JFrog Artifactory Pricing Guide 2026

JFrog’s pricing page shows Artifactory starting at $150/month. But if you’ve ever received an actual bill from JFrog, you know that number rarely reflects what you’ll pay.

The difference comes down to one word: consumption.

In this guide, we’ll break down exactly how JFrog Artifactory pricing works, explain the consumption-based model that catches many teams off guard, and help you calculate what you’ll actually spend. Whether you’re evaluating Artifactory for the first time or trying to understand a surprisingly high bill, this is the complete picture.

Artifactory Pricing Tiers at a Glance

JFrog offers Artifactory in three main configurations:

Cloud (SaaS) Plans

Self-Hosted Plans

At first glance, $150/month seems reasonable for a repository manager. But that base price is just the beginning.

What is Consumption-Based Pricing?

Here’s where Artifactory pricing gets complicated.

JFrog uses a consumption-based model where you pay for the total amount of storage AND data transfer combined. They call this “consumption” - and it’s measured in gigabytes.

How It Works

1. Storage: Every artifact you upload counts toward consumption
2. Data Transfer: Every artifact downloaded (including by your CI/CD pipelines) also counts
3. Combined Total: Both are added together for billing

The Pro plan includes 25 GB of combined consumption. After that, you pay per GB:

This tiered structure sounds like you’ll save at higher volumes, but most teams end up in that expensive $1.25/GB tier.

The Hidden Cost: How CI/CD Multiplies Your Bill

Here’s what the pricing page doesn’t emphasize: every CI/CD build downloads artifacts.

When your build server runs mvn install or pip install, it pulls dependencies from your repository. Each pull counts as data transfer. Each transfer counts toward consumption. Each GB of consumption costs money.

Real-World Example

Let’s calculate the actual cost for a typical development team:

Team Profile:

• 10 developers
• 50 builds per day (5 per developer)
• 200 MB average artifacts downloaded per build
• 100 GB stored artifacts

Monthly Consumption Calculation:

Storage:     100 GB
Transfer:    50 builds × 200 MB × 30 days = 300 GB
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total:       400 GB monthly consumption

Monthly Cost:

Base price:                          $150.00
First 25 GB:                         included
Next 375 GB × $1.25:                $468.75
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total Monthly:                       $618.75
Total Annual:                        $7,425.00

That $150/month plan just became $618/month - more than 4x the advertised price.

Why This Model Exists

Consumption-based pricing isn’t an accident. It’s a deliberate business model that:

1. Looks affordable initially - $150/month attracts signups
2. Grows with your usage - Revenue expands without selling upgrades
3. Creates expansion revenue - Wall Street loves predictable revenue growth
4. Makes costs unpredictable - Hard for customers to budget accurately

JFrog is a public company (NASDAQ: FROG) that needs to show investors consistent revenue growth. Consumption pricing delivers that growth automatically as customers become more successful.

This isn’t necessarily wrong - but you should understand the model before committing.

Calculating Your Real Artifactory Cost

To estimate your actual costs, you need three numbers:

1. Storage: Total size of artifacts you’ll store
2. Monthly Downloads: Estimated data transfer from CI/CD and developers
3. Growth Rate: How much storage and usage will increase over time

Cost Calculator Formula

Monthly Cost = $150 + ((Storage GB + Transfer GB - 25) × $1.25)

For usage over 1,204 GB, the formula gets more complex with tiered rates.

Common Scenarios

These numbers assume you stay on the Pro tier. Enterprise tiers include more base consumption but cost significantly more upfront.

When Artifactory Makes Sense

To be fair, Artifactory is a capable product. It makes sense if you:

• Need advanced security scanning - JFrog Xray is genuinely powerful
• Require multi-region replication - Enterprise features handle this well
• Have negotiated enterprise pricing - Large contracts get significant discounts
• Are already deep in the JFrog ecosystem - Using JFrog Pipelines, Distribution, etc.
• Need features CloudRepo doesn’t offer - Universal repository support, ML model registry

If these apply to you, Artifactory may be worth the premium.

The Predictable Alternative

For teams that primarily need Maven repositories, Python, or Docker repositories without the enterprise complexity, there’s a simpler option.

CloudRepo offers predictable, all-inclusive pricing with no consumption fees:

The Key Difference

With CloudRepo:

• No egress fees - Download as much as your CI/CD needs
• No consumption metering - Storage is storage, transfer is free
• Predictable bills - Same price every month
• Support included - No expensive support contracts

Cost Comparison

For our earlier example (100 GB storage, 300 GB monthly transfer):

For teams with heavier CI/CD usage, the savings grow even larger. Teams can easily save $10,000+ annually by switching.

Questions to Ask Before Committing

If you’re evaluating Artifactory, ask these questions:

1. “What will my bill be with X GB storage and Y GB monthly transfer?” - Get a specific number, not a range
2. “Are there additional fees for support?” - Enterprise support contracts add significant cost
3. “What happens if we exceed our consumption estimate?” - Understand overage policies
4. “Can we get a cost cap or alert?” - Prevent surprise bills
5. “What’s the contract term and cancellation policy?” - Avoid lock-in

Making the Right Choice

Artifactory pricing isn’t inherently bad - it’s just complex. The consumption model works well for JFrog’s business but can create budget uncertainty for customers.

If you need Artifactory’s advanced features and have the budget, it’s a solid choice. If you primarily need reliable Maven, Python, or Docker repositories without surprise bills, consider whether predictable pricing might serve you better.

The best repository manager is one you can afford to use actively. When downloads cost money, teams often avoid pulling artifacts unnecessarily - which defeats the purpose of having a repository manager in the first place.

Ready to see how much you could save? Compare CloudRepo plans or start a free trial to test with your actual workflows. No credit card required, no consumption meters running.