microCMS Pricing: Plans, Commercial Use and Data Transfer

microCMS costs ¥0/month for Hobby, starts at ¥4,900/month for Team and ¥75,000/month for Business, and offers Enterprise by quotation. Paid prices exclude tax. The official pricing page lists the plans, and the official help center explicitly permits commercial use on free Hobby. Paid plans can incur charges for additional members, APIs and data transfer beyond their allowances.

Compare all four microCMS plans

This table summarizes the allowances and selected features on the official pricing page. An API means an API created to manage content, rather than an individual request. API request counts are unlimited on all plans, but data transfer has separate conditions.

Enterprise allows adjustments to member, API and transfer allowances and usage rates. Confirm the quotation rather than treating every listed figure as a fixed condition for every contract. Team and Business offer a 14-day trial, available once per service. Plans are generally contracted per service, so budget separately when splitting websites across separate services.

Prices and conditions can change; check the official page before subscribing. For Hobby's detailed content and file limits, see free-plan limits and when to reconsider.

Can you use free microCMS commercially?

Operating a commercial website does not, by itself, require a paid plan. The official advertising FAQ permits commercial use of Hobby and specifically allows Google AdSense and Amazon Associates. The corporate website FAQ also permits Hobby on company websites.

Commercial permission is separate from the features and delivery conditions your business needs. The corporate FAQ warns that exceeding 20GB of monthly transfer immediately stops the API. Permission to use Hobby commercially does not guarantee uninterrupted delivery or access to paid features.

For example, a small company information site can consider Hobby if its member count and transfer fit the allowances. A team that needs separate permissions for reviewers and publishers should evaluate Business permissions even if it has few members.

How data transfer and overage billing work

Requests, storage and transfer measure different things

The official transfer explanation counts JSON retrieved through the content API and images or files retrieved through media URLs. Neither stored image size nor website page views alone determines the bill.

Even if you fetch article content at build time for a static website, images served from microCMS URLs still generate media transfer. Trace JSON and media separately, accounting for browser and server caches. A site with few API requests can still transfer substantial data through repeated large image downloads.

Hobby stops the API rather than automatically charging for continued use above its allowance. The pricing notes state that transfer resets on the first of the following month, restoring API access. On Team and higher plans, exceeding transfer does not automatically stop the API, and you cannot choose to stop it. Include usage monitoring in your budget process.

The usage month differs from the billing cycle

The official billing procedure aggregates the previous calendar month's transfer around 10 a.m. on the first of each month. Overage charges are added to the next service payment. Usage is measured from the first through the last day of the month, rather than for a month starting on your subscription date.

The rate comes from the plan active when usage is aggregated on the first. Downgrading can therefore result in a higher rate than the plan you used when transferring the data. For payments due on the first, aggregation can miss the billing run and carry over; one bill may then contain two months of overages. Enterprise billing can differ by contract.

Worked example: 250GB in a month on Team

This is an illustrative calculation. Assume Team remains active throughout the usage month and at aggregation, there are no additional members or APIs, and finalized transfer is 250GB.

For a payment date on the 15th, March usage would be aggregated on April 1 and the ¥1,000 charge added to the April 15 service payment. The ¥5,900 illustration excludes tax and other add-ons; it does not imply an immediate charge during the usage month. You can check the next scheduled payment under service settings, then payments.

Member and API add-ons, and items to quote

The official usage-billing FAQ identifies transfer, API count and member count as billable usage items. The pricing table lists ¥1,200 for each member beyond the Team or Business allowance and ¥2,000 for each additional API. Include these additions in the monthly budget.

For example, Team with five members and 12 APIs costs ¥4,900 + two additional members × ¥1,200 + two additional APIs × ¥2,000 = ¥11,300/month before tax and transfer overages. The headline ¥4,900 is insufficient for that configuration. Members means everyone belonging to the service, so count implementation and maintenance staff too.

Enterprise lists the same ¥1,200/member and ¥2,000/API additions, subject to adjustments for scale. Its comparison table marks Amazon S3 integration, SLA, security questionnaire responses and premium support as optional. Their prices are not listed in that table, so request a quotation specifying the options you need.

For multiple environments on Business or higher, development-environment transfer is combined with production transfer. The same guidance says development-environment API and content counts are unlimited and excluded from allowance calculations; API counts are also excluded from usage billing. Update your transfer forecast when adding testing environments.

Which plan fits your team?

• Hobby: A candidate for small sites within three members, five APIs and 20GB/month, where the API-stop condition is acceptable. Commercial use alone is no reason to exclude it.

• Team: A candidate for small teams needing CSV export or general file uploads. If additional members and APIs satisfy the requirements, calculate that total first. For practical export steps, see CSV export and fetching all content through the API.

• Business: Fits operations requiring permissions, IP restrictions, previous-version restoration or multiple environments. Editorial and recovery requirements matter alongside transfer.

• Enterprise: A candidate for organizations that need contractual confirmation of SAML SSO, audit logs, mandatory two-factor authentication, invoice payments or a negotiated SLA.

If microCMS already suits your editorial workflow, upgrading or adding capacity can avoid migration work. If you are also evaluating genko.me, read the microCMS comparison and plan specifications. genko.me has no API-count or content-count limits, but storage for content and media, member counts, delivery rates and fair-use conditions still apply.

FAQ

Does commercial use require a paid microCMS plan?

Commercial use alone does not require payment. The official help center permits commercial Hobby use and also allows company websites. Choose according to members, features and transfer needs.

What happens when microCMS transfer exceeds the allowance?

The official guidance says Hobby stops the API, while Team and higher plans charge for excess transfer. The listed rates are ¥20/GB for Team, ¥18/GB for Business and ¥16/GB for Enterprise, with Enterprise adjustments available by contract.

Do more Team members require an upgrade to Business?

For headcount alone, the pricing table allows additional Team members beyond the included three at ¥1,200 each. Evaluate Business separately if you need permissions or multiple environments.

When are transfer overages billed?

The official billing explanation aggregates a calendar month's usage on the first of the following month and adds the charge to the next service payment. Billing dates and aggregation delays can postpone the charge; Enterprise customers should check their contract.