Ashburn pricing snapshot
These are preliminary monthly planning bands, not provider quotes. Cabinet estimates assume a conventional enterprise deployment. Larger blocks are shown as a monthly rate per committed kW because contract structure, redundancy and ramp have a large effect on total spend.
| Requirement | Planning range | Budget assumption |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2U | $125 to $240/mo | Basic power and internet allocation |
| Quarter or half cabinet | $1,050 to $1,425/mo | Shared cabinet environment |
| Standard full cabinet | $1,425 to $1,875/mo | Typical 3 to 5 kW commit |
| 10 to 20 kW high-density cabinet | $2,375 to $5,450/mo | Cooling method must be validated |
| Private cage | $5,225 to $22,750/mo | Four-rack starting profile; density drives spread |
| 250 kW | $190 to $235/kW-mo | Enterprise wholesale planning band |
| 500 kW | $175 to $225/kW-mo | Assumes scale and multiyear term |
| 1 MW | $155 to $210/kW-mo | Contiguous capacity and ramp required |
Method: public 2026 market benchmarks, including CBRE's published Northern Virginia 250 to 500 kW asking-rate band, combined with cabinet and density planning assumptions. Taxes, cross-connects, bandwidth and one-time charges are excluded. Validate every budget with a written provider quote. How that rate is billed, committed against metered and the derating that shrinks a circuit, is covered in how colocation power is billed.
The published figures these planning bands are built from, including asking rents across eight markets, land and power costs by metro, and what a stabilized megawatt sold for, are collected on the data center pricing benchmarks page.
Current Ashburn availability snapshot
We do not publish an option as live until the provider confirms the usable power, cooling fit and delivery path for a specific requirement. The profiles below show what we will source. They are not claims of current facility inventory.
| Option | Footprint | Usable power | Cooling support | Estimated delivery | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymized cabinet search | 1 to 4 cabinets | 5 to 80 kW | Air or containment; liquid by review | Target 30 to 90 days | Not yet verified |
| Anonymized cage search | 4 to 20 cabinets | 20 to 250 kW | Density-specific engineering review | Target 60 to 150 days | Not yet verified |
| Anonymized suite search | 250 kW to 1 MW | Contracted usable kW to be defined | Air, RDHx or liquid-ready by facility | Target 6 to 24 months | Not yet verified |
What the all-in Ashburn cost includes
Space and power
Cabinet, cage or suite fee plus the committed power basis. Confirm whether the quote uses allocated, metered or usable IT load.
A/B delivery
Dual-corded service, redundancy topology and the treatment of reserved capacity can change both price and usable kW.
Network and support
Carrier bandwidth, cloud ports, cross-connect MRCs, remote hands and after-hours support are normally separate.
Install and term
Cage build, cabinets, cabling and turn-up charges affect year one. Model annual escalators, power pass-throughs and renewal language.
Nearby and strategic alternatives
Run Richmond and Maryland in parallel when an Ashburn address is flexible. Atlanta and New Jersey can also be relevant for East Coast reach, but latency, cloud access, migration effort and staffing should be compared with total cost.
The market fundamentals behind an Ashburn quote
Northern Virginia prices the way it does because of three facts: it is the largest data center market in the world, it has almost nothing available, and nearly everything under construction is already committed. Every quote you receive is a function of those three numbers, so it is worth knowing them before you negotiate.
| Measure | Figure | What it means for your quote |
|---|---|---|
| Total inventory | 4,182.0 MW | Largest market in the world, up 1,135.9 MW year over year |
| Overall vacancy | 0.3% | An all-time low. There is very little slack to negotiate against |
| Available supply | 21.5 MW | Across the entire market at the end of 2025 |
| 2026 supply already committed | 96% | Preleasing now runs into 2027 and beyond |
| Asking rent, 250 to 500 kW | $190 to $235/kW-mo | Published Q1 2026 band for a mid-size requirement |
Sources: CBRE, Northern Virginia extends lead as largest U.S. data center market and CBRE Global Data Center Trends 2026. Inventory and vacancy are wholesale colocation figures and exclude owner-occupied hyperscale capacity.
