SonarQube Pricing in 2026: Cloud Plans, Server Editions, and How Lines of Code Drive the Cost

SonarQube pricing is based on lines of code, not seats: SonarQube Cloud has a free tier for private projects up to 50k lines of code and a Team plan that starts at $34 a month for up to 100k lines, while SonarQube Server's paid editions are priced per instance, per year, by lines of code, through sales. What matters for a budget is how Sonar counts those lines, which plans publish a price at all, and how that compares with an AI code review tool.

This page covers both SonarQube products, SonarQube Cloud (the SaaS formerly called SonarCloud) and SonarQube Server (the self-managed product), with every figure taken from Sonar's own pricing pages on October 20, 2026. Where Sonar says "contact sales", so does this page. Check the live pages before you sign anything.

How much does SonarQube cost in 2026?

SonarQube Cloud costs $0 on the free tier, starts at $34 a month on the Team plan for up to 100k lines of code, and is custom-priced on the Enterprise plan. SonarQube Server's Developer, Enterprise and Data Center editions have no published prices; Sonar prices them per instance, per year, based on lines of code.

Sources: sonarsource.com/plans-and-pricing and sonarsource.com/plans-and-pricing/sonarqube, both read October 20, 2026.

One inconsistency: the Team plan card and one FAQ say $34, while another FAQ answer on the same page says Team prices "start at $32 per month (previously listed at $65)". This page uses $34, the plan card figure. Confirm it at checkout if the exact number matters.

How does SonarQube pricing work on SonarQube Cloud?

SonarQube Cloud pricing is set by the maximum number of private lines of code you analyze, paid upfront, with the Team plan billed monthly by credit card and no commitment. Sonar's own description: "You pay upfront for a maximum number of private lines of code to be analyzed in your organization."

The three SonarQube Cloud plans line up like this:

• Free. "Free for your private projects up to 50k LOC. No card, no expiry."
• Team. Positioned for teams "under 50 developers" and self-serve, with "no sales call". It starts at $34 a month for up to 100k lines of code, and larger line-of-code increments are available. It is billed monthly by card after a 14-day trial, with "no commitment".
• Enterprise. Positioned for "over 50 developers". Custom, annual pricing through sales. It adds more languages, SSO and SCIM, portfolios and compliance reporting, and Sonar says commercial support is included starting at 5M lines of code.

SonarCloud is not a separate product any more. It was renamed SonarQube Cloud, and the old sonarcloud.io pricing URL now redirects to the SonarQube Cloud section of Sonar's pricing page. When you search for SonarCloud pricing, the plans above are the answer.

How does SonarQube pricing work for SonarQube Server?

SonarQube Server's paid editions are "priced per instance, per year, based on your lines of code", and Sonar does not publish the figures. An instance is one installation of SonarQube Server, and each license sets the maximum lines of code that instance can analyze.

From Sonar's FAQ:

• Hitting the limit stops new analysis. If the instance reaches its licensed line count, Sonar says it "will reject any new analysis whose total lines of code exceed the limit", while keeping basic functions like browsing projects.
• Support depends on size. Standard commercial support is included in Enterprise and Data Center "starting at 30M lines of code and above". For smaller licenses it is an extra cost.
• Trials go through sales. Requesting an evaluation license is free, and Sonar's sales team contacts you to activate it.

The practical upshot: you can budget SonarQube Cloud from the website, but you need a quote to budget SonarQube Server.

How does SonarQube count lines of code for billing?

SonarQube counts the lines of code in the largest branch of each private project, as found by the most recent analysis, and the count does not depend on how often you scan. That is the single most important rule for predicting a SonarQube bill.

Per Sonar's FAQs, only private projects count on SonarQube Cloud, only the largest branch of a project counts, and blank lines, comments and test code are excluded (SonarQube Server FAQ). Frequency does not matter: Sonar's example is a 6K-line private project analyzed 100 times in a month, which counts as 6K lines. As you approach the threshold, Sonar notifies you to upgrade or reduce lines of code.

So the SonarQube cost tracks the size of your codebase, not your team or how much code changes. A codebase that doubles moves you up a tier even if PR volume stays flat.

Is SonarQube free?

Yes, in three ways: SonarQube Cloud has a free tier for private projects up to 50k lines of code, public open-source projects are free, and SonarQube Community Build is free and open source. Sonar's IDE extension, SonarQube for IDE, is also free.

Sonar's pricing page lists "Free forever" for public, OSI-licensed repositories, and describes Community Build as suitable for developers and small teams. For paid plans, SonarQube Cloud Team has a 14-day trial and SonarQube Server editions offer evaluation licenses.

What is the difference between SonarQube and SonarCloud?

SonarCloud is the former name of SonarQube Cloud, Sonar's hosted SaaS product; "SonarQube" on its own usually means SonarQube Server, the self-managed product you install. Both run the same kind of rules-based static analysis. The differences are in deployment and pricing:

If you want a published price and a credit card checkout, SonarQube Cloud Team is the only paid SonarQube option that offers one. Sonar's pricing page also lists newer products with their own prices, such as Gitar AI Code Review at $20 per user per month billed annually and an Advanced Security subscription for SCA, so check which line items a quote includes.

How does SonarQube pricing compare with AI code review?

SonarQube and AI code review are priced on different units and catch different problems, so most teams compare them on fit first and cost second. SonarQube bills on the size of your codebase. Usage-based AI code review bills on the code each pull request changes.

Macroscope, for example, charges $0.05 per KB of diff reviewed, with a 10 KB minimum per review, so the smallest review costs $0.50. There are no per-seat fees and nothing scales with total repository size. Every new workspace starts with $100 in usage credit, and spend controls let you cap spend per review and per PR, set monthly budget limits, turn off auto-review by repo or label, and exclude files. Full details are on the pricing page.

