The Standard Kit runs C$499 in most of Canada — but promotions offering C$0 hardware with a 12-month commitment have become routine, and the Starlink Mini has dropped as low as C$249. Knowing exactly what you’re buying, what it actually costs by the end of year one, and which plan fits your situation changes the math entirely.
The questions Canadians search at 11 PM after getting another slow-internet complaint — answered plainly, without the runaround.
The Standard Kit — which includes the Starlink dish (Gen 4), the Wi-Fi 6 router, the kickstand, and all cables — costs C$499 at the regular price listed on starlink.com/ca. That said, C$0 hardware promotions requiring a 12-month Residential plan commitment have been available across most of Canada repeatedly through 2025 and 2026, and 50%-off hardware deals ($249) have appeared during promotion windows. The Starlink Mini — the compact, backpack-sized unit — runs approximately C$249 to C$399 depending on when you order and which promotions are active. Prices on starlink.com/ca are set in Canadian dollars and include no exchange rate penalty; the fee you see is the fee you pay, before provincial tax.
It’s real, but it comes with a firm string: you must keep your Residential service active for a full 12 months. If you cancel early, change your service address, fail to pay, or transfer the kit, Starlink charges a prorated “Change Fee” that starts at C$499 and decreases by roughly C$42 per month over the year. So in the worst case — cancelling in month one — you effectively paid C$499 for the kit anyway. The 30-day trial window does let you return the kit for a full refund before the trial ends, no penalty. For anyone genuinely planning to use Starlink long-term, the free hardware offer is a straightforward win. For someone uncertain about the service or living somewhere coverage is mixed, the 30-day trial is worth using before committing.
Starlink restructured its Canadian monthly pricing in January 2026, cutting entry-level rates significantly. The three Residential tiers now start at C$75/month (100 Mbps), C$110/month (200 Mbps), and C$165/month (Max, up to 400+ Mbps). Roam plans for mobile use run C$75/month (100 GB data), C$110/month (300 GB), or C$200/month (Unlimited). These are before provincial tax — a C$75 plan will run approximately C$83–C$97 all-in depending on your province. Promotional rates as low as C$39/month for the first three months have also appeared; these are temporary introductory prices, not the ongoing rate. If you were quoted C$140/month for a basic residential plan, that was pre-2026 pricing and no longer applies.
At full retail pricing: C$499 hardware + C$75/month × 12 = C$1,399 before tax for the entry Residential 100 Mbps plan. At the Max plan: C$499 + C$165/month × 12 = C$2,479 before tax. If you take the free-hardware deal on a 12-month commitment: C$0 + C$75/month × 12 = C$900 before tax. For Roam Unlimited: C$499 hardware + C$200/month × 12 = C$2,899 before tax. The Business tier costs substantially more — C$2,500 for the High Performance Kit and plans starting around C$500/month. One important note: Starlink has raised prices by C$5–$10/month across several tiers in mid-2026, so verify current monthly figures at your postal code before budgeting.
Starlink is designed entirely for self-installation and SpaceX explicitly markets it as a two-step process: plug it in and aim it at the sky. No technician visit, no drilling unless you choose a wall or roof mount, no scheduled appointment. The Starlink app guides you through setup and shows you a live sky obstruction map using your phone’s camera — you can find the right spot before mounting anything. The single requirement is an unobstructed view of the northern sky — trees, rooflines, and chimneys that block your dish’s view of the satellite arc will cause drop-outs. Serious obstructions are the most common reason Canadian customers return the kit during the 30-day trial. Check the obstruction map in the app before you commit to a mounting location, and ideally before you even order.
The Standard Kit (also called the Standard 4 or Standard 4X) is a full-size residential dish — roughly the size of a pizza box — designed for permanent installation at a fixed address. It delivers 50–400+ Mbps depending on plan tier and covers a home with Wi-Fi 6. The Starlink Mini is a compact, backpack-portable unit weighing about 1.1 kg with a built-in router — designed for RVs, camping, seasonal cabins, and remote work from different locations. It typically delivers 100–200 Mbps and draws only 20–40 watts (about half the Standard dish), making it runnable on a car battery or small solar setup. The Mini requires a Roam plan; it cannot activate on a Residential plan in most configurations. It costs C$249–$399 in Canada. Residential Max subscribers can opt to receive a free Mini Kit as a perk — useful as a travel companion when you already have a fixed Standard dish at home.
