Maps · pricing
Cesium ion pricing
Cesium ion publishes 4 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 1 September 2026, Cesium ion pricing is free, then $149/month across 4 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free, then $149/month
- Model
- Per month by storage, streaming and gigapixels
- Tiers
- 4
- Free tier
- Yes
Cesium ion plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community | Free | 4 | Entry tier |
| Commercial | $149/month | 4 | +$149/month, 4 more features |
| Premium | $499/month | 4 | +$350/month, 4 more features |
| Custom | On request | 4 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Community
FreeThe entry tier. It covers 5 gb storage, 15 gb per month streaming, 20 gigapixels per month reality modelling, non-commercial or open use only.
Commercial
$149/monthOver Community, this tier adds:
- 50 GB storage
- 150 GB per month streaming
- 40 gigapixels per month reality modelling
- $524 per month for a team account
Premium
$499/monthOver Commercial, this tier adds:
- 250 GB storage
- 500 GB per month streaming
- 100 gigapixels per month reality modelling
- $874 per month for a team account
Custom
On requestOver Premium, this tier adds:
- Negotiated quotas
- Self-hosted deployment in your own environment
- Enterprise support
- Quoted by Cesium
Where Cesium ion stops being free
Community, Free
- 5 GB storage
- 15 GB per month streaming
- 20 gigapixels per month reality modelling
- Non-commercial or open use only
Commercial, $149/month
The first thing you pay for:
- 50 GB storage
- 150 GB per month streaming
- 40 gigapixels per month reality modelling
- $524 per month for a team account
What the product covers
The full Cesium ion feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- 3D Tiles tiling
- Global terrain and imagery
- Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles
- Cloud reality modelling
- Streaming delivery
- Access tokens
- Geocoding
- Self-hosted option
People bring Cesium ion in for a survey firm delivering a photogrammetry mesh to a client as a browser link rather than a 40 gb download, a simulation team streaming global terrain and imagery into an unreal engine environment, an urban planning department publishing a city model that planners can inspect without desktop gis software, a software product embedding 3d geospatial views and needing hosted tiling rather than building a tiler. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Cesium ion are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Maps
Too few maps tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cesium ion (this page) | Free, then $149/month | Per month by storage, streaming and gigapixels | - | |
| Leica Infinity | On request | quote | - | vs Cesium ion |
| ArcGIS Survey123 | On request | Per user per year by ArcGIS user type | - | vs Cesium ion |
| Foursquare Spatial Studio | On request | quote | - | vs Cesium ion |
| Potree | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Cesium ion |
| onX Maps | On request | Separate per-product subscriptions, per user per year | - | vs Cesium ion |
| Fused | Free, then $20/month | Per month by compute tier | - | vs Cesium ion |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Cesium ion badges page.
Before you pay for Cesium ion
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 4 tiers between Free and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Cesium ion runs on web, cloud, and is published by Cesium GS of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The full record is on the Cesium ion review, and the rest of the category is under best maps tools.
Cesium ion pricing questions
- How much does Cesium ion cost?
- Cesium ion publishes 4 tiers, from Free for Community up to On request for Custom. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does Cesium ion have a free plan?
- Yes. The Community tier costs nothing and covers 5 gb storage, 15 gb per month streaming, 20 gigapixels per month reality modelling. Paying starts at $149/month for Commercial.
- What is the difference between Community and Commercial on Cesium ion?
- Commercial costs $149/month against Free, and adds 50 gb storage, 150 gb per month streaming, 40 gigapixels per month reality modelling, $524 per month for a team account.
- Is the Custom plan on Cesium ion worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is negotiated quotas, self-hosted deployment in your own environment, enterprise support, quoted by cesium. It costs On request against $149/month for Commercial. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- Which maps tools can I use without paying?
- 3 of the 8 maps tools listed alongside Cesium ion have a free tier: Potree, Fused, GRASS GIS.
- What am I actually paying for with Cesium ion?
- The record lists 8 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for a survey firm delivering a photogrammetry mesh to a client as a browser link rather than a 40 gb download, a simulation team streaming global terrain and imagery into an unreal engine environment, an urban planning department publishing a city model that planners can inspect without desktop gis software.
- Does Cesium ion charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 4 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Cesium ion prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Cesium ion against before paying?
- The closest maps tools in this directory are Leica Infinity, ArcGIS Survey123, Foursquare Spatial Studio, Potree. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Cesium ion covering price, platforms and features.