Is MinIO offering a hosted service or software?
MinIO sells a commercial license to its software-defined storage product which in turn comes with premium, direct-to-engineer support delivered through the SUBNET portal.
MinIO does not operate a hosted object storage service.
Deployments of MinIO range from the public cloud, the private cloud, third-party data centers and the edge. Customers provision their own hardware - architected for the specific use case they intend to support in production. Information on suggested hardware can be found here.
What hardware do you recommend for MinIO?
For production workloads, MinIO has recommended capacity and performance configurations from Supermicro, Dell, HPE, Cisco and Western Digital. Many of our customers also run on bare metal options like Equinix Metal. Others run on specific hardware profiles in the public cloud. MinIO is happy to consult with your teams to determine the correct configuration for your use case. Reach out to us on or complete the Contact Us form at the bottom of the page.
Where can I purchase the hardware?
MinIO is happy to put you in contact with our hardware partners or with select resellers with whom we have worked. Reach out to us on or complete the Contact Form at the bottom of the page.
What is MinIO's commitment to Open Source?
At MinIO, we firmly believe in the philosophy of Open Source and collaborative development. The MinIO Object Store is licensed under Affero General Public License Version 3 (AGPLv3). To understand more, we recommend visiting our Compliance Page.
Who actually owns and controls MinIO upstream?
MinIO is a commercial and Open Source licensed product developed by MinIO, Inc. MinIO trademarks and all the code developed by MinIO are fully owned and controlled by MinIO, Inc.
What are the licensing options available for the MinIO object storage suite?
- Commercial License
- GNU AGPL v3 Open Source license
For more information please see our Compliance Page.
Why should I choose a Commercial license when an Open Source license is available?
Any use of Open Source software comes with rights and obligations. As important as these are for a thriving community, there are some developers and/or organizations who don’t wish to use the software under the Open Source licensing terms and thus would prefer a commercial license. MinIO intends to support both perspectives with the Open Source licensing and a commercial license which provides exceptions to the obligations found in the Open Source licenses.
Open Source licensing is ideal for use cases where all obligations under “copyleft” licenses can be met. Where those obligations cannot be met, we suggest getting a commercial license.
The commercial MinIO license gives you the rights to create software on commercial terms without any Open Source license obligations. With the commercial license you also have access to the SUBNET portal and MinIO’s premium support experience.
Why should I pay for Open Source?
While Open Source provides a number of benefits, it also comes with certain restrictions.
Can I continue to use my commercial license after it has expired?
No. You are not permitted to use the commercial license if the subscription is not active. The rights to continue using MinIO software under the commercial license expire when the license term expires or the subscription is canceled.
Do I need to worry about GNU AGPLv3 when using a commercially licensed version of MinIO?
No. When using the commercially licensed version of MinIO, we provide the entire MinIO object storage suite under the commercial license terms.
I’m not sure if I am in compliance with the Open Source licensing scheme. I am confused with Open Source licensing. What should I do?
It is always recommended to contact a lawyer familiar with Open Source licenses for a full review of your project to determine whether you can fulfill all of the obligations of applicable Open Source licenses GNU AGPL v3 or buy a Commercial License or contact us to help us assist you with your development needs.
For more information visit our Compliance Page.
Does the total raw capacity of my MinIO cluster matter for determining how much I pay?
No, MinIO charges on usable capacity. The usable capacity is determined by the committed capacity in the commercial agreement. For example, if your commercial agreement is for 200 TiB and your cluster has 500 TiB we will charge you for 200 TiB (unless you exceed that amount). MinIO will work with you to select the optimal levels of capacity that is actually needed for your deployments and your capacity commitment will be based on that need.
We offer increasing discounts for larger capacity commitments. MinIO will charge you for the pre-committed capacity for the duration of the contract.
What happens if I go over my capacity limit?
MinIO will work with you to measure your storage utilization quarterly. If your utilization exceeds the purchased (committed) capacity, MinIO will invoice you for the additional capacity for the remainder of the contract term. Please contact if your needs changed through the term of the contract and we will work with you to ensure MinIO can best meet your needs.
