Preparing a provider shortlist? Get the colocation RFP spreadsheet template to request comparable power, pricing and delivery details. Work email required; the online checklist is free to read.
Build your setup, then get it quoted
Pick a footprint, power, cooling and security. The data hall draws itself as you go. When it looks right, send it and a scout brings back provider quotes for that exact setup.
What the public record says colocation costs
Public companies report what they charge every quarter, and brokers publish asking rents by market. None of it is a quote for your requirement, but all of it can be checked.
Sourced figuresLatest available: Q2 2026Currency: USD
| Source | What it measures | Latest figure |
|---|
| Equinix, Q2 2026 | Average monthly recurring revenue per billed cabinet, globally | $2,538/cabinet-mo |
| Equinix, Q2 2026 | Same measure, Americas only | $2,743/cabinet-mo |
| Digital Realty, Q2 2026 | Base rent per kW, deployments of 0 to 1 MW (Americas) | $293/kW-mo |
| Digital Realty, Q2 2026 | Base rent per kW, deployments of 0 to 1 MW, all regions | $280/kW-mo |
| Digital Realty, Q2 2026 | Base rent per kW, deployments above 1 MW (Americas) | $156/kW-mo |
| Digital Realty, Q2 2026 | Base rent per kW, every new lease signed in the quarter | $198/kW-mo |
| CBRE, Q1 2026 | Asking rent, 250 to 500 kW requirement, Northern Virginia | $190 to $235/kW-mo |
| CBRE, Q1 2026 | Asking rent, 250 to 500 kW requirement, Chicago | $200 to $230/kW-mo |
What we see in real quotes. Quotes we reviewed in October 2026 for private cage deployments ran $215 to $298 per kW per month for space, committed power, cross-connects, remote hands and one-time costs, counted over the term. Providers and buyers are not named. Send us your quote and we will tell you where it sits.
Sources: Equinix Q2 2026 earnings presentation, page 24, alongside the second-quarter results release; Digital Realty second-quarter 2026 results; CBRE Global Data Center Trends 2026. Equinix reported its per-cabinet figure up 6% year over year and ended the quarter at 78% cabinet utilization worldwide, 81% in the Americas, on 307,600 billed cabinets. Digital Realty reported renewal rents up 25.4% on a cash basis in the quarter, which is the number to watch if you are signing a term that ends inside this cycle. How that rate is billed, committed against metered and the derating that shrinks a circuit, is covered in how colocation power is billed.
How to read them. Equinix's figure is revenue per billed cabinet, so cross-connects and other charges sit inside it. Digital Realty's are rents on leases signed in the quarter, the closest thing here to a real price. CBRE's are asking rents, where a landlord opens.
Federal contracts go further and publish the actual rate per cabinet by contract number. See what the US government pays for colocation for GSA schedule and EIS awarded rates, including cross-connect and remote-hands pricing.
Per rack and per cabinet, from providers who publish
A few operators post list prices. They set the floor a broker has to beat.
| Configuration | Published price | Notes |
|---|
| Half cabinet, 20U, 1.92 kW (Ashburn or Dallas) | $454/mo | No setup fee; 1-year term |
| Full locking cabinet, 1.92 kW | $608/mo | Plus $500 setup; 1-year term |
| Full locking cabinet, 4.99 kW | $1,058/mo | Plus $500 setup; 1-year term |
| Single server, 1U to 2U | $79 to $150/mo | Market range |
| Quarter rack | $300 to $500/mo | Market range |
| Half rack | $500 to $800/mo | Market range |
| Full rack | $599 to $1,500/mo | Market range; metro drives the spread |
| Full cabinet, major metro | $1,500 to $2,325/mo | Buffalo at the low end, New York at the high end |
Published list prices from Psychz Networks and ServerMania (January 2026). These are single provider list prices, not market averages. Power is usually licensed rather than metered at this size, so confirm whether your quote bills allocated or actual draw.
