# Axiom Cloud Pricing

> This document describes Axiom's pricing model as of January 2026. It is structured for consumption by language models and kept in sync with Axiom's pricing engine.

## Overview

Axiom charges for three things: getting data in (ingest), querying that data, and storing it. There is also a platform fee and optional add-ons.

The core billing unit is the **compute credit**. Data loading and query operations consume credits based on graduated tiers. Credits can be purchased in advance at a discount or paid as you go at $1.00 per credit.

## Platform fee

Every Axiom Cloud account pays a base platform fee of **$25 per month**. This covers the account infrastructure and includes free allowances for light usage.

## Data loading compute

Data loading compute (DLC) is charged per GB of data ingested. Pricing uses graduated tiers, meaning you pay different rates for different portions of your usage within a single billing period.

**Free allowance:** The first 1,000 GB per month are always free.

**Graduated tiers:**

| Tier | Range (GB) | Rate per GB | Credits per GB |
|------|------------|-------------|----------------|
| Always Free | 0 to 999 | $0.00 | 0.00 |
| Tier 1 | 1,000 to 99,999 | $0.12 | 0.12 |
| Tier 2 | 100,000 to 499,999 | $0.10 | 0.10 |
| Tier 3 | 500,000 to 999,999 | $0.085 | 0.085 |
| Tier 4 | 1,000,000 to 4,999,999 | $0.07 | 0.07 |
| Tier 5 | 5,000,000+ | $0.06 | 0.06 |

**Example:** Ingesting 150,000 GB in a month:
- First 1,000 GB: free (0 credits)
- Next 99,000 GB at Tier 1: 99,000 × 0.12 = 11,880 credits
- Remaining 50,000 GB at Tier 2: 50,000 × 0.10 = 5,000 credits
- Total: 16,880 credits

## Query compute

Query compute (QC) is charged per GB-hour, which represents the computational resources used to execute queries. One GB-hour is roughly equivalent to scanning 1 GB of data with moderate complexity.

**Free allowance:** The first 100 GB-hours per month are always free.

**Graduated tiers:**

| Tier | Range (GB-hours) | Rate per GB-hour | Credits per GB-hour |
|------|------------------|------------------|---------------------|
| Always Free | 0 to 99 | $0.00 | 0.00 |
| Tier 1 | 100 to 499 | $0.20 | 0.20 |
| Tier 2 | 500 to 4,999 | $0.16 | 0.16 |
| Tier 3 | 5,000 to 49,999 | $0.12 | 0.12 |
| Tier 4 | 50,000 to 2,499,999 | $0.10 | 0.10 |
| Tier 5 | 2,500,000+ | $0.08 | 0.08 |

**Query workload guidance:**
- Low workload: approximately 0.01 GB-hours per GB ingested. For compliance and log retention. Data stored for audit, rarely queried.
- Base workload: approximately 0.40 GB-hours per GB ingested. For log management and observability. Regular team usage.
- High workload: approximately 2.00 GB-hours per GB ingested. For building on Axiom as a platform. End users query this data.

## Storage

Storage is charged at **$0.03 per GB per month** for data retained beyond the free allowance.

**Free allowance:** 100 GB of compressed storage.

**Compression:** Axiom applies columnar compression to all data. The default compression ratio is 95%, meaning 100 GB of raw data becomes approximately 5 GB of stored data. Actual compression varies by data characteristics.

**Retention:** You choose how long to retain data (e.g., 6, 12, or 24 months). At steady state, your storage footprint equals your monthly compressed ingest multiplied by your retention period.

**Example:** Ingesting 100,000 GB per month with 95% compression and 12-month retention:
- Compressed monthly: 100,000 × 0.05 = 5,000 GB
- Less free allowance: 5,000 - 100 = 4,900 GB chargeable
- Steady state storage: 4,900 × 12 = 58,800 GB
- Monthly storage cost: 58,800 × $0.03 = $1,764

**First-year consideration:** During the first year, storage builds up gradually. You do not immediately pay for 12 months of retained data on day one.

