# Announcing per-sec billing, new Droplet plans, BYOIP, and NAT gateway to reduce scaling costs

DevFeed: [Announcing per-sec billing, new Droplet plans, BYOIP, and NAT gateway to reduce scaling costs](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/announcing-per-sec-billing-new-droplet-plans-byoip-and-nat-gateway-to-reduce-scaling-costs-19876.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/dropletplans-persecbilling-byoip-natgateway>)

Author: Nihar Namjoshi

Published: 2025-10-02T08:03:13Z

Content type: release

Language: en

Sources: [DigitalOcean](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/digitalocean.md>)

Topics: [Digital Ocean](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/digital-ocean.md>), [Cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud.md>), [cloud-infrastructure](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud-infrastructure.md>), [virtual machines](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/virtual-machines.md>), [VPC](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vpc.md>), [CI/CD](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cicd.md>)

Tags: [ci-cd](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ci-cd.md>), [cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud.md>), [cloud-infrastructure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud-infrastructure.md>), [digitalocean](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/digitalocean.md>), [droplets](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/droplets.md>), [network](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/network.md>), [product-updates](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product-updates.md>), [virtual-machines](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/virtual-machines.md>), [vpc](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vpc.md>)

## AI overview

DigitalOcean announces per-second billing for Droplets, new dedicated Droplet plans, generally available BYOIP, and a VPC NAT Gateway. The updates target more precise cost control, performance upgrades, IP reputation protection, and centralized egress management.

## Source excerpt

To help users cut down on cloud spending that's wasted due to over-provisioning and inflexible billing models, we're introducing tools that offer granular control without sacrificing simplicity or cost-effectiveness. We're excited to announce new product updates that offer granular cost control, improved performance, and a clear path to savings. TL;DR DigitalOcean has transitioned to per-second billing for Droplets. Starting from January 1, 2026, you only pay for the exact compute time you use, perfect for slashing costs on ephemeral tasks and CI/CD pipelines. Create Droplets for short-lived workloads. New dedicated Droplet plans are now generally available for a seamless performance upgrade. Visit your DigitalOcean console to create these new Droplets. Bring your own IP is now generally available to protect your IP reputation. Check out our documentation or visit your DigitalOcean console to bring your own ip. VPC NAT gateway is now generally available for centralized egress and static IPs. Join our webinar: Stop the manual struggle of managing NAT instances and bastion hosts or check out our documentation or visit your DigitalOcean console to set up your NAT gateway. Droplets per-second billing slashes costs for ephemeral workloads Traditional hourly billing models for virtual machines have resulted in customers paying for idle time, even for short-lived workloads. Starting from Jan 1, 2026, our billing model transitioned to a per-second basis for Droplets, with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher. This new approach aims to optimize cost control by charging for exact usage over a minute, making it simple to get precise billing for your actual usage. For sustained workloads, the monthly cap of 672 hours (24 hours x 28 days) of usage remains in place, ensuring your bill never exceeds the predictable monthly price. Imagine your development team uses a CI/CD pipeline that uses $84/month CPU-Optimized Droplet to run automated tests taking 10 mi