Hugging Face Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying

The Hugging Face free plan covers the public Hub, 100 GB of private storage and 5 minutes of ZeroGPU a day. Here is what it includes and when PRO pays off.

By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-11T07:27:48+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-11T07:27:48+00:00

Hugging Face Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying

The Hugging Face free plan is generous for learning and experimenting. You can browse and download models, host public repositories and run small demos without paying. The catch is compute. Running models costs extra, and the free quotas are small. This guide explains exactly what the free plan includes, where it stops, and when the 9-dollar PRO plan is worth it.

What the Hugging Face free plan includes

A free Hugging Face account gives you access to the Hub. That is the shared home for models, datasets and Spaces. You can browse and download public models and datasets without limits stated on the pricing page. You can also create unlimited public repositories. Private repository storage is capped at 100 GB on the free plan. Spaces let you host interactive demos. On the free plan, you can host static HTML Spaces and up to two Gradio Spaces on ZeroGPU. ZeroGPU is Hugging Face's shared GPU pool. Free accounts get five minutes of ZeroGPU time per day. That is enough to test a small demo. It is not enough to serve real users. The free plan includes no general compute credits. GPU Spaces and dedicated inference are billed separately by usage.

Hugging Face free plan limits to know first

The biggest limit is Spaces. Gradio and Docker Spaces that run on compute now need a paid plan to create. The exception is the two ZeroGPU Gradio Spaces allowed on free accounts. Those also need an account older than 30 days with a verified email. The second limit is the ZeroGPU quota. Five minutes a day runs out fast. A demo with steady traffic will hit the cap in one session. The third limit is storage. Public repository storage is free and best effort. Private storage stops at 100 GB. Extra private storage is billed at 18 dollars per TB per month. The free plan also lacks team features. There is no single sign-on, no audit log and no resource groups. Those arrive on Team at 20 dollars per user per month. Finally, the free plan has standard API rate limits and no priority queue for ZeroGPU.

What costs extra on top of the free plan

Hugging Face bills in two layers. The account plan is one layer. Compute is the other. Spaces hardware starts free on CPU Basic and ZeroGPU. Paid hardware starts at 0.03 dollars an hour for a CPU Upgrade. A small Nvidia T4 GPU Space costs 0.40 dollars an hour. A large A100 Space costs 2.50 dollars an hour. Inference Endpoints are dedicated model servers. They start at 0.033 dollars an hour for CPU. A T4 endpoint costs 0.50 dollars an hour. An H100 endpoint costs 4.50 dollars an hour. Inference Providers give serverless access to models through partner hosts. Those are billed per use at each provider's rates. Storage is billed separately too. Public storage costs 12 dollars per TB per month. Private storage costs 18 dollars per TB per month. Volume discounts apply above 500 TB. The key point is simple. The plan price is not the total cost. Every model you run adds a compute bill.

Hugging Face free plan vs PRO at 9 dollars a month

PRO is the clearest value jump on the pricing page. For 9 dollars a month, you get ten times the private storage and eight times the ZeroGPU quota. You also get Spaces Dev Mode. That gives SSH and VS Code access into your Space for fast iteration. PRO is the right upgrade when you host your own demos. It is not a compute bundle. The 2 dollars of monthly credit covers only a small amount of GPU time. Heavy use still bills on top.

When the free plan is enough

Stay free if you are learning, comparing models or building a first demo. The free plan covers browsing, downloading and small experiments well. It also covers static Spaces and short ZeroGPU tests. Upgrade to PRO when you host demos for others, need more than five ZeroGPU minutes a day, or need 1 TB of private storage. Teams should look at the Team plan at 20 dollars per user per month. It adds single sign-on, audit logs and shared controls. Enterprise starts at 50 dollars per user per month and adds compliance features. Do not pay for a plan to fix a compute bill. Plans buy quotas and features. Compute is always billed by usage on top.

Bottom line

The Hugging Face free plan is a strong starting point. You get the full public Hub, 100 GB of private storage, static Spaces and five minutes of ZeroGPU a day. Its limits are real. Paid Spaces need PRO, ZeroGPU time is short, and compute bills separately. For most solo developers, PRO at 9 dollars a month is the sensible first upgrade. It unlocks real demo hosting and eight times the GPU quota. Start free. Pay when your demos outgrow five minutes a day.