Starlink Plans: Which One to Get and What Each Costs

Starlink’s service plans page lists two families of plans for US households. Residential is for one fixed address and costs $55, $85 or $130 a month. Roam is for travel and costs $55, $80 or $175 a month. Those are the list prices on that page on October 13, 2026. The price that counts is the one Starlink shows when you enter your address, because its help page says “Residential plans, pricing, and promotions may vary by location and account type.”

For a home, start with the lowest-priced Residential plan your address is offered. Starlink’s help page says “All Residential plans include unlimited data,” and that you can move up to the top plan “at any time through your account, subject to availability.” For travel, choose a Roam plan by how much data you use in a month, because the two cheaper ones give you 100 or 300 gigabytes (GB) of high-speed data and then switch to low-speed data. A home plan does not travel: “A roam plan is required to use the service at a different address or while traveling.”

These prices and rules move often. In a report published May 18, 2026 on a round of price increases, The Next Web counted changes to Starlink’s pricing, plan structure or feature availability “at least five times in 2026 alone.” Every price on this page carries a date. Check Starlink’s service plans page before you order. If this page and Starlink disagree, Starlink is right.

The short answer

The prices are Starlink’s, except Standby Mode, which Starlink’s pages call only “a small monthly fee.” The $10 comes from The Next Web. The household sizes in the first three rows follow the “Best for” lines on Starlink’s help page for Residential plans, and the trip descriptions follow Starlink’s Roam page. Full-time travel is this page’s label for Roam Unlimited. Not sure which row is you? The Starlink picker asks six questions and suggests a kit, a plan and accessories.

Starlink Residential plans and prices

Residential plans are, in Starlink’s words, “designed for personal or household use at a fixed, land-based location.”

Start with what your address is offered. Starlink’s plans page says the “Residential 100 Mbps and Residential 200 Mbps plans are only available in select areas.” You find out by entering your address: “If an offer does not appear in your account or when you enter your address, it means it is not currently available for your location.”

What the two cheaper plans give up. They give up speed and priority, not data. Both carry the line “Speeds may be slower during peak hours compared to Residential Max.” No plan comes with a promised speed. Starlink’s Residential page says the speeds it advertises “are maximum available speeds, are not guaranteed, and will be slower during times of congestion.”

Expect less than the headline speed. Starlink’s legal specifications page lists the download speeds it expects on each plan: 80 to 100 Mbps on Residential 100 Mbps, 80 to 200 on Residential 200 Mbps and 80 to 400 on Residential Max. It also says: “Actual speeds may be lower than expected speeds during times of high usage.” The same page disagrees with the help page on uploads. It lists 15 to 35 Mbps for all three plans, where the help page gives Residential Max 20 to 40.

What Residential Max adds. Starlink calls it the “Highest network priority Residential plan, providing the fastest speeds during the busiest hours.” It also comes with an offer for travelers: “As a Residential Max customer, you’re eligible for an additional, optional Starlink Mini Kit for portable connectivity,” with what the page calls “flexible, discounted Roam plans.” Starlink’s help page describes that offer more broadly, as open “only to customers in select countries with an active Residential plan,” at a Roam rate that “depends on your Residential plan.” Neither page prints the discounted price; the help page says “Your price is shown in the claim email and in your account.” When Starlink made the offer a standard part of Residential Max in January 2026, Mobile Internet Resource Center described it as a Mini rental “with a 50% discount off any Roam plan.” The Mini in this offer is a loan, “a no-cost hardware rental tied to your active Residential subscription.” It is not free to keep: “To keep the no-cost hardware rental, the Mini must stay on a Roam plan or Standby Mode,” so it carries a monthly charge of its own. If you cancel the home plan, change your home service to a different plan type or cancel service on the Mini, “You must return the Mini Kit, or you will be charged the retail price.”

You can usually move between them. “You can upgrade or downgrade your Residential plan at any time, subject to availability in your area.” So if 100 Mbps feels slow at dinner time, you can move up a tier. Two things can get in the way. Starlink says customers renting the dish “may not be permitted to change their service plan.” And a later switch can cost money in a busy area: “If you switch service plans later, a demand surcharge may be applied depending on availability and demand in your area at the time of the change.”

