- Fees
- Source: press report (secondary)
- Background · over 90 days old
- Independent, not affiliated with SpaceX
- Announced / first reported
- Effective
- Seen on new orders from about Jun 8–9, 2026
- Published
- Last updated
Background. This change happened more than 90 days ago. It is kept as a dated record; check current prices before relying on any figure below.
What changed
On June 9, 2026, PCMag (Michael Kan, syndicated on Yahoo Tech) reported two changes for new US Residential customers:
- A $10-a-month “kit fee” on the rented Standard dish, which until then had been a free rental with Residential plans. It applied to all three Residential tiers.
- Residential Max lost two perks for new customers: the free Mini dish rental and the 50% discount on a Roam plan for it. PCMag quoted Starlink’s support page: “The Optional Mini Kit for Travel was not available to new customers at this time.”
| Item | Before | After | Change per month | Change per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rented Standard kit, new Residential order | $0 | $10 | +$10 | +$120 |
| Residential Max: free Mini kit rental | included | not offered to new customers | n/a | n/a |
PCMag said the fee appeared quietly, spotted on Monday June 8, and also applied in Canada, the UK, France, Australia and Mexico.
Who it affected
- New Residential customers who rent the kit instead of buying it.
- New Residential Max customers who would have used the free Mini.
- Existing renters: PCMag described the fee as for new customers only.
- Buyers of the kit were not affected by the rental fee.
What it did to the cost
For a new renter, $10 a month is $120 a year and $360 over three years on top of the plan. Using the then-current prices, Residential 100 Mbps with a rented kit went from $55 to $65 a month, or $660 to $780 a year.
This also moved the rent-vs-buy break-even. With a $349 bought kit and a $10 monthly rental fee, rental costs more than buying after about 35 months (349 ÷ 10 = 34.9), before counting any activation or shipping difference.
What stayed the same
- Monthly plan prices (raised a few weeks earlier in May; see the May 2026 post).
- The bought kit price.
- The rule that an unreturned rental kit is charged at full retail after cancelling.
What happened next
The fee did not last. About six weeks later it was reported removed for new orders in select US areas (July 2026 post), and the free Mini on Max came back in August (August 2026 post).
What to check yourself
- At checkout, look for a monthly kit or rental line under the plan price; the total for your address is what counts.
- Run rent against buy in the calculator for the number of months you expect to keep the service.
- See the hidden fees guide for the other lines that sit next to the plan price.
What we don’t know
- Whether every US address saw the fee, or only some.
- We could not open a June 2026 checkout capture ourselves; the figures are as reported.
Sources
Corrections
Independent, not affiliated with SpaceX or Starlink. Links to Starlink’s plan pages in this post use the site owner’s own referral link; your price is the same.See the price history, how we verify prices and the corrections log. Published Oct 6, 2026.