Smartsheet Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying
Smartsheet closed its free plan to new signups in August 2024. New users get a 30-day trial. Here is what the old plan included and what is still free.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-11T04:32:44+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-11T04:32:44+00:00
Smartsheet Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying
There is no Smartsheet free plan for new signups. Smartsheet closed the free plan to new users on August 28, 2024. Anyone signing up today gets a 30-day free trial instead. This article explains what the old free plan included, what the trial gives you, what the paid plans cost, and which seats still cost nothing.
The Smartsheet free plan is closed to new signups
Smartsheet's own help centre states the fact plainly: the free plan has not been available to new signups since August 28, 2024. If you search for a free plan today, you will find old articles describing it. Those articles are out of date. The plan is gone for new users.
People who already had a free plan before that date keep it, with its old limits. Everyone else starts on the 30-day trial. The trial needs no credit card. When it ends, your sheets become read-only for 30 days and are then deleted unless you upgrade. That deadline matters: a trial is not a free tier, and work left in a trial account has an expiry date.
What the legacy Smartsheet free plan included
The old free plan was narrow. It allowed one user, two sheets, and two collaborators plus yourself. Attachment storage was capped at 500 MB. Automation was capped at 100 runs a month. Reports could pull from only one source sheet.
Even at those limits, it included the core views: grid, Gantt and card views, plus forms and basic formulas. That was enough for one person tracking one small project. It was never enough for a team. Two sheets cannot hold a project plan, a tracker and a dashboard at once.
If you still hold a legacy free plan, those limits still apply. Upgrading is the only way past them. There is no path to widen a legacy free plan without paying.
What new users get instead: the 30-day trial
A new signup gets a 30-day trial of the full product with no credit card required. You can build sheets, dashboards, reports and automations without the legacy caps during those 30 days. That is the honest way to test whether Smartsheet fits your work.
Use the trial deliberately. Build the actual sheet your team needs, not a demo. Invite the people who will edit it. Test the automation you would rely on. Check the dashboard on mobile if your team works from phones. Decide before day 30, because read-only mode follows, and deletion follows that.
The cheapest exit from the trial is the Pro plan at $9 per Member per month on annual billing. Note that Pro is sold to new customers only, so an existing Business account cannot step down to it later.
Smartsheet pricing after the trial
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Members | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pro | $9 per Member a month | $12 per Member a month | 1 to 10 | 250 automations a month, 20 GB storage, 10 widgets per dashboard |
| Business | $19 per Member a month | $24 per Member a month | 3 or more | Unlimited automations, 1 TB storage, free external Guests |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | Custom quote | 10 or more | SAML SSO, Portfolios, Scenario Planning |
| Advanced Work Management | Custom quote | Custom quote | Custom | Enterprise plus premium apps bundled |
Monthly billing costs about a third more on Pro and about a quarter more on Business. Five Business Members cost $95 a month on annual billing or $120 on monthly billing. Count every person who needs to edit, not just the people who build sheets.
Pro includes Gantt charts, dashboards, forms, formulas and up to 250 automation runs a month. Business adds Timeline view, baselines, multi-sheet reports, unlimited automations, API access and free external Guests. Enterprise adds administration and portfolio features. Two premium add-ons cost extra on Business or Enterprise: Dynamic View from $125 a month and Data Shuttle from $100 a month.
Seats that still cost nothing
Not everyone on a Smartsheet account needs a paid seat. Members are paid users who create sheets, reports and dashboards. Contributors are free. Since April 2026, the Contributor seat replaced the old Viewer seat, and Contributors can view what is shared with them, comment, add attachments, fill in forms and answer update requests without a paid seat.
External Guests are free too, but only on Business and Enterprise. Qualifying people outside your organisation can edit shared rows without a Member seat. Guests are not available on Pro. That detail changes the math: three planners plus fifteen outside collaborators need three Business seats, while the same group on Pro would need paid seats for everyone who edits.
Watch provisional access. Internal users who edit can become Provisional Members, and continued editing may then require a paid seat. Sharing permission alone does not decide whether someone is free. Review provisional users before the next invoice.
Free alternatives if $0 is the requirement
If free is the actual requirement rather than cheap, Smartsheet is the wrong tool today. Asana, Airtable, monday.com and Wrike all have free tiers, though each caps projects, users or features. Asana's free plan covers up to 10 users with unlimited projects and tasks. Those tools suit a person who wanted Smartsheet's grid and Gantt views and nothing else.
A free Gantt tool is another option if scheduling is the only need. It will not give you forms, automations or dashboards. Match the tool to the job: a schedule needs a Gantt chart, while a team workflow needs a work platform.
How to decide in five minutes
Answer three questions. First, how many people need to edit sheets? That sets your Member count. Second, do outside collaborators need to edit rows? If yes, you need Business for free Guests. Third, do you need Timeline view or baselines? Those start on Business too.
If the answers are one editor, no outside editors and no Timeline view, Pro at $9 a month on annual billing is enough. If any answer points to Business, price that plan instead of buying Pro and adding workarounds. A trial is the fastest way to confirm: build your real sheet, invite your real editors and see which limits you hit.
Bottom line
The Smartsheet free plan is closed to new signups, and it has been since August 2024. New users get a 30-day trial, then must pay or lose editing access. The cheapest paid step is Pro at $9 per Member a month on annual billing, for teams of one to ten. Business at $19 is the right tier once you need Timeline view, unlimited automation or free external Guests. If you need a genuinely free tool, pick a competitor with a live free tier instead of waiting for Smartsheet's to return.