Is Dify worth it in 2026?
Whether the free Sandbox is enough, what Professional and Team cost per workspace billed yearly or monthly, what the Community licence allows, and where model credits fit, all read on 24 October 2026.
The quick answer
For a three-person team that has outgrown the free Sandbox, Dify Professional is worth it at $590 a year per workspace, read on 24 October 2026, because the Sandbox allows only one team member. The free paths are the hosted Sandbox and the self-hosted Community edition, which still needs your own server. Billed monthly it costs more, so the annual plan saves $118. Team lifts the member cap from 3 to 50. Model calls draw on the credit pool that comes with the plan, and a provider key you add can take over once that pool runs out.
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“Free” means two things on Dify’s pricing page. The hosted Sandbox costs nothing and gives you one team member, while the self-hosted Community edition is free software that runs on your own server. Once you outgrow the Sandbox, the cloud plans are priced per workspace: Professional and Team, each billed yearly or monthly, and yearly billing is cheaper on both.
This review reads Dify’s pricing page, its pricing mirror, its billing and model docs and its licence, all on 24 October 2026. It is a document read, not a product test. Academy data: of the 60 prompts in the three agent packs in our library, 30 sit in the Claude pack, 15 in the ChatGPT pack and 15 in the Copilot pack, counted on 24 October 2026. Dify has no pack and no tutorial in the Academy, so every Dify figure on this page comes from Dify itself.
Dify plans and what they include, read 24 October 2026
Source: https://dify.ai/pricing, read 24 October 2026, in US dollars per workspace. The monthly rows are the page’s Monthly view. Totals in the text are our own arithmetic.
| Plan | Price | Workspaces and members | Apps and knowledge documents | Message credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandbox | Free | 1 workspace, 1 member | 5 apps, 50 knowledge documents | 200 credits |
| Professional, billed yearly | $590 per workspace a year | 1 workspace, 3 members | 50 apps, 500 knowledge documents | 5,000 a month |
| Professional, billed monthly | $59/mo per workspace | 1 workspace, 3 members | 50 apps, 500 knowledge documents | 5,000 a month |
| Team, billed yearly | $1,590 per workspace a year | 1 workspace, 50 members | 200 apps, 1,000 knowledge documents | 10,000 a month |
| Team, billed monthly | $159/mo per workspace | 1 workspace, 50 members | 200 apps, 1,000 knowledge documents | 10,000 a month |
| Community (self-hosted) | Free | Single workspace | No caps listed | None listed |
| Enterprise | Custom, contact sales | Multiple workspaces | No caps listed | None listed |
What you get
- ✓Three members fit on one workspace at the Professional yearly price, so a three-person team pays once instead of per seat.
- ✓5,000 message credits a month on Professional, against 200 message credits on the free Sandbox, with no renewal period listed.
- ✓Annual billing is about 17% cheaper on Professional, the same discount Dify prints on its own page.
- ✓The Community edition is free to run on one workspace, with all core features under the public repository.
- ✓Team gives 50 members and 1,000 knowledge documents, so the same workspace can grow past three people.
The trade-offs
- ✕The Sandbox allows one team member, so it cannot hold a three-person team.
- ✕Professional stops at 3 members, and a fourth person means moving to Team, about 2.7 times the annual Professional price.
- ✕Credits are weighted by model, so one Claude Opus 4.7 response uses four times the credits of a Claude Haiku 4.5 response, and the plan cards do not show these costs.
- ✕Community is one workspace, and you carry the server and the bills for storage and any model provider.
Worth it if…
- →A team of two or three that wants a hosted workspace and a monthly credit pool.
- →A small team that would rather pay per workspace than per seat.
- →Builders who will self-host Community for free and can run a server.
- →A team building one internal tool with under 500 knowledge documents and 5GB of storage.
Skip it if…
- →One person testing an idea, which the free Sandbox covers.
- →A team that expects more than three people on Professional, which points to Team.
- →A product that serves many customers from one install, which the Community licence bars without Dify’s written permission.
- →Anyone who needs a fixed monthly cost for model calls, since each response’s credit cost depends on the model.
Is Dify free? Two different things
The hosted Sandbox is free and gives one workspace 200 message credits, one team member, 5 apps and 50 knowledge documents, with 50MB of knowledge storage and 30 days of log history. That is enough for one person testing a bot. It is not a plan for a team, because the member cap is the first limit you will hit.
The self-hosted Community edition is free, and the pricing page lists it as a single workspace. The licence separately bars running Dify as a multi-tenant service without Dify’s written permission, and it defines one tenant as one workspace. The catch is the bill that the pricing page does not show: you pay for the server, the storage and any model provider you connect. Dify prices none of those, so Community is free software, not a free service.
What a three-person team actually pays
The Sandbox fails the three-person test on members alone. It allows one team member, so two of three people cannot sit in it. The first plan that fits three people is Professional, which lists 3 team members, so a three-person team uses every seat it pays for and nothing spare.