How deployment size changes the price
Primary North American markets, H1 2026; USD per kW per month
| Requirement | Average asking rent | Increase during H1 |
|---|
| 250–500 kW | $204.69 | 4.3% |
|---|
| 500 kW–3 MW | $183.75 | 7.9% |
|---|
| 3–10 MW | $175.00 | 8.3% |
|---|
| 10+ MW | $165.31 | 6.7% |
|---|
Source: CBRE H1 2026, Figure 3 and National Pricing. Asking rents, not signed or electricity-inclusive quotes. Growth is during the half-year. Digital Realty's Q2 Americas signings show the same size distinction: $293/kW-month below 1 MW and $156 above it.
Disclosed deals at 4 and 10 MW
| Agreement | Derived monthly rate | Terms to compare |
|---|
Boost Run, Rock Island
4 MW critical load | About $165/kW | About $660,000/month at full utilization; 80% minimum payment; five years. Electricity treatment undisclosed. August 2026 filing. |
|---|
Duos / Axe Compute, Columbus, GA
10 MW critical load | More than $185/kW | Derived from more than $111M over five years, as stated in the August 2026 earnings call. Term average, not opening rent; electricity treatment unconfirmed for this agreement. |
|---|
These are historical disclosures, not available offers. Duos and Axe also announced a nonbinding project-ownership proposal; the example is not an independent market benchmark. For smaller requirements, see itemized cabinet contracts.
What large signed contracts actually cost per kW
Above a few megawatts, colocation is a negotiated contract, and public companies disclose the ones they sign. Two filings state the rate. The rest give the value, megawatts and term, which is enough to work it out.
Published contract rateFiled April 21, 2026Currency: USD
| Term of the Core Scientific and CoreWeave agreements | As filed |
|---|
| Base license fee, all sites except Austin | $100/kW-mo |
| Base license fee, Austin campus | $115/kW-mo |
| Initial term | 12 years, Austin 7 years |
| Annual increase | 3.5%, Austin 3.0% |
| Utilities | Paid separately by the tenant |
| Contracted IT load across six sites | 588.5 MW |
Source: Core Scientific, Exhibit 99.2 filed April 21, 2026. Read the caveat below before quoting the $100.
The $100 is not the year-one invoice: CoreWeave funds the build-out and gets a 50% discount until that credit runs out, about two and a half years at roughly $50 per kW. Ask any wholesale provider what the rate is after concessions burn off.
The second published rate, and what it proves
Digi Power X is building a 40 MW facility in Columbiana, Alabama for Cerebras Systems, and its quarterly report states the rate.
Published contract rateFiled August 14, 2026Currency: USD
| Term of the Digi Power X and Cerebras agreement | As filed |
|---|
| Colocation fee, fixed and take-or-pay, year one | $195.00/kW-mo |
| What the fee includes | Delivered power, excluding applicable taxes |
| Annual increase | 3.0% |
| Initial term | 10 years |
| Phase 1, 15 MW | $2,925,000/mo |
| Phase 2, 25 MW (conditional) | $4,875,000/mo |
Source: Digi Power X, quarterly report filed August 14, 2026, note 20, cross-checked against the May 8, 2026 announcement of the same agreement. Both stated monthly amounts divide back to exactly $195.00 per kW.
The same deal was announced at about $1.1 billion, which divides to $229 per kW. Both are right: $195.00 is year one, $229 is the ten-year average with 3% increases. Read every derived rate below as a term average, so year one sits lower.
The next table is arithmetic, not published rates: contract value divided by kilowatts divided by months.
