Plans & prices · year one
The cheapest first year of Starlink, plan by plan
A cheap monthly price can hide a costly kit, and the reverse. Here is every US plan’s first twelve months, hardware included, ranked from cheapest, with the referral credit kept on its own line.
Cheapest first year at Starlink’s Nov 4, 2026 prices: Residential 100 Mbps on a $0 rental activation, $594 in total (our math), where your address gets both.
For travel, the $149 Mini on Roam 100GB is $809. A first-time customer who qualifies for the referral credit gets $100 back on later bills, which we show separately, never inside a price.
Which Starlink plan has the cheapest first year?
On Starlink’s no-address US price list for Nov 4, 2026, Residential 100 Mbps on a rented kit with a $0 activation had the lowest twelve-month total: $594 (our math: 12 × $49.50, with no hardware charge). It needs an address offered both that plan and that activation. The cheapest travel year, the $149 Mini on Roam 100GB, came to $809. Full Roam Unlimited reached $2,249.
| Plan | Kit or activation | 12 × latest level | Year-one total | If the credit posts (our math) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential 100 Mbps select areas | $0 rental activation | 12 × $49.50 = $594 | $594 | $494 † |
| Residential 200 Mbps select areas | $0 rental activation | 12 × $76.50 = $918 | $918 | $818 † |
| Residential Max offered everywhere | $0 rental activation | 12 × $143 = $1,716 | $1,716 | $1,616 † |
| Roam 100GB with the Mini | $149 Mini kit | 12 × $55 = $660 | $809 | $709 |
| Roam 300GB with the Mini | $149 Mini kit | 12 × $80 = $960 | $1,109 | $1,009 |
| Roam Unlimited with the Mini | $149 Mini kit | 12 × $175 = $2,100 | $2,249 | $2,149 |
What if your address only sells the kit?
Then add $349 up front. Residential 100 Mbps becomes $943 for year one, or $843 if the credit posts (our math). That bought-kit route is also the one the referral terms describe plainly. Rent or buy runs the 1-, 2- and 3-year math, and the monthly price page lists every level with its date.
Year two: just the monthly bills
The hardware is paid for, so year two is twelve bills: $594 on Residential 100 Mbps, $660 on Roam 100GB (our math, Nov 4, 2026 prices). No credit arrives in year two. The cheapest-path calculator shows both years together for your use.
Where the $100 referral credit fits
For a first-time customer who qualifies, Starlink posts $100 as account credit unless you choose otherwise, which Starlink subtracts from the next invoice, once your service has run for two months. Nothing comes off the kit, the activation or the first bill. The conditions, in short: you’ve never held a Starlink subscription, now or in the past; both the kit and the plan are bought on starlink.com itself; retail stores, unauthorized resellers and handed-down accounts are excluded; and service stays paid, with no gap, for two whole billing cycles.
Starlink spends promotional credit only on monthly service charges, never on shop orders or one-time fees; we read the referral credit as following the same rule. Starlink’s own help-center example has a $120 bill falling to $20 after a $100 credit. On a plan cheaper than $100 a month, one bill can’t absorb it all; Starlink doesn’t spell out the remainder, and account credit normally carries to the next bill, which is how we count it (our reading).
- Order day$49.50
Hardware or activation ($0 here) plus month one of service ($49.50). Billing starts at activation, or a week past delivery, or 30 days past shipping, whichever is first.
- Month 2$49.50
The second bill. Starlink’s referral terms say the new customer’s reward is “applied on their second monthly subscription invoice”; its help center says it is “issued as soon as 60 days after they activate”. Until it appears, budget the full price.
- When the credit posts−$100
Qualify, and Starlink adds $100 of account credit that the bill it lands on draws down (here that bill drops to $0). As we read Starlink’s credit rules, it pays service charges only, never one-time fees.
- Months after that$49.50
Full price again once the credit is used up. Year one here: $594 billed, $494 if the credit posts.
