Starlink is a satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. The service has been in development for years, with the first public beta launching in November 2020. As of 2022, Starlink is in production, although network capacity remains limited as the satellite deployment schedule continues.
Acceptance into the program is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis depending on availability in selected areas.
Availability is limited due to the number of satellites in orbit, so this means that only a certain number of users within a specific area can sign up. Many thousands of satellites are planned to launch, and availability will increase over time.
In this article we will cover the basics of Starlink, and go over Starlink prices you can expect to pay if you are interested in the service.
Table of Contents
Starlink Prices
There are five different Starlink service plans. Residential, Best Effort, RV, Business, and Maritime. With each service tier you’ll pay a one-time equipment fee, plus a monthly service charge.
Residential
The Residential Starlink service price is $110 per month. There is no contract, so users can cancel their service at any time without fees.
There is also a one-time fee of $599 for the Standard Starlink hardware kit. The hardware kit includes the dish, wireless router, and base stand. Other accessories, such as roof mounts and cable routing kits, are sold separately.
Residential orders have the option to upgrade to the High Performance hardware kit, at a cost of $2,500.
See also: Starlink Adds Option For High Performance Dish
Best Effort
Best Effort is essentially a lower performance service offered to customers on the Residential waitlist. The idea is that people can enjoy Starlink internet, while waiting for capacity to expand in their area.
Best Effort costs $110 per month, with a one-time fee of $599 for the hardware.
When capacity expands, Best Effort customers are upgraded to Residential for free, and can keep using the same equipment.
RV
Starlink RV is $135 per month. There is no contract, so users can cancel their service at any time without fees. Starlink RV can be paused/resumed for seasonal use.
Just like with residential plans, there is a one-time fee of $599 for the Starlink RV hardware kit. The hardware kit is identical to the residential version, and includes the dish, base stand, and router.
Business
Starlink Business costs $500 per month. There is no contract, so Business customers can cancel at any time.
There is also a one-time fee of $2,500 for the Starlink Business hardware kit. The hardware kit includes the dish, power supply, wireless router, and base stand. Other accessories, such as roof mounts and cable routing kits, are sold separately.
Maritime
Starlink Maritime is $5,000 per month. There is no contract, users can cancel at any time. Users can also pause service for seasonal usage.
There is a one-time fee of $10,000 for the Starlink Maritime hardware kit, which includes two Business dishes and mounting accessories.
Monthly Portability Fee
Residential customers can add the Portability feature to their account. Portability costs $25 per month, in addition to the regular service price. Portability gives residential customers the same roaming ability as Starlink RV. Portability can be paused/resumed for seasonal use.
What about pre-ordering Starlink?
Starlink offers two levels of access for the Residential plan. People who live in areas currently served by active satellites with enough capacity can purchase the hardware kit and obtain service.
Those who live in covered areas which are at capacity, or who live in areas of future expansion, can pre-order for $99. Customers who pre-order are put on a waitlist for their service area, and access will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis for pre-order customers when eligibility expands.
Will the price of Starlink go up or down?
Starlink is in its infancy and is rapidly growing. If Starlink fails to bring in enough revenue, costs to customers could increase.
On the other hand, if manufacturing and maintenance costs are streamlined, the cost of both the hardware kit and monthly service fee could go down in the future.
Update – March 2022: Starlink Increases Prices for All Customers
Are the costs of Starlink refundable?
Yes! According to the Starlink terms of service, 100% of the equipment fee and service fee is refundable within 30 days of receipt for any reason. Customers can buy with confidence knowing that if the service doesn’t work as expected, they don’t risk being stuck with an expensive Starlink kit.
Customers who have had their Starlink kit for less than a year are able to return the hardware for a partial refund.
March 2022 Starlink Price Increase
In March 2022, Starlink announced that all customers would see their prices increase. The primary reason for this increase is inflation. In the previous 12 months prior to March 2022, inflation in the United States was up nearly 8%.
The price for the hardware kit increased from $499 to $599.
The price for the monthly service fee increased from $99 per month to $110 per month.
Starlink Prices vs Other Satellite Internet
If you are interested in comparing Starlink to Viasat, we’ve written a complete comparison that you should check out. But in terms of pricing, Viasat has a cheaper equipment cost of $299.99, and a cheaper starting monthly cost of $69.99. Keep in mind, Viasat performance is much lower than Starlink, and you also have to sign a 2 year contract with Viasat.
It’s much of the same story with HughesNet. The equipment cost is closer to Starlink at $449.98, and the monthly rate starts out at $64.99. We wrote a complete comparison for Starlink vs HughesNet if you are interested in learning more. HughesNet is at a much lower level of performance compared to Starlink, so keep that in mind when comparing costs. Also, HughesNet requires a 2 year contract just like Viasat.
