How much does colocation cost per month in 2026?

A retail full rack (42U, 5-10 kW) typically costs $500-1,500 per month in most US and European markets, with premium interconnection sites running $1,500-3,000. Wholesale capacity in primary North American markets averages $196.25 per kW per month for 250-500 kW deployments, per CBRE's H2 2025 data.

What is the average colocation price per kW?

CBRE reports a record $196.25 per kW/month average asking rate for 250-500 kW requirements in primary North American wholesale markets as of H2 2025, up 6.6% year over year. Ashburn and other tight primary markets are quoted above $200/kW, while Singapore commands $330-475/kW/month — the highest range in APAC.

What is included in colocation pricing?

The base fee usually covers rack space, a committed power circuit, cooling, physical security, and basic remote-hands allotments. Power over the committed draw, cross-connects ($50-350/month each), IP transit, additional remote hands ($100-250/hour), and setup fees (often one month's fee) are billed separately.

What is the difference between retail and wholesale colocation?

Retail colocation sells by the rack or cabinet (1-20 racks, priced per rack or per kW with services bundled). Wholesale sells committed capacity blocks of 250 kW and up, priced per kW/month on 3-15 year terms, with the tenant managing more of its own operations. Wholesale unit prices are lower but require larger commitments.

Why is Singapore colocation so expensive?

Singapore imposed a moratorium on new data center builds from 2019 to 2022 and still rations capacity through the DC-CFA award scheme, so vacancy is minimal while demand keeps growing. Asking rents of $330-475 per kW/month — roughly double the North American average — reflect that engineered scarcity plus high land and power costs.

How do you negotiate colocation pricing?

Leverage comes from commitment size, term length, and competition. Solicit at least three quotes, negotiate the power rate and escalators (operators pushed 3-5% annual escalators through 2025), cap cross-connect and remote-hands fees in the MSA, and ask for ramp schedules so you pay for capacity as you deploy rather than from day one.

Will colocation prices keep rising in 2026?

Yes, but more slowly. CBRE expects 250-500 kW requirements to exceed $200/kW/month in primary markets during 2026, after growth moderated from the double-digit increases of 2022-2024 to 6.6% in 2025. Tight vacancy (under 1% in Northern Virginia) keeps pricing power with landlords.

Colocation Pricing in 2026: Complete Guide

Colocation costs $500-1,500/month per retail rack in 2026. Wholesale averages $196/kW monthly in North America; Singapore runs $330-475 per kW per month.

Colocation pricing in 2026 breaks into two distinct markets. Retail colocation — single racks to small cages — costs roughly $500-1,500 per month for a full 42U rack with 5-10 kW of power in most US markets. Wholesale colocation — committed blocks of 250 kW and up — averages a record $196.25 per kW/month in primary North American markets, with Ashburn quoted above $215/kW and Singapore at $330-475/kW, per CBRE and APAC market data.

Key takeaways

Wholesale average (North America): $196.25 per kW/month for 250-500 kW requirements in H2 2025, up 6.6% YoY — a record, per CBRE. Expect $200+/kW in primary markets in 2026.
Large-block pricing rose fastest: 3-10 MW requirements jumped 12.5% YoY as AI tenants compete for contiguous capacity.
Retail full rack: $500-1,500/month typical; $1,500-3,000 in carrier hotels and premium interconnection sites.
Singapore is the world’s most expensive major market: $330-475 per kW/month asking rents, roughly double the North American average.
Vacancy drives everything: Northern Virginia vacancy sat near 0.7% in 2025. Where vacancy is under 2%, operators dictate terms.
The quoted rate is rarely the total cost: cross-connects, metered power overage, remote hands, and setup fees commonly add 15-30% to the monthly invoice.

For live benchmark rates by market, see our colocation price index and market statistics.

Retail colocation pricing: per U, per rack, per cage

Retail colocation is priced by physical footprint plus committed power.

Unit	Typical range (US, 2026)	Notes
1U server slot	$50-150/month	Includes 0.5-1 A of power; common minimum billing unit
Quarter rack (10-11U)	$200-500/month	1-2 kW included
Half rack (20-22U)	$400-800/month	2-4 kW included
Full rack (42-48U)	$500-1,500/month	5-10 kW; premium sites $1,500-3,000
Private cage (5+ racks)	$2,500-15,000/month	Priced per rack or per kW; custom terms
High-density AI rack (20-50 kW)	$2,000-7,000/month	Liquid-cooling-ready positions carry premiums

Ranges compiled from published operator rate cards and pricing surveys by Brightlio and Encor Advisors.

Two pricing logics coexist:

Per-rack (space-based): flat fee for the footprint with a power allowance. Simple, but you pay for stranded capacity if your draw is low.
Per-kW (power-based): the norm for anything above a few racks. Space is effectively free; you pay for committed power. As rack densities climb past 10 kW, nearly all pricing converges on per-kW.

What is actually included

A standard retail contract covers the rack or cabinet, one power circuit (often A+B redundant feeds), cooling, physical security, and a small monthly remote-hands allowance (typically 0-2 hours). Everything else is a line item:

Cross-connects: $50-350 per month per connection, depending on operator and media type. Interconnection-rich operators charge at the top of the range; some regional operators include the first one free.
IP transit: $0.10-1.00 per Mbps/month depending on commit size and market.
Remote hands: $100-250 per hour beyond the included allowance.
Setup / installation: commonly one month’s recurring fee, waivable in negotiation.

