What does a GB of RAM actually cost across VPS providers?
Between $0.56 and $6.26 — an eleven-fold spread for an identical specification. Contabo $0.56 (12-month term, tax included), Hetzner CX33 $1.24, Hostinger KVM 2 $1.12 promo / $1.87 renewal, Vultr $5.00, DigitalOcean and Akamai both exactly $6.00.
Key finding DigitalOcean and Akamai charge $12 for 2 GB and $24 for 4 GB — identical to the dollar across multiple tiers.
Prices verified 29 August 2026 against each vendor’s own pricing page, linked in full below.
Every “cheapest VPS” comparison lists sticker prices next to specs and leaves you to do the division. When you actually do it, the result is not a narrow race. It is an eleven-fold spread for the same commodity.
| Cheapest gigabyte of RAM on this page | $0.56 |
| Most expensive | $6.26 |
That is the same gigabyte. Not a faster one, not a more reliable one — the specification is identical. The difference is business model, billing term, and how much the provider is willing to oversubscribe.
This page computes the number nobody publishes, explains what it does not tell you, and says plainly where the cheap end is a trap.
Every price verified 29 August 2026 against the vendor’s own pricing page, all linked below.
The table
Sorted by cost per GB of RAM. Euro prices converted at €1 = $1.1642.
| $/GB | Plan | vCPU | RAM | Monthly | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0.56 | Contabo Cloud VPS 10 | 4 | 8 GB | $4.50 | 12-month term, tax included |
| $0.58 | Contabo Cloud VPS 20 | 6 | 12 GB | $7.00 | 12-month term, tax included |
| $0.58 | Contabo Cloud VPS 30 | 8 | 24 GB | $14.00 | 12-month term, tax included |
| $1.12 | Hostinger KVM 2 | 2 | 8 GB | $8.99 | 2-year prepay |
| $1.24 | Hetzner CX33 | 4 | 8 GB | €8.49 (~$9.88) | monthly, excl. VAT |
| $1.60 | Hetzner CX23 | 2 | 4 GB | €5.49 (~$6.39) | monthly, excl. VAT |
| $1.62 | Hostinger KVM 1 | 1 | 4 GB | $6.49 | 2-year prepay |
| $1.74 | Hetzner CAX11 (Arm) | 2 | 4 GB | €5.99 (~$6.97) | monthly, excl. VAT |
| $1.87 | Hostinger KVM 2 | 2 | 8 GB | $14.99 | at renewal |
| $3.00 | Hostinger KVM 1 | 1 | 4 GB | $11.99 | at renewal |
| $5.00 | Vultr Regular | 1–2 | 2–4 GB | $10 / $20 | monthly |
| $5.67 | Hetzner CPX22 (AMD) | 3 | 4 GB | €19.49 (~$22.69) | monthly, excl. VAT |
| $6.00 | DigitalOcean Basic | 1–2 | 2–4 GB | $12 / $24 | monthly |
| $6.00 | Akamai / Linode Shared | 1–2 | 2–4 GB | $12 / $24 | monthly |
| $6.26 | Hetzner CCX13 (dedicated vCPU) | 2 | 8 GB | €42.99 (~$50.05) | monthly, excl. VAT |
Sources: Contabo, Hetzner price adjustment notice, Hostinger, Vultr, DigitalOcean, Akamai Cloud.
Three things jump out.
DigitalOcean and Akamai are priced identically. $12 for 2 GB, $24 for 4 GB, at both. Two independent companies landing on the same number to the dollar across multiple tiers is a market with a settled price point, not a competitive one.
Hetzner is now on both sides of the table. CX33 at $1.24 is near the top; CCX13 at $6.26 is at the bottom, below DigitalOcean. That is the result of June’s price increases, which raised the AMD and dedicated lines by 144% and 169% while leaving the shared Intel line comparatively alone.
Hostinger appears twice, four rows apart. $1.12/GB on the promotional term, $1.87 at renewal — and its 4 GB plan goes from $1.62 to $3.00. This is why a comparison that only prints promotional pricing is not a comparison.
What this table is not
It is not a ranking, and using it as one will cost you more than you save.
Price per GB measures memory, not the machine. It is the right first cut for memory-bound work — databases, self-hosted apps, n8n, Ghost, anything where you run out of RAM before you run out of CPU. It is the wrong cut for CPU-bound work, and it structurally flatters shared and oversubscribed plans. Hetzner’s CCX13 looks terrible here at $6.26 because it is a dedicated vCPU plan being compared on a metric that ignores what you are paying for.
We have not benchmarked any of these. Everything on this page is arithmetic on published prices. Disk speed, CPU steal time, network consistency and support quality are not in the table, and on the cheap end of it, those are exactly the variables that differ most.
The four things that make cheap memory expensive
1. The term is not optional
Contabo’s $4.50 is “the effective monthly rate for a 12-month subscription,” in their own words. Third-party reviews report that a one-time fee applies to new orders on 1-month and 6-month cycles, avoidable only by committing to 12 months — I could not find Contabo’s own page stating the amount, so treat the exact figure as unconfirmed and check it at checkout.