Billing is per workspace, not per user. Professional can be billed yearly or monthly. Billed monthly, the year comes to $708 (12 times $59, our arithmetic), so the annual plan saves $118, about 17%, the same discount Dify prints. Split across three people, the yearly price is about $197 a person (our arithmetic).
Team is $1,590 a year or $159 a month, which is $1,908 billed monthly, so the annual saving is $318 (our arithmetic). For three people that is more seat than you need, but it is the plan a fourth person triggers.
Credits count responses, not tokens, and the pool covers model calls until it runs out
Dify’s model-provider documentation says each AI response is one model call that counts as one response, however many tokens it uses, and that a response costs more credits on larger models. The plan comparison page gives the credits each response costs by model: 5 for Claude Haiku 4.5, 10 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and 20 for Claude Opus 4.7. The pricing page lists 200 message credits on the free Sandbox, with no renewal period.
Once credits run out, a workspace can keep going on its own provider key. Dify’s docs say any key you add works across the workspace and bills to your own account with that provider, and a usage priority setting decides whether credits or the key are drawn first. So the model bill after that is the provider’s own invoice, which Dify does not price.
Where the caps bite, and why both billing views agree
On Professional, the limits that bite first are the 3 members, the 50 apps, the 500 knowledge documents and the 5GB of knowledge storage, plus a knowledge request limit of 100 a minute. Team raises those to 50 members, 200 apps, 1,000 documents, 20GB and 1,000 requests a minute. If your bot answers from a large help-centre export, check the document and storage caps before you count the monthly credits.
Dify’s pricing page opens on the annual view, so the first price a visitor sees is the yearly one, per workspace. The monthly figures sit behind its Monthly toggle, and the plain-text mirror lists both views with the same numbers.
Upgrades take effect at once, and you pay the difference for the rest of the billing period. A downgrade waits until the start of the next cycle. Cancellation runs to the end of the paid period, then the workspace returns to the free Sandbox, according to Dify’s billing docs.
The Community licence in plain words
Dify is licensed under a modified Apache 2.0 licence. Commercial use is allowed, and the licence says a commercial licence must be obtained when its conditions apply. It names two.
The first is running Dify as a multi-tenant service. Dify says you may not do that without its written permission, and it defines one tenant as one workspace. A product that serves many customers from one install is the case to check before you self-host.
The second is the logo and copyright. On the frontend you may not remove or modify the LOGO or copyright in the console or the apps, and that restriction does not apply to uses that do not involve the frontend. Everything else follows Apache 2.0. Read the full text in the licence file on GitHub.
Dify next to the agent and automation tools we review
Dify is a builder for AI apps and agents with its own model credits. If you want a different agent builder, our Lindy review is the one to read next. If the job is automation rather than an app builder, our Zapier review and Gumloop review are the comparison.
If you are weighing Dify against a general workflow tool such as n8n, the question is whether you are building an AI app or wiring tools together. This page quotes no n8n price, so check n8n’s own pricing page for that comparison.
The verdict
For a three-person team that has outgrown the free Sandbox, Dify Professional is worth it. The yearly billing is the better deal, it fits exactly three members on one workspace, and it includes a monthly credit pool. The variable is how fast the monthly pool runs down, and after that your own provider’s invoice.
Two caveats. The step to a fourth member is not small: Team costs about 2.7 times Professional. And if you would rather self-host, Community is free to run, but the server, the storage and the model bill are yours to carry, and Dify’s pages price none of them. Stay on the Sandbox only if one person is building.
Better alternatives?
If it is not the right fit, these are worth a look.
Lindy
Another agent builder, reviewed on its own page. Compare its plan with Dify Professional before you commit.
Chatbase
The chatbot builder on our review list, for a bot that answers from your own content.
Zapier
Automation for connecting tools, rather than building the AI app itself.
Gumloop
An automation builder reviewed next to Dify’s agent workflows.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dify free to use?▾
Partly. The hosted Sandbox is free and gives one workspace 200 message credits, one team member, 5 apps and 50 knowledge documents. The self-hosted Community edition is free software for one workspace, but you pay for your own server and any model provider you connect.
How much does Dify Professional cost?▾
$590 a year billed yearly, or $59 a month billed monthly, per workspace. It includes 3 team members, 50 apps, 500 knowledge documents, 5GB of knowledge storage and 5,000 message credits a month. Billed monthly, the year is $708, so the annual plan saves $118.
Is Dify Team worth it over Professional?▾
Only if you need more than three members or the bigger caps. Team is $1,590 a year or $159 a month, with 50 members, 200 apps, 1,000 knowledge documents, 20GB of storage and 10,000 credits a month. That is about 2.7 times Professional’s annual price.
Do Dify credits pay for my OpenAI or Anthropic bill?▾
Not in full. Dify’s AI credits cover models from a set of supported providers, and larger models use more credits per response. A provider key you connect bills your account directly, and Dify does not price that bill.
Can I cancel Dify Professional at any time?▾
Yes. Click Manage in the billing settings to open the Stripe billing portal and cancel. The plan runs to the end of the period you have paid for, then the workspace returns to the free Sandbox.