Buffer Pricing 2026: Per-Channel Cost, Volume Discounts, and Real Monthly Math
Buffer costs $0 for 3 channels, $6 per channel per month on Essentials, or $12 per channel per month on Team. Annual billing drops those to $5 and $10 by giving you two months free. Above 10 channels the per-channel rate falls to $4, then $3, then $1-$2.
There is no Agency plan any more. Buffer retired it in the November 2025 pricing change and folded its features into Team.
Open Buffer's free plan: 3 channels, no credit card →
How much does Buffer cost per month?
Buffer bills per connected channel, not per user and not per feature bundle. One Instagram profile is one channel. One Facebook page is one channel. A Start Page counts as a channel too, which catches people out.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Channels | Users | Scheduled posts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 3 | 1 | 10 per channel, refills on publish |
| Essentials | $6/channel | $5/channel ($60/yr per channel) | Unlimited | 1 | Unlimited |
| Team | $12/channel | $10/channel ($120/yr per channel) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Annual billing is sold as "save 2 months". Buffer's own FAQ calls it a 20% discount, but the published numbers work out to 16.7%: $60 a year against $72 if you paid monthly. Small gap, worth knowing before you budget.
Source: buffer.com/pricing, checked 23 August 2026.
What changed in Buffer's pricing
Buffer's pricing page states its last update was November 2025. Three things moved, and most comparison articles still have the old numbers:
- The Agency plan is gone. The old $100-a-month flat tier for 10 channels no longer exists. If you were sent here by an article quoting it, that article is out of date.
- The free plan gained real features. AI Assistant, the community inbox, 30-day Insights history, 100 stored ideas and an API key are all on the free tier now. Buffer used to gate all of that.
- Volume discounts replaced the flat agency rate. Instead of a fixed price for a channel bundle, the per-channel rate steps down as you add channels.
Buffer's volume discount tiers
This is the part almost nobody publishes, and it changes the answer for anyone running more than 10 accounts.
| Channel band | Essentials (monthly) | Team (monthly) |
|---|---|---|
| Channels 1-10 | $6 each | $12 each |
| Channels 11-25 | $4 each | $4 each |
| Channels 26-50 | $3 each | $3 each |
| Channels 51+ | $1 each | $2 each |
Two things fall out of that table. First, the bands are cumulative: channel 12 costs $4 while channels 1-10 still cost $6 each. Second, above channel 10 the Essentials and Team rates converge, so the marginal cost of team features at scale is far lower than the headline $12 suggests.
Source: Buffer's machine-readable pricing summary at buffer.com/pricing.md, checked 23 August 2026.
What Buffer actually costs at your channel count
Monthly-billing figures below apply the volume bands. Annual figures are the monthly total times 10/12, because annual billing is two months free.
Buffer publishes the volume table for monthly billing only. It does not publish an annual volume table, so treat the annual column as our arithmetic rather than a quoted price, and confirm it in checkout before you commit a year.
Essentials
| Channels | Monthly billing | Annual equivalent | Average per channel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | $18/mo | $15/mo | $6.00 |
| 5 | $30/mo | $25/mo | $6.00 |
| 10 | $60/mo | $50/mo | $6.00 |
| 25 | $120/mo | $100/mo | $4.80 |
| 50 | $195/mo | $162.50/mo | $3.90 |
| 100 | $245/mo | $204.17/mo | $2.45 |
Team
| Channels | Monthly billing | Annual equivalent | Average per channel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | $36/mo | $30/mo | $12.00 |
| 5 | $60/mo | $50/mo | $12.00 |
| 10 | $120/mo | $100/mo | $12.00 |
| 25 | $180/mo | $150/mo | $7.20 |
| 50 | $255/mo | $212.50/mo | $5.10 |
The 25-channel row is the interesting one. Team at 25 channels costs $180 a month with unlimited seats and approval workflows. Sprout Social charges $199 per seat per month before you have connected a single profile.
Price your own channel count on Buffer →
Is Buffer cheaper than the alternatives?
Headline prices are not comparable across these tools because the billing unit is different: Buffer and Publer charge per account, SocialPilot and SocialBee sell account bundles, Hootsuite and Sprout Social charge per seat, and Metricool and Pallyy both charge per brand (a brand holds all of that brand's networks). Pallyy vs Buffer is the sharpest version of that split: one bills per brand, the other per channel.
Here is the like-for-like cost of running 5 social accounts, one user, monthly billing:
| Tool | 5 accounts, 1 user | Billing unit |
|---|---|---|
| Buffer Essentials | $30/mo ($25 annual) | Per channel |
| Publer Professional | ~$21/mo | Per account |
| SocialPilot Essentials | $20/mo ($17 annual) | 5-account bundle |
| Pallyy Pro | $25/mo | Per brand, one account per network |
| Later Starter | $25/mo ($18.75 annual) | 1 social set = 8 profiles |
| SocialBee Bootstrap | $29/mo ($24.17 annual) | 5-profile bundle |
| Sprout Social Essentials | $99/mo ($79 annual) | Per seat |
| Hootsuite Standard | $99/mo | Per seat, 10 accounts |
And at 10 accounts:
| Tool | 10 accounts | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pallyy Pro | $25/mo | One brand, one account per network |
| SocialPilot Standard | $34/mo annual | Includes 3 users |
| Buffer Essentials | $50/mo annual | 1 user only |
| SocialBee Accelerate | $40.83/mo annual | 1 user |
| Publer Professional | ~$41/mo | Every 10th account is free |
| Buffer Team | $100/mo annual | Unlimited users |
| Hootsuite Standard | $99/mo | 1 seat |
That $25 only holds for a single brand. It supports ten networks and one Social Set covers one account on each, so a brand publishing everywhere pays the same as a brand publishing twice. Separate client brands need separate sets, and that tier is Agency at $75 a month.