“Residential Lite” is the old name. If a video or forum post recommends Residential Lite, Starlink’s help page labels the middle plan “Residential 200 Mbps (formally Residential Lite)” and says it “has been renamed in the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand.” A second Starlink help page adds the UK to that list. Starlink still sells plans named Residential and Residential Lite in markets outside its three-tier list.

Do you buy the dish or rent it?

That depends on where you live and when you order, and the reports do not line up. Starlink’s Residential page advertises “No upfront hardware cost in select areas.” 9to5Google reported on June 10, 2026 that Starlink’s website “only lists a way to pay monthly, with no option to buy hardware outright” for home service, a change it credited Ars Technica with spotting. On July 20, SatelliteInternet.com reported that Starlink “seems to have reversed its recent decision” to charge $10 a month for the rental, and its plan table listed the equipment for all three Residential plans as “$349 or free rental.” A Mobile Internet Resource Center story from later in July still said new Residential customers “now rent their Starlink hardware for $10/month, and the equipment remains owned by Starlink unless the customer later purchases it.” Starlink’s pages cited here print no rental price. Your own checkout is the only current answer.

SatelliteInternet.com adds that the rental plan “is only available in designated regions with excess capacity,” and that a renter can buy the dish “for the regular price of $349.” 9to5Google noted another route at the time it wrote: a home dish bought from a retailer can be set up on a monthly plan, “negating the need to rent hardware from the company.”

A rented dish comes with four limits worth knowing before you order:

• Pausing. Starlink’s rental page says “Customers using a Rental Kit will be unable to pause their service.” Its pausing page is narrower, saying Standby Mode is not available “for select rental customers.” Plan on not being able to pause.
• Plan changes may be blocked. Customers on the rental option “may not be permitted to change their service plan.”
• The line cannot move. “You cannot transfer a rental service line to another person or location. To transfer, you must first change your service plan. This usually requires a kit buyout or change fee.”
• A short opt-out window. Starlink says rental customers “must return their kit in good condition within 7 days from delivery if they decide not to proceed with the rental,” and that a kit not returned in good condition is charged at full price. That is shorter than the 30-day trial Starlink advertises, and SatelliteInternet.com’s report says renters who cancel have 30 days to send the dish back. Ask Starlink which window applies to your order.

Starlink also says “Starlink kits may only be rented for Residential service plans.” If you are trying to work out which dish you have or would get, the Starlink dish decoder identifies each one.

Starlink Roam plans and prices

Roam is the plan Starlink labels “Best for RVs, nomads, and campers, and working on the go.”

Expect less than the advertised speed here too. Starlink’s Roam page advertises “Up to 300+ Mbps” on all three plans, and its specifications page lists an expected 65 to 260 Mbps for Roam.

How much is 100GB? Starlink describes it as “approximately 1 week of typical use.” It pitches the 300GB plan at “regular travelers with multiple trips a month.”

What happens when it runs out. The dish keeps working, slowly. Starlink says: “If you exceed your plan’s data allowance, service automatically switches to low-speed unlimited data. Low-speed supports email, calls, and texts.” Video streaming, large downloads and video calls “will be limited.” Starlink does not put a number on low-speed data there. One Starlink FAQ still says a Roam 100GB line that is not opted in to extra data “will be restricted once you reach your data limit”; the page for the 100GB plan and the plan-changes page both describe low-speed data instead.

You cannot buy a few extra gigabytes. Starlink says “per-GB data purchases are no longer available on Roam plans,” Ocean Mode excepted. The way back to full speed is a bigger plan, and the switch is not a one-month top-up: “Once upgraded, you will remain on Roam Unlimited for future billing cycles unless you switch back.”

Not every dish suits a moving vehicle. Starlink says dishes with motors “are not recommended for in-motion use due to safety risks.” The Starlink for RVs guide covers which dish to take, which Roam plan fits which kind of trip and how to power it, and the Starlink Mini guide works through what a year with the smallest dish costs.

