QuickBooks Online Pricing 2026: Plans After the August Rise

QuickBooks Online costs $38/mo on Simple Start, $85/mo on Essentials, $140/mo on Plus and $340/mo on Advanced, read on Intuit's US pricing page in October 2026. Those are the rates in force since Intuit repriced the three upper plans for renewals on or after August 1, 2026. New customers get 50% off for 3 months or a 30-day trial, and a Free plan covers 2 invoices a month.

The plan is one organization price, not a per-seat fee, so the cost question for a finance lead is which cap forces the next tier and which add-ons land on top.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, evaluated 279 accounting tools for its accounting software ranking as of October 2026. The directory pages for the products on this page are QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho Books and FreshBooks.

QuickBooks Online is Intuit's cloud general ledger for a single entity: invoices, bills, bank feeds, payroll and the monthly close in one subscription. This page prices it the way a controller budgets it, the plan plus payroll, payments, bill pay and the second file a second entity needs. For the product verdict read our QuickBooks Online review; for the moment a company outgrows it, our QuickBooks vs NetSuite comparison takes over.

At a glance

Prices and user counts were read on Intuit's pricing page in October 2026; the caps come from Intuit's usage limits article. The promo is half off the base plan for three months, then list price, and it is not a per-seat discount.

What changed on August 1, 2026

Intuit raised the renewal price of Essentials, Plus and Advanced on August 1, 2026, and left Free, Lite, Ledger and Simple Start alone. Intuit's own price change note states the three paid tiers "will change for renewals on or after August 1, 2026" and that the new rates appeared on the website from August 3. A company on Plus or Advanced therefore saw the increase on its first billing date after that, not on a fixed calendar day, which is why two controllers comparing invoices in August could see different numbers for the same plan.

New subscribers get a six-month price lock. The same note says the price a new customer pays "will remain the same for the first six months of your subscription", which matters if you are timing a migration: sign in October and the rate holds into April 2027 regardless of the next announcement.

Advanced became a bundle, which is the real story of the rise. Since August, Advanced includes Bill Pay Elite with no separate subscription, construction and professional-services tools Intuit values at up to $900 a year, the custom reporting and forecasting suite, and Intuit's books-verification service. Intuit's accountant-facing FAQ adds that Bill Pay Elite itself fell from $90/mo to $45/mo on June 8, 2026, so the Advanced bundle is worth up to $540 a year on bill pay alone. That value is Intuit's arithmetic, not a credit on your invoice.

The sticker is an organization price, and the caps do the pricing

No QuickBooks Online plan sells an extra seat. Simple Start carries 1 billable user, Essentials 3, Plus 5 and Advanced 25. The sixth person who needs to post on Plus is not a small add-on; they are the reason the file moves to Advanced and the monthly bill rises by $200, so headcount planning for the finance team is plan planning. Deactivating a user frees the slot, and Intuit does not refund the month already paid.

Accountant-firm users and read-only logins sit outside the count. The lower three plans allow 2 accountant-firm users and Advanced allows 3, connected through QuickBooks Online Accountant. Plus and Advanced also allow unlimited reports-only users, and every paid plan allows unlimited time-tracking-only users. A controller who only reads the close should be a reports-only user on Plus, and the outside CPA should connect as the firm, never as a standard user, because a bookkeeper added as a standard user burns a billable slot.

Three other caps push a growing company up the ladder. Simple Start, Essentials and Plus stop the chart of accounts at 250; Advanced is unlimited. Classes and locations do not exist below Plus, Plus allows 40 combined, Advanced is unlimited. Custom fields run 1, 4, 4 and 12 per transaction. A departmental profit and loss, a cost-center structure past 40 segments or a chart that grew with acquisitions each ends on Advanced, and Intuit does not sell a one-off lift for any of them.

Add-ons the plan price leaves out

Payroll is a second subscription with a per-employee fee. Intuit's payroll pricing page bundles Workforce Payroll with accounting: Payroll plus Simple Start is $88/mo and $6.50 per employee, Payroll plus Essentials is $125/mo and $6.50 per employee, and Workforce Premium plus Plus is $203/mo and $10 per employee, each with the same 50% off for 3 months promo. Full-service tax filing, auto payroll and 1099 e-file sit on every bundle; same-day direct deposit starts on the Essentials bundle and time tracking on the Premium bundle.

Payments are usage fees, not a subscription. Intuit's payment rates page lists 2.99% for cards and digital wallets paid online, 3.5% for keyed-in cards, 2.5% for in-person card reader or Tap to Pay, and 1% with a $1 minimum for ACH bank transfers, rates Intuit dates to September 18, 2026. Instant deposit adds 1.75% and dispute protection starts at 0.99%. A company collecting $200,000 a month by online card pays about $5,980 in fees, which is a bigger line than any plan on this page, so AR teams should push customers to ACH.

Bill pay has a free lane and a paid lane. Standard ACH bill payments over the monthly allotment cost $0.50 each on the pricing page. Bill Pay Elite, the approval-workflow tier, is $45/mo on Simple Start, Essentials and Plus and included on Advanced. If AP volume is the problem rather than the ledger, our BILL pricing explainer and AP automation ranking price the alternative of bolting a dedicated AP tool onto Plus.

Live Expert services publish no price. Intuit's Live pricing page describes Expert Assisted and Expert Full-Service Bookkeeping and routes both to a sales call, so a bookkeeping budget needs a quote. Our how much bookkeeping costs for startups explainer gives the market range.