Hostinger’s $1.12/GB requires paying 24 months up front — $215.76 for KVM 2. That is not a monthly price; it is a purchase.
Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr and Akamai are billed monthly with no term. That flexibility is worth something, and the per-GB column does not price it.
2. Tax is not treated the same way
Contabo’s figures are stated as including applicable taxes. Hetzner’s are explicitly excluding VAT. Depending on where you are and whether you have a VAT number, Hetzner’s real cost can be up to 19% above the number in the table while Contabo’s is the number.
Comparing an ex-VAT price to a tax-inclusive price and declaring a winner is a mistake most comparison articles make silently. This one at least tells you it is doing it.
3. Renewal is where the cheap plans go
Two of the fifteen rows above are the same plans at renewal, and both roughly double. If you plan to keep a server more than the promotional term — and most people do — the renewal row is your real price.
Notably, third-party reviews report that Contabo does not raise prices at renewal (Cybernews, updated 17 June 2026). That is a meaningful advantage if accurate, and it is a third-party claim rather than something I found stated on Contabo’s own pricing page.
4. Cheap RAM is usually shared RAM
This is the part that decides whether the top of the table is a bargain or a mistake.
A provider selling 8 GB for $4.50 is making different assumptions about how much of that machine you will actually use than one selling 2 GB for $12. Oversubscription is a legitimate business model — most of the time most VMs are idle — but it means your performance depends on your neighbours in a way the specification sheet does not disclose.
I am flagging a structural reality, not reporting a measurement. We have not tested these providers. What I can say is that a 10x price difference for an identical specification is never free, and if you cannot identify what you are giving up, you have not found the trade yet.
What to actually buy
| Your situation | Buy | $/GB |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum memory per dollar, can commit 12 months, tolerant of variable performance | Contabo Cloud VPS 10 (8 GB, $4.50) | $0.56 |
| Cheap memory with a solid reputation, monthly billing, EU region fine | Hetzner CX33 (8 GB, ~$9.88) | $1.24 |
| Cheap memory, non-EU, willing to prepay two years | Hostinger KVM 2 ($8.99 → $14.99 at renewal) | $1.12 → $1.87 |
| Best documentation, predictable pricing, any region, no surprises | DigitalOcean (2 GB, $12) | $6.00 |
| Lowest no-commitment monthly among the majors | Vultr Regular (2 GB, $10) | $5.00 |
| Dedicated CPU specifically | Compare CCX / Premium / High-Frequency tiers against each other, not against this table | — |
The honest summary: if you are buying memory, the cheap end of this table is real and the savings are large. If you are buying reliability, support and a region near your users, you are in the $5–6 tier and the per-GB number is not the metric you should be optimising.
Most people running one or two self-hosted applications are buying memory.
What changed in 2026
Prices in this market moved more this year than in the previous three combined.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 1 April 2026 | Hetzner raises cloud prices |
| 15 June 2026 | Hetzner raises again — CX +31–38%, CPX +144%, CCX +169% |
| Ongoing | Hostinger promotional pricing renews at roughly double the advertised rate |
That is why every table on this page carries a verification date. A hosting comparison written in March 2026 is quoting Hetzner prices that were replaced twice before this page was published — and most of them still are. This page is re-checked quarterly, and the date at the top is the last check, not the publish date.
FAQ
Is Contabo really ten times cheaper than DigitalOcean?
Per GB of RAM, yes — $0.56 against $6.00, and both figures come from the providers’ own pages. Whether the gigabyte performs the same is a different question, and one this page does not answer.
Why are DigitalOcean and Akamai identical?
Both charge $12 for 2 GB and $24 for 4 GB. We have no insight into why; the observation is just that the mainstream US cloud tier has converged on $6 per GB.
Should I use price per GB to choose?
Use it to see the shape of the market, then decide what you are buying. Memory-bound workload with tolerance for variable performance: follow the table. Client-facing production with a support relationship: do not.
Does Hetzner’s price include VAT?
No. The figures are ex-VAT, and depending on your situation VAT may add up to 19%. Contabo’s stated prices include applicable taxes. This is the single most common apples-to-oranges error in VPS comparisons.
What about the free tiers?
Oracle Cloud’s always-free ARM instances are genuinely free and generous enough to run a small stack. Capacity in the free tier is frequently unobtainable and there is no support relationship. Fine for a lab, not for something a client depends on.
How often does this page change?
It is re-checked quarterly, and immediately when a provider announces a change. Given 2026, “quarterly” has meant something.
Every figure on this page was read off the provider’s own pricing page on 29 August 2026 and each is linked above. Euro conversions use €1 = $1.1642 on that date; the euro figures are authoritative and the dollar figures move with the rate. Contabo prices are stated by Contabo as including applicable taxes and requiring a 12-month term; Hetzner prices exclude VAT. No provider was benchmarked. Where a claim comes from a third party rather than the vendor, it is attributed inline. Some links on this site are affiliate links — they do not change your price, and no provider paid for placement, position or wording here.