# Prefect

Source: https://calc.onpremeasy.com/product/prefect/

## Indicative from-price range

Indicative from-price range for self-hosting Prefect on 1 server: about $24 to $112 per month (USD), as of 2026-10-19, for the reference workload (Peak concurrent flow runs: 20; Active scheduled flows: 100). From-price by provider, each the cheapest server in that provider's own shortlist: $24 on DigitalOcean (basic-2vcpu-4gb, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, fra1); $49 on Google Cloud (e2-standard-2, 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, us-central1); $63 on Amazon Web Services (c9g.large, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, us-east-1); $64 on OVHcloud (rise-1, 6 vCPU, 32 GB RAM, eu-west); $66 on Microsoft Azure (D2as_v7, 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, eastus); $66 on Hetzner (AX41, 6 vCPU, 64 GB RAM, eu-central); $262 on Servers.com (dl-01, 8 vCPU, 64 GB RAM, eu-west).

Reference workload:
- Peak concurrent flow runs: 20
- Active scheduled flows: 100

Price snapshot: 2026-10-19. Currency: USD. FX snapshot: 2026-10-19.

Configuration: Low end: 1 x basic-2vcpu-4gb (DigitalOcean, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, about $24 per server per month). High end: 1 x rise-m (OVHcloud, 12 vCPU, 64 GB RAM, about $112 per server per month).

Methodology: This range is generated automatically from public provider price lists. It has not been reviewed by a person, it is not a quote, and it may differ from the total the calculator chooses for your own workload with its AI step. Method: the calculator's offer shortlist for the reference workload (the same ranking it builds before the AI step, up to 12 offers across providers; 12 here) is priced at its monthly list price in USD. The low end is the cheapest of the per-provider from-prices below and the high end is the median server of the combined shortlist, each multiplied by 1, the smallest baseline topology (single-node). The from-price for each provider applies the same method to that provider's own shortlist (the calculator's ranking restricted to that provider), so it is the cheapest server that ranking offers there, not a recommendation. Prices are taken from the price snapshot dated 2026-10-19; prices quoted in EUR are converted with the ECB reference rate dated 2026-10-19. Servers with fewer than 2 vCPU or less than 4 GB RAM are not priced. Only server rental list prices for the product's own servers are counted: dependencies, licences, support, traffic charges, taxes and setup fees are not included.

Price sources:
- [Amazon Web Services](https://pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/offers/v1.0/aws/AmazonEC2/current/us-east-1/index.json)
- [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets)
- [Google Cloud](https://cloudbilling.googleapis.com/v1/services/6F81-5844-456A/skus)
- [Hetzner](https://www.hetzner.com/_resources/app/data/app/live_data_en_EUR.json)
- [Microsoft Azure](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices)
- [OVHcloud](https://eu.api.ovh.com/1.0/order/catalog/public/eco?ovhSubsidiary=FR)
- [Servers.com](https://www.servers.com/products/scalable-bare-metal)

Prefect is a Python-native workflow orchestration framework that turns ordinary functions into monitored, retryable flows and tasks, handling scheduling, state tracking, and failure recovery for data and ML pipelines.

## What gets deployed with it

- PostgreSQL HA Cluster (required): Prefect Server requires PostgreSQL for production deployments. SQLite is supported only for local development. The database stores flow run state, task runs, deployment definitions, and worker heartbeats.

## Baseline topologies

- single-node: 1 node minimum; roles: prefect-server
- server-plus-workers: 2 nodes minimum; roles: prefect-server, prefect-worker

## What drives the cost

- Peak concurrent flow runs: Peak number of flow runs executing simultaneously. Primary driver for worker node count and CPU/RAM headroom on execution infrastructure.
- Active scheduled flows: Total number of flows with active schedules. Drives Prefect Server scheduler heartbeat load and database poll frequency.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does it cost to self-host Prefect?

Indicative from-price range for self-hosting Prefect on 1 server: about $24 to $112 per month (USD), as of 2026-10-19, for the reference workload (Peak concurrent flow runs: 20; Active scheduled flows: 100). From-price by provider, each the cheapest server in that provider's own shortlist: $24 on DigitalOcean (basic-2vcpu-4gb, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, fra1); $49 on Google Cloud (e2-standard-2, 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, us-central1); $63 on Amazon Web Services (c9g.large, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, us-east-1); $64 on OVHcloud (rise-1, 6 vCPU, 32 GB RAM, eu-west); $66 on Microsoft Azure (D2as_v7, 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, eastus); $66 on Hetzner (AX41, 6 vCPU, 64 GB RAM, eu-central); $262 on Servers.com (dl-01, 8 vCPU, 64 GB RAM, eu-west). This is an automatically generated indicative figure from public price lists (price snapshot 2026-10-19), not a quote.

### What drives the cost of self-hosting Prefect?

The sizing inputs the calculator uses for Prefect are: Peak concurrent flow runs; Active scheduled flows. Cost also depends on the number of servers and the provider chosen.

### What is the minimum number of servers for Prefect?

The smallest baseline topology in the calculator's profile for Prefect is single-node (1 server). Other baseline topologies: server-plus-workers (2 servers minimum). The reference range above is computed for 1 server.

Size Prefect for your own workload: https://calc.onpremeasy.com/?product=prefect

## Sources

- https://www.prefect.io/
- https://docs.prefect.io/
- https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect