SpaceX is trying some of its most aggressive Starlink pricing yet, with a $59-per-month Residential plan test being unleashed in parts of the U.S. The promotion, which appeared on Starlink’s own checkout pages, below the service’s usual $120 per month rate, marks a departure to demand-oriented pricing as the amount of satellite capacity grows.
What the $59 Offer Covers
The headline deal is available for new Residential subscribers at certain addresses, and extends for 12 months, according to terms published by SpaceX during sign-up. At some spots, even a Residential Lite tier is provided for $49 a month — designed for lighter usage and sorry speeds — down from the usual price of $80.
Equipment is discounted too. Service The standard Starlink dish has appeared priced at $89 for eligible customers, a substantial discount from the usual $349. Taxes, shipping and optional accessories are extra, SpaceX says promotional pricing can change and is for one service line per account.
Available Only When There Is Capacity on the Network
Not all people will pay the same price. It looks like SpaceX is making offers by cell, and offering discounts in areas where it has more capacity than needed. On some addresses, the site shows $59 for Residential and $49 for Residential Lite; on others Residential comes out to approximately $85 with no Lite option; numerous addresses show no special at all. Examples matching this pattern have been reported by users in Albuquerque and Boise (deep discounts), as opposed to Cedar City, Eugene and San Francisco (more modest cuts).
It is this kind of dynamic pricing that makes sense for a low Earth orbit (LEO) network. As additional satellites go live and ground infrastructure grows, local capacity becomes available. Instead of allowing that bandwidth to lie dormant, Starlink can create demand through temporary, location-specific pricing. Recent company filings with the FCC speak of continued constellation growth and gateway expansion—two levers it will pull to increase throughput in specific regions.
How It Compares on Speed and Latency
These independent measurements by Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence tend to place Starlink in the U.S. at median download speeds of generally between 60 Mbps and above 100 Mbps depending on state, with uploads usually in the high single to low double digits and latency frequently running around 40–60 ms. Although cable and fiber still win on peak speeds and consistency — a point that rural subscribers’ speed tests also corroborate — those figures are transformational for many rural and exurban households that have been lodged on DSL or spotty fixed wireless services.
There are no hard data caps on Residential plans, but performance is “prioritized” during times of congestion. The Lite tier, if and when it’s available, is also intended for lighter usage but may experience more deprioritization than the other plans and potentially greater slowdowns during periods of congestion. Like any shared air i/f, the local load and LOS install quality matters greatly.
Why SpaceX Is Lowering Prices Now
The $59 push follows previous temporary cuts, such as reducing the cost of the Residential plan to about $99 and the Lite plan toward $65 in select areas, with the price of a dish temporarily falling toward $175. SpaceX is definitely running elasticity experiments: lower prices where satellites have extra capacity, add sign-ups, then balance it all out again as utilization increases.
There’s also competition to consider. “In the U.S., fixed wireless access from large mobile operators tends to come in around the $50–$60 mark, and cable companies also offer deals that are heavily promoted around that figure. By pushing Starlink Residential to $59, SpaceX puts the company shoulder-to-shoulder with terrestrial offers, especially in fringe suburbs and small towns where cable plant quality or simply availability can be spotty. Statements from the company show that Starlink counts millions of subscribers worldwide, and cracking the booking open a bit could drive adoption in places where awareness is high but sticker shock has been a roadblock.
The Fine Print: Read Before You Order
Key caveats: The promotional monthly rate is for a limited time (12 months); it’s only available to new customers; and rates may vary by location. Promo Eligible Migrations, Rate Plan Changes, and Service Transfers: Customers who switch plans, customers temporarily transferring coverage to a non-Mobile Internet rate plan or temporarily suspending their service can lose the promo. After the first year, pricing shifts to the then-current standard rate unless SpaceX continues to offer the discount.
Starlink is still a month-to-month service with user-owned hardware, so there is no early termination fee — but equipment return policies and restocking rules will not work the way they do with rented gear. Installation sacrifices – Prospective buyers will also need to consider installation complexities including a clear sky view, mount hardware and cable routing to the time and cost equation.
Who Should Get the $59 Plan?
If your address is eligible and your other options are slow DSL, oversubscribed fixed wireless or costly cellular hot spot data, this is the best Starlink residential price we’ve seen yet. For households computerized with a streaming service in every room, remote workers with video calls they can’t afford to drop or gamers willing to accept mid-double-digit latency — here’s hoping the overall upgrade in reliability makes for an appealing option now.
There’s a different calculus if you already have strong cable or fiber. Starlink can be a great backup for outage-prone areas, but as a primary service, terrestrial choices tend to offer better latency and higher sustained uploads, especially for creators who need to send large files.
Bottom Line
Starlink’s $59 offer is a calculated move to fill up that capacity and cater to the market as it exists. It’s not going to be ubiquitous and it’s not going to last forever, but for households with an address that qualifies, it is the purest signal so far that LEO satellite broadband is moving into a more competitive phase of consumer-friendly pricing. Verify if your address is on the company’s order page, read the fine print and then consider whether that one-year savings will be worth it four years down the road when you have a house full of work-from-home workers all attending simultaneous video calls.
