Considering signing up for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet? The service comes in a bunch of flavors. We’ve broken down all the pricing tiers, subscription costs, and equipment fees to make your choices easy.
Since it first launched in 2020, Starlink has done something revolutionary: offered consumers easy access to robust satellite internet. With nothing more than a dish, a power source, and a clear view of the sky, you can tap into Starlink’s fleet of low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites to get internet access almost anywhere in the world at speeds that make modern connected life possible.
But we’ve come a long way since the days when Starlink had only one dish and one plan option. The SpaceX subsidiary now has three current dish choices and six different plans for households and businesses.
I’ve been testing Starlink for years, and I’m intimately familiar with both the equipment and the service plans. Let me explain which dish is which and what each one costs. I’ll also help you determine whether Starlink internet is worth it for your budget and circumstances, and if so, which plan is right for you. Starlink Residential Plans: The Best Picks for Staying Put
The main Starlink plans are for residential users—households with stationary locations. Whether it’s a home that needs continuous year-round service, or a part-time residence where internet is only needed occasionally, one of the residential plans is sure to meet the need.
All of the residential plans work with the Standard Starlink Installation Kit, which includes the Starlink Dish V4 and Router Gen 3, along with a cable, a power adapter, and a basic kickstand. The kit is available at the Starlink website, as well as several other major retailers. You can find additional mounting options and accessories from the Starlink store.
The standard Residential plan offers unlimited data with download speeds of 150Mbps or more (based on Starlink’s own claims, and confirmed in our testing) and is available almost anywhere in the US, as well as several other countries. Since it’s meant for stationary use at a fixed address, it’s ideal for homes.
The monthly price for this plan is $120, but recent developments add a couple of interesting wrinkles. In some high-population areas, SpaceX’s answer to capacity constraints is a one-time „congestion charge“ that can add between $100 and $250 to the cost of signing up.
Conversely, in some parts of the country, Starlink is actually offering Residential users a discount, dropping the monthly fee to $99. That discounted rate is not available everywhere, and it’s not guaranteed to stick around permanently, but if you’re in one of the lucky areas, your ongoing costs will initially be lower.
Finally, though Starlink’s service has long been offered on a month-to-month basis, in several states, Starlink is offering free equipment with a 12-month contract. With the installation kit costing $349, that’s a substantial savings.
If you still want to save more, you can try the Residential Lite plan, which mandates a step down in speed and deprioritized data, but also lowers the price to $80 per month. It’s not available in every state. (See this Starlink support page for the current lay of the land.) If you can get it, however, it’s a great way to save on the monthly expense when you don’t need the full speed and priority offerings of the Residential plan, but still want stable service to your home.Starlink Roam Plans: The Best Picks for Mobile Use
What’s the fun of internet that’s available all over the globe if you have to stay put all the time to use it? That’s where the Starlink Roam plans come in. Offering Starlink on the go, the Roam plan also works with different equipment, called Starlink Mini. It’s a smaller, more portable version of Starlink’s dish technology. It doesn’t offer the same speeds as the larger Residential dish, but the design is more compact, with the router built in, ready to deploy at any campsite or RV park in minutes. It’s faster to set up, easier to fit into tight spaces, and made to work with a variety of off-grid power sources, in addition to the regular outlet and extension cord.
