Pricing · Checked October 12, 2026

Xero Pricing 2026: Every Plan, the "Unlimited Users" Fine Print, and What You Pay After the October Increase

By Ken Hayashi October 13, 2026 ~16 min read

TL;DR

As of October 2026, Xero's US plans are Early $27/month, Growing $59/month, and Established $97/month. Those prices took effect on October 1, 2026, up from $25, $55, and $90. All three plans include unlimited users with no per-user license fee. The real limits are elsewhere. Early caps you at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month. Multi-currency, projects, and expense claims require Established. Payroll is a separate $36/month + $6 per person paid. If your team needs more than three finance logins, or bills customers in a second currency, Xero usually costs less than QuickBooks Online's seat-capped plans. If you send fewer than 20 invoices a month and pay few bills, Early at $27 is hard to beat.

Most "Xero pricing" pages still list the pre-October numbers ($25/$55/$90) or skip the limits. The limits are what actually push you onto a higher plan, so this guide covers them in detail: the invoice and bill caps, which features are locked to each plan, how payroll and payment fees add up, and what UK and Australian customers pay under their different plan structures. All figures come from Xero's own pricing and fee pages, checked on October 12, 2026.

01Xero US plans at a glance (October 2026)

Early

$27/mo

was ~~$25~~ before Oct 1

20 invoices / month
5 bills / month
Auto-reconcile +$5/mo
30-day cash flow forecast

Growing

$59/mo

was ~~$55~~ before Oct 1

Unlimited invoices & bills
Auto-reconcile included
3 budgets
60-day forecast

Established

$97/mo

was ~~$90~~ before Oct 1

Multi-currency
Projects & expense claims
KPIs, ratios, benchmarks
180-day forecast

Prices are in USD, billed monthly, and exclude sales tax. Xero's US pricing page offers no annual plan. Its FAQ says you're invoiced at the end of each monthly billing period, and any usage charges (payroll, projects, expenses, or a chargeable direct bank feed) are billed a month in arrears. New customers buying their first organization get 80% off the base plan for the first three months: $5.40, $11.80, or $19.40 a month. The discount does not apply to add-ons, usage, or payment fees.

Full US feature comparison

Source: xero.com/us/pricing-plans, checked October 12, 2026.
Feature	Early	Growing	Established
List price / month	$27	$59	$97
Users	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Send invoices and quotes	Quotes + 20 invoices	Unlimited	Unlimited
Enter and track bills	5 bills	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bank reconciliation, real-time reports	✓	✓	✓
Auto-reconcile transactions	+$5/mo	✓	✓
W-9 + 1099 management, sales tax	✓	✓	✓
Cash flow forecast	30 days	60 days	180 days
Domestic bill pay (standard ACH)	Free	Free	Free
Cross-border bill pay	Optional, fees	Optional, fees	Optional, fees
Custom dashboards, health scorecards	—	✓	✓
Budgets	—	3 budgets	✓
Multiple currencies	—	—	✓
Projects (time and cost tracking)	—	—	✓
Employee expense and mileage claims	—	—	✓
KPIs, ratios, industry benchmarks	—	—	✓
International bill pay	—	—	✓
Inventory Plus	—	Optional add-on	Optional add-on
Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto	$36 + $6/person	$36 + $6/person	$36 + $6/person

Diagram of what each Xero US plan unlocks: Early $27 with 20 invoices, 5 bills and paid auto-reconcile; Growing $59 with unlimited invoices and bills, 3 budgets and dashboards; Established $97 adding multi-currency, projects, expense claims, KPIs and a 180-day forecast — Most teams move up a plan because of a missing feature (multi-currency, projects, expenses) or the Early plan's volume caps, not because of headcount.

