Vercel Made Production Deployment Protection Free: The US$150/Month Add-On Is Gone (Setup Steps Inside)

If what you host on Vercel is an internal tool, an unlaunched site, or a dashboard only a client should see, this update removes a fixed line item: as of 2026-09-09, Vercel Authentication can protect every deployment URL for a project, including its production domains, at no additional cost on Hobby, Pro, and Enterprise. Vercel states plainly that protecting all deployments with Vercel Authentication previously required the US$150-per-month Advanced Deployment Protection add-on.

Here is the setup, straight from the announcement (verified 2026-09-09).

1. What the protection actually does

Vercel’s description of the behavior: only visitors who sign in to Vercel and have access to the project can open protected deployments. Everyone else hits the login wall.

Vercel names the use cases: internal tools, private dashboards, and sites that are not ready to launch.

2. Turn it on for one project

1. Open your project and click Security in the sidebar.
2. Select Deployment Protection.
3. Choose All Deployments from the dropdown.

Only All Deployments extends protection to production domains. Protecting previews alone already existed; what changed is that covering everything no longer costs extra.

3. Make it the team default so new projects are protected automatically

Vercel notes you can also set this configuration as your team default, so Vercel Authentication protects all deployments for every new project.

This is where the real savings in attention are. Rather than remembering to click through Security on every new project, change the default once. If you spin up projects for clients regularly, this matters: “forgot to lock down the preview” is a process problem, not a memory problem.

4. Exceptions are free now too

The same changelog entry states that Deployment Protection Exceptions are also now free on every plan. Exceptions let you make specific preview domains public while the project’s other deployments stay protected.

That is the common real-world need: hand one preview link to a client who has no Vercel account, keep everything else closed. Previously that small door was bundled into the same paid add-on.

5. Do not confuse this with Password Protection

Vercel shipped a second entry the same day: Password Protection — visitors type a password you set — is now priced per project on Pro at US$20 per project per month. The difference:

In other words: for your own team, Vercel Authentication is now free; you only need paid Password Protection when the viewer has no Vercel account. Deciding who the audience actually is can save you US$20 per project per month.

6. Checklist before you flip it on

• Production domains get blocked too. All Deployments includes production, so remember to change it back when the site truly launches, or visitors and crawlers will be locked out.
• Collaborators need project access first. Protection is tied to Vercel accounts and project permissions; ad-hoc viewers need an exception or password protection.
• Password Protection charges stop only when you disable it. Vercel states that disabling it on a project is what stops future charges for that project.

Related verified pieces: Vercel AI Gateway: one key for many models and Vercel Pro’s free domain offer now includes .app and .dev. Tool status: v0 / Vercel profile.

Sources

• Vercel Changelog, “Protect production deployments for free on every plan,” 2026-09-09: https://vercel.com/changelog/protect-production-deployments-for-free-on-every-plan
• Vercel Changelog, “Password Protection is now priced per project on Pro,” 2026-09-09: https://vercel.com/changelog/password-protection-now-costs-20-per-project-per-month-on-pro

Last verified: 2026-09-09