One credit buys a transformation, 1 GB of storage or video bandwidth, so spend them where you like. Cloudinary is an image and video platform with an upload widget, API, transformations, video transcoding and CDN delivery. The Free plan is $0 forever with no credit card, 3 users, 1 account and 25 monthly credits, and one credit can go toward transformations, 1 GB of managed storage or video bandwidth. Plus is $99 a month ($89 on the yearly toggle) with 225 credits, and Advanced is $249 ($224 yearly) with 600 credits. G2 reviewers like the runtime image and video processing and complain about price (21 mentions), navigation and a complex interface. Trustpilot reviewers describe a $100 jump after Free, and one claims an account was shut down over a quota overage.
Free tier quotas
Plan
Free forever, $0
Card
No credit card required
Credits
25 monthly credits
What a credit buys
Transformations, or 1 GB of managed storage, or video bandwidth. Credits are interchangeable
Users and accounts
3 users, 1 account
Included
Upload widget, API and search, remote fetch, image and video transformations, video transcoding and adaptive streaming, CDN delivery, free add-ons
Support
Forums, tickets and email
Last sniffed Oct 2, 2026. Always confirm on the official pricing page.
👍 Good boy
+The Free plan is $0 forever with no credit card, 3 users and 25 monthly credits, per the pricing page.
+One credit pool covers transformations, managed storage and video bandwidth, so you can mix and match up to your plan's limit.
+Free includes the upload widget, API, remote fetch, image and video transformations, video transcoding, adaptive streaming and CDN delivery.
+A G2 reviewer called it an excellent service for image and video runtime processing that distributes content through a CDN.
+A Capterra reviewer said it works well, loads links fast and that their developers like it.
+A r/SaaS commenter said Cloudinary is way more capable with images and video than ImageKit and keeps transforms, resizing and caching out of your app.
+In G2's side-by-side with ImageKit, Cloudinary's top themes are ease of use (71 mentions) and image management (43).
👎 Watch out
−Price is the main complaint. G2 shows 'Expensive' with 21 mentions, and a Capterra reviewer rated value for money 2.0 and wrote that it does not make sense price-wise against competitors.
−That same Capterra reviewer said they stayed only because of a lower legacy rate, and that the interface is quite dated.
−The jump after Free is $99 a month ($89 on the yearly toggle). A Trustpilot reviewer wrote 'From free the next jump is 100$, nothing in between.'
−One Trustpilot reviewer claims Cloudinary shuts your account down if you pass your quota by 0.01% instead of charging overages. That is a single uncorroborated claim.
−G2 cons include poor navigation (22 mentions in the ImageKit comparison), a complex interface and usability issues.
−A Capterra reviewer said some advanced features take time to understand and implement, and another said pricing gets expensive as you scale.
−The credit system is calculated automatically and broken down in the dashboard. The part of the pricing page I captured does not list how many transformations one credit covers.
The catch
Credits are the unit for everything. One credit covers transformations, 1 GB of managed storage or video bandwidth, and on paid plans video bandwidth counts 2 GB per credit. Cloudinary calculates usage automatically, and the dashboard shows the breakdown. Estimate your own mix before you pick a plan.
The step from Free (25 credits) to Plus (225 credits) is $99 a month, or $89 on the yearly toggle. Trustpilot and Capterra reviewers both call out the cost, and G2 shows 21 mentions of 'Expensive'.
One Trustpilot reviewer claims the account is shut down if you exceed your quota slightly, rather than billed overages. I could not corroborate it, so ask Cloudinary how overages work for your plan.
A Capterra reviewer who kept using Cloudinary did so because of a legacy rate. If you are comparing, price out ImageKit, which a Reddit commenter called cheaper but less capable.
What’s included
✓Upload widget and API
✓Image transformations
✓Video transformations and transcoding
✓Adaptive streaming
✓CDN delivery
✓Remote fetch and auto-backup
✓Add-ons
✓Access to MCP servers
✓Role-based administration (Plus)
Free tier value
Generosity
B
Estimated value
25 monthly credits of image and video processing, storage and delivery
Feature parity
Free: 25 credits, 3 users, 1 account. Plus is $99 a month ($89 yearly) with 225 credits.
Screenshots
Cloudinary homepageCloudinary pricing page
Paid plans
Plus, $99 a month ($89 yearly)
225 monthly credits, 3 users and 2 accounts. Adds backup to your own S3 bucket, auto-tagging based search, allowlist and blocklist asset access, paid add-ons, expedited support and role-based multi-user administration.
Advanced, $249 a month ($224 yearly)
600 monthly credits, 5 users and 3 accounts.
Enterprise, custom
Security and compliance review, multi-CDN infrastructure, SLAs and support, a designated customer success manager, custom contracts and invoicing, and SSO with a provisioning API.
Common questions
Is Cloudinary free?
Yes. The Free plan is $0 forever with no credit card required, 3 users, 1 account and 25 monthly credits.
What is a credit?
One credit can be spent on transformations, or 1 GB of managed storage, or video bandwidth. On paid plans, 1 credit covers 2 GB of video bandwidth.
How much is the first paid plan?
Plus is $99 a month, or $89 a month on the yearly toggle, with 225 monthly credits.
Why do reviewers say it is expensive?
G2 shows 21 mentions of price, and Capterra and Trustpilot reviewers say costs rise with scale and that there is no plan between Free and Plus.
How does it compare with ImageKit?
A Reddit commenter said ImageKit is cheaper but Cloudinary is more capable with images and video. G2 reviewers rate ImageKit 4.7 from 300 reviews.
Change history
Checked October 22, 2026
Rewrote from the current pricing page (Free 25 credits, Plus $99, Advanced $249), G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and Reddit.