02What changed on October 1, 2026

Xero told US customers and partners about the change in July. Insightful Accountant reported the announcement on July 30, 2026, and the new prices took effect October 1. Every US plan went up, with Established getting the largest dollar increase:

Old prices: StackScout's October 3, 2026 snapshot of xero.com and Xero's July 2026 price-change notices as summarized by Booksla. New prices: xero.com/us/pricing-plans.
Plan	Before Oct 1	From Oct 1, 2026	Change / mo	Change / yr	%
Early	$25	$27	+$2	+$24	+8.0%
Growing	$55	$59	+$4	+$48	+7.3%
Established	$90	$97	+$7	+$84	+7.8%

In its framing of the increase, Xero pointed to two recent additions: free standard ACH bill payments on every plan and no fee for additional users. The free-ACH part is real and worth money if you currently pay vendors by check. The footnote limits it to standard ACH in USD. Same-day ACH, international payments, and cross-border payments are excluded, and any payment fees are "not eligible for subscription discounts and offers."

Watch for this if your price is locked by a reseller or partner

The figures above are xero.com list prices. Firms that bill clients for Xero through a partner arrangement set their own pass-through pricing. If your accountant bills you for Xero, ask whether they passed on the October increase and when.

The US is the third major market to raise prices this year. UK prices went up on September 1, 2026 (details in section 07). If you're comparing against QuickBooks, Intuit's renewal increase landed on August 1. Essentials went from $75 to $85, Plus from $115 to $140, and Advanced from $275 to $340, so QuickBooks Online pricing rose faster this summer than Xero's did.

03User limits: what "unlimited users" covers, and what it doesn't

This is the main structural difference between Xero and QuickBooks Online. Every Xero plan says "No per-user license fees." You can invite your bookkeeper, outside accountant, CFO, department heads, and an auditor on the $27 Early plan, and the subscription price stays the same. QuickBooks Online caps logins by plan: 1 user on Simple Start, 3 on Essentials, 5 on Plus, and 25 on Advanced.

But "unlimited users" refers to logins. It doesn't mean unlimited usage. Several costs in Xero scale with the number of people involved or transactions processed:

Comparison graphic: Xero logins cost $0 per user on every plan, while payroll ($36 plus $6 per person), Stripe card payments (2.9% plus 30 cents), auto-reconcile on Early ($5 per month) and multi-currency, projects and expenses (Established plan at $97) still cost money — Logins are free. Payroll is charged per person paid, not per person who logs in.

Payroll is per person paid. Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto, costs $36/month plus $6 per employee or contractor. The headcount you pay matters, not the number of people with Xero logins.
Projects and expenses are plan-gated, and their usage can be billed. In the US they appear only on Established. Xero's US FAQ says usage charges for "Xero Projects or Xero Expenses" are invoiced for the previous month. The US pricing page doesn't publish per-user overage rates for these (the UK and Australian pages do, see below). If you plan to roll out expense claims to a large field team, confirm with Xero before you rely on "unlimited."
User roles are where the control is. With unlimited logins, the risk shifts from cost to access control. Decide who gets Adviser vs. Standard vs. Invoice-only access before you invite the whole company.

Outside the US, "unlimited users" comes with included-user counts

The UK and Australian plans still advertise no per-user license fees, but Expenses and Projects come with a set number of users. In the UK, Grow includes expenses for 1 user, Comprehensive 5, and Ultimate 10, with each extra user at £2.50/month. Projects on Ultimate covers 10 users plus £5 per extra user. The UK terms note that "your invited users who have access to those features may trigger additional charges." Australia works the same way: $5 per extra expenses user and $7 per extra projects user.

04The Early plan's caps: 20 invoices and 5 bills a month

Early is the plan most likely to cause surprises, because its cap counts more than invoices you create by hand. Per Xero's own footnote: "Invoice limits for the Early plan apply to both approving and sending invoices. Transactions initiated by app partners may automatically contribute to your invoice limit."

In practice, connecting an e-commerce store, a billing tool, or a payments-settlement app can use up the allowance. Link My Books, an Amazon/Shopify settlement connector, warns its users that every settlement it posts uses one invoice or bill slot. It notes that Xero counts "all invoices and bills created across all connected apps." If you plan to sync Stripe or a subscription-billing tool into Xero, check how many invoices that integration posts each month before choosing Early.

