Later Pricing 2026: Every Plan, Limit and Discount Explained

No, Later is not free in 2026: the free plan is gone, replaced by a 14-day trial. After that you are on one of three paid tiers: Starter at $25 a month, Growth at $50, or Scale at $110, each about 25% cheaper if you pay annually. Which one you need is not really a question of budget: it is decided by whichever ceiling you hit first, and for most people that is the cap on posts per profile rather than anything to do with team size.

This breakdown covers what each tier actually includes, the arithmetic that makes Scale better value than it looks, the upgrade trigger for each kind of user, and when a cheaper tool does the same job. Our best AI tools for marketers guide puts it against the wider stack. Prices verified against Later's pricing page in September 2026.

Is Later free?

No. The free tier was retired, and the only no-cost access in 2026 is a 14-day trial across any plan. We cover that question properly (what the trial includes, and which schedulers do still have a genuine free plan) in our dedicated guide to Later's free plan in 2026. The rest of this page is about the paid tiers.

What does each Later plan cost in 2026?

Note the tier names, because older articles get this wrong: the range is Starter, Growth and Scale. The Advanced and Agency plans that turn up in guides written a year or two ago are no longer published tiers.

What is a social set, and why does it matter more than the price?

A social set is one account on each supported platform, bundled as a unit: eight profiles in 2026. This is the detail that makes Later's pricing look worse than it is at a glance. "One social set" on Starter does not mean one account. It means one Instagram, one TikTok, one Facebook Page, one LinkedIn, one Pinterest and so on, up to eight profiles.

The practical rule: you add a social set when you add a brand or a client, not when you add a platform. A solo creator posting to five platforms needs one set. An agency with two clients needs two, even if each client uses a single channel.

Which limit actually forces the upgrade?

Every tier has three ceilings and you only care about whichever one you hit first. Identifying yours before you subscribe saves an awkward mid-cycle upgrade.

• Posts per profile. The one that catches solo creators. Starter's 30 per profile per month is roughly one a day. Add stories or a second daily Reel and you are over it. Growth's 180 is generous enough that most individuals never touch it.
• Social sets. The one that catches agencies and anyone with a side project. Taking a second client forces Growth immediately, regardless of volume.
• User seats. Starter is one person. The moment someone else needs to draft or approve, you are on Growth, and Growth's two seats go quickly on a team of three.
• AI credits. 5 a month on Starter is a trial allowance rather than a working one. If AI captioning is part of your process, Growth's 50 is the realistic floor.
• Analytics retention. Starter keeps three months of history, Growth a year, Scale two. Easy to ignore at signup and genuinely annoying when you want a year-on-year comparison and the data is gone.

What does the extra $25 from Starter to Growth actually buy?

This is the upgrade most people face, and the limits above are only half the story. Growth is also where several features appear for the first time, and whether they matter to you decides whether the second $25 is well spent or wasted.

• Approvals workflow. A real review step before anything publishes. If you post on behalf of someone else (a client, a founder, a compliance-sensitive brand) this alone justifies the tier.
• Social inbox. Comments and messages in one place rather than app-hopping. Genuinely useful if replying is part of the job, irrelevant if you only broadcast.
• Smart scheduling and multi-profile best times. Starter gives you best-time data per profile; Growth reasons across them, which matters once you are coordinating a calendar rather than filling one.
• Ten times the AI credits. From 5 a month to 50, which is the difference between trying the feature and using it.
• A year of analytics instead of three months. The quiet one. Three months cannot show you a seasonal pattern or a year-on-year comparison, and you cannot backfill history you never retained.

Put plainly: if you would use the approvals step and the inbox, Growth is good value. If you are one person broadcasting to one brand and never reading the analytics, the extra $25 buys you a post cap you may not need. Planoly is the obvious cheaper alternative at that point, and our head-to-head comparison is worth a look, because it may well cover everything you actually use.

Is the annual discount worth taking?

Later takes roughly 25% off for paying a year upfront, which is a larger discount than most tools in this category offer and works out at three months free. On Starter that is $225 a year instead of $300.

The judgement is about switching risk, not the maths. Annual billing on a tool you have used for two weeks is a bet that your channel mix, your client list and your posting volume all stay put for twelve months. If you have run Later for a few months and it is load-bearing, take the discount. If you are still in the trial, pay monthly for a quarter first: a 25% saving is poor consolation for a year of a tool you stopped using in March.

When should you buy something cheaper?

We earn a commission if you subscribe through our link, so the useful thing is to be specific about when not to.

• You only need posts to go out. Later's premium is in analytics, Link in Bio and approvals. Skip those and you are paying for instrumentation you never read.
• You want a genuinely free option. It no longer exists here. Planoly's free mobile tier is the nearest thing in this category.
• Your library is evergreen. Later thinks in calendars, so every slot needs filling. SocialBee's category queues recycle a library automatically, which is a different and often better model for solopreneurs; see our SocialBee review.
• You manage many clients. Above six social sets Later stops publishing a price, whereas SocialBee's agency tiers are listed up to 150 profiles. Predictable pricing matters when you are quoting retainers.
• You post a handful of times a month. Native schedulers in the platforms themselves are free and adequate at that volume.

So which plan should you buy?

Starter for one person, one brand, and roughly daily posting or less. Growth for anyone with a second brand, a colleague who needs access, or a posting volume that would breach 30 per profile, which in practice is most people who do this professionally. Scale only when you genuinely run six brands, because it is triple the Starter price and its per-profile discount is only worth having if you fill those profiles.

The honest summary of the 2026 pricing: Later got more expensive and removed the free tier, and it is still a good product. Whether it is good value depends entirely on whether you use the reporting, because that is what you are paying the premium for. Read our full Later review for the scoring, or start the 14-day trial and load a realistic week of content. The post cap is much easier to judge with your own calendar in front of you.

Frequently asked questions

Is Later free in 2026?+

No. Later removed its free plan and now offers a 14-day free trial instead, after which every tier is paid. The cheapest way to keep using it is Starter at $25 a month, or about $18.75 a month if you pay for a year upfront. If a permanently free plan is what you need, Planoly still has one, though it is limited to the mobile app and 10 uploads a month.

How much does Later cost per month in 2026?+

There are three published tiers: Starter at $25 a month, Growth at $50 and Scale at $110. Annual billing takes roughly 25% off, bringing them to about $18.75, $37.50 and $82.50 a month respectively. The tiers differ on social sets, user seats, post limits, AI credits and how long your analytics history is retained.

What is a "social set" in Later?+

A social set is one account on each supported platform, bundled as a unit. In 2026 that works out at 8 profiles per set. So Starter with "1 social set" does not mean one account: it means one Instagram plus one TikTok plus one Facebook Page and so on, up to eight. You need a second social set when you manage a second brand or client, not when you add a second platform.

What forces you to upgrade from Starter?+

Usually one of three ceilings, and which one hits first depends on how you work. Solo creators normally hit the post cap: 30 posts per profile per month is about one a day, so daily posting plus stories will exceed it. Agencies hit the social-set limit the moment they take a second client. Teams hit the seat limit, since Starter is one user. Work out which one applies to you and buy the tier that clears it, rather than upgrading mid-cycle.

Is Later worth it compared to cheaper schedulers?+

It depends on what you need beyond scheduling. Later is worth its price if you use the analytics, Link in Bio and the approvals workflow, because those replace separate tools. If you only need posts to go out on time, you are paying a premium for instrumentation you are not reading. Planoly starts at $16 and keeps a free mobile tier, and SocialBee starts at $29 with evergreen recycling that Later does not do at all.