Yes — the Standard Kit is available at Best Buy Canada and Home Depot Canada as authorized retail channels. Pricing at retail may differ slightly from starlink.com/ca due to retailer margin, and promotional deals (free hardware, service credits) are generally only available through the official website. There is an important caution: Starlink kits bought through unauthorized resellers may be subject to an “Outside Region Fee” of US$200 applied at activation if the kit was registered in a different country. Always confirm the kit is sold as a Canadian-region unit before buying secondhand or from any non-authorized seller. Buying new through an authorized channel — starlink.com/ca, Best Buy, or Home Depot — guarantees no region fee.
Every current plan available to Canadian customers — hardware requirements, monthly cost, and what each is actually for. Prices are in CAD before provincial tax. Always confirm at starlink.com/ca for your postal code.
| Plan | Hardware Required | Hardware Cost | Monthly (CAD) | Speed Range | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential 100 Mbps | Standard Kit | C$499 (reg) / C$0 promo | C$75/mo | 50–100 Mbps | Rural homes · light–moderate use |
| Residential 200 Mbps | Standard Kit | C$499 (reg) / C$0 promo | C$110/mo | 100–200 Mbps | Families · remote workers · streaming |
| Residential Max | Standard Kit + free Mini perk | C$499 (reg) / C$0 promo | C$165/mo | 100–400+ Mbps | Heavy users · Includes free Mini Kit |
| Roam 100 GB | Mini or Standard Kit | C$249–$499 | C$75/mo | 50–100 Mbps typical | Occasional travel · camping · RV trips |
| Roam 300 GB | Mini or Standard Kit | C$249–$499 | C$110/mo | 50–100 Mbps typical | Regular travelers · seasonal cottage use |
| Roam Unlimited | Mini or Standard Kit | C$249–$499 | C$200/mo | 50–100 Mbps typical | Full-time RV · remote workers on the move |
| Business (Priority) | High Performance Kit | C$2,500+ | C$500+/mo | 100–500 Mbps | Businesses · remote operations · priority data |
| Standby Mode | Existing kit | No new hardware | C$10/mo | Minimal (email only) | Seasonal pause without losing account |
Every plan requires a hardware kit — there is no software-only subscription. Here is what each kit actually contains, what it costs, and who needs which one.
The Standard 4X Kit is what almost every Canadian residential customer orders. It includes the Starlink Dish V4 (the flat, rectangular satellite antenna), the Router Gen 3 (Wi-Fi 6 with coverage up to roughly 297 square metres and support for up to 235 devices simultaneously), the kickstand for ground-level placement, a power adapter, and all necessary cables. The dish is built to handle Canadian winters — it has a built-in snow melt function and is rated to withstand heavy rain, sleet, and sustained winds. Installation is self-guided through the Starlink app, which uses your phone’s camera to show you a live obstruction map — the single most important step in setup. The 25-metre cable included in the kit covers most typical installations; extensions are available separately at C$65–$75 each.
The Starlink Mini is a compact, rectangular unit roughly the size of a thick hardcover book, weighing about 1.1 kilograms with the cable included. Unlike the Standard Kit, it has the router built in — there’s no separate router box. Power draw is 20–40 watts, which is about half of what the Standard dish requires, making it viable with a small solar panel setup or a car battery via an inverter. In Canada, the Mini launched in December 2024 and has seen its price drop from C$599 to the C$249–$399 range as of 2026 depending on promotions. Real-world Canadian speed tests show 100–200 Mbps download in good conditions — enough for 4K streaming, video calls, and remote work. The Mini activates on a Roam plan only; Roam 100 GB starts at C$75/month. Residential Max subscribers can request a free Mini Kit as a plan perk.
