Cloudinary vs ImageKit
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Cloudinary and ImageKit built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Cloudinary if…
One bill and one currency for images, video and asset management. A credit spends the same on transformations, storage or delivery, so a month heavy on one is absorbed by spending less on another — the only member here where a shifting workload mix does not need a plan change to match it.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose ImageKit if…
Costs you can predict per resource, at the cheapest paid entry here. Bandwidth, storage, video units and extension units are four separate meters with published rates, so a workload heavy on one is not charged against the others — and the bandwidth overage falls from $0.50 to $0.45 a GB as the plan grows.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Cloudinary: You need to forecast. A plan has no fixed capacity in anything: 225 credits is 225 GB delivered or 225,000 transformations and never both, and the pricing page does not say what happens when they run out. It is also the most expensive entry here at $99 a month.
- ImageKit: You are running the free plan in production. Its limits are hard stops in ImageKit's own words: media delivery stops at 20 GB and new uploads stop at 3 GB. The failure is images not loading rather than a larger bill, and overage only becomes possible from Lite at $9 a month.
5 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Cloudinary 0
ImageKit 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Cloudinary | ImageKit |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Free tier |
| What the free plan includes | 25 credits a month, across 3 users and 1 account. At the published rate that is 25,000 transformations, or 25 GB of storage, or 25 GB of delivery — whichever mix you spend it on. | 20 GB bandwidth, 3 GB of DAM storage, 500 video units and 650 extension units a month. Both of the first two are hard stops, not overages. |
| Entry paid plan | $99 a month for Plus, or $89 a month billed yearly. That buys 225 monthly credits across 3 users and 2 accounts. | $9 a month for Lite, plus pay-as-you-go on every meter above its allowance. |
| Pricing model | One meter for four resources. A credit buys 1,000 transformations, or 1 GB of managed storage, or 1 GB of image bandwidth, or 2 GB of video bandwidth — mixed and matched against a single monthly limit. Spending credits on one resource leaves fewer for the rest, so a plan's real capacity depends entirely on which of the four you consume. | Four separate meters rather than one. Bandwidth, DAM storage, video units and extension units each carry their own monthly allowance and their own overage rate, so a workload heavy on one is unaffected by the others. The video unit is itself two rates: one unit is a second of SD or half a second of HD. |
| Limits | ||
| Included bandwidth | No separate bandwidth allowance. Delivery is drawn from the credit pool at 1 GB of image bandwidth per credit, or 2 GB of video, so the 225-credit Plus plan carries up to 225 GB of image delivery and nothing else. | 40 GB a month on Lite, rising to 225 GB on Pro. ImageKit puts a figure on what that buys: roughly 2 million images, or 2,000 minutes of HD video. |
| Support | ||
| Support on entry paid plan | Expedited support on Plus, the entry paid plan. The free plan gets forums, tickets and email. | Email support on Lite, the entry paid plan. The free plan gets community support only. |
Where they differ.
What the free plan includes
- Cloudinary
- 25 credits a month, across 3 users and 1 account. At the published rate that is 25,000 transformations, or 25 GB of storage, or 25 GB of delivery — whichever mix you spend it on.
- ImageKit
- 20 GB bandwidth, 3 GB of DAM storage, 500 video units and 650 extension units a month. Both of the first two are hard stops, not overages.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Cloudinary Pricing ↗
“3 users / 1 account 25 monthly credits”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- ImageKit Pricing ↗
“20 GB bandwidth monthly limit [...] 3 GB DAM storage fixed limit [...] 500 video units monthly limit”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Entry paid plan
- Cloudinary
- $99 a month for Plus, or $89 a month billed yearly. That buys 225 monthly credits across 3 users and 2 accounts.
- ImageKit
- $9 a month for Lite, plus pay-as-you-go on every meter above its allowance.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Cloudinary Pricing ↗
“$99 per month $89 per month 3 users / 2 accounts 225 monthly credits”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- ImageKit Pricing ↗
“lite $9 / mo + pay-as-you-go for websites and apps that require image optimization, transformation, and storage with no limits.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Pricing model
- Cloudinary
- One meter for four resources. A credit buys 1,000 transformations, or 1 GB of managed storage, or 1 GB of image bandwidth, or 2 GB of video bandwidth — mixed and matched against a single monthly limit. Spending credits on one resource leaves fewer for the rest, so a plan's real capacity depends entirely on which of the four you consume.
- ImageKit
- Four separate meters rather than one. Bandwidth, DAM storage, video units and extension units each carry their own monthly allowance and their own overage rate, so a workload heavy on one is unaffected by the others. The video unit is itself two rates: one unit is a second of SD or half a second of HD.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Cloudinary Pricing ↗
“one credit can be used interchangeably on all our services. mix and match across these resources up to your plan's monthly credit limit. 1 credit = 1,000 transformations image and video processing or 1GB managed storage for all digital assets or 1GB image bandwidth high-performance CDN or paid plans only 2GB video bandwidth boosted 2:1 for video delivery”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- ImageKit Pricing ↗
“500 video units monthly limit required for only new video processing. this can process 500 seconds of SD video or 250 seconds of HD video every month.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Included bandwidth
- Cloudinary
- No separate bandwidth allowance. Delivery is drawn from the credit pool at 1 GB of image bandwidth per credit, or 2 GB of video, so the 225-credit Plus plan carries up to 225 GB of image delivery and nothing else.
- ImageKit
- 40 GB a month on Lite, rising to 225 GB on Pro. ImageKit puts a figure on what that buys: roughly 2 million images, or 2,000 minutes of HD video.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Cloudinary Pricing ↗
“or 1GB image bandwidth high-performance CDN or paid plans only 2GB video bandwidth boosted 2:1 for video delivery”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- ImageKit Pricing ↗
“40 GB bandwidth $0.5/gb after that this base inclusion is sufficient for delivering approximately 2 million images per month, or streaming 2000 minutes of HD video per month”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Support on entry paid plan
- Cloudinary
- Expedited support on Plus, the entry paid plan. The free plan gets forums, tickets and email.
- ImageKit
- Email support on Lite, the entry paid plan. The free plan gets community support only.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Cloudinary Pricing ↗
“expedited support allowlist/blocklist asset access role-based multi-user administration”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- ImageKit Pricing ↗
“integrated media library storage community support [...] overage allowed for bandwidth and storage higher upload and processing limits email support”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Cloudinary or ImageKit?
Cloudinary: $99 a month for Plus, or $89 a month billed yearly. That buys 225 monthly credits across 3 users and 2 accounts.
ImageKit: $9 a month for Lite, plus pay-as-you-go on every meter above its allowance.
Included bandwidth: Cloudinary or ImageKit?
Cloudinary: No separate bandwidth allowance. Delivery is drawn from the credit pool at 1 GB of image bandwidth per credit, or 2 GB of video, so the 225-credit Plus plan carries up to 225 GB of image delivery and nothing else.
ImageKit: 40 GB a month on Lite, rising to 225 GB on Pro. ImageKit puts a figure on what that buys: roughly 2 million images, or 2,000 minutes of HD video.
Should I choose Cloudinary or ImageKit?
Pick Cloudinary if One bill and one currency for images, video and asset management. A credit spends the same on transformations, storage or delivery, so a month heavy on one is absorbed by spending less on another — the only member here where a shifting workload mix does not need a plan change to match it.
Pick ImageKit if Costs you can predict per resource, at the cheapest paid entry here. Bandwidth, storage, video units and extension units are four separate meters with published rates, so a workload heavy on one is not charged against the others — and the bandwidth overage falls from $0.50 to $0.45 a GB as the plan grows.