Starlink vs 5G Wireless Cost
5G home internet services are expanding around the world. If you have the option between Starlink and an unlimited 5G home internet plan, it can be a tough decision. The T-Mobile 5G home internet plan costs $50/month with no up-front equipment costs. Verizon 5G home internet plans start out at $50/month.
Conclusion
Starlink costs $110/month, with an up-front equipment fee of $599. The price of Starlink is comparable to other satellite internet providers, but Starlink delivers much better speed and latency. Starlink is less of a value compared to other options like fixed broadband, but then again, it’s not designed for people with access to other broadband options.
If you live in a rural area or don’t have access to any other broadband options, Starlink can be well worth the price. You get high speed, low latency internet without data caps or data throttling. We can only speculate as to whether the cost of Starlink will increase in the future, but for now it remains a great value for satellite internet.
See also: Starlink Internet Plans Explained
I am looking at Starlink business for our small campground. But I cannot find anywhere how far the range is? Would I need more than one kit for 3 acres for example? It is all unobstructed view to the sky.
The kit just comes with one Wifi router. Really not enough range to cover more than a small house. What I would recommend is hiring an IT company to wire up access points throughout the property. These access points would be wired into a switch, and your Business starlink would also be plugged into the switch. You can either have the Starlink router handle routing and DHCP, or you can use a 3rd party router (seek advice from the IT firm). With this solution, you’ll have reliable coverage throughout the property.
What is the procedure to change Starlink from Residential to RV?
Go to the Starlink.com website, log in to your account dashboard. Click on Manage for your Starlink Residential plan. Then near service type, click the edit icon. You’ll be able to check the box for RV on this page, and this will convert your account.
Edit: I just wrote up a guide showing how to do this if you need more detail!
https://www.starlinkhardware.com/how-to-switch-from-residential-to-rv/
what size convertor from 12v to 100 do i get?
I have a business but in reality it is one perhaps two laptops trying to access the internet. Can I buy the residential option, I really don’t need more and the cost of the full business (up to 20 users) would be prohibitive
While technically that would go against the Starlink terms of service, this is what most small businesses are doing. The cost of the Business tier is too much for most. And the small operations aren’t really what Starlink is worried about when they write those terms of service. It’s worth a shot to see if it works for your business!
do you own the hardware?
Yes, when you buy the kit you own the hardware. You are able to sell it and transfer service to someone else in the future if you need to.
I just ordered my kit and am wondering how do I know I ordered the right one. I ordered the kit for RV usage but nothing in the email order detail reads “RV”?
Log in to your account on the website. It will show you which account type you have. If you accidentally ordered Residential, the good news is that you can convert to RV. You cannot switch RV to Residential, though.
They some what over charge for the first month at least that was my experience. We we’re billed for the first month when we paid for the unit then we’re billed again 13 days later. A lie on prepaid for the first month. Just be aware that the cost is more then you think as your billed immediately for the ‘first’ month even though it was paid.
You aren’t charged for the first months service until about 15 days after the kit ships. On the order page, it shows you the service price, but that isn’t actually included in what you pay up-front. The up-front cost is the hardware $599, shipping $50, and tax, around $50 depending on where you live.
One of my customers, a school, had a lot of troubles with their ISP. They switched already (only two available in the area) but there still happen to be outages here and there and poor quality of service and support.
I’ve been willing for a while to offer them to try Starlink, at least as a backup line, but their IT director has been hesitant.
A school would fall under the ‘business’ category, right ?
If it was doable as residential that could be easy to sell. Business, not sure they can really afford to pay that.
Yes, a school would fall under the Business category from what I understand. The Starlink terms of service say that any commercial or government operation would need the Business tier.
After waiting several years since deposit, we received and installed the equipment last week.
At the moment, we do not have complete unobstructed view of the sky but signal is about 10 times faster than our ATT broadband high speed internet service.
To have unobstructed view of the sky, I’d have to mount the antenna on the roof and I really don’t want to do that. I’ve been told there is a telescoping pole extension available.
I’d like to carry the antenna and router with us while we RV the country for about 3 months. Can that be done and is there an available and maybe shorter cable for sale? I have outfitted our truck camper with lithium batteries and inverter. Thanks for any advice…
To use it when traveling, you’ll need to add the Portability feature to your account. See our guide here:
https://www.starlinkhardware.com/starlink-roaming-mode-explained/
The 75′ cable is the shortest available.