Derived from disclosed contractsFiled 2025 to 2026Currency: USD
| Operator and tenant | Structure | IT load | Term | Disclosed value | Derived rate |
|---|
| Applied Digital, Delta Forge 1 | Lease | 300 MW | 15 yr | $7.5B | $139/kW-mo |
| Cipher Mining and Amazon, Black Pearl TX | Triple net, 3% escalator | 216 MW | 15 yr | $5.5B | $141/kW-mo |
| Cipher Mining and Fluidstack, Barber Lake TX | Modified gross | 207 MW | 10 yr | $3.83B | $154/kW-mo |
| Hut 8, Beacon Point TX | Triple net, 3% escalator | 352 MW | 15 yr | $9.8B | $155/kW-mo |
| Cipher Mining and Amazon, Stingray TX | Triple net, 3% escalator | 70 MW | 15 yr | $2.0B | $159/kW-mo |
| Hut 8 and Fluidstack, River Bend LA | Triple net, take-or-pay | 245 MW | 15 yr | $7.0B | $159/kW-mo |
| CleanCore and Cerebras, Minnesota | Colocation, power included | 40 MW | 10 yr | $800M | $167/kW-mo |
| WhiteFiber and Nscale, Madison NC | Modified gross, power passed through | 40 MW | 10 yr | $865M | $180/kW-mo |
| TeraWulf and Anthropic, Hawesville KY | Lease, 20-year term | 401 MW | 20 yr | $19B | $197/kW-mo |
| Galaxy Digital and CoreWeave, Helios TX | Near triple net, 3% to 5% escalator | 260 MW | 15 yr | $10.4B | $222/kW-mo |
Primary filings, all on sec.gov: Applied Digital, Cipher Black Pearl, Cipher Barber Lake and its expansion, Hut 8 Beacon Point, Cipher Stingray, Hut 8 River Bend, CleanCore, WhiteFiber, TeraWulf, Galaxy Digital. Every rate uses critical IT load, not gross site capacity, and disclosed values are rounded by the filers, so treat these as approximate to within about five dollars.
Before comparing these to your own quote: a triple net lease excludes power while colocation usually includes it; these are term averages, so year one is nearer $114 to $130 per kW for the triple net deals; and the tenants are Amazon-scale buyers committing hundreds of megawatts. Nobody signing for one megawatt gets these rates.
For planning new Tier III capacity, HIVE Digital and Digi Power X both assumed about $150 per kW per month in filings this year.
At the bottom of the ladder, Ionic Digital leases Nscale a powered building in Barstow, Texas for $65.00 per kW per month with no service (net lease filed June 29, 2026). The gap to $195 is the cost of running the plant and backing an uptime commitment; Galaxy Digital puts operating expenses alone at about $15 per kW per month.
Get colocation quotes for your location and capacity.
Tell us your market, committed kW, rack density and move-in date. We check pricing and availability, and we can often negotiate 2 to 3 free months at the start of the term.
Exchange colocation fee schedules
NYSE must file its Mahwah, New Jersey colocation fees with the SEC: $16,500 a month for a 2 kW partial cabinet, network connections included, or roughly $8,250 per kW. It is the ceiling for latency-driven pricing, not a comparable for ordinary space and power. Sources: 91 FR 37155 (June 22 2026) and 91 FR 46490 (July 23 2026).
Nasdaq's March 2026 Carteret filing offers another structure: no recurring cabinet fee, with circuit charges equivalent to about $550/kVA/month, plus installation. This buys exchange proximity; kVA and usable kW are different units.
What every headline price leaves out
The monthly space and power figure is rarely the invoice. Normalize these before comparing two providers:
- Cross-connects: a monthly charge per connection, per carrier or cloud on-ramp.
- Bandwidth: commit level, burst treatment and overage rate.
- Power overage: what happens when draw exceeds the licensed circuit, and whether billing is on allocated or metered load.
- Remote hands: included minutes, hourly rate, and the after-hours multiplier.
- One-time charges: setup, cabinet, cage build, cabling and turn-up.
- Escalators: the annual increase, plus any power cost pass-through.
- Renewal terms: the clause that decides your price in year four. Digital Realty's disclosed renewal increase shows how much this matters. Why renewals are going up, and what is negotiable.
Colocation pricing by market
Asking rents move by metro more than by provider. CBRE reported Chicago up 14.7% year over year in Q1 2026, Atlanta up 2% and Dallas-Fort Worth flat. The full set, including international markets, is on the data center pricing benchmarks page, and Equinix's own rates are on Equinix colocation pricing.
Deepest network ecosystem, tightest available power. Wholesale band $190 to $235/kW-mo.
Asking rents flat year over year, which makes it one of the more predictable markets to budget.
The sharpest increase of the top four markets. Wholesale band $200 to $230/kW-mo.
Up 2% year over year. Frequently the East Coast alternative when Ashburn power dates slip.
