News · Billing and prices
Background: Starlink pulled the free Mini perk from Residential Max in June 2026
In June 2026 Residential Max lost its free Mini rental and half-price Roam. It came back in August. What it meant for new Max customers.
Billing and pricesBackgroundReported by press, not confirmed on Starlink’s pages
- Event
- Reported 2026-06-10; perks ended 2026-06-15 per BGR
- Published
Background. This event was more than 90 days old when we wrote this post. Prices, plan names or rules may have changed since; newer posts on the news page say so where we know.
The short answer
- What changed?
- Residential Max stopped including a free Starlink Mini rental and 50 percent off the Roam plan the Mini needs, as reported by Drive Tesla Canada on 2026-06-10 and BGR on 2026-06-19, which gave 2026-06-15 as the end date.
- When?
- Reported 2026-06-10; ended 2026-06-15 per BGR. Reversed in August 2026 (see our later post). Background: more than 90 days old.
- Who is affected?
- New Residential Max customers in that window, and anyone choosing Max partly for the Mini.
- What should you do now?
- Nothing to do now; the perk returned in August 2026. If a perk sways your plan choice, check it on the checkout page on the day you order.
- What stays the same?
- Starlink's Referral Program Terms, as we read them on 2026-10-05, still give a new customer one free month on the eligible plan they pick, credited to the second monthly bill. You still pay month one, still need to order the kit and plan on starlink.com through a current customer's link, and still need two full billing cycles on a high-speed plan (Standby doesn't count). Residential Max is on the eligible-plan list.
Source
What was removed
Drive Tesla Canada reported two Residential Max perks being discontinued: the free rental of a Starlink Mini dish and the 50 percent discount on Roam plans for it. BGR reported the same and said the perks were discontinued as of 2026-06-15, alongside the new kit fee on Residential orders.
It landed in the same week as two other changes for new Residential customers: the buy option disappeared and a monthly kit fee appeared (see our June 2026 post on rentals). Taken together, a new customer in mid-June 2026 paid more each month and got fewer extras than one who ordered in April.
The perk had been part of the January 2026 plan reshuffle that created Residential Max (see our post on the plan names).
What it meant for the free month
Nothing in the free month itself. The free month is one month of the plan you order, credited to bill two. Residential Max stayed on the eligible list, so a Max order through a referral link on starlink.com still qualified.
But the perk could change which plan made sense. If you were weighing Max mainly for the free Mini, that reason was gone for about two months. Our plans page shows what one month of each plan is worth, and the eligibility page lists the rules.
The Mini on its own runs on a Roam plan, which is also on the eligible list. See How to get the free month for the order steps.
What we don’t know yet
- Whether anyone who ordered Max in that window and expected the Mini was offered it later. The reports don't say.
Corrections
Where to next
- Which plans get the free monthResidential, Roam and the Mini: what qualifies and what one month is worth.
- Who qualifies for the free monthThe rules from Starlink’s terms, the edge cases, and a decision tree.
- How to get the free month, step by stepSeven short steps from opening the link to seeing month two at zero.