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There's a free plan; paid tiers are quoted.
DuckDB’s listed price is $0: the free, MIT-licensed project permits personal and commercial use, with no monthly or annual billing. We found no paid plans published in the pricing information checked on November 6, 2026. The listing gives no usage limits, but that is not a promise about concurrency, support, or operating costs. Confirm those requirements before treating DuckDB as a production database choice.
01Every plan, line by line
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free & Open-Source (MIT License) | $0 | $0 | Personal and commercial database use |
02What the plan grid doesn't tell you
Concurrency terms
No concurrency limit or commitment is listed. Confirm expected workload behavior before relying on DuckDB for your use case.
Support commitments
The published pricing information does not publish support terms. Confirm what support is available and whether it carries a cost.
Operating costs
DuckDB has no listed subscription fee; costs for hardware or hosting in your deployment are not specified in the pricing information.
Usage limits
No usage limits are listed, but the pricing summary does not spell out concurrency, support, or other service commitments.
03Which plan should you buy?
| If you are… | Get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Individual analysts | Free & Open-Source (MIT License) | No license fee is listed, and the MIT license permits personal use. |
| Commercial teams | Free & Open-Source (MIT License) | The listed MIT terms permit commercial use; no paid tier is published. |
| Production evaluators | Free & Open-Source (MIT License) | Start with the free project, but verify concurrency and support needs; the pricing details do not specify them. |
04Is DuckDB worth the money?
For SQL-based analytics, DuckDB is worth evaluating when a free, MIT-licensed database fits: the listed price is $0 and commercial use is permitted. It reads and writes CSV, JSON, Parquet, and Iceberg, and can run in-process or on devices and servers, per the published product description. The catch is that the pricing information does not settle concurrency or support commitments. That makes DuckDB low-cost to license, not automatically cost-free to operate.
DuckDB pricing FAQ
What is DuckDB useful for?
DuckDB is for SQL-based analytics and data wrangling. It can run in-process inside an application or on devices and servers, and the published product description lists CSV, JSON, Parquet, and Iceberg read/write support. It uses PostgreSQL-inspired SQL.
What is SQL cost?
SQL itself is a query language, not a DuckDB subscription in the published pricing information. DuckDB is listed at $0 under the MIT license, with personal and commercial use permitted and no monthly or annual billing. Other operating costs are not specified.
Can I create my own database for free?
Yes. The listed DuckDB project is free and MIT-licensed, and the pricing information permits both personal and commercial use. It lists no monthly or annual fee and no usage limits. Verify concurrency and support requirements separately; the pricing details do not specify them.
Is DuckDB faster than PostgreSQL?
We can't substantiate a blanket claim that DuckDB is faster than PostgreSQL from the published sources: they include no benchmark or workload comparison. DuckDB's SQL is PostgreSQL-inspired, but that does not establish relative speed. Compare them on your own queries and deployment requirements.