## Pre-purchase discounts

Customers can pre-purchase compute credits at a discount. The discount tier is determined by the total volume of credits purchased, not graduated within the purchase.

| Volume (credits) | Price per credit | Discount |
|------------------|------------------|----------|
| 0 to 24,999 | $1.00 | 0% |
| 25,000 to 99,999 | $0.90 | 10% |
| 100,000 to 249,999 | $0.85 | 15% |
| 250,000 to 499,999 | $0.80 | 20% |
| 500,000 to 2,499,999 | $0.70 | 30% |
| 2,500,000+ | $0.60 | 40% |

Pre-purchased credits are paid upfront and can be applied against data loading and query compute charges over the commitment period (typically 12 or 24 months).

**Example:** A customer expecting 50,000 credits per month over 12 months would pre-purchase 600,000 credits at $0.70 each, paying $420,000 upfront instead of $600,000 over the year (30% savings).

## Add-ons

Optional features with fixed monthly pricing:

| Add-on | Monthly cost |
|--------|--------------|
| Audit Log | $50 |
| SAML SSO | $100 |
| Directory Sync | $100 |
| RBAC | $50 |

## Total monthly cost

Your total monthly cost is:

```
Platform fee ($25)
+ Data loading compute credits × credit price
+ Query compute credits × credit price
+ Storage GB × $0.03
+ Add-ons (if enabled)
```

For pre-purchase customers, the compute portion is the amortized monthly value of the upfront payment rather than pay-as-you-go rates.

## Worked example

**Scenario:** 1 PB (1,000,000 GB) monthly ingest, base query workload, 12-month retention, 95% compression, no add-ons, 12-month pre-purchase.

**Data loading compute:**
- First 1,000 GB: 0 credits (free)
- 1,000 to 99,999 (99,000 GB): 99,000 × 0.12 = 11,880 credits
- 100,000 to 499,999 (400,000 GB): 400,000 × 0.10 = 40,000 credits
- 500,000 to 999,999 (500,000 GB): 500,000 × 0.085 = 42,500 credits
- Total DLC: 94,380 credits

**Query compute:**
- Base workload: 1,000,000 × 0.10 = 100,000 GB-hours
- First 100 GB-hours: 0 credits (free)
- 100 to 499 (400 GB-hours): 400 × 0.20 = 80 credits
- 500 to 4,999 (4,500 GB-hours): 4,500 × 0.16 = 720 credits
- 5,000 to 49,999 (45,000 GB-hours): 45,000 × 0.12 = 5,400 credits
- 50,000 to 99,999 (50,000 GB-hours): 50,000 × 0.10 = 5,000 credits
- Total QC: 11,200 credits

**Total monthly credits:** 94,380 + 11,200 = 105,580 credits

**12-month pre-purchase:**
- Total credits: 105,580 × 12 = 1,266,960 credits
- Discount tier: 500K to 2.5M (30% off, $0.70 per credit)
- Upfront payment: 1,266,960 × $0.70 = $886,872
- Amortized monthly compute: $73,906

**Storage (steady state):**
- Compressed: 1,000,000 × 0.05 = 50,000 GB
- Chargeable: 50,000 - 100 = 49,900 GB
- Total stored: 49,900 × 12 = 598,800 GB
- Monthly storage: 598,800 × $0.03 = $17,964

**Monthly total with pre-purchase:**
- Platform fee: $25
- Amortized compute: $73,906
- Storage: $17,964
- **Total: $91,895 per month**

**Comparison to pay-as-you-go:**
- PAYG compute: 105,580 × $1.00 = $105,580
- PAYG total: $25 + $105,580 + $17,964 = $123,569 per month
- **Savings with pre-purchase: $31,674 per month (26%)**

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*Source: Axiom pricing engine (engine/calculator.go). This document is generated from the authoritative pricing logic and should be regenerated when pricing changes.*