Cycle costs

Canisters pay for the resources they consume and operations they perform using cycles. The price of cycles is pegged to XDR (Special Drawing Rights): 1 trillion cycles = 1 XDR. As of May 22, 2025, 1 XDR ≈ $1.35 USD: this rate fluctuates; see the IMF’s XDR exchange data for the current rate.

You can use the pricing calculator to estimate the cost for your app.

Cycles units

Abbreviation	Name	In numbers	XDR value	Approx. USD value
T	Trillion	1_000_000_000_000	1	~$1.35
B	Billion	1_000_000_000	0.001	~$0.00135
M	Million	1_000_000	0.000001	~$0.00000135
k	Thousand	1_000	10⁻⁹	~$0.00000000135

Replication factors

Costs scale with the number of nodes in the subnet. The base cost tables below assume a 13-node application subnet. For a 34-node (fiduciary) subnet, costs scale as 34 * (cost / 13):

13-node subnet: Standard application subnets. No scaling needed: costs are as listed.
34-node subnet: Fiduciary subnets (higher security for financial applications). Costs are approximately 2.6× the 13-node cost.

See Subnet types for subnet-specific details.

Cost table

USD values are approximate and based on the May 2025 XDR rate (1 XDR ≈ $1.35). The XDR rate fluctuates: use cycle counts for precise budgeting.

Operation	Description	Who pays	13-node cycles	~USD (May 2025)	34-node cycles	~USD (May 2025)
Query call	Query information from a canister	N/A	Free	Free	Free	Free
Canister creation	Create a new canister	Created canister	500_000_000_000	~$0.677	1_307_692_307_692	~$1.772
Compute allocation (per % per second)	Reserved compute per second	Canister with allocation	10_000_000	~$0.0000135	26_153_846	~$0.0000354
Update message execution	Per update message executed (base fee)	Target canister	5_000_000	~$0.0000068	13_076_923	~$0.0000177
1B instructions executed	Per 1B Wasm instructions (on top of base fee)	Executing canister	1_000_000_000	~$0.00135	2_615_384_615	~$0.00354
Xnet call (request + response)	Inter-canister call overhead	Sending canister	260_000	~$0.00000035	680_000	~$0.00000092
Xnet byte transmission	Per byte in inter-canister call	Sending canister	1_000	~$0.00000000135	2_615	~$0.00000000354
Ingress message reception	Per ingress message received	Receiving canister	1_200_000	~$0.0000016	3_138_461	~$0.0000043
Ingress byte reception	Per byte in ingress message	Receiving canister	2_000	~$0.0000000027	5_230	~$0.0000000071
GiB storage per second	Storage cost per GiB per second	Canister with storage	127_000	~$0.000000172	332_153	~$0.000000450

Storage cost per GiB per month (30 days):

Subnet	Cycles	~USD (May 2025)
13-node	~329 billion	~$0.45
34-node	~861 billion	~$1.70

HTTPS outcalls

HTTPS outcall costs scale with subnet size (n = number of nodes):

total_fee  = base_fee + size_fee
base_fee   = (3_000_000 + 60_000 * n) * n
size_fee   = (400 * request_bytes + 800 * max_response_bytes) * n

request_bytes is the total serialized request size (URL + headers + body + transform name/context). max_response_bytes defaults to 2 MiB if not explicitly set by the canister.

Component	13-node cycles	~USD (May 2025)	34-node cycles	~USD (May 2025)
Per call (base)	49_140_000	~$0.0000666	171_360_000	~$0.000232
Per request byte	5_200	~$0.000000007	13_600	~$0.0000000184
Per reserved response byte	10_400	~$0.000000014	27_200	~$0.0000000369

Execution cost formula

Each update message execution is charged as a base fee plus a per-instruction fee (the Update message execution and 1B instructions executed rows in the Cost table above):

total = base_fee + per_instruction_fee * num_instructions

Current values (13-node subnet):

base_fee = 5_000_000 cycles (~$0.0000068 USD, May 2025)
per_instruction_fee = 1 cycle (so 1B instructions = 1B cycles ≈ $0.00135, May 2025)

Compute allocation

By default canisters are scheduled best-effort. Setting compute_allocation guarantees execution slots:

1%: Scheduled every 100 rounds
2%: Scheduled every 50 rounds
100%: Scheduled every round

Total allocatable compute capacity per subnet is 299%. The per-second cost is 10M cycles * allocation_percent on a 13-node subnet: see the Compute allocation row in the Cost table above for exact figures.

Storage reservation

When a canister grows its memory (via memory.grow, ic0.stable_grow(), or Wasm installation), the system moves cycles from the canister’s main balance into a reserved cycles balance to cover future storage payments.

If subnet usage is below 750 GiB: reservation per byte = 0 (no advance reservation).
If subnet usage is above 750 GiB: reservation per byte scales linearly from 0 up to 10 years of payments at subnet capacity (2 TiB).

Reserved cycles are non-transferable. Controllers can disable reservation by setting reserved_cycles_limit = 0, but opted-out canisters cannot allocate new memory when subnet usage exceeds 750 GiB.

Special features

Certain ICP features have additional cycle costs beyond the base execution and messaging fees:

HTTPS outcalls: See the HTTPS outcalls cost formula above.
EVM RPC canister: Costs depend on the underlying RPC call and the HTTPS outcall fees above.
Threshold ECDSA / Schnorr signing: Charged per signing request. Exact cost tables are not yet included on this page.
Bitcoin integration API: Per-call fees apply. Exact cost tables are not yet included on this page.

Cycles management: Topping up and monitoring canister balances
Cycles: Why canisters (not users) pay for execution
Subnet types: Cost multipliers per subnet type
Resource limits: Instruction limits, memory caps, and message size constraints