Aspirant — first ESP32 firmware build
Hobby
RMB 0/mo
~150 builds / month (≈ 450 compile minutes)
~5 builds per day; 1 concurrent build
ESP32 / ESP32-S3 / C3 / C6 / S2 targets
Stateless service — no artifact storage; download the binary yourself
Six tiers
Six tiers, side by side
From zero-cost trial through Self-hosted on-prem, all six share the same Build Lab UI and the same 40 MCP tools. Upgrading only changes quota, concurrency, and the Executor matrix — the workspace stays put.
Take this plan into Build Lab
Battle-Brother — past your first deployment
Maker
RMB 39/mo
~500 builds / month (≈ 1,500 compile minutes)
~500 builds / month (3× Hobby; eases the jump to Master)
1 concurrent build
Same MCP surface as the daily-driver tier
Sergeant — shipping firmware every week
Popular
Master
RMB 99/mo
~1,500 builds / month (≈ 4,500 compile minutes)
~1,500 builds / month
Priority queue + 2 concurrent builds
Full Claude Code / Cursor / Codex / OpenCode MCP access
Chapter Champion — STM32 unlocked, multiple SKUs
Champion
RMB 249/mo
~4,000 builds / month (≈ 12,000 compile minutes)
STM32 firmware executor unlocked (three paths, remote build)
4 concurrent builds; dedicated agent pool
SSO (OIDC) sign-in
Chapter Master — leads a 3-10 Astartes squad (small team)
Chapter
RMB 399/mo
~6,000 builds / month (≈ 18,000 compile minutes)
3–10 seats inclusive at one flat price; 10+ teams → Self-hosted
8 concurrent builds; dedicated agent pool
STM32 unlocked; SSO (OIDC) + 99.5% SLA
Fortress-Monastery — your own Forge World compute
Self-hosted
Talk to me
Unlimited builds (customer-supplied compute)
Customer brings own compute · zero marginal cost
Exclusive linux-image-v2 executor (multi-tenancy infeasible)
Private deployment · custom SLA
Six tiers
Executor matrix
Which tier runs which firmware — executors are gated per tier. ESP32 on every tier; STM32 from Champion; Linux images / OpenWrt / Yocto are Self-hosted only (multi-tenancy is structurally infeasible).
Executor / note
Available on
esp32 · ESP-IDF
Every ESP32 / S2 / S3 / C3 / C6 / H2 target. ESP-IDF v5.x + v6.x toolchains pre-warmed, synced with upstream.
All tiers
stm32 · three paths
- Path ACMake project (layout matches CubeMX output; the CubeMX GUI runs on your machine, not ours) + arm-gcc + STM32CubeG4 HAL, remote build
- Path BCargo + embassy-rs, remote build
- Path CYou build the ELF locally; the cloud only runs ARCHIVE (objcopy + sign + bundle)
First wave: NUCLEO-G431RB; F7 / H7 / L4 land in v0.4 follow-on. No desktop-IDE / GUI integration (CubeMX / CubeIDE / Keil / PlatformIO all stay on your machine).
Champion+
linux-image-v2 · OpenWrt / Buildroot / Yocto
One Yocto cold build ≈ 1,350 ESP32 builds. Signing keys, kernel versions, and cgroup isolation all require a single trust domain.
Self-hosted only
Six tiers
Need extra builds this month? Prepaid top-ups, no billing assassin
Buy prepaid top-ups at RMB 5 per 100 minutes (~RMB 0.05/min). When the monthly quota runs out we draw from the top-up pack — your in-flight builds don't get killed.
Quota exhaustion does not kill in-flight builds. Buy a RMB 5 / 100-minute prepaid top-up (≈ RMB 0.05/min) and the next build draws from the pack. We never silently switch you to metered overage — no billing-assassin moments.
Buy Top-Up MinutesSix tiers
Common questions
From zero-cost trial through Self-hosted on-prem, all six share the same Build Lab UI and the same 40 MCP tools. Upgrading only changes quota, concurrency, and the Executor matrix — the workspace stays put.