Here is simple arithmetic from the stated prices, not a quote:

• SonarQube Cloud Team at its entry tier: $34 a month covers analysis of up to 100k lines of code, or $34 × 12 = $408 a year.
• Macroscope Code Review: 400 reviews a month at an average 15 KB diff costs 400 × 15 × $0.05 = $300 a month. At 100 reviews a month it costs 100 × 15 × $0.05 = $75.

On raw price, a small codebase on SonarQube Cloud is cheaper. That is the honest read. But the two tools are not substitutes, so the cheaper one is not automatically the better buy:

• SonarQube checks code against a deep library of deterministic rules: known bug patterns, code smells, security hotspots, coverage and quality gates. It is predictable and strong for compliance reporting.
• AI code review reads each pull request with context from the rest of the repository and reasons about whether the change is correct. It catches logic errors and cross-file breaks that no rule describes, which is where rules-based tools are weakest. See AI code review vs static analysis for the full breakdown.

That is why many teams run both: SonarQube for rule coverage and quality gates, and an AI reviewer for correctness on every PR. Alongside cross-file bug detection, Macroscope's usage price covers Approvability for auto-approving low-risk PRs and Check Run Agents for plain-English custom checks. The cost question becomes whether each tool earns its line item, not which one replaces the other.

When does each pricing model fit better?

Lines-of-code pricing fits a compact codebase with heavy PR volume; usage-based pricing fits a large codebase with moderate or uneven review volume. A big monorepo with modest PR traffic pays for every line on a LOC license, while usage pricing bills only the diffs reviewed. Fast growth from coding agents moves you up LOC tiers but shows up under usage pricing only as reviewed diffs. And if only some repositories need review, usage pricing lets you switch review off elsewhere.

If SonarQube is not the right fit for your team at all, see the best SonarQube alternatives. For a wider view of the category, see the best static code analysis tools.

How do you compare SonarQube costs with your own numbers?

Measure your largest-branch lines of code for the SonarQube side, and measure a few weeks of real PRs for the usage-based side.

1. Sum the lines of code in the largest branch of each private project, excluding tests, comments and blank lines, and map the total to a SonarQube Cloud tier or a SonarQube Server quote.
2. Install Macroscope on the same repository alongside SonarQube; setup takes about five minutes.
3. After two to four weeks, look at what each tool caught and what each would cost per month.
4. Compare the findings that were real bugs, not the total number of findings. For per-PR math, see AI code review cost per pull request.

Add AI code review next to SonarQube

Usage-based pricing with no seat fees. Every new workspace gets $100 in usage credit.

Sign up

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does SonarQube cost?

SonarQube Cloud has a free tier for private projects up to 50k lines of code, a Team plan that starts at $34 per month for up to 100k lines of code, and a custom-priced Enterprise plan. SonarQube Server's Developer, Enterprise and Data Center editions are priced per instance, per year, based on lines of code, and Sonar does not publish those prices; you get them from sales. Figures are from sonarsource.com/plans-and-pricing, read October 20, 2026.

Is SonarQube free?

Partly. SonarQube Cloud is free for private projects up to 50k lines of code, public open-source repositories are free, and SonarQube Community Build is a free, open-source edition you run yourself. The SonarQube for IDE extension is free too. Larger private codebases and the commercial Server editions are paid.

What is the difference between SonarQube and SonarCloud?

SonarCloud is the old name for SonarQube Cloud, Sonar's hosted SaaS product. SonarQube Server is the product you install and run yourself. Both do rules-based static analysis. SonarQube Cloud publishes a Team price and bills monthly by card; SonarQube Server editions are annual licenses priced per instance by lines of code through sales.

How does SonarQube count lines of code?

SonarQube counts the lines of code in the largest branch of each private project, from the most recent analysis. Blank lines, comments and test code are excluded. How often you scan does not matter: a 6K-line project analyzed 100 times in a month still counts as 6K lines.

What happens if I exceed my SonarQube lines of code limit?

On SonarQube Cloud, Sonar notifies you as you approach the threshold so you can upgrade or reduce lines of code. On SonarQube Server, an instance at its limit rejects any new analysis that would exceed the licensed line count, while keeping basic functions like browsing projects.

Is SonarQube priced per user?

No. Both SonarQube Cloud and SonarQube Server are priced by lines of code. Sonar uses developer counts only to position plans (Team for under 50 developers, Enterprise for over 50). Gitar AI Code Review, a separate product on Sonar's pricing page, is priced per user at $20 per month billed annually.

Does SonarQube have a free trial?

Yes. The SonarQube Cloud Team plan has a 14-day trial with no card needed, and SonarQube Server editions offer evaluation licenses that Sonar's sales team activates at no charge.

Is SonarQube cheaper than AI code review?

For a small codebase, often yes on raw price: SonarQube Cloud Team starts at $34 a month for up to 100k lines of code. Usage-based AI code review like Macroscope costs $0.05 per KB of diff reviewed with a $0.50 minimum, so 400 reviews a month at a 15 KB average diff cost $300. The tools do different jobs, though. SonarQube applies deterministic rules, while AI code review reasons about whether each change is correct, so many teams run both.

Can I use Macroscope and SonarQube together?

Yes. Macroscope installs as a GitHub App and runs on pull requests alongside SonarQube's analysis and quality gates. A common setup keeps SonarQube for rule coverage and compliance reporting and adds Macroscope for correctness review, cross-file bug detection and auto-approval of low-risk PRs.

What are the best SonarQube alternatives?

It depends on why you are looking. Rules-based alternatives cover similar ground with different pricing, while AI code review tools cover the logic and intent problems rules miss. See the full guide to the best SonarQube alternatives.