DigitalOcean Droplets 1 GiB / 1 vCPU
The smallest Basic Droplet with a full gigabyte of memory: $6 a month at the cap, with 1,000 GiB of transfer and 25 GiB of SSD. The $4 size below it halves the memory to 512 MiB and has 10 GiB of disk against 25 — and the next size up is $12, which is past the question's budget. Billing is per second with a 60-second minimum and a monthly cap, so a Droplet deleted part-way through the month costs less than $6 and one left running never costs more.
Sources: Official, read 11 Sep 2026
- Right for
- A side project that wants a whole Linux server of its own and has under $10 a month for it.
- Not for
- Anything that needs more than 1 GiB of memory or 25 GiB of disk — the next Basic size is $12 a month.
What you give up
- DigitalOcean states it does not offer refunds
- The Droplet is unmanaged: DigitalOcean's FAQ says you are responsible for managing the server
- No trial length is stated — the pricing FAQ offers only promotional credits for new users, with no amount or period
6.00 USD
In stock at DigitalOcean
Read 11 Sep 2026, for this exact configuration. Tax, and shipping where there is any, not included, so we cannot total it.
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Each link says whether it pays us. What it pays plays no part in which product we recommend; offers are ordered by what you pay after cashback — how we make money.
Key specifications and sources
- Free plan
- no source read 11 Sep 2026
- Trial
- Unknown
- Refund
- No refunds source read 11 Sep 2026
- Runs on
- Linux distributions including Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora and CoreOS source read 11 Sep 2026
- Per month
- 6 USD source read 11 Sep 2026
- Billed
- Usage-based source read 11 Sep 2026
- Seats
- Not Applicable
- What the plan includes
- 1,000 GiB transfer, 25 GiB SSD source read 11 Sep 2026
- API access
- yes source read 11 Sep 2026
- Support
- Free ticket-based support for all customers, 24/7, response under 24 hours; paid plans from $24 a month source read 11 Sep 2026