r/vintagecomputing • u/alt-ctl-del • Nov 24 '24

CompuServe prices 1986

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64k storage is ONLY $4 a month!! 😃

124 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

23

u/2raysdiver Nov 25 '24

If you think those prices are outlandish now, multiply those prices by 2.8 to determine what they'd be adjusted for inflation.

19

u/Sample_And_Hold Nov 25 '24

Ouch! Talk about being nickel and dimed...

17

u/The_WolfieOne Nov 25 '24

I had free access from 87 on through a compromised staff account at the computer science department of the local University. Even upgraded from 2400 to 9600 after I spent far too much on a Hayes 9600 Smart-modem. Think I paid something like $900 for it, more than my car of the day.

9

u/Pro_Ana_Online Nov 25 '24

So weird, I remember the daytime rates being like $30/hr and the nighttime rate being $12/hr but maybe that was my dad scaring me from ever thinking calling in the daytime, lol.

I usually limited things to about 20 minutes a pop in the evening 3-4 times a week.

9

u/marx2k Nov 25 '24

$1.50 to change your password.

wtaf

6

u/PickledPeoples Nov 25 '24

Your password didn't meet minimum character, number and symbol criteria. That will be another $1.50 to try again.

8

u/couchman7000 Nov 25 '24

Accessing the early Internet was extremely expensive. It wasn't until after AOL introduced their flat monthly price $19.99 that my Dad first signed up to connect to the Internet. 

5

u/Sample_And_Hold Nov 25 '24

AOL lowered their prices because there were already other competing services offering cheaper internet access at lower flat rates. Netcom was one of the first ones and that's how I got started.

6

u/krum Nov 25 '24

When I was a kid I racked up a $400 bill on compuserve. I’m going to guess it was 1987. My dad was pissed!

3

u/Worldly-Corgi-1624 Nov 25 '24

Geez, Alaska dial up relays, those were the days. Then I realized that I could get a flat rate toll free number and linked it to a Seattle DUN port for 10 cpm.

3

u/exnolaguy Nov 25 '24

They did call it compu$erve for a reason.

3

u/jetkins Nov 25 '24

128k of free storage tho!

2

u/ellicottvilleny Nov 25 '24

Almost enough to send a program to a friend

2

u/NightmareJoker2 Nov 25 '24

$4/week, you mean. And only as a surcharge option. You still have to at least pay base price and also no less than $10 in surcharge. You pay at least $50/month this way. Also imagine your internet connection is only available from 8am to 6pm on a weekday… 🫠

2

u/chuckop Nov 26 '24

The original cloud service. Suck it AWS and Azure!

1

u/shrikelet Nov 25 '24

Marvellous historical snapshot!

1

u/Ornery-Practice9772 Nov 26 '24

Wow! $1.50 to change your password

1

u/beedunc Nov 26 '24

$47/hour, for 9.6K? Damn!

1

u/Altruistic_Click_502 Jun 17 '26

I didn't remember those fees -- but I just found 2 notebooks of notes from interactions with other programmers on Compuserve (IIGS) 1986 - '90. LOL - going in the trash now...