Since it first launched in 2020, Starlink has done something revolutionary: offered consumers easy access to robust satellite internet. With nothing more than a dish, a power source, and a clear view of the sky, you can tap into Starlink’s fleet of low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites to get internet access almost anywhere in the world at speeds that make modern connected life possible.
But we’ve come a long way since the days when Starlink had only one dish and one plan option. The SpaceX subsidiary now has three current dish choices and six different plans for households and businesses.
I’ve been testing Starlink for years, and I’m intimately familiar with both the equipment and the service plans. Let me explain which dish is which and what each one costs. I’ll also help you determine whether Starlink internet is worth it for your budget and circumstances, and if so, which plan is right for you.
Starlink Residential Plans: The Best Picks for Staying Put
The main Starlink plans are for residential users—households with stationary locations. Whether it’s a home that needs continuous year-round service, or a part-time residence where internet is only needed occasionally, one of the residential plans is sure to meet the need.
5 Things to Know About Starlink Satellite Internet
All of the residential plans work with the Standard Starlink Installation Kit, which includes the Starlink Dish V4 and Router Gen 3, along with a cable, a power adapter, and a basic kickstand. The kit is available at the Starlink website, as well as several other major retailers. You can find additional mounting options and accessories from the Starlink store.
The standard Residential plan offers unlimited data with download speeds of 150Mbps or more (based on Starlink’s own claims, and confirmed in our testing) and is available almost anywhere in the US, as well as several other countries. Since it’s meant for stationary use at a fixed address, it’s ideal for homes.
The monthly price for this plan is $120, but recent developments add a couple of interesting wrinkles. In some high-population areas, SpaceX’s answer to capacity constraints is a one-time “congestion charge” that can add between $100 and $250 to the cost of signing up.
Conversely, in some parts of the country, Starlink is actually offering Residential users a discount, dropping the monthly fee to $99. That discounted rate is not available everywhere, and it’s not guaranteed to stick around permanently, but if you’re in one of the lucky areas, your ongoing costs will initially be lower.
(Credit: Brian Westover)
Finally, though Starlink’s service has long been offered on a month-to-month basis, in several states, Starlink is offering free equipment with a 12-month contract. With the installation kit costing $349, that’s a substantial savings.
If you still want to save more, you can try the Residential Lite plan, which mandates a step down in speed and deprioritized data, but also lowers the price to $80 per month. It’s not available in every state. (See this Starlink support page for the current lay of the land.) If you can get it, however, it’s a great way to save on the monthly expense when you don’t need the full speed and priority offerings of the Residential plan, but still want stable service to your home.
Starlink Roam Plans: The Best Picks for Mobile Use
What’s the fun of internet that’s available all over the globe if you have to stay put all the time to use it? That’s where the Starlink Roam plans come in. Offering Starlink on the go, the Roam plan also works with different equipment, called Starlink Mini. It’s a smaller, more portable version of Starlink’s dish technology. It doesn’t offer the same speeds as the larger Residential dish, but the design is more compact, with the router built in, ready to deploy at any campsite or RV park in minutes. It’s faster to set up, easier to fit into tight spaces, and made to work with a variety of off-grid power sources, in addition to the regular outlet and extension cord.
That compact portability and Starlink’s go-anywhere Roam plan let you take your dish anywhere within the US (including Alaska and Hawaii). Users have set up the Starlink Mini on car and RV rooftops, set it up in campsites, carried it in backpacks, and even set it up in tractors to get Wi-Fi while they work on the farm. And if you can do without the higher bandwidth of the residential and priority plans, it’ll also work on rivers and lakes within the country, and even on the coast. (Note: The plan has specific limitations about where and how long you can use it at the beach or in coastal waters, so as not to overlap too much with the ocean-going Global Priority plans discussed below.)
(Credit: Brian Westover)
The Starlink Roam plan has two options. The first is a 50GB plan that gives you 50GB of download data at 45Mbps to 230Mbps speeds for $50 per month, with the option to buy additional blocks of data when needed. The second is an unlimited plan that’s $165 per month, but gives you all the data you can download.
The only downside to the Starlink Mini is that the overall speeds aren’t as fast as you’ll get with the Starlink residential equipment and plans, so 4K streaming and online gaming are off the table. But it’s more than fast enough to support web browsing and streaming in full HD.
(For a point-by-point comparison of Residential and Roam plans, check out our comparison of the Starlink Mini and Standard kits.)
Starlink Priority Plans: Faster Service on Land or Sea
If you need even more speed, or the freedom to take Starlink out to sea, you’ll need a Starlink Priority plan, which is generally meant for businesses and well-heeled customers who can afford significantly higher equipment and service costs.
Starlink currently offers two of these upper-tier plans, with Local Priority offering fixed and in-motion use anywhere in the country (on land, or on inland waterways), and the Global Priority plan for use anywhere in the world, including out at sea, making it the replacement for the older Maritime service plan Starlink used to provide.
