How we rank
This page explains how we decide the order of the plans in our tables. The same rules apply to every provider we cover.
Last updated
Our criteria and their weights
Each criterion carries a weight in points: the more points it carries, the more it counts in a plan's total.
| Criterion | Scored for | Weight | How we score it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price for what you get | Each plan | 30 points | The plan's current price compared with plans of the same size and kind that we cover. 10 = the lowest price for what it offers in its size; 0 = the highest. |
| Clear and complete pricing | Each provider | 15 points | Whether the provider's own pages state the price, the currency, whether VAT is included, the price after any promotion and any minimum term. 10 = all of them, easy to find. |
| Pay only for what you use | Each plan | 15 points | How flexible the billing is. Billing by the second, minute or hour, or month to month with no long commitment, scores higher than long prepaid terms. |
| Ready for the job | Each plan | 15 points | One-click installs or ready templates for what the plan is used for (for example n8n, Ollama or ComfyUI), documented on the provider's own pages. |
| Choice of data centres | Each provider | 10 points | How many data-centre locations we could confirm from the provider's own pages, and whether they include the EU and the US. |
| Our own test | Each plan | 15 points | The result of our own dated test: how long the set-up took, how it ran and what went wrong. Plans we have not tested yet score 0 here. |
| Total | 100 points |
How we score each plan
We score each plan from 0 to 10 on every criterion, using evidence: George's own dated tests, the provider's own pages and our weekly price records. Some criteria are scored once for the whole provider, and that score then counts for each of its plans.
A plan's total is the weighted average of its scores, so it is also a number from 0 to 10. A plan we have not yet scored on a criterion gets 0 for it.
For Price for what you get, we look at what each plan costs for a month, for what it offers. We compare it with the other plans of the same type and size that we cover. A plan priced by the hour counts as running all month, so its hourly price is multiplied by 730 hours. That way plans billed by the hour and plans billed by the month are compared on the same footing. Plans priced per use, such as per million tokens, are compared by their own prices.
Nothing else changes the order, and nobody can move a plan up by hand.
When two plans have the same total
If two plans end up with the same total, we list them in alphabetical order of the internal name each plan has in our records. That way the order is the same every time.
When a plan leaves the ranking
A plan leaves our ranked tables when its provider stops selling it or when the provider itself closes. The plan stays on the provider's page with the date of our last check.
Your own order and filters
You can sort a table by price and filter it by size, billing and data-centre location. Sorting by price orders plans by what they cost for a month: an hourly price counts as 730 hours, so plans billed by the hour and by the month sit together. Plans priced per use, such as per million tokens or per image, come after them. Prices are compared only within the same currency: we never convert dollars into euros or the other way round.
The EU and US filters show only plans whose data-centre location we could confirm on the provider's own pages.
The box marked Ad
The box marked Ad sits outside every ranking. It never changes a verdict or an order.
What changed on this page
26 October 2026: we now compare prices by what a plan costs for a month, counting an hourly price as 730 hours. This applies to our scores and to sorting by price.