At 21.5 MW available across a 4,182 MW market, a single 5 MW requirement represents almost a quarter of everything on the market. In practice that means you are not shopping existing inventory, you are competing for a delivery slot in a building that is not finished. Plan the requirement around a power date, not a move-in date.
Power, land and the interconnect queue
The binding constraint in Northern Virginia is not floor space and has not been for years. It is energized power, and the wait for it is the single largest variable in a deployment plan.
| Input | Northern Virginia | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial power | $0.095 to $0.13/kWh | Among the higher bands in the US, and usually passed through |
| Interconnect queue | 4 to 6 years | Dominion's batching process governs new large-load delivery dates |
| Data center land | $3.5M to $4.0M/acre | Two disclosed 2026 trades; the best powered sites have exceeded $8M |
Land is anchored on Amazon at about $427.3M for roughly 122 acres and Starwood Capital at $166.8M for 42 acres in Fairfax County, a county record near $4M per acre. CBRE has noted recent and pending Northern Virginia and Northeast site costs above $8M per acre. Power bands and queue lengths are market reported and vary by substation and by how the load is staged.
Two consequences follow for a buyer. First, a provider who already holds energized capacity is selling something structurally scarce, and the price reflects that rather than the cost of the building. Second, a quote with an attractive rate and a 2029 power date is not competitive with a higher rate available in 2027. Compare the date and the rate together, never separately.
Where in Northern Virginia you actually land
Northern Virginia is not one market. Pricing, availability and delivery dates differ enough between submarkets that treating them as interchangeable is the most common budgeting error we see.
Ashburn and Data Center Alley
Loudoun County. The densest network ecosystem in the world, with more exchange points, carrier cross-connects and cloud on-ramps than almost anywhere. Highest pricing, tightest availability, and zoning pressure now limits further expansion.
Sterling and Dulles
Adjacent to Ashburn with much of the same connectivity. Often the first place to look when an Ashburn address is preferred but not required.
Manassas and Prince William
Larger contiguous blocks and campus-scale development. Entitlement and zoning friction is real here, so confirm the delivery path rather than the announced pipeline.
Fauquier, Culpeper, Stafford, Spotsylvania
The emerging ring CBRE has flagged as new areas of activity. Longer drive times and thinner carrier choice, but land and power are available on timelines the core cannot match.
Emerging submarket activity per CBRE on record-low Northern Virginia vacancy and emerging growth areas. Loudoun and Prince William are the counties where CBRE specifically notes zoning and entitlement limits on expansion.
What actually moves your Ashburn number
The published band is a starting point for a 250 to 500 kW requirement. Six variables move a real quote inside or outside it, usually by more than the difference between two providers.
| Variable | Direction | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Committed power | Larger commitments price lower per kW | What does the next tier up cost? The step can be worth more than a discount |
| Rack density | Above roughly 20 kW per rack, cooling drives cost | Is the density supported by air, containment, RDHx or liquid, and at what premium? |
| Term length | Longer terms price lower, and lock the escalator | What is the annual escalator, and is it fixed or CPI linked with a cap? |
| Ramp schedule | Slower ramps cost more per kW early | When does billable power start, and is there a floor before full draw? |
| Redundancy | N+1 against 2N changes both price and usable kW | Is the quoted kW usable IT load or allocated capacity? |
| Power basis | Allocated against metered can differ materially | Am I billed on the circuit or on actual draw, and how is overage handled? |
Density is the variable most often underestimated. A 300 kW requirement at 8 kW per rack and the same 300 kW at 40 kW per rack are different products with different cooling, different buildings and different prices. Bring the density with the kW.
Convert both to a monthly cost per usable kW, confirm the power basis, add every recurring extra, then model the escalator and renewal to the end of the term. Digital Realty reported renewal rents up 25.4% on a cash basis in Q2 2026, so the renewal clause is often worth more than the opening rate. The pricing benchmarks page carries the published figures to check any quote against.
Get a verified shortlist with capacity, normalized pricing and deployment timelines.
Bring the initial kW, rack density, target date and network requirements. A scout will test the requirement against provider-confirmed options.