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The Local and Global Priority plans are both available for use with the standard Starlink dish, with those plans opening up higher-priority service, boosted bandwidth, and the full mobility offered by those plans. But both Priority plans use a third variation of the Starlink dish, the Starlink Performance Gen 3 (formerly known as the Flat High Performance Kit), which has a wider field of view than the Dish V4, letting it see and connect to more satellites. It also has enhanced GPS for mobile service even on the water, and an aluminum body that’s made to be more rugged for permanent installation and maritime use.
Unlike other Starlink plans, however, the Priority plans have data caps, with pricey service tiers at 50GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB of data (ranging between $65 and $2,150, depending on the data and plan type you choose), with additional 50GB and 500GB blocks of data available for an added expense. With the Local Priority plan, extra data costs $25 for an additional 50GB, and $125 for 500GB. With the Global Priority plan, those same 50GB and 500GB data blocks are $100 and $500, respectively.
Picking a Starlink Plan: Value Breakdown
We’ve already discussed how the different Starlink plans fit different use cases and needs, but cost is still an important factor. To help with that decision, we’ve laid out Starlink’s different plans and tiers in the table below, including the cost of equipment and the cost per Mbps. This should help you budget and have a better sense of how these plans compare to competitors, whether it’s other satellite providers or more traditional internet service providers (ISPs).
Let’s look first at the regular Residential and Roam plans:
As you can see, the plans have varying degrees of affordability, but all cost less than $1 per Mbps. And with strong speeds and no data caps on most plans, Starlink is not only reasonably priced, it’s also cost-effective, giving you usable internet wherever you are, especially in areas where the standard cable and fiber options aren’t readily available.
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And if you need to cut costs, you can do that too, thanks to the Residential Lite and Roam 50GB plans. Or, if you need to make it more affordable up front, a 12-month agreement can save you a significant amount off the up-front equipment costs.
Local and Global Priority plans, on the other hand, are much more expensive:
To get the privilege of higher priority data and slightly higher speeds, you can pay a whole lot more per month, with several plan options costing more than the $1 per Mbps we saw with the consumer plans. And these expenses climb even higher when you opt to use the Starlink Performance (Gen 3) dish. It may offer better GPS tracking for use on the move and better satellite visibility on a rocking boat, but the dish alone will set you back $1,500. It really only makes sense for businesses that absolutely need the higher performance, or for internet on a yacht, where the expense can be justified simply by having internet in international waters.
Starlink Alternatives
Starlink faces competition from two other satellite ISPs: Hughesnet and Viasat. Both provide internet access to remote areas where traditional terrestrial options like cable and fiber are unavailable. While Starlink has historically outperformed its rivals in terms of download speeds, upload speeds, and latency, the competition is becoming more fierce. Additionally, new players are emerging, such as Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which is building its own satellite constellation to compete directly with Starlink.
A quick look at Viasat’s Unleashed plan, for example, shows a starting monthly price of $99, which increases to $130 after the first three months. The plan offers download speeds up to 150Mbps and upload speeds up to 5Mbps. While Viasat technically offers “unlimited” data, it has a soft cap of 850GB, after which speeds can slow significantly. The plan also has a high average latency of 642ms, making it unsuitable for real-time applications like online gaming.
( Credit: René Ramos; Getty Images/Mark Newman )
Hughesnet’s Fusion plan, which combines satellite and wireless technology, promises download speeds up to 100Mbps and upload speeds up to 5Mbps with a significantly lower latency than its pure satellite plans. However, this plan isn’t available everywhere. Hughesnet plans require a two-year contract, with prices ranging from $50 to $95 per month in the first year, before increasing by $25 in the second. All plans have data caps, typically 100GB or 200GB, after which speeds are throttled unless you purchase additional data tokens.
While these traditional satellite options may have a lower initial equipment cost or offer an equipment lease, the long-term costs and performance limitations often make them less competitive. For instance, a basic Starlink residential plan requires a one-time equipment purchase of $349 and a monthly service fee of $120, and both of those costs might be brought down with a contract or discount. Starlink’s Standard plan also offers truly unlimited data without the soft caps or throttling found in competing plans.
So, don’t just sign up and never look back. Even if you’re already a paying subscriber, it’s a good idea to watch prices and reassess every few months as the satellite internet landscape continues to evolve.
Starlink: Is It Worth the Money?
So, is Starlink the right choice for you? The answer depends on what you need. If you’re a homeowner in a remote area with no good alternatives, the Residential plan offers a powerful and affordable solution with truly unlimited data. If you’re an RVer, boater, or adventure seeker, the Starlink Mini and Roam plans provide unmatched portability and go-anywhere convenience. And for businesses or those who need the absolute fastest speeds and global access, the Priority plans deliver the top-tier performance you need—but they’re not an affordable option for the average user.
After years of testing Starlink, the most important thing I’ve learned is that it’s no longer a one-size-fits-all solution. But that’s a good thing. Starlink has matured into a flexible service that can meet the needs of a wide range of users. The initial cost of equipment can be a hurdle, but with truly unlimited data on many plans and speeds that outpace most competitors, the long-term value is hard to beat. Starlink has already changed the game, but the real power lies in choosing a plan that fits your life—whether you’re staying put, hitting the road, or setting sail.
About Brian Westover
Principal Writer, Hardware