On a boat. Roam plans cover inland waterways and territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles from shore. On Roam 100GB, Starlink limits that to “up to 5 consecutive days and up to 60 days per year.” Past those limits you need Ocean Mode, which “is only available with Roam Unlimited.” The Ocean Mode page suggests the same day limits apply on Roam Unlimited until you switch Ocean Mode on, because it lists “Unlimited use in territorial waters (no 5 consecutive day or 60 days per year limit)” among the things Ocean Mode includes. Starlink’s Ocean Mode page, updated August 27, 2026, prices it for Roam Unlimited at “$2 USD per GB, then $6 USD per GB starting September 27, 2026.” By that notice the rate is now $6, and the page adds: “Check the exact rate in your account.” The same page names a plan this guide does not cover, Personal Maritime, at “$6 USD per GB.” It is not on Starlink’s service plans page; a Mobile Internet Resource Center headline dated August 28, 2026 put it at $185 a month.

Do Starlink plans have data caps?

Residential plans have no data allowance. Roam 100GB and Roam 300GB do.

On the home side, the help page’s wording is “All Residential plans include unlimited data.” What Starlink keeps is the right to slow things down when the network is busy. Its Fair Use Policy says: “Starlink may temporarily reduce speeds if our network is congested.” Its help page says the policy exists so that customers are “not negatively impacted by a small number of users consuming unusually high amounts of data.” Neither of those two pages names a number of gigabytes or terabytes for a home plan. If a video tells you there is a fixed monthly cap on Residential service, ask where Starlink published it.

On the travel side, the allowance is in the plan’s name, and going over it slows you down. It does not cut you off or add charges. Starlink’s page for the 100GB plan says: “Your service will not stop.” It also says it will “notify you when you reach 80% and 100% of your monthly high-speed Roam data.”

Can you pause a Starlink plan?

Yes, with Standby Mode, unless your account falls under one of the exceptions below. Starlink says: “You can pause with Standby Mode on all Roam, Residential, and Priority plans (excluding promotional offerings and select kit rentals).”

Standby is a paid low-speed plan. It “provides unlimited low-speed data for emergency messaging and easy reactivation in dead zones for a small monthly fee,” and, where available, “offers speeds up to 500 Kbps download and upload.” Kbps is kilobits per second, so 500 Kbps is half of one megabit per second. Starlink’s legal Fair Use Policy describes the pause plan differently, as “5GB Roam Data”; the help page is the one that describes Standby by name. The Next Web reported in May 2026 that SpaceX was “doubling the cost of its budget Standby Mode from $5 to $10.” In the US the free pause is gone: Starlink says the old pause feature “offered zero data at no cost. That option is no longer available.” You also cannot start on Standby. Mobile Internet Resource Center describes it as “only available to existing customers on Roam or Residential plans to switch to.”

Who cannot pause, and what pausing does not protect:

• Renters, some or all. The pausing page says “Standby Mode is not available for select rental customers.” The rental page says it of every rental kit, as quoted above. The Mini loaned to Residential customers is an exception: it can sit on Standby.
• The V5 dish. “Standby Mode is not available for V5 hardware”. The V5 is the newer home dish Starlink offers in select areas.
• Your place on a home plan. “Pausing with Standby Mode does not reserve your spot on a Residential plan. If your area is at capacity when you try to resume, you may not be able to reactivate your previous Residential plan.”
• A long pause. Starlink says customers on Standby for more than 12 months in a row may, at its discretion, be required to pay a fee or upgrade to a different plan, or be limited to reaching their Starlink account.
• Use on the move, or all the time. “Standby Mode is not intended for in-motion use.” Starlink also says it “is not intended for constant, maritime, or high-bandwidth use.”

To pause, log in at starlink.com, choose Subscriptions, pick the service line, select Manage, choose “Pause Current Service” and click Confirm. If the option is missing, Starlink’s explanation is that pausing “may be unavailable with your plan due to your promotional offering or your rental kit.”

What does Starlink cost per year?

The table below is service only. It multiplies the monthly prices above by the months you would pay them, and uses The Next Web’s $10 for Standby months. Hardware and any one-time charge are extra, and the Starlink pages cited here do not say whether the listed prices include tax.

Three cautions on those rows. The cabin row only works if you can pause, which the rental page rules out for a rented dish and the pausing page rules out for the V5, and it carries the risk that the home plan is full when you come back. The backup row buys a 500 Kbps connection in its Standby months, on a mode Starlink says is not meant for constant use, and Starlink reserves the right to act on a pause that runs past 12 straight months. And if Starlink charges you rent for a home dish, that adds to each all-year Residential row: at the $10 a month Mobile Internet Resource Center reported, it is $120 a year. As the rental section above shows, reports conflict on whether that fee still applies.