The High Performance Kit is designed for businesses, remote work sites, maritime use, and any application demanding consistent priority throughput. The dish is physically larger than the residential unit, with higher gain for more consistent performance in challenging conditions — including locations with partial obstructions that would degrade residential service. Canadian business plans require this hardware and start around C$500/month with priority data allocations of 1 TB, 2 TB, or custom tiers for larger operations. For small businesses looking to reduce cost, the Residential Max plan on Standard hardware is sometimes a viable alternative — it provides real-world business-grade speeds without the commercial hardware cost for operations where a fixed address is sufficient and data volume is manageable within the residential plan structure.
Choosing the wrong plan is the most common Starlink mistake in Canada. Residential and Roam plans serve genuinely different situations — the differences matter more than the price gap.
The Residential 100 Mbps plan is Starlink’s entry point for Canadian home use and the one that makes the most immediate sense for rural households where cable and DSL have been unavailable or genuinely unreliable. At C$75/month — down from C$140 before the January 2026 restructure — it places Starlink within reach of what many rural Canadians already pay for inferior service. Speeds of 50–100 Mbps are typical under good conditions, which handles standard definition and HD streaming across multiple devices, video calls, remote work, and general browsing without issue. No contract is required — you can cancel month-to-month, though cancelling in the first 12 months if you took the free hardware deal triggers the prorated change fee. Best Buy Canada reports that this tier is Starlink’s most ordered plan in Canada by a significant margin.
The Residential 200 Mbps tier sits between the entry plan and the premium Max, offering the best combination of cost and priority access for households running multiple concurrent streams, regular video conferencing, or home offices with consistent upload demands. The network prioritization built into this tier means your connection is less likely to slow during peak evening hours when satellite capacity in your region is under heavier load — a real difference in practice during evenings and weekends. For a household with two or three people working and streaming simultaneously, the 200 Mbps plan’s priority treatment makes it a more predictable daily experience than the 100 Mbps tier, even though the peak speeds are both within the same dish’s capability.
Residential Max is Starlink’s fastest Canadian residential option, offering access to up to 400+ Mbps in areas where the constellation density supports it — though 100–300 Mbps is the more typical real-world range across most of Canada. The highest-priority network access makes this plan the most consistent performer during busy periods. The standout perk for the Canadian market: Residential Max subscribers can opt into receiving a free Starlink Mini Kit (valued at C$249–$399), making it possible to have both a fixed home installation and a portable travel unit under one account. For families that camp, cottage regularly, or work remotely from multiple locations throughout the year, the combined value makes this tier genuinely competitive with the cost of paying for the Mini separately.
Roam 100 GB is the lightest mobile option — 100 gigabytes of priority data per month, after which service continues at reduced priority speeds rather than cutting off entirely. For weekend camping trips, occasional cottage stays, or rural site visits that don’t involve heavy streaming or file transfers, 100 GB is typically sufficient. The ability to pause and resume the plan without cancelling makes this the right choice for seasonal users — you pay nothing during the months you’re not using it, and the account and hardware remain active when you restart. Roam plans are not restricted to any fixed address; you can use Starlink anywhere in Canada that has coverage, and in most markets Starlink has operated in globally, if you travel internationally.
Roam Unlimited removes the data ceiling entirely for Canadians who spend extended periods away from a fixed address — full-time RV travellers, seasonal workers at remote sites, boat-based Canadians, and workers doing rotational or fly-in fly-out schedules. At C$200/month, it costs more than Residential Max, but it comes without any geographic restriction — you are paying for the freedom to be anywhere within the satellite coverage footprint and still have internet. One practical note for Canadians comparing Roam Unlimited in Canada vs. the U.S.: the Canadian price (C$200/month) is actually better value than the U.S. list price (US$175/month, or roughly C$240 at straight exchange), which is an unusual situation in Canadian tech pricing and worth noting before assuming U.S.-sourced plan comparisons are accurate.