Does MinIO charge for erasure-code parity data as part of my MinIO usage?
No. MinIO only includes the actual amount of data stored in the system as part of its capacity utilization calculation. This calculation excludes any redundant data such as the erasure-code parity data. For example, If the erasure parity is set to 4 in MinIO, then 200 TiB worth of objects will consume 268TiB of drive space including the parity data. However, we will only count 200 TiB of the data towards your used capacity. Please consult the erasure code calculator on the pricing page for more detail.
This provides our customers with no disincentives with regard to higher parity choices.
How does MinIO treat replicated data as part of my MinIO usage?
MinIO considers replicated data to be part of the usable capacity. For example, if you have 200 TiB and you replicate that data to another site, the usable capacity will be 400 TiB.
How does MinIO calculate capacity charges when object versioning is enabled?
MinIO charges for all the object versions since all versions are actively served. For example, if you have four versions of an object, the size of the object includes all its versions. For example, if an object was modified four times (10 MB, 11 MB, 8 MB, 15 MB), the total capacity would be 44 MB.
When versioning is enabled, object deletes are simply a marker on the objects. Actual space is still consumed and accounted for by the pricing. To reclaim the space, you are required to explicitly delete all the object versions. You may also look at the ILM policy to automatically delete older versions.
Can I only have a subscription for a subset of my MinIO deployments?
No. It is MinIO's expectation that all capacity in the organization is accounted for in the subscription plan and that every deployment of MinIO is registered with the SUBNET portal.
Can I mix and match plans?
No. Given the features (such as Panic Button) and indemnification are tied to different subscription levels we are not able to mix and match plans.
What happens to my billing when my capacity reduces?
Customers can reduce the amount of data under management at the end of their contracted term and new pricing will be reflected.
How many "seats" or employees can access the SUBNET portal through a subscription?
There is no limit to the number of employees that can access the SUBNET portal and there are no additional charges for employees.
Is there a limit on the number of MinIO deployments covered by a subscription?
There is no limit to the number of deployments across the organization. Even test & dev, CI/CD deployments are included in the same subscription. Capacity is the only unit of measurement for billing purposes.
How do I manage my subscription?
MinIO subscriptions are managed through the SUBNET portal.
SUBNET offers a centralized location to manage subscriptions, users, instances and issues. Additionally, SUBNET is a centralized location for the latest versions of the software, product documentation, security errata, and other operational benefits associated with your commercial license.
How secure is the SUBNET portal?
The SUBNET portal's security is audited by third parties for penetration testing and security best practices.
All credit card information and payment transactions are managed securely by our payments partners.
It should be noted that data hosted in a MinIO cluster is completely independent of the SUBNET portal and remains completely private.
How does a subscription address the security of my MinIO deployment?
MinIO is engaged with our customers, partners, key security stakeholders and the global open source community to identify security vulnerabilities.
Commercial licenses are managed via the SUBNET portal. Through SUBNET, MinIO knows the exact versions of the registered deployments. This enables us to identify specific vulnerabilities and to guide the customers to update immediately. When MinIO security experts identify security vulnerabilities, patches are security advisory notices are issued swiftly to all customers.
Unlike other open source companies that provide support for community developed code, MinIO is the primary developer behind the MinIO product stack. This enables us to address the critical vulnerabilities and issue a new release in a matter of hours.
What data is stored in the SUBNET portal?
SUBNET only hosts information related to support tickets, customer conversations, limited credit card information and user profiles.
Can I buy a commercial license without connecting my MinIO deployments to the SUBNET portal?
Is support included with the subscription?
A commercial license includes direct-to-engineering support delivered through the SUBNET portal. Plans are chosen depending on the specific deployment needs.
Are your prices inclusive of local sales tax, VAT, and withholding obligations?
The prices shown on this page do not include any applicable state and local sales tax or applicable withholdings. Those are the responsibility of the buyers.