Buffer is one of the few schedulers whose headline price is close to the truth: $6 a month on Essentials, $12 on Team, and a free plan that is genuinely usable. The catch is the word after the number. Those prices are per channel, and a channel is one social account on one platform, so a single brand posting to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok is four channels, not one.
This page lays out the current plans, what the free tier actually includes, and what real setups cost once you do the multiplication, with prices checked against Buffer's live pricing page in July 2026.
Prices checked against buffer.com/pricing on July 21, 2026. Paid prices are per channel, one social account on one platform, and the annual column is the per-month rate when you pay for the year up front.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (Per Month) | What You Get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time, 1 user, 30 days of analytics history |
| Essentials | $6 per channel | $5 per channel | 1 user, unlimited posts, advanced analytics, hashtag manager, first-comment scheduling |
| Team | $12 per channel | $10 per channel | Everything in Essentials, plus unlimited team members, approval workflows, and per-channel access levels |
The per-channel rate is easy to underestimate, so here is the math done for four common setups. Channels 1 through 10 bill at the full rate, 11 through 25 at $4, 26 through 50 at $3, and past 50 they drop to $1 on Essentials or $2 on Team.
| Setup | The Math | Total |
|---|---|---|
| One brand on 5 platforms, Essentials | 5 channels at $6 each, or $5 each billed annually | $30/mo, $25 annual |
| One brand on all 8 major platforms, Essentials | 8 channels at $6 each, or $5 each billed annually | $48/mo, $40 annual |
| A small team on 8 channels, Team plan | 8 channels at $12 each, or $10 each billed annually | $96/mo, $80 annual |
| An agency on 25 channels, Team plan | 10 channels at $12, then 15 more at the discounted $4 rate | $180/mo, $150 annual |
Buffer's free plan covers 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts per channel at any one time, and a slot opens back up each time a post publishes, so a steady posting rhythm can live inside it indefinitely. You also get one user, the AI assistant, the calendar, and 30 days of analytics history.
What it holds back is the working-faster layer: no first-comment scheduling, no hashtag manager, tags cap at 3, and the analytics window stays short. If you run one small account and post a few times a week, the free plan is the honest recommendation, and it is the reason Buffer is where most people start.
Annual billing works out to about two months free. Essentials drops from $6 to $5 per channel per month and Team from $12 to $10, which on a 10-channel Essentials account is the difference between $720 and $600 a year. Buffer lets you switch between monthly and annual at any time, so the usual move is to start monthly, confirm the tool fits, then flip to annual once the channel list settles.
Two things move a Buffer bill more than people expect. The first is platform spread: every network you add for the same brand is a new channel, so going from posting on three platforms to all eight lands you at $48 a month on Essentials for one brand. The second is the second person. Essentials is a single-user plan, so the moment a teammate or a client needs to log in, you are on Team at double the per-channel rate, even if that person only approves posts.
Neither of these is hidden, Buffer's own pricing page explains both, but the headline "from $6/month" makes it easy to anchor on a number almost nobody pays.
Once the bill starts climbing, the next question is usually whether another tool does the job for less. Two head-to-heads run the same arithmetic: see how Buffer compares with Hootsuite if the choice is a per-seat suite, and Later vs Buffer if you are weighing the two schedulers against each other.
If you run one to three channels and post lightly, keep Buffer's free plan; nothing we sell beats free. The comparison gets interesting once you are past a few channels or past one person. Maeve Social is $25 a month flat with 20 social connections included and no monthly post cap, so the 8-channel setup that costs $48 on Essentials costs $25 here, and approvals with client review arrive on the Standard plan at $99 for five people rather than a per-channel rate that doubles.
The full feature-by-feature comparison, including where Buffer is the better pick, lives on the Buffer alternative page.
Buffer's paid plans cost $6 per channel per month on Essentials and $12 per channel per month on Team, with annual billing dropping those to $5 and $10. A channel is one social account on one platform, so your real monthly bill is that rate multiplied by every account you connect. There is also a free plan covering 3 channels.
Yes, and it is one of the more useful free plans in the category. You get 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel at any one time (a slot frees up each time a post publishes), one user, the AI assistant, and 30 days of analytics history. The main things it holds back are first-comment scheduling, the hashtag manager, and deeper analytics.
Per channel. Every social account you connect adds the per-channel rate to your bill. Users work differently by plan: Free and Essentials include one user only, and Team includes unlimited users, which is why Team costs twice as much per channel.
On Essentials, 10 channels cost $60 a month, or $50 a month billed annually. On Team, 10 channels cost $120 a month, or $100 a month billed annually. Channels beyond 10 get cheaper: numbers 11 through 25 are $4 each, 26 through 50 are $3 each, and past 50 they drop to $1 or $2 depending on the plan.
Yes, annual billing works out to roughly two months free. Essentials drops from $6 to $5 per channel per month and Team drops from $12 to $10, so a 10-channel Essentials account pays $600 a year on annual billing instead of $720 month to month.
Yes, the paid plans come with a 14-day free trial, and you can drop down to the free plan instead of paying when it ends, as long as you are within the free plan's 3-channel limit.
