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Upstash QStash vs Inngest

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Upstash QStash and Inngest built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 21 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Upstash QStash if…

HTTP-first workloads that want scheduling and delay measured in months rather than a day, without running a consumer process.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Inngest if…

Multi-step workflows that need durable execution and retries between steps, rather than a bare queue you write a consumer for.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Upstash QStash: The free plan is capped per day rather than per month, so a single burst can exhaust it while a monthly allowance elsewhere would absorb the same volume.
  • Inngest: Every step is a billable execution, so a three-step workflow costs three times what the run count implies, and the free plan allows five concurrent steps.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Upstash QStash alternatives · Inngest alternatives

7 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Upstash QStash documentationVisit Inngest documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionUpstash QStashInngest
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerFree tierFree tier
What the free plan includes1,000 messages a day.50,000 executions and 500,000 events ingested a month with 5 concurrent steps, no credit card required.
Pricing modelPer message rather than per operation, metered against a daily ceiling on the free plan and priced at $1 per 100,000 on Pay as You Go, with monthly bandwidth caps alongside — 50 GB on the smaller plans, 1 TB and 5 TB above.Per execution, where a step counts the same as a run, plus separate meters for events ingested, span data, scores and realtime connections. The pricing page ships a calculator because the execution count is not the run count.
Queues
Included per month1,000 messages a day on the free plan. Pay as You Go is $1 per 100,000 messages with no daily cap; fixed plans run $180 a month for 1M a day and $420 for 10M.50,000 executions a month on the free Hobby plan and 1,000,000 on Pro, pay-as-you-go to 20M. An execution is one function run or one step, so a run with two steps counts as three.
Maximum message size
1 MB on the free plan, 10 MB on Pay as You Go and 50 MB on the fixed plans.
4 MiB per step-returned payload; 32 MiB total function run state; 10 MiB hard cap per event batch.
Message retentionDead letter queue retention of 3 days on the free plan, 7 days on Pay as You Go, 30 days and 3 months on the fixed plans.Queue depth rather than a time window: 100,000 queued items on the free plan and 1,000,000 or more on Pro. Trace retention is 7 days on Pro and 90 on Enterprise.
Maximum delay7 days on the free plan; 1 year on Pay as You Go and unlimited on the fixed plans.Step sleeps up to 1 year on paid plans; the free plan supports sleeps up to 7 days.
Dead letter queue
Supported
Not supported — No dead-letter queue; failed runs stay in the dashboard and are re-run in bulk with Replay.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

What the free plan includes

Upstash QStash
1,000 messages a day.
Inngest
50,000 executions and 500,000 events ingested a month with 5 concurrent steps, no credit card required.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Upstash QStash
Per message rather than per operation, metered against a daily ceiling on the free plan and priced at $1 per 100,000 on Pay as You Go, with monthly bandwidth caps alongside — 50 GB on the smaller plans, 1 TB and 5 TB above.
Inngest
Per execution, where a step counts the same as a run, plus separate meters for events ingested, span data, scores and realtime connections. The pricing page ships a calculator because the execution count is not the run count.
Sources (2) →
  • QStash Pricing — Upstash ↗

    “$1 per 100K messages [...] Max Messages per Day 1,000 Unlimited 1 M 10 M 100M+ [...] Max Monthly Bandwidth 50 GB 50 GB 1 TB 5 TB Unlimited”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Inngest ↗

    “TOTAL EXECUTIONS PER MONTH (30,000 runs × 2 steps per run) + 30,000 runs = 90,000 executions [...] 500 MB span data ingested [...] 10K scores [...] 500k events ingested [...] 50 realtime connections”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Included per month

Upstash QStash
1,000 messages a day on the free plan. Pay as You Go is $1 per 100,000 messages with no daily cap; fixed plans run $180 a month for 1M a day and $420 for 10M.
Inngest
50,000 executions a month on the free Hobby plan and 1,000,000 on Pro, pay-as-you-go to 20M. An execution is one function run or one step, so a run with two steps counts as three.
Sources (2) →
  • QStash Pricing — Upstash ↗

    “Free $0 [...] Messages per Day 1,000 [...] Pay as You Go $1 per 100K messages [...] Messages per Day Unlimited [...] $180 / month [...] 1M [...] $420 [...] 10M”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Inngest ↗

    “50k executions [...] 1M executions included Pay as you go up to 20M [...] (30,000 runs × 2 steps per run) + 30,000 runs = 90,000 executions [...] A single durable function run or step execution”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Maximum message size

Upstash QStash

1 MB on the free plan, 10 MB on Pay as You Go and 50 MB on the fixed plans.

Inngest

4 MiB per step-returned payload; 32 MiB total function run state; 10 MiB hard cap per event batch.

Sources (2) →

Message retention

Upstash QStash
Dead letter queue retention of 3 days on the free plan, 7 days on Pay as You Go, 30 days and 3 months on the fixed plans.
Inngest
Queue depth rather than a time window: 100,000 queued items on the free plan and 1,000,000 or more on Pro. Trace retention is 7 days on Pro and 90 on Enterprise.
Sources (2) →

Maximum delay

Upstash QStash
7 days on the free plan; 1 year on Pay as You Go and unlimited on the fixed plans.
Inngest
Step sleeps up to 1 year on paid plans; the free plan supports sleeps up to 7 days.
Sources (2) →

Dead letter queue

Upstash QStash
Supported
Inngest
Not supported — No dead-letter queue; failed runs stay in the dashboard and are re-run in bulk with Replay.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

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 — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Credit card to startInngest: No
Entry paid planInngest: $99/month for Pro, described as a starting price with usage above the included allowance billed on top.
RegionsInngest: All customer data hosted on AWS databases located in the United States; no other region offered on the security page.
ConcurrencyInngest: 5 concurrent steps on the free plan, 100 or more on Pro, custom on Enterprise.
SOC 2Inngest: SOC 2 Type II compliant; report available on request via the trust center.
ISO 27001Inngest: Not held as of the June 2024 SOC 2 announcement, which says Inngest is exploring additional certifications, such as ISO 27001. Stated on the SOC 2 Type II announcement, dated Jun 20, 2024.
HIPAAInngest: HIPAA BAAs offered as an add-on for healthcare compliance (Enterprise column of the pricing table).
GDPR / data residencyInngest: Data residency only: Inngest Cloud runs in two eastern-US footprints, AWS us-east-2 (Ohio) and Inngest bare metal in Ashburn, Virginia.
Encryption at restInngest: All data in Inngest databases is encrypted at rest and in transit; optional encryption middleware lets you bring your own key.
Customer-managed keysInngest: Bring-your-own-key via SDK encryption middleware that encrypts payloads client-side before they reach Inngest; not a server-side KMS option.
Role-based access controlInngest: SAML, RBAC and audit trails listed as Enterprise plan features.
Dedicated infrastructureInngest: Enterprise runs on dedicated function execution infrastructure with isolated queue and constraint shards; Dedicated Infrastructure is an enterprise add-on. The add-on's contents and price are not described on the page.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Should I choose Upstash QStash or Inngest?

Pick Upstash QStash if HTTP-first workloads that want scheduling and delay measured in months rather than a day, without running a consumer process.

Pick Inngest if Multi-step workflows that need durable execution and retries between steps, rather than a bare queue you write a consumer for.

Provider pages

Upstash QStashHTTP-based message queue and scheduler, priced per message with a per-day cap rather than a monthly allowance.InngestDurable execution platform where the billable unit is a function or step execution rather than a queued message.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.