For a travel kit you buy, Starlink’s US page lists the Mini “Starting at $149” as of October 13, 2026. A Mobile Internet Resource Center headline from October 6 called that its “Lowest Price Yet,” so do not count on it lasting.

Can you change Starlink plans month to month?

Yes, unless one of the blocks below applies. Roam “Billing is in one-month increments,” and both families can be changed in your account.

When you change a plan, Starlink shows two buttons. NOW applies the change immediately. DATE applies it at the end of your billing cycle. The choice matters when you move down: “You will move to the lower-priced plan immediately. Any remaining time on your current plan will not be refunded.” If you have paid for the month, pick DATE.

Mind the clock. Starlink bills on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and “changes must be made before 12:00 AM UTC on your billing day.” In the continental US that deadline falls on the afternoon or evening of the day before.

Moving up mid-month has one kind detail on the capped plans: “When you switch to a new service plan mid-cycle, you will receive a full usage limit.”

The path is similar on the website and in the app. On the website, open Subscription, select Manage under the Service Plan box, then Change Plan. In the app, open Subscription, then Manage Subscription, then Change Service Plan. You only see plans you can have. Starlink says the options “are automatically filtered based on your service address, account, and Starlink hardware.”

Who may be blocked from changing: customers renting the dish, customers on a government subsidy or disaster relief plan, accounts suspended for non-payment, and customers in sold-out regions with no other plan available. A switch to a Residential plan appears only when the area has capacity.

Does Starlink have a contract?

Starlink’s plans page lists its Residential and Roam plans under “Monthly service plans,” and Starlink advertises a trial: “Try Starlink for 30 days and if not satisfied, get a full refund.” The commitments come from hardware offers, so check for these three:

• The 12-month Residential option. It gave new customers a kit at no cost in select areas. Starlink’s help page for it now says: “This service plan is discontinued for new activations.” A separate Starlink FAQ still describes a “$0 Starlink Kit with 12-Month Commitment” as available “to new customers in select locations at this time,” so the two pages do not agree. If you are inside one of those terms, changing your plan, moving your service address or cancelling triggers a Change Fee, and plan changes go through customer support.
• A rented dish. It stays Starlink’s. SatelliteInternet.com reported that renters “must return it if they cancel their plan,” and the four limits above apply while you have it.
• Mini installments. Mobile Internet Resource Center reported in July 2026, when the Mini sold for $199, that Starlink was offering it with Roam for $16 a month over 12 months, and that cancelling service before the 12 months are up “makes the full remaining balance due immediately.” With the Mini now listed from $149, check the installment terms at checkout before choosing them.

What one-time charges come on top of the plan price?

A demand surcharge, in busy areas. Starlink says: “In certain locations where network demand is high, a one-time demand surcharge may apply when purchasing or activating Starlink service.” It depends on your service address and the plan you pick, and it can also apply when you move your service address into a high-demand area or switch plans later. The page gives no amount. Mobile Internet Resource Center checked addresses in January 2026 and found a $1,000 surcharge in the Seattle area and $100 on parts of Colorado’s Front Range, and noted that “Starlink does not publish a demand surcharge map.” Enter your own address before you budget. If you return the hardware inside the 30-day window, “any eligible demand surcharge will be refunded.”

The same charge after a pause. Starlink’s two pages read differently here. The surcharge page says that if you already paid it for an address, “you can pause service with Standby Mode and later resume high-speed service at the same address without paying the surcharge again,” and that if you never paid one, “one may apply when you resume high-speed service.” The pausing page says: “Switching from Standby back to a standard residential product may show a warning. If the address is in a high demand area, a demand surcharge order is created immediately.” Read the warning screen before you confirm.

A Roam activation charge on a Standard dish. “In applicable markets, the Standard Starlink Kit has an associated one-time charge to enable portable capabilities for our Roam service plans.” It is refundable if you return the kit within 30 days. Starlink’s page names neither the markets nor the amount.

Can you use Starlink in another country?

Only on Roam Unlimited or a Priority plan, and only after registering. Starlink changed this policy in 2026: its travel page says new customers “signing up on or after July 14 are subject to the updated international travel policy,” and existing customers moved to it on August 17, 2026.