Monthly plan + hardware + tax is the real number. These are the honest year-one totals for each scenario, before provincial tax (add roughly 5–15% depending on your province).
- Provincial tax (GST/HST/PST): adds 5–15% depending on your province. A C$75/month plan in Ontario with 13% HST runs C$84.75/month, or roughly C$117 more over a year.
- Optional mounts and accessories — a roof mount runs C$59–$129 depending on type; extra cable extensions run C$65–$75 each.
- Any price increases Starlink implements mid-year. Prices rose C$5–$10/month across several tiers in mid-2026; this has happened before and may happen again.
- The prorated change fee if you cancel the 12-month hardware commitment early — starts at C$499 and decreases by approximately C$42 per month.
The Standard Kit includes a ground-level kickstand that works fine for temporary placement or testing. Permanent roof or wall mounting requires one additional piece — and choosing the right mount for your structure makes the difference between a clean install and a regrettable one.
Starlink sells several official mounting solutions for permanent installations. The Pipe Adapter (C$25–$35) attaches the dish to any standard pipe or mast — useful when mounting on a pole you already own or a mast you purchase separately from a hardware store. The Flashing Mount (C$59) is designed specifically for roof installation on sloped surfaces and provides a weatherproof seal around the cable entry point. Roof mounts raise the dish higher than the kickstand, which often dramatically improves sky view and reduces obstructions from trees and rooflines — which is the most common cause of connection drop-outs. Using the Starlink app’s obstruction checker before purchasing a mount lets you identify exactly which direction and height will deliver the clearest view at your specific address.
The Standard Kit includes a 25-metre (roughly 82-foot) cable connecting the dish to the router. For many Canadian homes — particularly larger rural properties where the best dish placement is far from the interior installation point — 25 metres is not enough. Starlink sells official cable extensions in 25-metre segments at approximately C$65–$75 each. The practical limit is around 75 metres total cable run (the included 25 metres plus two extensions), beyond which signal quality and power delivery to the dish begin to degrade. Extensions are weatherproof and use the same proprietary connector as the included cable — no adapter is needed. Plan your cable routing before ordering extensions, accounting for how the cable will enter the building and where you want the router positioned inside.
The Gen 3 Router included in the Standard Kit covers up to roughly 297 square metres on Wi-Fi 6 — adequate for most Canadian homes. For larger or multi-storey homes, Starlink’s official mesh nodes extend coverage; these pair wirelessly with the Gen 3 Router without additional cabling. An official Ethernet adapter (approximately C$30) converts the router’s proprietary port to standard Ethernet, useful for connecting a NAS drive, wired desktop, or smart TV directly. Surge protection is the most overlooked accessory — the dish and router represent C$499 in hardware, and a lightning or surge event that would cost C$499 to replace is well worth protecting with a C$30–$50 quality surge protector on the power supply. This is particularly relevant for rural Canadian properties where power quality is less consistent than in urban areas.
This is the core use case Starlink was built for and where it delivers its clearest value. The CRTC’s 50 Mbps/10 Mbps broadband standard is still out of reach for roughly 6.5% of Canadians — heavily concentrated in rural and northern regions — and Starlink typically delivers 50–200 Mbps where even DSL has been unavailable. Start with the Residential 100 Mbps plan at C$75/month. If the free hardware promotion is available at your postal code (check starlink.com/ca), take it — the 12-month commitment makes sense if you’re replacing a primary internet connection that wasn’t working anyway. Use the app’s obstruction checker before mounting anything. The most common installation failure in rural Canada is tree obstruction — mounting the dish on a pole or elevated roof position rather than the kickstand often resolves drop-outs that seem like coverage problems.
The Starlink Mini plus a Roam plan is the right combination for most Canadians in this situation. The Mini at C$249–$399 fits in a backpack, sets up in minutes with no tools, and draws 20–40 watts — it runs on a small battery bank or car inverter for locations without shore power. For occasional weekend use (10–15 days per month during camping season), Roam 100 GB at C$75/month is typically enough data. For a seasonal cottage where you’re spending weeks at a time and streaming regularly, Roam 300 GB at C$110/month or Roam Unlimited at C$200/month is more appropriate. The pause feature is the key advantage of Roam over Residential for seasonal use — you pay nothing during the months you’re not using the service, while keeping your account and hardware ready for next season. Pausing and resuming takes under two minutes in the app.
