Starlink ups congestion fee to $750 in some states

Those who want to become Starlink satellite Internet subscribers in the US have to now prepare to pay up to $750 in "demand surcharge," depending on where they live.

That is the new congestion fee that Starlink charges in certain areas where the presence of too many dishes could negatively affect download speeds for all subscribers.

The $750 demand surcharge is now being asked from future Starlink dish buyers for the initial connection in big cities like Seattle, Redmond, or Spokane in the State of Washington, as well as in and around Portland in Oregon.

Previously, Starlink managed excessive demand that would negatively affect the quality of its service by simply having waitlists and notifying subscribers when they could hook up to the network without being throttled.

Last year, it introduced the so-called demand surcharge for high Starlink traffic ares in the US. The congestion tax started slow, with a $100 one-time fee for each new connection, then went to $250, making the Starlink Standard Kit more expensive than the roaming set at one point before SpaceX lowered the Mini dish price.

As Starlink celebrated its six millionth customer not long ago, it also started upping the demand surcharge to $450 and, now, to the whopping $750 in some areas in Washington and Oregon. Needless to say, this is done to prevent excessive strain on the network in busy areas where capacity can't cope, and avoid having to throttle all users.

"Due to high demand in your area, there is an additional one-time charge to purchase Starlink services," says SpaceX as the $750 surcharge that has to be paid in addition to the $350 for a dish sends the price of a Starlink Residential connection to its highest ever levels in the US.

Granted, SpaceX is preparing the Starship 3 rocket to launch the big Starlink V3 satellites that increase download speeds tenfold in 2026, but until then the congestion fee seems to be an effective way to manage demand.