Later pricing runs from $25/mo to $110/mo, with a 14-day free trial and no permanent free plan. Here's what each tier actually includes — and where the Social Set system can catch you off guard.
Later pricing starts at $25/month for the Starter plan and climbs to $110/month for Scale (paid monthly), or $18.75-$82.50/month if you commit annually. There's no permanent free plan — every tier comes with a 14-day free trial instead. The model is built around "Social Sets" — bundles of one profile per platform — rather than a flat profile count, which means your actual capacity depends on how many networks you're active on, not just which tier you're on.
| Plan | Monthly Price | Annual Price (billed yearly) | Social Profiles | Posts/Month | AI Credits | Team Members |
| Starter | $25/mo | $18.75/mo | 8 (1 Social Set) | 30/profile | 5 | 1 |
| Growth | $50/mo | $37.50/mo | 16 (2 Social Sets) | 180/profile | 50 | 2 |
| Scale | $110/mo | $82.50/mo | 48 (6 Social Sets) | Unlimited | 100 | 4 |
Every plan includes a 14-day free trial — there's no permanent free tier. Annual billing works out to a 25% discount across all three paid tiers. The rest of this guide uses monthly pricing as the reference point, noting annual rates where they meaningfully change the math.
Starter ($25/month, or $18.75/month billed annually) is Later's entry point for paid functionality, aimed at individual creators. It includes 30 posts per profile per month, 1 Social Set (8 profiles across the platform's eight supported networks), 5 AI credits monthly, 3 months of analytics retention, and a single user seat. It also bundles Link in Bio pages, a visual content calendar with auto-publish, Instagram best-time-to-post recommendations, hashtag suggestions, and Canva integration. It works well for creators posting once daily or less who don't need a second team member — but there's no add-on path from this tier, so hitting any of its limits means upgrading to Growth. For comparison, Turrboo's entry-level plan covers unlimited posting at a similar price point without the profile-bundling structure.
Growth ($50/month, or $37.50/month billed annually) raises the posting cap sixfold to 180 posts per profile monthly and doubles the Social Set allowance to 16 profiles. It adds a social inbox, approval workflows with custom roles, user-generated content collection tools, and Instagram product tagging, along with a second team seat and a year of analytics retention. This is also where add-ons become available: extra Social Sets run $15/month, extra users $5/month, and extra AI credit blocks (100 credits) $5/month. For a small business or agency managing 10-16 profiles, Growth on annual billing lands at roughly $2.34 per profile, which is competitive against per-seat and per-channel pricing models elsewhere in the category — see how it stacks up in the comparison table below.
Scale ($110/month, or $82.50/month billed annually) removes the posting cap entirely and expands to 6 Social Sets (48 profiles) and 4 team seats, with 2 years of analytics retention. It's the only tier with competitive benchmarking, brand health monitoring, brand mentions tracking, and priority support. The jump from Growth to Scale is steep in isolation, but for agencies running 20+ client accounts who'd otherwise need multiple Social Set add-ons on Growth, the math can work out close to even — Scale just includes more headroom for team size and posting volume without further add-on purchases.
This is worth checking before committing to a plan: teams sometimes assume "16 profiles" on Growth means 16 Instagram accounts, when it actually means 16 profiles spread across up to 8 platforms per Social Set. Add-on Social Sets on Growth or Scale cost $15/month each, so an agency on Growth needing 2 extra sets to cover 5 clients would land at $80/month ($50 base plus 2 × $15) — worth comparing against Scale's $110/month monthly rate, which includes 6 Social Sets and 4 users without any add-on purchases.
Later's AI features — caption generation and content idea brainstorming — draw from a monthly credit pool that resets on the 1st and doesn't roll over. One credit generates one caption, or three content ideas (the first three ideas per content pillar are free). Starter includes 5 credits monthly, Growth 50, and Scale 100. Extra credit blocks (100 credits for $5/month) are only purchasable on Growth and Scale — Starter users need to upgrade to access add-ons at all, and iOS in-app subscribers can't buy credit add-ons due to Apple's payment restrictions, requiring a switch to web billing. Turrboo's AI assistant takes a different approach here, bundling AI image generation into its plans rather than metering it through a credit system.
Analytics retention scales with tier: 3 months on Starter, 1 year on Growth, and 2 years on Scale. This matters more for teams building quarterly or year-over-year reporting than for those just tracking week-to-week engagement — if historical trend data is part of your workflow, Starter's 3-month window will likely feel tight.
Later enforces post limits with hard blocks rather than overage billing — hit your monthly cap and scheduling pauses until the reset or an upgrade, with no surprise charges. The trade-off is less flexibility mid-cycle: there's no way to push through a busy week without either waiting or moving up a tier.
