellite-enabled IBM Cloud services
{: #pricing-services}

Each IBM Cloud service instance that you create in your Satellite location incurs charges. For more information, see [Supported Satellite-enabled IBM Cloud services](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-managed-services&format=markdown).

{: faq}

When you create a resource such as a location or cluster, you can review a cost estimate in the **Summary** pane of the console. For other types of estimates, see [Estimating your costs](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-cost&format=markdown#cost).

Keep in mind that some charges are not reflected in the estimate, such as the costs for your underlying infrastructure.

{: faq}
 

See [View your usage](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-viewingusage&format=markdown#viewingusage) and [Set spending notifications](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-spending-notifications&format=markdown) for general IBM Cloud account guidance.