Introducing v5 Droplets: next-generation performance, sized to your workload

We’re excited to introduce v5 Droplets, a new generation of compute built on 5th Gen AMD EPYC™ processors. v5 Droplets are purpose built to deliver higher performance for demanding workloads such as compute-intensive agentic AI platforms, AI/ML tools, high throughput audio/video transcoding, and high-traffic distributed web applications and APIs. v5 Droplets deliver up to 30% higher performance per core than our previous-generation Droplets. For the first time, you can select vCPU, memory, and storage independently and pay for only the resources you choose. Your Droplet fits your application, and your bill reflects exactly what you used, nothing more. You can continue creating bundled Droplets the way you’re used to, or choose v5 Droplets for next-generation workload-optimized performance.

Designed for workloads that need more

More teams are building AI applications, agent platforms, bursty data pipelines, and hosting high-traffic web applications on DigitalOcean than ever before, and those workloads demand higher performance. They need the faster cores, flexible memory ratios, and compute configurations that v5 Droplets provide. Starting with v5, every Droplet is tied to a hardware generation, so you get the same silicon and the same performance every time. You can choose Shared Droplets (s5) for bursty, variable work that doesn’t need a full dedicated core, or General purpose Droplets (g5) for guaranteed, dedicated CPU, with memory ratios from 2x to 8x per vCPU. Pricing is simple and based on an hourly rate. You see each resource’s price as you configure, a running total as you go, and one line per Droplet on your bill. Early customers running game servers and high throughput e-commerce applications saw 2x performance compared to their existing Droplets.

No changes to existing Droplets pricing or experience

Every existing Droplet plan stays exactly as it is and maintains the same prices, same bundles, same monthly caps, no migrations, and nothing new on your invoice. Your current Droplet plan isn’t going anywhere. You can continue using the existing SKUs if they are a good fit for your workloads on price, simplicity or familiarity. And when you want higher per-core performance for your workload, you have the flexibility to choose the new v5 Droplet.

Available now

v5 Droplets are available today in our Memphis, Kansas City, Richmond, and Atlanta regions, with more regions to follow the rest of the year. You can launch v5 as standalone Droplets or use them as part of DigitalOcean Kubernetes node pools. To get started, create a v5 Droplet using the console, or the API. These new Droplets are the next step in DigitalOcean’s compute evolution, where ambitious teams build and scale AI-era applications. And, we’re just getting started.