Diagram showing Xero Early plan monthly caps: invoices you send, invoices you approve and invoices created by connected apps all count toward 20 invoices, and bills you enter count toward a separate cap of 5; upgrading to Growing at $59 removes both caps — In this example, 14 hand-made invoices plus 6 app-generated ones hit the 20-invoice ceiling.

The 5-bill cap is even tighter. Five bills a month barely covers rent, payroll provider, software, insurance, and one contractor. Any business with regular vendors will outgrow it quickly. When you hit either cap, the fix is Growing, which costs $32 more per month ($384/year) and also includes auto-reconcile. If you were paying $5 for auto-reconcile on Early, the net difference is $27/month.

Rule of thumb: Early fits a solo consultant or holding entity with a few retainer clients, little vendor activity, and no connected apps that create invoices. Anything more active should start on Growing.

05Add-ons and transaction fees that change the real price

Payroll: $36/month + $6 per person

US payroll is Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto. Xero lists it at "$36 per month, plus $6 per employee or contractor," available on all three plans, with two months free to try it. It handles payroll tax filing and W-2/1099 forms inside Xero. For a 10-person team that's $96/month on top of your plan. QuickBooks' equivalent (now sold as QuickBooks Workforce) starts at $50 + $7 per employee.

Getting paid: Stripe fees on online invoice payments

Every plan can accept online invoice payments. The fees go to the payment provider and are not covered by any Xero discount. Xero's US fee schedule for Stripe accounts:

Source: xero.com/us/pricing-plans/pricing-and-fees-for-stripe, checked October 12, 2026. Fees exclude sales and local taxes.
Payment method (US)	Fee	On a $5,000 invoice
Domestic cards	2.9% + 30¢	$145.30
International cards	4.4% + 30¢, +1% if currency conversion	$220.30+
Bank transfer	0.5%, capped at $5.00	$5.00
ACH Debit	1%, capped at $9.00	$9.00
Instant Payouts	1.5% of payout volume, min 50¢	—

For B2B invoices, the payment method matters more than the plan. One $5,000 invoice paid by domestic card costs $145.30 in fees, against $5.00 by bank transfer. That one invoice's card fee is more than four months of the $32 Early-to-Growing upgrade. Turn on bank transfer and ACH for large invoices, and consider keeping cards for small ones. If you already run payments through Stripe directly, the mechanics of getting fees and payouts into your ledger are similar to the problem covered in our guide on connecting Stripe to QuickBooks without double-counting revenue.

Paying bills

Standard ACH bill payments in USD are free on all plans. Cross-border bill payments are optional on every plan with fees, and international bill pay is listed only on Established. Before the free-ACH change, many Xero users added a separate AP tool for this. (Xero completed its acquisition of Melio in October 2025, which explains the built-in bill-pay push.) If you're paying hundreds of bills a month with approval chains, a dedicated tool may still make sense. We compare them in our accounts payable automation roundup.

Inventory Plus

Inventory Plus is offered as an optional add-on on Growing and Established, not on Early. It adds multichannel and multi-location tracking, Shopify and Amazon FBA connections, and fulfillment. Xero does not publish its price on the US pricing page, and the third-party figures we found weren't backed by a Xero source, so we haven't repeated them. Get a quote at sign-up.

06What three typical US teams actually pay

The plan price is only the starting point. Here are three realistic scenarios at October 2026 list prices, each set against the closest QuickBooks Online plan that meets the same requirement. QuickBooks figures come from our QuickBooks Online pricing breakdown.

