Hetzner Prices increase 30-40%

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Scope and Size of Price Increases

  • Reported hikes of ~30–40% on many products, but some users see only ~3% on specific dedicated “server auction” machines.
  • “Server auction” servers explicitly get a flat 3% rise.
  • One example shared: €31.90 → €32.86 and €34.51 → €35.55 (both ~3%), suggesting the steepest increases hit other product lines.
  • IPv4 addresses add an extra €0.60 on top of listed (IPv6-only) prices.

Official Justification and Communication

  • Hetzner’s statement: large cost increases in infrastructure operations and hardware purchases; attempts to absorb costs have “reached the limit.”
  • Some discussion around a clumsy translation (“IT branch” from German “IT‑Branche”), generally treated as a harmless language issue.
  • A detailed price list exists on Hetzner Docs; staff confirm it covers both existing and new products starting 1 April 2026.
  • Existing RAM add-ons may also be affected; separate emails reportedly sent.

What’s Driving Costs (According to Commenters)

  • Hardware: RAM, storage, CPUs, and GPUs all cited as sharply more expensive, with shortages and long lead times.
  • Energy: multiple people mention rising power and cooling costs, though one notes German electricity prices have recently fallen, so hardware is seen as the main driver.
  • General view that “competing on price never lasts,” and Hetzner had been absorbing higher costs for years.

AI Boom, Bubbles, and Hardware Scarcity

  • Strong thread linking price hikes to AI hardware demand: AI seen as absorbing massive RAM, GPU, and DC capacity.
  • Split views:
    • One camp: AI is a bubble; unsustainable spend will collapse, and hardware prices will fall back.
    • Another camp: this is “the next industrial revolution”; AI makes senior engineers and creators vastly more productive, and prices for AI services will eventually rise, not fall.
  • Debate over whether current AI usage is profitable or heavily subsidized, and whether growing cloud prices will curb demand.

Customer Impact and Reactions

  • Some users say Hetzner remains vastly cheaper than AWS/Azure even after hikes.
  • Others see this as a breach of trust, especially raising prices on existing infrastructure, and talk about moving storage or workloads to other low-cost providers (though competitors are also raising prices).
  • A few are proactively buying second-hand servers and colo space to escape cloud pricing altogether, though others doubt 15–20 year hardware lifespans.