Published federal per-cabinet rates by contract number, useful as a benchmark for any commercial quote.
The emerging four
Only Phoenix has a published asking-rate band. The other three are priced from our regional quotes, because no research house publishes a rate for them.
Published band $170 to $210/kW-mo, roughly flat. Power near 40% cheaper than Northern Virginia and an interconnect queue in months.
Cheap megawatts against a thin multi-tenant layer. The bidder count matters more here than the rate does.
Cheap at a megawatt, less so at a cabinet. The cross-connect to a cloud region is usually the real business case.
Few operators will bid on a mid-sized deal yet. Price it against Chicago and Columbus in the same process.
Space and power is the largest line, but rarely the only one. Little else is published. Every figure below is a federal contract rate or a contract term, not a commercial list price.
| Line item | Published figure | Where it comes from, and the caveat |
|---|
| Remote hands, per hour | $157.11 | Iron Mountain's GSA schedule, federal fiscal 2026. No commercial market average exists. Equinix publishes every billing rule for Smart Hands, 30 minute increments, a 5% to 40% prepaid discount, and no hourly rate. Government rates, Smart Hands rules |
| Cross-connect, one-time | $122.96 | Iron Mountain's GSA schedule. Equinix states that a monthly and a one-time charge both exist and prices neither. Cross connect structure |
| Fiber cross-connect, monthly | $44.46 to $688.22 | GSA EIS awarded rates, AT&T at the low end, Lumen and Granite at the high end. A fifteen-fold spread on the same product is the point. Government rates |
| Power overage | 2x the contract rate per kVA | Published Equinix resale terms, after a 72 hour cure period, or suspension. Most providers say "premium" and leave the multiple to the contract. Overage terms |
| Annual escalator | 3% to 3.5% | Disclosed in the Core Scientific, Digi Power X, Cipher Mining and Hut 8 contracts above, and "at least 3%" in the Equinix resale terms. CPI-linked escalators need a floor and a cap in writing. |
| Renewal increase | Up 25.4%, cash basis | Digital Realty, Q2 2026, across its renewals in the quarter. The single largest line on most multiyear deployments. What is negotiable on a renewal |
| Early termination | 100% of remaining charges | Published Equinix resale terms. Treat it as the default and negotiate down from it, not up. |
| Data center operating expense | $15/kW-mo | Galaxy Digital's disclosure on its CoreWeave lease. Not a charge to you, but the figure that explains why a provider negotiates on term before it negotiates on space. |
At a single cabinet these lines can match the space and power. Two cross-connects, a bandwidth commit and a few hours of remote hands can double a $600 cabinet. At a megawatt they barely register. Add them at your actual volumes, not as a percentage.
Three worked budgets, from the published figures
Three common deployments, priced from the figures on this page. Where nothing is published, the assumption is ours and stated in the note. Bandwidth and electricity are excluded.
Our arithmeticInputs as of October 2026Currency: USD
| Line | One cabinet, 1.92 kW, one year | Private cage, 100 kW example, three years | 250 kW wholesale, five years |
|---|
| Space and power, monthly | $608 | $21,500 to $29,800, with the lines below included | $47,500 to $58,750 |
| Basis | Published list price, full locking cabinet | $215 to $298/kW-mo, the range in the quotes we reviewed, cross-connects, remote hands and one-time costs counted | $190 to $235/kW-mo, the Northern Virginia asking band for 250 to 500 kW |
| Cross-connects, monthly | 2 at $150: $300 | Included in the quoted rate | 6 at $150: $900 |
| Remote hands, monthly | 2 hours at $157.11: $314 | Included in the quoted rate | 4 hours at $157.11: $628 |
| One-time charges | $500 setup plus $246 cross-connect installs | Included in the quoted rate, spread over the term | $50,000 installation plus $738 installs |
| Year one, all in | About $15,400 | About $258,000 to $358,000 | About $639,000 to $774,000 |
| Full term, 3% annual increase | About $15,400 | About $774,000 to $1.07M at the quoted rate | About $3.17M to $3.89M |
| Space and power alone, per usable kW-mo | $317 | Not separated in these quotes | $190 to $235 |
| Everything, per usable kW-mo over the term | About $669 | $215 to $298 | About $212 to $259 |
Inputs: the $608 cabinet and $500 setup are the published list price above; the cage rate is the pooled range from the quotes we reviewed in October 2026, which already counts cross-connects, remote hands and one-time costs over the term, applied to a 100 kW cage we chose as an example; the wholesale band is CBRE's Q1 2026 Northern Virginia asking rent. Remote hands uses Iron Mountain's federal GSA rate, and the $122.96 cross-connect install is from the same schedule. Assumptions, not sources: $150 a month per cross-connect, which sits inside the $44.46 to $688.22 federal range; the hours of remote hands; and the $50,000 wholesale installation, which is a placeholder for charges no provider publishes. The one year cabinet term carries no increase.
