Short answer: there isn’t a plan-based restriction on the types of work pools you can create on the Starter plan. You can create any work pool type (including Prefect Serverless as well as bring-your-own infrastructure types like Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, ACI, Cloud Run, etc.). The Starter plan gates Serverless usage by execution credits, but it doesn’t limit which types you can create. Helpful links: - Work pools concept overview: Prefect 3.x Work Pools - Serverless overview: Introducing Prefect Serverless - Background on work pools and workers: Work pools and workers blog If you meant “how many categories of pools exist,” the broad categories are: - Prefect Serverless (managed by Prefect) - Push work pools (Prefect submits to your cloud service, e.g., Cloud Run/ECS/ACI) - Hybrid/pull work pools (a worker in your infra pulls from a pool) If you’d like, I can list the exact infrastructure types available in your environment.

@Marvin I seen somewhere you can create one workpool on prefect cloud

Got it — I think you may be recalling a limit from the free/Hobby tier. On the Starter plan, there isn’t a “one work pool only” cap. You can create multiple work pools and of any type (e.g., Serverless, Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, ACI, Cloud Run, etc.). The Starter plan does gate Serverless usage by execution credits, but it doesn’t restrict how many pools or which types you can create. If you’re seeing something different in your workspace, can you share the link or screenshot you saw? I can double-check your plan entitlements. Useful references: - Work pools overview: Prefect 3.x Work Pools - Background: Work pools and workers - Serverless overview: Introducing Prefect Serverless You can also verify directly: - List your pools:

prefect work-pool ls

- Try creating another pool (example: Kubernetes):

prefect work-pool create "my-k8s-pool" --type kubernetes

- Or Docker:

prefect work-pool create "my-docker-pool" --type docker

If that creation fails due to plan restrictions (unexpected on Starter), let me know the error and I’ll help sort it out.

@Marvin please check here starter plan mentioned 1 managed work pool and 1 custom work pool

Thanks for the heads-up — can you share the link/screenshot where you saw that? I want to verify against the exact page you’re looking at. I don’t have an official docs link in my results that states “1 managed work pool and 1 custom work pool” for Starter, but that kind of plan-based limit is plausible and may be on the current pricing/plan matrix. If that page says so for Starter, then your workspace would be limited to: - 1 managed (Prefect Serverless) work pool - 1 custom work pool (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, ACI, Cloud Run, etc.) How to confirm quickly: - In Cloud: Work Pools page → try “Create Work Pool.” If you’ve hit the quota, the UI should block creation with a quota/plan message. - CLI:

prefect work-pool ls
prefect work-pool create "extra-pool" --type docker

If you’re at the limit, you’ll get an error indicating the plan restriction. Tips if you’re limited to 1 custom pool: - Use multiple queues within that pool to segment environments/SLAs and set concurrency per queue. - Route deployments to specific queues for isolation. If you share the link you saw, I’ll confirm the wording and update guidance here.

Great question. The short version: it’s a plan-level quota, not a technical limitation. Prefect sets the Starter plan to “1 managed work pool + 1 custom work pool” to balance cost control, fair use, and product simplicity on a multi-tenant service. Why this exists: - Cost control for managed compute: Managed/Serverless pools run on Prefect’s infrastructure. Pool quotas help keep free/entry tiers sustainable while still giving you access to Serverless execution credits. - Fair use in a shared control plane: Quotas prevent a single workspace from creating large numbers of pools that increase scheduling/metadata overhead for everyone. - Product simplicity: Most early-stage teams can achieve strong isolation and control with one custom pool by using multiple work queues and deployment-level overrides, instead of many separate pools. How to work effectively within the limit: - Use multiple work queues inside your custom pool to separate environments, SLAs, and priorities. - Create queues:

prefect work-queue create dev --pool my-custom-pool
  prefect work-queue create prod --pool my-custom-pool

- Set queue-specific concurrency:

prefect work-queue set-concurrency-limit prod 10

- Use the pool’s base job template + deployment-level overrides to vary infra per deployment: - Kubernetes: override namespace, image, resources, env vars per deployment - Docker: override image, command, env vars per deployment - ECS/Cloud Run/ACI: override task/CPU/memory, subnets/security groups, etc. - Route deployments to queues instead of creating more pools; queues + concurrency + priorities give you most of the isolation you’d want early on. If you truly need multiple custom pool types (e.g., Docker and Kubernetes side-by-side) and the 1 custom pool cap is constraining, upgrading to the Team plan lifts those quotas. Helpful background: - Work pools overview: Prefect 3.x Work Pools - Work pools and workers (how pools/queues map to infra): Work pools and workers - Serverless overview: Introducing Prefect Serverless If you share your target setup (e.g., “Kubernetes prod + Docker sandbox”), I can suggest a concrete queue + deployment override layout to make it work within Starter.