A. Solo consultant 8–12 invoices/month, 4 recurring bills, 1 login + outside CPA, no payroll

Xero Early$27

Auto-reconcile add-on$5

Xero monthly / yearly$32 / $384

QuickBooks Simple Start (1 user + accountant seats)$38 / $456

B. 12-person US services firm Unlimited invoicing, 4 internal finance/ops logins, payroll for 12, USD only

Xero Growing$59

Payroll: $36 + 12 × $6$108

Xero monthly / yearly$167 / $2,004

QuickBooks Plus ($140, 4 users needs Plus) + Workforce Payroll ($50 + 12 × $7)$274 / $3,288

C. 25-person agency billing EU and UK clients Multi-currency, project profitability, expense claims, 8 logins, payroll for 25

Xero Established$97

Payroll: $36 + 25 × $6$186

Xero monthly / yearly$283 / $3,396

QuickBooks Advanced ($340, 8 users exceeds Plus's 5) + Workforce Payroll ($50 + 25 × $7)$565 / $6,780

Two caveats keep this from being a simple "Xero wins." First, the payroll products aren't identical. QuickBooks Workforce has three tiers with different feature bundles, so compare what your team actually needs, not just the per-head rate. Second, scenario C only works in Xero's favor if Established's projects module is enough for you. If you need class tracking across 40+ departments, custom roles, or built-in revenue recognition, QuickBooks Advanced is buying features Xero doesn't have at any US price. We cover that trade-off in QuickBooks vs. Xero for growing B2B teams and, for subscription businesses, in our accounting-software-for-SaaS comparison (Xero has no native ASC 606 revenue recognition).

First-year cost with the new-customer discount

Base plan only; add-ons, usage, and payment fees are not discounted. The offer applies to a customer's first organization purchased on xero.com.
Plan	Months 1–3 (80% off)	Months 4–12	Year 1 total	Year 2 (list)
Early	3 × $5.40	9 × $27	$259.20	$324
Growing	3 × $11.80	9 × $59	$566.40	$708
Established	3 × $19.40	9 × $97	$931.20	$1,164

Note the downgrade rule: "If you later decide to change to a less expensive plan you can do so 1 month after upgrading." Upgrading for a busy month and immediately dropping back isn't allowed.

07UK and Australia: different plan names, different limits

Xero uses region-specific plans, so a US price list doesn't apply elsewhere. If you run entities in several countries, each organization is a separate subscription in its own region's currency.

United Kingdom (GBP, excl. VAT): price rise effective September 1, 2026

Current prices and limits: xero.com/uk/pricing-plans (checked Oct 12, 2026). Previous prices as reported by UK Xero partners covering Xero's announcement.
Plan	Before Sep 1	Now	Key limits
Simple	£7	£7	Sole traders; unchanged
Ignite	£16	£18	20 invoices, 10 bills; no expenses; payroll £1.50/person
Grow	£37	£39	Payroll for 1, expenses for 1 user, 5 domestic bill/payroll payments
Comprehensive	£50	£55	Multi-currency; payroll for 5; expenses for 5 users; 3 budgets
Ultimate	£65	£70	Payroll for 10; expenses and projects for 10 users; KPIs and benchmarks

Extra UK charges: additional payroll people £1.50 each (£1 on Ultimate), additional expenses users £2.50, additional projects users £5, and domestic bill/payroll payments £0.20 each beyond the included amount. Auto-reconcile is £3.50/month on Ignite, CIS returns £5/month, and Company accounts and tax is £120 a year on any plan. UK new customers get 90% off for six months, which is more generous than the US offer.

Australia (AUD, incl. GST)

Source: xero.com/au/pricing-plans, checked October 12, 2026.
Plan	Price / mo	Payroll included
Ignite	$37	Self-employed tier
Grow	$78	2 people
Comprehensive	$107	5 people; multi-currency
Ultimate 10 / 20 / 50 / 100	$143 / $180 / $250 / $300	10 / 20 / 50 / 100 people
Ultra	$500	Adds multi-entity consolidation and advanced forecasting with Syft, priority support, targeted data restore

Australia is the only market where Xero sells multi-entity consolidation as a plan (Ultra). Elsewhere, consolidating several Xero organizations means a separate app.

08Which Xero plan should you choose?

Early ($27): Fewer than ~15 invoices and 5 bills a month, no apps posting invoices into Xero, USD only. Add auto-reconcile for $5 if your bank feed is busy.