Two things a rate card never shows. On a single cabinet the extras more than double the bill, from $317 per kW for space and power to about $669 for everything. So ask for cabinet quotes with cross-connects and support included. And at every size the full-term cost per kW runs 10% to 15% above the headline rate, mostly from the annual increase. A five-year budget built on the year-one rate falls short by about that much.
The units a quote comes in
Two quotes for the same requirement often use different units. Most big gaps between them are unit differences, not price differences.
| Term | What it means on a colocation quote |
|---|
| MRC | Monthly recurring charge. The rent, and every other line that repeats each month: power, cross-connects, bandwidth, monitoring. |
| NRC | Non-recurring charge. One-time costs: installation, cage build, cabinets, cabling, circuit turn-up. Spread across the term to compare quotes with different NRCs. |
| Per kW per month | The unit every figure on this site is normalized to. Written $/kW-mo. Divide the monthly space and power charge by the committed kilowatts. |
| kW against kVA | Kilowatts are real work; kilovolt-amperes are apparent power. Some providers, Equinix among them, sell a draw cap in kVA. At a 0.9 power factor a 4 kVA cap is about 3.6 kW of equipment load. |
| Usable kW | What the circuit can actually deliver after derating. In North America a circuit is typically derated to 80% of its breaker rating. A 20 amp, 120 volt circuit is 2.4 kVA on paper and 1.92 kVA usable. |
| Allocated against metered | Allocated, or licensed, power bills the contracted kW whether you draw it or not. Metered bills actual consumption, usually on top of a base charge. Same rate, very different invoices. |
| Critical IT load | Power available to the equipment, as distinct from gross site power that also feeds cooling and losses. Every filed contract rate on this page uses IT load, and a gross site figure will always be larger. |
| PUE | Power usage effectiveness: total facility power divided by IT power. A PUE of 1.4 means 40% on top of your load goes to cooling and losses, and on a metered quote you may be paying for it. |
| Escalator | The fixed annual increase, typically 3%, or a CPI-linked one. Compound it to term end before comparing two quotes. |
| Pass-through | Electricity billed at the utility's cost, sometimes with a margin. Ask for the tariff and the PUE it is multiplied by. |
| Triple net, modified gross, and colocation | A triple net lease excludes power, taxes, insurance and operations; the tenant pays them. Modified gross passes some through. A colocation agreement usually bundles delivered power in. The $139 and the $195 on this page are not the same product. |
| Take or pay | The committed kW is billed from the commencement date whether or not equipment is installed. A ramp schedule is the negotiated exception. |
| Powered shell | Land, a finished building and the power capacity, with the tenant supplying and operating everything inside. The $65 net lease above is the published example. |
| Per square foot | How colocation used to be priced, when floor space was the constraint. Power is the constraint now, so a quote still priced per square foot hides its density assumption and should be converted before comparison. |
How to compare two colocation quotes
- Convert both to a monthly cost per usable kW, not per cabinet or per square foot.
- State whether power is allocated, metered or usable IT load. Quotes often differ on this alone.
- Add every recurring extra: cross-connects, bandwidth, remote hands, monitoring.
- Add one-time charges and spread them across the term to get a true monthly figure.
- Model the escalator and the renewal clause to the end of the term.
- Price the exit: migration, early termination and overlap during a move.
