> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mastodon.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Understand the costs

> What costs are involved in fully-managed mastodon

<Tip>Signing up for [social.mastodon.site](https://social.mastodon.site) is free for everyone! This page covers the costs if you'd like us to [manage a mastodon server for you](/mastodon-servers).</Tip>

To keep our pricing fair, we try to charge based on your usage. We have a range of different server plans to suit most people.

You can find the current price of our server plans on our [server pricing page](/mastodon-servers).

There are a few costs we add up to create our pricing:

* **Space usage** - the database and media storage costs associated with your server (you can [see these any time in the admin dashboard](/admins/understanding-space-usage))
* **Servers** - larger, busier servers require more computing power
* **Media egress** - the cost of your server sending data out to the internet (when people view attached photos, for example)

## Included by default

We don't charge extra for the following, as it's included in every plan:

* **ElasticSearch** - this allows you to search through posts, users and servers more conveniently (other hosts often charge separately for this)
* **Updates and security** - we automatically upgrade your server to the latest version and manage security updates
* **Email sending** - our no-reply email service automatically manages user emails for you (sign up verification, notifications, etc)
* **Custom domains** - we provide free subdomains and also provide support for you [bringing your own domain name](/managed-server/domain-name)

## Fair usage

In most cases these numbers will be covered within the package that you choose. However, if you often go above what we expect for a server of that size, we can help you work out why, move you to a larger server, or add additional usage based costs to your current server.