Where Starlink offers it, you can have the reward paid through Stripe to a bank account you link, rather than as credit. On taxes, the terms call rewards “exclusive of taxes”, so they may count as taxable income; a tax professional can say for sure. We can’t give tax advice. An order placed without the link, through a different person’s link, or at a retail store never shows the referral, and Starlink won’t attach it afterward.
The open question: rented kits
The offer at your address decides whether a home kit is rented or sold to you: each Residential entry on the national list was a rental on Oct 21, 25, 30 and Nov 3–4, 2026, while 8 of 11 had purchase tags on Oct 29. That matters because Starlink’s referral terms require buying the kit and the service on starlink.com itself, and nothing in the terms or the help center settles whether a rental-kit order qualifies. Until Starlink says so in writing, count the credit on a rented-kit order as unconfirmed; that is what the † in the year-one table means. The $0 hardware page covers what a rental costs you instead.
What the year-one totals leave out
The level at your address may not match the national list, and the list itself moved three times in late October 2026. The totals skip taxes, any monthly rental fee and any demand surcharge. The credit is not a promise: Starlink decides who qualifies, Standby months don’t count, rented-kit orders are unconfirmed, and it covers service, not hardware (our reading). It arrives once; year two has none.
Skip the order for now if…
- you have, or once had, Starlink: the credit is for first-time customers only, so count year one at full price
- you need service for a month or a single trip: the kit cost makes a short stay the expensive path, and the referral terms are written for customers who stay
- you plan to put service in Standby soon after ordering: Standby months don’t count toward the two billing cycles
- your service address is outside the 50 states and DC, or the kit will come from a store: neither fits what the credit needs
First-year cost: what people ask
What is the cheapest first year of Starlink?
At the Nov 4, 2026 national-list prices, Residential 100 Mbps on a rented kit with a $0 activation: $594 for twelve months (our math). It only applies where your address gets both that plan and that activation. For travel, the $149 Mini with Roam 100GB comes to $809.
Is year two of Starlink cheaper than year one?
Only by what you paid for hardware: year two is twelve monthly bills and nothing else. With the $149 Mini on Roam 100GB, year two is $660 against $809; on a $0 rental activation, Residential 100 Mbps costs $594 in both years. No referral credit arrives in year two (our math, Nov 4, 2026 prices).
Does the $100 referral credit lower the first-year cost?
Only after the fact, and only if you qualify. The kit and the first bill are paid in full; Starlink then posts $100 of account credit once your service has run for two months (the terms say it is “applied on their second monthly subscription invoice”; the help center says it can come as early as day 60 after activation), and bills from then on draw on it. As we read Starlink’s credit rules, it covers monthly service, not the kit or one-time fees.
When does the Starlink referral credit show up?
Once your service has run for two months, if you qualify. The terms want two complete billing cycles, paid and in good standing, and a month spent in Standby (paused) isn’t one of the referral’s two billing cycles.
Does a rented Starlink kit qualify for the referral credit?
Starlink hasn’t said. Starlink’s referral terms require buying the kit and the service on starlink.com itself, and nothing in the terms or the help center settles whether a rental-kit order qualifies. Our year-one table marks the rented rows so you don’t count on it.
Is the Starlink referral credit taxable?
Possibly: the terms call rewards “exclusive of taxes”, so they may count as taxable income; a tax professional can say for sure.
Where these numbers come from
- Starlink support: referral program FAQ · read 2026-11-03
- Starlink US referral terms (DOC-1882-84808-83) · read 2026-11-03
- Starlink support: promotional credits · read 2026-11-03
- Starlink order data, US Residential (no address) · read 2026-11-04
- Starlink order data, US Roam · read 2026-11-04
- Starlink support: Residential plan lineup · read 2026-11-03
- Starlink US terms of service · read 2026-11-03
The checking rules behind every figure: editorial policy. Fixed mistakes are logged on the corrections page.