A few other details worth knowing before subscribing: Starter plan users cannot purchase any add-ons (Social Sets at $15/month, extra users at $5/month, or AI credit blocks at $5/month) without first upgrading to Growth; add-on pricing is identical across Growth and Scale; and downgrading from Scale to Growth reduces analytics retention from 2 years to 1, with older data no longer accessible (though scheduled posts and your content library remain intact).
| Platform | Starting Price (Monthly) | Annual Equivalent | Social Profiles | Post Limits | AI Features |
| Turrboo Essentials | $29/mo | $29/mo (no annual lock-in required) | 7 channels | Unlimited | AI image generation included |
| Later Growth | $50/mo | $37.50/mo | 16 | 180/profile | 50 credits/mo |
| Buffer Essentials | $5/channel/mo | $5/channel/mo | Per channel | Unlimited | Included |
| Hootsuite Professional | $99/user/mo | $99/user/mo | 10 | Unlimited | OwlyGPT included |
| Sendible Creator | $29/mo | $29/mo | 6 | Unlimited | AI Assist included |
| Tailwind Pro | $19.99/mo | $14.99/mo | 1 | 200/mo | 200 credits |
Later's per-profile cost is a genuine strength at scale — Growth on annual billing works out to roughly $2.34/profile with 16 profiles, undercutting Hootsuite's $9.90/profile and Sprout Social's $39.80/profile at similar volume. For teams managing just 2-3 profiles, though, Buffer's $5/channel pricing, Sendible's flat $29/month, or Turrboo's $29/month unlimited-posting plan often costs less than Later's Growth tier, since Later's posting-limit tiers are built with higher-volume teams in mind. If budget is the main constraint, it's worth browsing free social media management tools before committing to any paid tier.
Where Later doesn't compete is social listening — there's no brand monitoring or sentiment analysis at any tier, which pushes teams who need that into Hootsuite Advanced or Sprout Social Advanced instead. And for agencies that specifically need white-label client dashboards, Sendible's branded reporting is a feature Later doesn't offer at any price point. Later also isn't alone in this gap — see our breakdown of Hootsuite alternatives and Buffer alternatives for how the rest of the category compares.
Solo creators managing 1-8 profiles with modest posting frequency (up to 30 posts/profile monthly) fit well on Starter. The trade-off is no team access, only 3 months of analytics history, and no add-on options if you outgrow the caps — the 14-day free trial is the only way to test the platform without paying.
Small businesses with 2-3 team members managing 8-16 profiles across brands or locations are the clearest fit for Growth — see our guide on social media management for small businesses for how to weigh the options. The jump from Starter's single user to Growth's collaboration tools, plus the 6x posting increase, tends to justify the cost difference for most small teams.
Agencies managing 20+ client profiles should compare Scale against Growth-plus-add-ons directly: at around 30 profiles and 4 users, Growth with one extra Social Set and two extra seats lands near $75/month ($50 base + $15 for the extra Social Set + $10 for two extra users, on monthly billing) versus Scale's $110/month, so the decision often comes down to whether you need Scale's unlimited posting and competitive benchmarking tools or can work within Growth's caps. Our roundup of social media management tools for agencies covers this trade-off in more depth.
If you've read this far, the trade-offs in Later's pricing structure are probably clear: capacity is measured in Social Sets rather than a flat profile count, add-ons are only available once you're on Growth or higher, and there's no permanent free tier to fall back on.
Turrboo takes a simpler approach to the same problem. Plans are priced per tier with a flat channel count — no Social Set math to work out before you know what you're actually paying for. Essentials starts at $29/month for 7 channels with unlimited posting, so there's no monthly post cap to track or upgrade around. AI image generation is included rather than metered through a credit system that resets and expires each month, and features like the social inbox and approval workflows that Later reserves for its Growth tier and up are available without needing to hit a higher price point first.
That's not to say Turrboo replaces Later for every use case — teams that specifically need Later's visual grid preview, Instagram-first planning tools, or Social Set structure for managing many profiles on a handful of platforms may still find Later's model a better fit. But if you'd rather not calculate profile-to-platform ratios before choosing a plan, Turrboo's pricing page lays out flat, unlimited-posting tiers you can compare in a couple of minutes.
Does Later have a free plan?
No — Later doesn't offer a permanent free tier. Every plan, including Starter, comes with a 14-day free trial, after which you'll need to subscribe to keep using the platform.
What happens if I exceed my post limit?
Scheduling is blocked until either your monthly limit resets or you upgrade to a plan with a higher cap. There's no overage billing.
Yes, but only on Growth and Scale — Starter doesn't support add-on purchases of any kind.
Do unused AI credits roll over?
No. Credits reset on the 1st of each month and any unused balance expires.
Does downgrading affect my historical analytics data?
Yes — moving from Scale to Growth drops your retention window from 2 years to 1 year, and data older than that becomes inaccessible.
Is there a difference between iOS and web billing?
Yes. Subscribers who sign up through Apple's in-app purchase can't buy AI credit add-ons due to Apple's payment restrictions and would need to switch to web billing to access them.
Does Later's annual discount apply to every tier?
Yes — Starter, Growth, and Scale all carry the same 25% discount when billed annually instead of monthly.