Buffer is not the cheapest at either count. It is the cheapest way to run a small number of channels well, and it stops being the cheapest somewhere around five accounts if raw price is your only criterion. Vendor pricing pages, all checked 23 August 2026. Pallyy's figures were added on 24 August 2026.
Don't pay for Buffer if any of these is true
- You need bulk CSV import. Buffer has none, on any plan. Publer, SocialPilot and Hootsuite do.
- You need evergreen recycling. Buffer does not re-queue posts automatically. SocialBee is built around it.
- You need social listening. Buffer has no keyword or mention monitoring beyond replies on your own posts.
- You run one brand across a lot of networks. Per-channel billing multiplies with every account you add; per-brand billing does not. Ten channels for one brand is $60 a month on Essentials against $25 on Pallyy Pro.
- You run 15+ accounts and only need scheduling. SocialPilot's bundles beat Buffer's per-channel maths at that size.
- Your free-plan queue never fills. If you post three times a week across two channels, the free tier is the correct answer and paying is waste.
That last one matters more than the rest. Buffer's free plan is now good enough that a lot of solo creators should simply not upgrade.
Which Buffer plan should you pick?
| Your situation | Plan | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Solo, 3 channels or fewer, queue rarely full | Free | $0 |
| Solo, posting daily, wants full analytics history | Essentials | $15-30/mo |
| Two or more people touching the account | Team | from $30/mo |
| Client needs to approve posts before publishing | Team | from $30/mo |
| 10+ brands, one operator | Essentials + volume | $60/mo and down per channel |
| 10+ brands, several operators, client approvals | Team + volume | $120/mo and down per channel |
The single decision that separates Essentials from Team is whether anyone other than you needs to log in or sign off a post. Everything else (AI Assistant, advanced analytics, community inbox, hashtag manager, first comment scheduling) is already on Essentials.
The three limits nobody mentions
A Start Page counts as a channel. Buffer's link-in-bio page is included on every plan including free, but it consumes one of your channel slots. On the free plan that means three channels or two channels plus a Start Page.
"Unlimited" scheduling has a fair-use ceiling. Buffer's own pricing summary caps it at 5,000 posts per channel. Irrelevant for almost everyone, relevant if you are automating at volume.
The free plan's 10-post cap is a queue limit, not a monthly limit. Ten posts can sit scheduled per channel at any moment. When one publishes, the slot frees up. Publishing 40 posts a month on the free plan is fine; scheduling 40 in advance is not.
Using Buffer as the publishing layer
If you use Apify to track what is performing on Instagram or TikTok, Buffer's API is the natural place to push the resulting schedule. Free-plan API access is one key and 3,000 requests a month, which is enough to prototype; Essentials raises it to three keys and 7,500 requests. Apify's social media Actors handle the collection side.
Start on Buffer free, upgrade when the queue fills →
Buffer's free plan is $0 for 3 channels. Essentials costs $6 per channel per month on monthly billing or $5 per channel on annual billing ($60 per channel per year). Team costs $12 per channel monthly or $10 annually ($120 per channel per year). Three channels on Essentials is $18 per month, or $15 on annual billing.
No. Buffer retired the Agency plan in its November 2025 pricing update. The features it carried (unlimited team members, approval workflows, branded reports) are now on the Team plan, and agencies get lower per-channel rates through volume discounts instead of a flat agency tier.
Yes. Channels 1-10 cost the standard rate ($6 Essentials, $12 Team, monthly billing). Channels 11-25 cost $4 each on both plans, channels 26-50 cost $3 each, and channels 51 and above cost $1 each on Essentials or $2 on Team. The bands are cumulative, so 25 channels on Essentials is $120 per month, not $150.
Per channel. Your bill depends on how many social accounts you connect, not how many people use it. Free and Essentials are single-user regardless of channel count; Team includes unlimited team members at $12 per channel per month.
Yes. Buffer's Start Page link-in-bio tool is available on every plan including free, but Buffer counts it as a channel. On the free plan that means you get three channels total, so adding a Start Page leaves you two social accounts.
For small setups, substantially. Five channels on Buffer Essentials is $30 per month on monthly billing. Hootsuite's cheapest plan, Standard, is $99 per user per month. Hootsuite includes 10 accounts in that price, so the gap narrows as you add channels and closes around 17 channels on Essentials.
One thing: other people. Team adds unlimited team members, access levels, content approval workflows and branded reports. AI Assistant, advanced analytics, the community inbox, hashtag manager and first comment scheduling are all already included on Essentials.
Close, but the published numbers say 16.7%. Essentials is $6 per channel monthly, which would be $72 a year, against $60 billed annually. That is two months free, or a 16.7% saving. Buffer's FAQ describes it as a 20% discount.