Is this ESPHome?
No. ESPHome (esphome.io) is a YAML framework for Home Assistant devices, open source. esphome.cloud is a remote build SaaS for ESP-IDF C/C++ projects. The names collide; the products are unrelated.
I want to build a smart switch — esphome.cloud or ESPHome.io?
Honest answer: for a standard Home-Assistant smart switch / temp+humidity sensor / light / curtain, use ESPHome.io. Its YAML template library already covers that surface; it's shorter and the community is larger. esphome.cloud does not compete on that lane. esphome.cloud is for what ESPHome.io's templates do not cover: flight controllers / FPV / UGV / drone swarms, router firmware, edge AI / tinyML / LLM-on-edge, industrial RTOS, or anyone who wants an AI agent to write ESP-IDF C/C++ directly rather than YAML.
What is esphome.cloud actually for?
ESP32 projects that ESPHome.io's template library does not cover. Concretely: vehicle & aircraft control (flight controllers, FPV, UGVs, robotic arms), IoT device tooling (smart switches, sensors, JLCPCB-fabbed hardware, Xianyu-built non-template devices), network security (router firmware, zero-trust mTLS), edge AI (camera vision, tinyML, local inference, LLM integration). The engineering-economics framing lives at /blog/ugv-fpv-economics — ESP32-WROOM-32 is the ¥13–20 compute core inside the ¥150–280 single-vehicle BOM.
Chapter caps at 10 seats. What if my team is 10+?
Chapter (RMB 399/mo) is the small-team tier — 3–10 seats inclusive at one flat price (~6k builds/month, sized for a real small team: startups, integrators, STEAM-education programs). Teams of 10+ go to Self-hosted: customers bring their own compute, run a private deployment, and negotiate seat counts and SLA in the contract. There is no public-SaaS tier between Chapter and Self-hosted — crossing the 10-seat threshold is a serious commercial conversation, so talk to me directly.
I don't write C. Can an AI agent really build ESP32 firmware for me?
Yes. Claude Code / Cursor / Codex / OpenCode / Claude Desktop talk to esphome.cloud through MCP — they reach 40 build/flash/analyze tools. The agent writes the code, we compile, errors come back to the agent for diagnosis. Hobby gives you 5 builds/day, enough to run a full iteration loop.
No local ESP-IDF install — really?
Really. The Build Lab browser flow, the espctl CLI, and the Claude Code MCP path all run compilation on remote agents. WebRTC delivers the firmware back. ESP-IDF, Python venv, CMake — none of it lives on your machine.
Can the build server read my source?
No. WebRTC end-to-end between your browser/CLI and the build agent. The control plane only relays signaling. Agents decrypt inside an nsjail sandbox, compile, and tear down. This is a protocol property, not a promise.
Why does STM32 require Champion?
Not for upcharge — to keep heavy STM32 builds and lightweight ESP32 builds on separate agent pools (4-pool tier-isolated scheduler). Hobby users don't queue behind someone else's STM32 link step.
Why are Linux / OpenWrt / Yocto Self-hosted only?
A single Yocto cold build is roughly 4 hours × 16 cores × 32 GB RAM, ≈ 1,350 ESP32 builds. Selling that on a per-build SaaS would burn a year of margin in two builds. More importantly, Linux image signing keys and cgroup isolation require a single operating organization — multi-tenancy is structurally off the table.
What happens when I run out of quota?
In-flight builds keep running. Subscription quota exhaustion draws from a prepaid top-up pack (RMB 5 / 100 minutes). When the top-up runs out, new builds pause with a notice. We never auto-flip you into metered overage — no billing assassin.
Are there annual discounts?
20% off + 1 free month + build quota doubled + price lock on renewal. Even if list prices go up, your renewal stays at the price you signed up on. Students get Hobby free forever and Maker at 50% off; education institutions get Chapter at 50% off.