Two quotes with the same headline rate often differ by double digits once normalized.
Questions to ask a provider before you sign
Is power billed on the full circuit or on metered use?
Allocated power bills the contracted kW whether you draw it or not. Metered power bills actual draw, often multiplied by the facility's PUE. Ask which one, and ask for the PUE figure in writing.
What is the annual increase, and is electricity passed through?
Disclosed contracts carry 3% to 3.5% a year. Ask for a fixed cap. If electricity is passed through at utility cost, ask for the tariff and any margin on top.
What will the rate be at renewal?
Digital Realty's renewals rose 25.4% on a cash basis in Q2 2026. Ask for a renewal cap in the contract, tied to the annual increase.
What do cross-connects cost?
Expect a monthly charge and a one-time install for each connection. Federal schedules show $44.46 to $688.22 a month for fiber and $122.96 to install. Get a price for each carrier and cloud on-ramp you need.
What do remote hands cost?
Iron Mountain's federal rate is $157.11 an hour. Ask how many minutes are included, the hourly rate after that, and the after-hours multiplier.
What are the one-time charges?
Setup, cabinets, cage build, cabling and circuit turn-up. A published cabinet price carries a $500 setup fee. Ask for every one-time charge itemized, then spread them across the term.
Are free months included?
The 0 to 500 kW quotes on our map included 1–2 free months. Ask for them, especially to cover the overlap while you migrate.
Can I expand nearby, and what does leaving cost?
Ask for a right of first refusal on adjacent space at today's rate. Check early termination too: Equinix's published resale terms charge 100% of the remaining fees.
Colocation pricing questions
How much does colocation cost per month?
A full rack runs $599 to $1,500 a month in published price guides. A full cabinet in a major metro runs $1,500 to $2,325. Larger deployments are priced per kW. Recent quotes ran $180 to $400 per kW per month for 0 to 500 kW, depending on region.
How much does a colocation cabinet cost per month in 2026?
Published guides put a full rack at $599 to $1,500 a month, and a half rack at $500 to $800. A full cabinet in a major metro runs $1,500 to $2,325. The metro drives most of the spread. At this size power is usually licensed rather than metered, so check whether the quote bills allocated or actual draw. See rack and cabinet prices.
Is colocation priced per rack or per kW?
Small deployments are priced per rack or per rack unit, with power sold as a circuit. Larger deployments are priced per kW of committed power. A single low-density cabinet can cost about twice as much per kW as a megawatt-scale contract. See why.
What is the price of colocation per kW?
Quotes we received in the last 30 days ran $180 to $400 per kW per month for 0 to 500 kW. Larger commitments price lower. See the range for each region.
Which U.S. markets have the lowest colocation cost per kW?
In quotes we received for 0 to 500 kW, the Southeast was lowest at $180 to $220 per kW a month, then the Northeast and Arizona at about $200 to $250. California and the Northwest were highest at $345 to $400. Above 1 MW, Arizona was lowest at $130 to $160. See every region.
How much does a private cage cost?
A 4-rack cage runs $4,000 to $7,000 a month at standard density and $13,000 to $23,000 at high density. Cage build is a one-time charge on top. See cage lead times and build costs.
What does a colocation quote leave out?
The space and power line is rarely the whole invoice. Look for cross-connects, bandwidth, power overage, remote hands, one-time charges, annual escalators and renewal terms. See the full list.
Are there setup fees?
Usually. One-time charges cover setup, the cabinet, any cage build, cabling and turn-up. The operator quotes them. Spread them across the term to get a true monthly cost.
How do I compare two colocation quotes?
Convert both to a monthly cost per usable kW. Add every recurring extra. Spread one-time charges across the term. Then model the escalator and the renewal clause to the end of the term. See the steps.
Can colocation pricing be negotiated?
Yes. The 0 to 500 kW quotes on our map included 1–2 free months. The term, the power commitment and the renewal clause are all open to negotiation. Send us your requirement and we will tell you what to ask for.
Ready to get pricing for your deployment?
Share your location, capacity and timeline. We confirm pricing and availability, compare the full costs and terms, and can often negotiate 2 to 3 free months.
