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Price Snapshot
How much does Buffer cost?
Buffer starts at $6/mo for a paid plan, with a free plan for smaller teams. That's 68% below median for Social Media Automation tools. Annual billing brings the per-month price down further.
Calculate before you commit
Social Media Automation pricing at your account count
Use my pricing calculator to see how Buffer compares with other Social Media Automation software at the account count you actually need. Every tool here is priced at the same volume, which is the comparison a vendor’s own pricing page cannot make. Buffer gets relatively more expensive as you scale: it is #5 of 7 at 1 and #5 of 5 at 50, so the cheapest option at your size may not be the cheapest at your next one.
At 3 accounts, Buffer costs $18/mo on Essentials, which is #3 of 7 in Social Media Automation.
PublerFree/mo
Unipile$5.50/mo
Buffer$18/mo
WoopSocial$19/mo
Bolta.ai$19/mo
Postiz$29/mo
Zernio$78/mo
HootsuiteAnnual billing only
Some tools do not publish a price at exactly 3 accounts. Those show the next tier up, which is what you would actually pay: Unipile at 50, WoopSocial at 20, Bolta.ai at 5, Postiz at 5, Zernio at 20.
Compare all Social Media Automation pricing by budget →
7 of 8 Social Media Automation tools publish a price at this volume. Every figure is the vendor’s own published rate for monthly billing, read from their pricing page and last checked 2026-08-06. Nothing is estimated between published tiers.
Plans
Buffer plans and pricing
2 paid plans · Monthly rates shown, annual noted per plan · Verified May 26, 2026
Up to 3 channels. 14-day free trial available for paid plans.
Volume pricing applies: 1-10 channels at $6/month per channel, 11-25 channels at $4/month per channel, 26-50 channels at $3/month per channel, 51+ channels at $1/month per channel.
Volume pricing applies: 1-10 channels at $12/month per channel, 11-25 channels at $4/month per channel, 26-50 channels at $3/month per channel, 51+ channels at $2/month per channel. Everything in Essentials plus unlimited team members, approval workflows, and access controls.
Buffer's free plan includes 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel (that refill anytime), 100 content ideas, unlimited AI assistant, and basic analytics for individual posts.
Recommendation
Which plan should you choose?
3 channels and 10 posts per channel is enough to test Buffer and see if the workflow fits your content creation process.
Per-channel pricing means you only pay for what you use, and unlimited posts removes the free plan's scheduling bottleneck.
Content approval workflows and per-channel access controls are essential when multiple people are posting to client accounts.
Volume pricing drops costs dramatically, Essentials falls to $1 per channel at scale, making it incredibly cost-effective for high-volume operations.
Feature Comparison
What's in each plan?
Side-by-side comparison of all Buffer plan features.
| Feature | Free | Essentials | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled posts per channel | 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Ideas | 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| User accounts | 1 | 1 | – |
| AI Assistant | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Basic analytics | 30-day history | – | – |
| Community inbox | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Drafts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Templates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Board view | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Browser extension | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Showing 10 of 44 features.
Editorial
My take on Buffer pricing
Buffer's per-channel pricing is refreshingly different from the per-user model everyone else uses. If you're a solo creator managing 5 Instagram accounts, you're looking at $30/month on Essentials instead of paying for seat licenses you don't need. The volume discounts are aggressive too, at 51+ channels, Essentials drops to just $1 per channel monthly.
The catch is that Team plan starts at $12 per channel, which adds up fast for small teams. A 3-person team managing 8 channels would pay $96/month, while most competitors charge $30-50 for unlimited users. Solo creators with multiple brands or large agencies managing 50+ client accounts benefit from those volume tiers.
Deals
Available discounts
Annual Discount
Save approximately 17% when paying yearly on all paid plans
Volume Pricing
Per-channel costs drop significantly at higher volumes: $6 to $1 for Essentials, $12 to $2 for Team plans
Verdict
Is Buffer Worth the Price?
Buffer's pricing makes sense for specific scenarios but isn't universally competitive. Solo creators and agencies managing many accounts benefit from the per-channel model and volume discounts. Small teams managing fewer than 10 channels will likely find better value with per-user pricing from competitors like Hootsuite or Later.
The 14-day free trial lets you test the workflow before committing, which is smart given how different this pricing approach is from the rest of the market.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
You pay for each social media account you connect (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), not per user. So 5 social accounts = 5 channels to pay for, regardless of how many team members access Buffer.
Each social media account is one channel. So your personal Instagram, business Instagram, Twitter account, and Facebook page would be 4 channels total.
Yes. Essentials pricing drops from $6 to $1 per channel at 51+ channels. Team pricing goes from $12 to $2 per channel at the same threshold.
Yes, you can upgrade to paid plans anytime. Your free plan channels will continue working, and you can add more channels as needed.
No setup fees or contracts. You can cancel anytime and only pay for the months you use Buffer.
Yes, Buffer ships an official MCP server that connects with Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI assistants for direct social media management from your AI interface.
Yes, all paid plans include a 14-day free trial with full access to features. No credit card required for the free plan.
See the pricing for yourself
14 days free. No credit card. See which plan fits before you pay.
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Joonas Rotko
Author & founder of That Marketing Buddy
I score marketing software for AI-stack fit (MCP, API, agent-readiness), backed by 10+ years in digital marketing. Building the most trustworthy marketing software database so you can trust the pricing data on this site.
This page may contain affiliate links. I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This never influences pricing data.