If the obstructions aren’t causing you outages or any problems, I don’t see a problem with leaving it as-is. If you start having issues, roof mounting will be the way to go if it’s high enough. We have a full guide to mounting options here:
https://www.starlinkhardware.com/starlink-mounting-options-a-guide-to-official-and-diy-mounts/
Can I switch from StarLink RV to StarLink Residential when it becomes available in my area?
As of right now, no. Starlink does not allow switching between account types.
Is the speed listed above megabits per second (Mbps)or megabytes per second (MBps)?
Speeds are megabits per second, Mbps.
I live about 15 miles West of Gunnison, CO at about 8,300 ft in the mountains. Just received my Starlink kit yesterday and have been using it for less than 24 hours. When I first set it up, I was getting about 115Mbps download speed and roughly 10Mbps upload speed. Of course, the server site you choose for the bandwidth testing has everything to do with the test speeds; so, choose multiple locations to get a better idea of bandwidth.
Yesterday, the self-moving satellite disk pointed straight up. This morning, the dish was pointed just above the mountains to the North, and I was getting only about 25Mbps down, which is what I have with a microwave ISP now. About 10:30am MDT, I started getting 160Mbps down which is where I am now. Since the satellites are moving, it makes sense the bandwidth is changing, but I don’t see any such documentation about this anywhere on the Starlink site.
The dish actually won’t move much at all in normal operation, once it has properly aligned itself. The antenna is phased-array, so it doesn’t have to physically move much to track the satellites as they move across the sky. There are so many satellites in orbit that the signal just hands off to another one when the current one moves out of range.
Speed differences are much more of an effect of network congestion. Test at 8pm and you’ll usually have much slower speeds than at 3am, for example.
How many GB do you get for the monthly fee? Hughesnet is 20GB and then you are either turtle slow or buy more usage. 20 GB does not last that long.
Starlink does not have any data caps or limits as of right now.
would we get services in Bagdad Arizona a small mining town
If you visit https://www.Starlink.com/ and enter in your address, it will tell you if service is available.
Does it cover regular network programming?
Starlink will support their wireless router and configuration that comes with the kit. If you have advanced networking requirements using 3rd party equipment, you’ll have to figure all that out.
Can I use starlink on my camper?
Officially, no. However, users have reported that with a recent firmware update they have been able to “roam” outside of their service address and use Starlink. So theoretically, yes you could use it on a camper. It’s one of those things you will have to try at your own risk, and the feature isn’t guaranteed to stick around even if it works for you now. If you aren’t going to use Starlink at your home, we don’t recommend trying to buy it just for a camper. It’s too expensive for the occasional camper trip. If you live in your camper, it might be a good option if high speed internet is required, although it’s risky as noted above.
Yes the $99 is a deposit so when your order is converted to a full order, you’ll owe the balance of about $400 + taxes and shipping. You’ll start paying the monthly service fee when you plug in the dish and activate the service.
They sure don’t make it easy to find information on their site once you’re logged in. Put my deposit down last year & still waiting.
When you put the $99 deposit down… do they subtract that from the kit price of $499? Or is that for the first month’s service?
They subtracted the $99. So when we got our notice it was in our area, we paid an additional $480.74
Just received my Starlink Saturday,2/12/22. It is awesome! Currently raining,and cloudy,and my download speed is 42.99,and upload is 7.74. My previous internet was through my phone company,(only service available at my house,) it was horrible, I was lucky to get dl of 1.28, and ul over 1! Cell service was even worse. We had to shut wifi off to phones to “try” to stream anything,and everything had to be hardwired. Now we can use everything,all at the same time! No more waiting until the middle of the night to try to stream,or do anything online!!
I was in the same situation! Starlink is a game changer, for sure.
We’re on the list, 6 months now. We have a neighbor who is on Starlink. Can we get out now? Obviously the satellite is in the area.
There is limited availability within each service cell. Basically, each area can only handle a certain number of users at the same time. Availability will increase as more satellites are added. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and the demand for the service far exceeds the current capabilities of the system.
How do I know if my area has coverage. Thornton, NSW Australia.
You can check for service availability at the official Starlink website: Starlink.com
Have a remote cabin in Saguache Colorado. Wondering if this is a covered area yet or when it may be covered?
How do you get on a wait list?
The official website at Starlink.com can tell you if your address is covered, and allow you to order if it is available.
My address doesn’t come up, what do I do?
Sometimes the address is a bit different than what you normally use. For example, my address might be 1234 Starlink Road. But the database Starlink is pulling from has it listed as 1234 South Starlink Road or something. Just make sure you are typing it in completely and correctly. You can try to type out road, street, etc. or type out the north, south, etc.
Ask them if they can use geo coordinates (ie Lat Long) to tell you if you have coverage in that area.
You simply sign up. Go to the main page and follow the directions.