The rules as that page states them:

• Roam Unlimited: “Up to 30 days of service outside your registered home country at a time.” Returning home resets the 30 days.
• Roam 100GB and 300GB: home country only. For a US account that means the US and Canada, which Starlink groups as one region along with Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
• Travel Registration: required before you use the dish outside your home country. Starlink typically asks for your full legal name, nationality, date of birth, a passport number or other government photo ID, a copy of that document and a live portrait.
• If you skip it: “If registration is required and incomplete, service may be disabled,” and “Billing continues if service is disabled due to incomplete Travel Registration.”

Registration is not a promise of service. Starlink says it “does not guarantee service outside your home country.” The 30 days can also be shorter in some places: “Subject to local rules and regulations, travel into specific jurisdictions may be limited to shorter periods of time for all plans.”

For longer stays, Starlink points to its Priority plans. Local Priority allows “up to 60 days of total international use, which includes any days already used on Roam Unlimited,” and Global Priority has no time limit. The older Global Roam plan is gone: it closed to new customers on July 15, 2026 and ended for existing ones on August 17, 2026.

What are Starlink Priority plans?

Priority plans are, in Starlink’s words, “elevated offerings designed for businesses and high-demand users.” Most households can skip them. They are priced differently from everything above: a monthly Terminal Access Charge for each service line, plus data you buy in blocks of 50GB or 500GB. Starlink says “Data blocks do not roll over”.

What they add is prioritized network access, a public IP (internet protocol) address and priority support. Local Priority is for use within one country, inland waters included, plus up to 60 days outside your home country. Global Priority covers land and ocean and costs the same worldwide. The Starlink pages cited here give no prices for either. As one dated reference point, Mobile Internet Resource Center reported “Local Priority 500GB at $155/month” in May 2026, after a price cut.

What changed in Starlink plans in 2026?

The first row is from 2025. It is here because it set the pause rules above.

The May increase, as The Next Web listed it: Residential 100 Mbps went from $50 to $55, Residential 200 Mbps from $80 to $85, Residential Max from $120 to $130, Roam 100GB from $50 to $55, and Roam Unlimited from $165 to $175. If a guide still shows $50, $80 or $120 for a home plan, it predates that increase.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest Starlink plan?

At $55 a month, Residential 100 Mbps and Roam 100GB tie, as of October 13, 2026. The home plan has unlimited data and is offered only in select areas. The Roam plan can travel and has a 100GB allowance. If Starlink charges rent on the home dish, the home plan’s monthly cost is higher. Standby Mode costs less, at the reported $10, but it is a low-speed pause, not a plan to live on.

Is Starlink unlimited data?

Every Residential plan and Roam Unlimited are. Roam 100GB and Roam 300GB “receive an allotment of high-speed data, then unlimited low-speed data.”

Can you use a Residential plan in an RV or at a second home?

No. “Residential service does not support roaming,” and in-motion use “is not supported on Residential plans.” You can move a Residential plan to a new address by changing the service address on your account, which can bring a demand surcharge if the new address is in a busy area. Three things can block the move. A rented line cannot be transferred to another location without first changing plan. An address update can fail because “that area is currently at capacity.” And Mobile Internet Resource Center reads the plan terms as saying that if the 100 Mbps or 200 Mbps plan is not offered at the new address, “you may be required to transfer to a different plan available in that area or cancel.”

Can you switch from Roam to Residential?

Only when your address has room. Starlink says the option to change to a Residential plan “will only appear if there is available capacity.” A demand surcharge may apply to the switch.

Can two dishes share one plan?

Usually not. Starlink says “most customers cannot have two Starlinks on the same subscription,” though you can add a second dish to your account on its own service line.

Which plan to pick

For a home, enter your address on Starlink’s site and take the lowest-priced Residential plan it offers you. All three have unlimited data, and you can usually move up if evenings are slow, though a rented dish may block the change and a demand surcharge can apply to it. Check whether the dish is rented before you order, because Starlink’s rental page says a rented kit cannot be paused. For travel, start on Roam 100GB, watch for the notice at 80% of your data, and move to 300GB or Unlimited if you keep reaching it. Pause with Standby in the months you stay home, and read Starlink’s plans page again before each change, because Starlink changed its pricing, plan structure or features at least five times in 2026 by The Next Web’s count in May.

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