Remote workers in rural Canada consistently report that upload speed — not download speed — is the bottleneck for video calls and file sharing. Starlink Residential upload speeds typically run 10–20 Mbps across most of Canada, which handles Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet without issue. The Residential 200 Mbps plan is usually the right tier for remote workers because it includes priority network access — meaning your upload and download speeds are maintained more consistently during peak hours when the satellite constellation in your area is under heavier load. If your video calls drop or stutter specifically in the evenings, the solution is typically upgrading from the 100 Mbps plan to the 200 Mbps tier, not changing hardware. For the Starlink Mini, note that upload speeds in the 10–15 Mbps range are more typical than the Standard dish — adequate for most calls but not ideal for bulk file uploads from a remote site.
Do the math for your specific province. In Ontario (13% HST), the Residential 100 Mbps plan runs C$84.75/month with tax — about C$1,017 per year on the monthly service alone. Add C$499 for the kit at regular price, and year one costs C$1,516 total. Take the free hardware deal, and year one drops to C$1,017. The break-even point if you cancel in month 7 of a free-hardware commitment: you’d owe approximately C$204 in remaining change fee, versus the C$499 you would have paid upfront anyway. If there’s any realistic chance you’d continue past six months, the free hardware deal is mathematically better in almost every scenario. The only situation where regular purchase beats the deal: if you specifically need to use Starlink for fewer than five or six months and are certain you’ll cancel — in that case, buying the kit outright and cancelling month-to-month avoids the change fee exposure.
Roam Unlimited at C$200/month is the plan; the Standard Kit (C$499) is more durable and performs better in exposed conditions than the Mini. Starlink added a 100 mph speed limit to all Roam plans in March 2026 — service is suspended while moving faster than 100 mph (160 km/h), which affects use while moving at highway speeds in a vehicle. At anchor, at camp, or at a stationary remote site, this limitation doesn’t apply. For marine use, the Standard Kit’s weather resistance is a significant advantage over the Mini in wave-exposed conditions. Note that using a Canadian-purchased Starlink kit outside Canada may incur outside-region fees depending on the market — check the Starlink website for current international Roam terms before travelling offshore. Canadian Roam Unlimited at C$200/month is better value than U.S.-priced Unlimited at US$175/month once exchange rates are factored in, so purchasing through starlink.com/ca is typically the correct starting point even for Canadians who travel frequently to the U.S.
Not automatically — and this is one of the more common misunderstandings about Starlink’s Canadian pricing. The Business tier (C$500+/month, C$2,500+ hardware) provides dedicated priority throughput and is designed for operations with high-volume consistent data needs: mining camps, construction sites, agricultural businesses running IoT sensors and fleet management, remote medical clinics, and commercial fishing operations. For a one- or two-person rural small business using Starlink primarily for email, video calls, and cloud software — the Residential Max plan at C$165/month on Standard hardware delivers speeds and performance that are indistinguishable from the Business tier for those workloads. The honest test: if your internet issue is that service slows down during peak hours, upgrading to Residential 200 Mbps or Max solves it at a fraction of the Business plan cost. If your issue is that you need guaranteed minimum throughput for mission-critical operations at a remote commercial site, the Business tier is the right investment.
This guide is for general informational purposes only. Starlink pricing, promotions, and plan structures change without advance notice — always verify current pricing at starlink.com/ca using your specific postal code before ordering. Promotional offers including free hardware and reduced monthly rates are time-limited and subject to terms including early cancellation fees. Prices shown are in Canadian dollars before applicable provincial taxes (GST/HST/PST). Speed estimates reflect real-world Canadian conditions reported by users across multiple regions and may vary based on satellite capacity, local network congestion, obstruction, and weather. This content is entirely original.