Growing ($59): The default for most US small businesses and startups. Unlimited invoices and bills, auto-reconcile, dashboards, and three budgets. Add payroll when you hire.

Established ($97): You invoice or pay in a second currency, need project profitability, or want built-in employee expense claims. For a 10+ person team needing any of these, it typically costs less than QuickBooks' Plus/Advanced tiers once you count seats.

Not Xero: You need native revenue recognition, deep class/department tracking, or built-in multi-entity consolidation in the US. Look at QuickBooks Advanced or a mid-market system instead.

Pros of Xero's 2026 pricing

No per-user license fees on any plan
Free standard ACH bill pay included
Multi-currency at $97, with no seat cap
Plan prices rose less than QuickBooks' Aug 2026 increase

Cons

Early's 20-invoice / 5-bill caps include app-created entries
Projects and expenses locked to the top US plan
No annual billing option on the US page
Inventory Plus price not published; no native US consolidation

09Frequently asked questions

How much does Xero cost per month in 2026?

In the US, from October 1, 2026: Early $27, Growing $59, Established $97 per month, plus tax. New customers get 80% off the base plan for the first three months. Payroll adds $36/month + $6 per person paid.

Does Xero charge per user?

No. All Xero plans include unlimited users with no per-user license fee. Per-person costs appear in payroll ($6 per employee or contractor paid in the US). In the UK and Australia, they also apply to expenses and projects users beyond each plan's included count.

Does Xero have budgets?

Yes, on US Growing (up to 3 budgets) and Established ("budget with smart suggestions," no stated cap). The Early plan doesn't include budgeting. In the UK, budgets start on Comprehensive (3) and are uncapped on Ultimate.

Can Xero handle multiple companies?

Yes, but each company is a separate Xero organization with its own subscription. Two US entities on Growing cost $118/month. Xero has no built-in consolidated reporting on US plans. Consolidation is done with Syft (owned by Xero) or another app, and in Australia it's included in the $500 Ultra plan.

Who is Xero's biggest competitor?

QuickBooks Online, especially in the US. The core pricing difference is seats: QuickBooks caps logins at 1/3/5/25 users across $38/$85/$140/$340 plans, while Xero has no user cap. See our QuickBooks vs. Xero comparison for the full breakdown, or Wave vs. Xero if you're a freelancer watching every dollar.

10Methodology

We pulled Xero's US, UK, and Australian pricing pages directly on October 12, 2026, and extracted plan prices from the pages' embedded plan data. We cross-checked feature gates against each region's "compare features across plans" table, and took payment fees from Xero's Stripe fee schedule. For the October 1 US change, we compared our own October 3 snapshot of Xero's US pricing ($25/$55/$90) against the live page, and confirmed the effective date with trade-press coverage of Xero's July notice. We excluded prices that appear only on third-party sites (for example, Inventory Plus). Scenario totals use list prices and exclude sales tax. QuickBooks figures come from Intuit's pricing page as checked for our October 2026 QuickBooks article. No vendor reviewed or sponsored this article.

11Sources

Xero US: Pricing plans and plan comparison — xero.com/us/pricing-plans/
Xero US: Payroll, powered by Gusto ($36 + $6) — xero.com/us/accounting-software/payroll/
Xero: Pricing & fees for Stripe accounts — xero.com/us/pricing-plans/pricing-and-fees-for-stripe/
Xero UK: Pricing plans — xero.com/uk/pricing-plans/
Xero Australia: Pricing plans — xero.com/au/pricing-plans/
Insightful Accountant, "Xero Announces U.S. Subscription Price Changes" (July 30, 2026) — insightfulaccountant.com
Booksla, "Xero Price Increase: What Changes October 1, 2026" — booksla.com/xero-price-increase/
Link My Books Help Center, "Resolving a transaction limit error in Xero" — help.linkmybooks.com

Ken Hayashi

Technology consultant covering B2B finance, HR, and automation software for StackScout. Ken focuses on the pricing details (seat caps, usage meters, and add-on fees) that decide what a tool actually costs a growing team.