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Dune Analytics, the go-to platform for querying onchain data, is pulling back its free tier in a meaningful way. Starting September 10, 2026, users who created accounts before July 21, 2026, will lose the ability to run queries unless they upgrade to a paid plan.
The change converts legacy free accounts to view-only access, meaning users can still browse existing dashboards and charts but can’t execute any credit-consuming actions. Dune is pointing to rising compute costs as the driving force behind the decision.
What’s actually changing
The mechanics are straightforward but worth unpacking. If your Dune account predates July 21, 2026, you previously had access to 2,500 free credits per month. Those credits let you write and run SQL queries against massive blockchain datasets, a capability that made Dune a favorite among researchers, developers, and crypto-native analysts who didn’t want to pay for Bloomberg-grade tooling.
That free credit allotment is going away for older accounts. When the restriction kicks in on September 10, affected users will automatically receive a 14-day trial of the Plus plan, Dune’s higher-end offering. After that trial expires, it’s either pay up or settle for read-only access.
Accounts created after July 21, 2026, operate under different rules and aren’t subject to the same immediate restrictions.
On the paid side, Dune currently offers two main tiers. The Analyst plan runs $65 per month on annual billing and comes with 4,000 credits. The Plus plan costs $349 per month annually and includes 25,000 credits. For a solo researcher or small project team, that Analyst tier represents a real monthly expense that didn’t exist before.
Why Dune says it had to happen
Running flexible queries across enormous blockchain datasets isn’t cheap. Every time a user writes a SQL query and hits “execute,” Dune’s infrastructure has to churn through potentially billions of rows of transaction data across multiple chains. That compute adds up fast, especially when a significant portion of the user base isn’t paying anything.
The company’s framing is essentially: we built something people love, it costs a lot to run, and we need to charge for the expensive parts.
Community reaction and competitive implications
The response from Dune’s user base has been mixed. Some long-time users are treating this as the end of an era for accessible blockchain analytics. Others take a more pragmatic view: infrastructure costs money, and expecting a company to subsidize heavy compute workloads indefinitely isn’t realistic. The 14-day Plus trial is at least a soft landing, even if $349 per month afterward is a steep cliff for hobbyist analysts.
The real impact falls on the long tail of independent researchers, DAO contributors, and smaller projects that relied on free access to make data-driven decisions without adding another line item to their budgets.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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