QuickBooks Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying

QuickBooks does have a free plan: $0 a month, one user, two invoices a month, one bank connection. What it covers, what paid plans cost, and when free is enough

By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-13T19:28:08+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-13T19:28:08+00:00

QuickBooks Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying

QuickBooks does have a free plan, and that surprises most people. QuickBooks Online Free costs $0 a month in the US. It is real, and it never expires. But it is also very small. It covers one user, two invoices a month, and one bank connection. It has no mobile app, no integrations, and no accountant access. This guide explains exactly what the free plan includes, what the paid plans cost, and when free is enough.

Yes, QuickBooks has a free plan

The common claim that QuickBooks has no free plan is out of date. Intuit lists five QuickBooks Online plans in the US: Free, Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. Free costs $0 a month with no credit card required. It is a real plan, not a trial. It stays free as long as you stay inside its limits.

Those limits are tight. The free plan allows one user and no accountant access. It allows two invoices a month. It allows one bank connection. It does not include the mobile app. It does not include integrations with other tools. It does not include recurring billing. It is a starter file for a solo owner who wants to track income and expenses, nothing more.

Do not confuse the free plan with the free trial. The 30-day free trial covers a paid plan, such as Simple Start or Plus, for 30 days. After the trial, the paid plan starts billing. The free plan has no trial period because it never charges you. New customers must choose between the 50 percent discount for three months and the 30-day free trial. You cannot use both.

What the QuickBooks free plan includes

The free plan covers the basics. You can send up to two invoices a month. You can track income and expenses. You can connect one bank account and categorize transactions from it. You can run basic reports on your income and spending.

That is the full list. There is no mobile app, so you work on a computer only. There is no accountant access, so your accountant cannot log in to your file. There is no payroll, no inventory, no time tracking, and no project tracking. There are no integrations, so you cannot connect your store, your payment tool, or your CRM.

Two invoices a month is the binding limit for most people. A freelancer who bills three clients a month is already over it. One bank connection is the second binding limit. A business with a checking account and a credit card needs two connections, and the free plan gives one. Most real businesses outgrow the free plan in the first month. That is the point. The free plan is a way to test QuickBooks, not a way to run a business on it for free.

QuickBooks paid plans and prices

When you outgrow free, the paid plans start at $38 a month. The US list prices, billed monthly, are Simple Start at $38, Essentials at $85, Plus at $140, and Advanced at $340. Prices are per company, not per user, and they exclude tax. Intuit raised the renewal prices of Essentials, Plus, and Advanced on August 1, 2026. New subscribers get a six-month price lock.

Simple Start covers one user plus two accountants. It adds full invoicing, expense categorization, and automated bill pay with free ACH. It suits a solo owner who invoices regularly. A second user means moving to Essentials.

Essentials covers three users plus two accountants. It adds bulk invoicing, time tracking, bill management, and quarterly tax estimates. It suits a team of two or three people who bill time. It has no inventory and no project profitability tracking.

Plus covers five users plus two accountants. It adds project profitability, budgets, inventory, and classes and locations, up to 40 of each. It suits a service business with inventory or projects. Advanced covers 25 users plus three accountants, with deeper reporting, batch transactions, and custom access levels. It suits a larger business with complex books.

New customers get 50 percent off the base price for the first three months, or a 30-day free trial. The discount makes Simple Start $19 a month, Essentials $42.50, Plus $70, and Advanced $170 for three months. After that, the list price applies. The discount saves more than the trial on the bigger plans, so most buyers take the discount.

QuickBooks plans at a glance

Prices are US list prices from Intuit's pricing page, checked in October 2026. They exclude tax. Payroll, payments, and bookkeeping services cost extra.

What costs extra on top of the plan

The plan price is not the whole bill. Payroll is a separate bundle. A common bundle lists at $228 a month plus $13 per employee for Plus with Workforce Premium. Bill Pay Elite costs $45 a month unless you are on Advanced. Inventory costs $40 a month on Simple Start or Essentials, where it is not included. Payment processing takes a cut of every transaction: credit cards at 2.99 percent, ACH at 1 percent.

The user cap is the other hidden cost. Each plan includes a set number of users. Adding a person past the cap forces an upgrade, not a small add-on fee. A two-person business cannot use Simple Start. A four-person business cannot use Essentials. Count your users before you pick a plan, or the upgrade will surprise you.

When the free plan is enough

The free plan works in three cases. First, you are testing QuickBooks and want to see the interface before you pay. Second, you are a solo owner with one bank account who sends one or two invoices a month. Third, you track a side project with almost no transactions. In those cases, free is genuinely useful.

It fails in every other case. If you send three invoices a month, you need Simple Start. If you have a bank account and a credit card, you need Simple Start. If your accountant needs access, you need Simple Start. If you want the mobile app, you need Simple Start. The free plan is a demo with a $0 price tag, not a plan for a working business.

Try it this way: open the free plan and run one real month through it. Send your real invoices. Connect your real bank. If you hit a limit in week one, you have your answer, and it cost you nothing to learn it. If you finish the month inside the limits, stay on free until the day you cross one.

Free alternatives to QuickBooks

Wave offers free accounting and invoicing for small businesses, with no invoice cap like QuickBooks Free. It suits a freelancer who wants free bookkeeping and can live without QuickBooks' app marketplace. Zoho Books has a free plan for small businesses with limited transactions. It suits a business already using Zoho's tools. FreshBooks has no free plan, only a 30-day trial, then Lite at $23 a month for five billable clients. It suits invoice-heavy freelancers who do not need full accounting.

QuickBooks wins on ecosystem. It has the largest app marketplace, the most accountants who know it, and the deepest integrations. That matters when your business grows. A free tool that your accountant cannot open is not free. It costs you their time, and their time is billed by the hour.

Bottom line

QuickBooks Free is real: $0 a month, one user, two invoices a month, one bank connection, no mobile app, no integrations, and no accountant access. It suits a solo owner testing the software or tracking a tiny side project. A working business will need Simple Start at $38 a month, or more. Take the 50 percent discount for three months instead of the 30-day trial if you plan to stay, because it saves more. Start on free, find your real limit in one month, then buy the plan that covers it.