How much does Fivetran cost in 2026?
Quick Answer: Fivetran uses Monthly Active Rows (MAR) pricing — the count of distinct rows updated in a billing period. As of July 2026 the plans are Free (500,000 MAR/month, plus 3,500 MAR activations and 5,000 model runs), Standard, Enterprise, and a new Business Critical tier (CMEK, PCI DSS Level 1, private networking); the former Starter plan is gone. Paid plans add a $5 base charge per standard connection (1-1M MAR). A typical mid-market company replicating 10-15 sources to Snowflake pays roughly $2,000-$4,000 per month depending on data-change volume.
Fivetran Pricing Model: Monthly Active Rows (as of July 2026)
Fivetran uses a Monthly Active Rows (MAR) pricing model. A MAR is a distinct row inserted or updated during a billing period. Rows not modified in a given month do not count, so initial historical syncs generate high MAR counts while steady-state incremental syncs are much cheaper. As of 2026, deletes also count toward paid MAR, and a $5 base charge applies per standard connection at 1-1,000,000 MAR of monthly usage (this base charge does not apply to Free accounts).
Pricing Tiers (as of July 2026)
| Tier | Model | Free/Included | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500,000 MAR/mo + 3,500 MAR activations + 5,000 model runs | Development and small pipelines |
| Standard | Per-MAR consumption + $5/connection base | — | Full 500+ connector catalog |
| Enterprise | Per-MAR consumption, volume discount | — | Private networking, SSO, advanced governance |
| Business Critical | Custom (highest tier) | — | CMEK, PCI DSS Level 1, private networking |
The Starter plan has been retired; Business Critical is the 2026 addition for regulated workloads. Most production deployments fall into Standard or Enterprise. Annual commitments save up to about 22% on Standard.
Common Cost Scenarios
| Company Size | Sources | Estimated MAR | Estimated Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small startup | 3 sources | ~100,000 MAR | $100-$300/month |
| Mid-market | 10-15 sources | ~2,000,000 MAR | $2,000-$4,000/month |
| Enterprise | 30+ sources | 10,000,000+ MAR | $8,000-$25,000+/month |
These assume steady-state incremental syncing. Month 1 is typically 2-3x higher due to the initial historical backfill.
Hidden Costs and Gotchas
- Initial historical sync: the first sync for each connector pulls full history and can generate millions of MAR in one billing period — plan for a higher month-1 invoice.
- $5 base per connection: each standard connection carries a $5 base charge at 1-1M MAR monthly usage, so a fleet of low-volume connectors has a floor cost even when data change is small.
- Deletes count: as of 2026, deleted rows count toward paid MAR, which can raise costs for high-churn tables.
- Destination costs: warehouse compute and storage from Fivetran-ingested data (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks) are an additional expense.
Fivetran vs Competitors: Pricing Comparison
| Platform | Starting Price | Model | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fivetran | $0 (free tier) | MAR/consumption-based | Yes (500,000 MAR) |
| Airbyte | $0 (self-hosted) | Row-based (cloud), free (self-hosted) | Yes (self-hosted unlimited) |
| Stitch Data | ~$100/month | Row-based | No |
| Custom Airflow | $40-$400/month (infra) | Infrastructure cost only | N/A (self-managed) |
Fivetran costs more than self-hosted alternatives like Airbyte or custom Airflow, but removes the engineering overhead of building and maintaining connectors. The trade-off is cost versus engineering time.
Editor's Note: We tracked Fivetran costs for a Series B SaaS company replicating 15 sources to Snowflake. Month 1 (historical sync): $6,200, because the initial backfill triggered high MAR counts. Months 2-6 (incremental) averaged $2,400/month as only changed rows were counted. The PostgreSQL connector was the most expensive at about $900/month due to high row-level change volume. Switching three low-priority sources from 5-minute to 6-hour syncs saved roughly $180/month. Re-checked July 2026: two changes to model now — deletes count toward paid MAR (which pushed one high-churn table's cost up), and a $5 base charge per standard connection means fleets of small connectors carry a floor cost worth auditing. — Rafal Fila, ShadowGen
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