Wholesale colocation pricing: $/kW/month

Wholesale deals (250 kW to 10+ MW) are quoted in dollars per kW of committed critical IT load per month. CBRE’s H2 2025 North America data is the reference series:

Requirement size	Primary-market asking rate (H2 2025)	YoY change
250-500 kW	$196.25/kW/month (record)	+6.6%
3-10 MW	Premium to smaller blocks in tight markets	+12.5%

Three points of context:

The growth rate moderated but did not reverse. 2022-2024 saw consecutive double-digit annual increases; 6.6% in 2025 is a deceleration, not a correction. CBRE expects 250-500 kW pricing to clear $200/kW/month in primary markets during 2026.
Volume discounts are disappearing. In Silicon Valley, CBRE notes volume-based discounts for large tenants have been significantly reduced or eliminated. Large blocks now price at a premium, inverting the historical curve.
Averages hide market spread. Average US major-market pricing across all deal sizes sits near $163/kW/month, but Ashburn carrier hotels and low-vacancy primary markets clear $215+/kW, while secondary markets with standing inventory still quote $130-160/kW.

Regional benchmark table

Market	Wholesale asking rate ($/kW/month)	Vacancy context
Northern Virginia (Ashburn)	$215+	~0.7% vacancy, effectively sold out
US primary-market average	$196 (250-500 kW)	Record high, +6.6% YoY
US secondary markets	$130-160	Standing inventory available
Singapore	$330-475 (avg ~$403)	Moratorium legacy; capacity rationed
Kuala Lumpur / Johor	$110-150	Supply-rich, but non-AI approvals restricted since Feb 2026
Bangkok	$120-165	New supply wave 2026-2028

Singapore figures per APAC market research (GlobeNewswire portfolio analysis); Southeast Asia ranges from our SEA data center catalog.

Power billing: metered vs. breakered

Power is 40-70% of total colocation cost, so how it is billed matters more than the headline rate.

Breakered (committed) power: you pay for the full circuit capacity whether you use it or not — e.g., a 5 kW commit at $150/kW is $750/month at any utilization. Predictable for the operator; expensive for bursty loads.
Metered power: you pay a base infrastructure fee plus actual kWh consumed at a utility pass-through rate (often utility cost + 10-20% or a fixed $/kWh). Standard in wholesale; increasingly available in retail above 5 kW.

Ask for the PUE assumption in metered deals: operators bill IT load times a PUE multiplier (commonly 1.3-1.6 contractually). A facility billing at PUE 1.6 versus 1.35 adds roughly 18% to your effective power bill for identical IT consumption.

How to negotiate colocation pricing in 2026

This is a landlord’s market, but structure still moves:

Run a competitive process. Three or more quotes minimum. Operators price against known alternatives; a documented competing offer is the single most effective lever. Our quote service benchmarks offers against index rates.
Trade term for rate. 3-5 year terms with 3% escalators are standard; operators will shave the base rate for 5-7 year commitments. Do not accept escalators above 5% or “market re-rate” clauses.
Negotiate the ramp. For phased deployments, pay for capacity on a committed ramp schedule (e.g., 25% at signing, 100% by month 18) rather than full commitment from day one.
Cap ancillary fees. Fix cross-connect pricing for the term, cap remote-hands rates, and get setup fees waived. Ancillaries are where discounted headline rates are recovered.
Verify power price pass-through. In metered deals, tie the energy rate to a published utility tariff, not “operator’s prevailing rate.”
Check the SLA teeth. 100% power SLAs are common; what matters is the credit schedule (should reach 100% of monthly fee for extended outages) and chronic-outage termination rights.

Total cost example: 10-rack, 80 kW deployment

Line item	Monthly cost
80 kW committed @ $170/kW (wholesale-lite, primary US market)	$13,600
6 cross-connects @ $200	$1,200
IP transit, 2 Gbps commit	$1,000
Remote hands (4 hrs @ $175)	$700
Total recurring	$16,500 (~$206/kW effective)

The effective rate lands 21% above the headline power rate — a typical spread. Model the full stack, not the quoted $/kW.

Common pricing traps

The teaser rate. A below-index headline $/kW paired with uncapped cross-connect, remote-hands, and power-overage fees. Model year-one total invoice, not month-one rent.
PUE padding in metered deals. Contractual PUE multipliers above the facility’s actual performance quietly inflate every kWh billed. Ask for trailing twelve-month measured PUE and tie billing to it.
Renewal re-rates. Short initial terms in tight markets hand the operator a repricing event at renewal — Northern Virginia tenants renewing 2021-vintage leases in 2025-26 faced increases of 30-50%+ to then-current asking rates. Secure renewal caps (e.g., CPI or 5%, whichever is lower) at signing.
Stranded commitments. Committing to day-one capacity for a phased deployment burns budget on unused kW; conversely, under-committing in a sub-1% vacancy market risks having no expansion path at all. Negotiate rights of first refusal on adjacent capacity alongside the ramp.
“Included” bandwidth. Blended IP included in rack pricing is typically oversubscribed best-effort transit; latency-sensitive workloads end up buying dedicated ports anyway. Price colocation and connectivity separately from the start.

Outlook

Expect primary-market wholesale rates to cross $200/kW/month in 2026 with mid-single-digit annual growth thereafter, supply-constrained markets (Northern Virginia, Singapore, Tokyo) to stay tightest, and AI-densification to keep large contiguous blocks pricing at a premium. Buyers with flexibility on geography retain the most leverage: secondary US markets and emerging Southeast Asian hubs — tracked in our data center catalog — still quote 20-35% below primary-market rates for comparable Tier III service.