specification: API Commons Plans
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: Lemmy
providerId: lemmy
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Communities
  - Federated
  - Fediverse
  - Link Aggregator
  - Open-Source
  - Social Networks
description: >-
  Lemmy is free, open-source software (AGPL-3.0) with no official commercial API pricing tiers.
  The API is available for free on any public Lemmy instance. Self-hosting is also free; operators
  pay only their own infrastructure costs. Third-party managed hosting providers such as Elestio
  offer paid hosting plans starting around $5-10 per month depending on instance size. Rate limits
  are configured per instance by the instance operator and are not monetized.
sources:
  - https://join-lemmy.org/
  - https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy
  - https://elest.io/open-source/lemmy/resources/plans-and-pricing
notes: >-
  Lemmy has no commercial API pricing because it is open-source software. API access is free on
  all public instances. Self-hosting costs are infrastructure-only. Third-party managed hosting
  providers charge for the underlying compute, not API calls.
plans:
  - id: lemmy-api-free
    name: Lemmy API — Free (Public Instance)
    type: free
    description: >-
      Free access to the Lemmy REST API on any public Lemmy instance. No subscription, registration
      fee, or per-call charge applies. Rate limits are set by the instance operator. The largest
      public instance is lemmy.world with over 193,000 registered users.
    entries:
      - label: Free public API access
        name: free_public
        type: subscription
        metric: request
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: JWT authentication via /api/v4/account/auth/login
      - name: Posts, comments, communities, voting endpoints
      - name: ActivityPub federation
      - name: Instance-configured rate limits
  - id: lemmy-self-hosted
    name: Lemmy — Self-Hosted
    type: free
    description: >-
      Run your own Lemmy instance using the open-source software. Infrastructure costs (server,
      storage, bandwidth) are the operator's responsibility. Docker and Ansible deployment options
      are provided. Written in Rust for high performance; a single instance supports tens of
      thousands of users on modest hardware.
    entries:
      - label: Software license cost
        name: oss_license
        type: one-time
        metric: install
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: forever
        geo: global
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: AGPL-3.0 open-source license
      - name: Full API access on your own instance
      - name: Configure your own rate limits
      - name: Join or isolate from the Fediverse
  - id: lemmy-managed-hosting
    name: Lemmy — Managed Hosting (Third-Party)
    type: paid
    description: >-
      Third-party managed hosting providers such as Elestio offer Lemmy hosting for a monthly fee
      covering compute, storage, and managed deployment. Pricing varies by provider and selected
      instance size. Elestio uses hourly credit billing across multiple cloud providers (Hetzner,
      DigitalOcean, AWS Lightsail, Vultr, Linode, Scaleway, Netcup).
    entries:
      - label: Managed hosting (entry tier)
        name: managed_entry
        type: subscription
        metric: month
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        unit: 1
        price: 'varies by provider and instance size'
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: Managed deployment and updates
      - name: Cloud provider choice
      - name: Storage pricing at ~$0.15/GB/month (Elestio)
      - name: Free trial credits available ($20 for 3 days on Elestio)
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com