Methodology

Symbols

• H_buy — kit purchase price (Standard $349 or Mini $199 in the default presets)
• H_rent — Standard kit rent per month (~$10)
• S — monthly service for the selected plan
• Q — one-time demand surcharge (user-entered, $0–$1,500)
• I — optional professional installation
• t — optional tax rate (default 0)
• E — optional monthly electricity
• n — TCO months (12 or 36)

Hardware

hardware(n) = H_buy          if buying the kit
hardware(n) = H_rent × n     if renting Standard
Mini kits are purchase-only in this dataset.

Month-1

taxable_1 = hardware(1) + S + Q + I
tax_1     = taxable_1 × t
month1    = taxable_1 + tax_1 + E

First-year and 3-year TCO

taxable_n = hardware(n) + S×n + Q + I
tax_n     = taxable_n × t
TCO(n)    = taxable_n + tax_n + E×n

Year-1 uses n = 12. Optional 3-year uses n = 36.
Q and I are one-time in every horizon.

Electricity (optional)

E = (watts / 1000) × 24 × (365.25 / 12) × $/kWh

Default watts = 50 (range 30–75). Default $/kWh = 0.16.
Electricity is not taxed in this model.

Residential vs Roam break-even

The comparison uses the same hardware, install, tax, and electricity on both sides. Surcharge Q is applied to Residential only; Roam is modeled at $0 surcharge because Roam typically avoids a fixed-address fee.

If S_roam > S_res:
  break_even_months = Q / (S_roam − S_res)
  break_even_Q(n)   = n × (S_roam − S_res)

If S_roam ≤ S_res:
  any Q > 0 makes Residential more expensive from month 1.

What is not included

• Shipping, mounts, longer cables, and ethernet adapters unless you add them as install
• Promotional $0 hardware rent (some addresses show free rent — this model’s Standard rent preset is about $10/mo; verify on starlink.com)
• In-motion / maritime / priority business products
• Pause / standby fees
• Live address lookup — StarCost never calls Starlink APIs

Sources

lastUpdated ISO date: 2026-09-01. Residential monthly presets: 100 Mbps $55, 200 Mbps $85, Max $130 — unlimited data, US list. Roam monthly presets: 100GB $55, 300GB $80, Unlimited $175 — US list. Hardware presets: Standard kit $349 buy; Mini kit $199 buy; Standard rent ~$10/mo; no Mini rent modeled. Demand surcharge: user-entered $0–$1,500 (default $0). Not a published national rate. All dollar amounts are USD estimates before you apply tax. StarCost does not scrape or cache live checkout.

• Starlink official checkout — Authoritative live prices, surcharge, install, and hardware options at a service address.
• Public US list-price roundups (Aug/Sep 2026) — Residential 100/200/Max and Roam 100GB/300GB/Unlimited bands commonly published alongside Starlink’s US catalog. Used only as a starting preset — not a quote.

Unofficial price presets and the lastUpdated date (2026-09-01) are maintained with the calculator. Rebuilding the static site keeps sitemap lastModified and JSON-LD dateModified in sync with those presets.