What a finance team pays in a year: three scenarios

The table is our multiplication of Intuit's October 2026 list prices, after the three-month promo expires and before sales tax. It excludes payments fees, which depend on volume.

The 40-person scenario is where Advanced starts to pay for itself. Moving from Plus to Advanced costs $200 more a month, but Bill Pay Elite comes inside, so the net uplift for a company already paying for Elite is $155 a month, or $1,860 a year, for 20 more billable users, unlimited classes and an unlimited chart. A company that does not use Elite pays the full difference and should ask whether reports-only users can delay the move.

The first scenario is where Xero and Zoho Books undercut Intuit. Xero Early is $27/mo and Zoho Books Standard is $20/mo, both with their own limits, so the solo-founder ledger is cheaper elsewhere. Past three users the gap narrows, because Xero charges no per-user fee at all and QuickBooks Essentials covers three people for one price.

QuickBooks Online vs Xero, Zoho Books, FreshBooks and Wave

Competitor prices were read on each vendor's US pricing page in October 2026; Xero and FreshBooks also run 80% off introductory offers, which this table ignores because a controller budgets the renewal rate. Zoho Books lists lower rates on annual billing (Standard $15, Professional $40, Premium $60) and keeps a free plan for businesses under $50K in revenue with 1,000 invoices a year.

Xero is the one to price if the user count is the problem. Established at $97/mo gives unlimited users and multi-currency for less than QuickBooks Plus, so a 10-person finance and ops team that only needs one entity pays less on Xero than on Advanced. The trade is ecosystem: payroll on Xero US is an add-on at $36/mo plus $6 per employee, and the US accountant base is thinner. Our best accounting software ranking covers the fit question; this page only covers the bill.

Zoho Books is the cheapest ledger with real multi-user depth. Premium at $70/mo for 10 users with multi-currency and projects is half of QuickBooks Plus for twice the seats, and the $3 extra user is the only true per-seat price on this page. The catch is the same as Xero's, fewer US payroll and bank integrations, plus a smaller pool of bookkeepers who know it.

Multi-entity: the cost QuickBooks never prints

A second legal entity is a second QuickBooks Online subscription, with no consolidation between them. Intuit prices per organization, so a holding company with three operating subsidiaries on Plus pays three times the Plus rate, $420/mo, and still closes intercompany in a spreadsheet. That is the point where the comparison stops being Xero and becomes NetSuite or Sage Intacct; our NetSuite pricing explainer and the multi-entity accounting software ranking take it from there, and the Sage Intacct review covers the finance-first mid-market option.

Before you move, price the stay. Three Plus files cost $5,040 a year at list. A NetSuite or Intacct quote with implementation runs into five figures before the first close, so a two-entity company with a simple intercompany balance often stays on two QuickBooks files for another year and spends the difference on a consolidation tool from our financial consolidation ranking.

How we priced this

We read Intuit's US pricing page, payroll pricing page, payment rates page, usage limits article, Live pricing page and its August 2026 price change note in October 2026, and Intuit's accountant FAQ on the same change. Competitor rates come from the US pricing pages of Xero, Zoho Books, FreshBooks and Wave, read the same month. The scenario totals are our multiplication of those list prices and are not quotes. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, edited the piece. Re-check the pricing page before a renewal, because Intuit changes rates on renewal dates rather than on a calendar.

FAQ

How much does QuickBooks Online cost per month in 2026?

Simple Start is $38/mo for one billable user, Essentials $85/mo for three, Plus $140/mo for five and Advanced $340/mo for 25, at the list rates on Intuit's US pricing page in October 2026. New customers choose between 50% off for three months and a 30-day free trial. A Free plan covers one user, two invoices a month and one bank connection.

Did QuickBooks Online prices go up in August 2026?

Yes. Intuit's price change note says the monthly prices of Essentials, Plus and Advanced changed for renewals on or after August 1, 2026, with the new rates on the website from August 3. Free, Lite, Ledger and Simple Start kept their prices. In the same change Advanced absorbed Bill Pay Elite, which had been a separate $45/mo subscription since June 8, 2026.

Does QuickBooks Online charge per user?

No. Each plan includes a fixed number of billable users, from one on Simple Start to 25 on Advanced, and Intuit sells no extra seat inside a plan. Accountant-firm users, reports-only users on Plus and Advanced, and time-tracking-only users on every paid plan do not count. A sixth person posting on Plus means an upgrade to Advanced, not a per-seat fee.

How much is QuickBooks Payroll on top of the accounting plan?

Intuit sells payroll bundled with the ledger: Payroll plus Simple Start is $88/mo plus $6.50 per employee, Payroll plus Essentials is $125/mo plus $6.50 per employee, and Workforce Premium plus Plus is $203/mo plus $10 per employee, read on the payroll pricing page in October 2026. A 12-person company on the Essentials bundle pays about $2,436 a year at list, before sales tax.

What are QuickBooks Payments fees?

Cards and digital wallets paid online cost 2.99% per transaction, keyed-in cards 3.5%, in-person card reader or Tap to Pay 2.5%, and ACH bank transfers 1% with a $1 minimum, rates Intuit dated September 18, 2026. Instant deposit adds 1.75% and dispute protection starts at 0.99%. There is no monthly payments fee, so the cost scales with what customers pay by card.

Is Xero or Zoho Books cheaper than QuickBooks Online?

For one user, yes: Xero Early is $27/mo and Zoho Books Standard is $20/mo against Simple Start at $38/mo. For a larger team Xero Established at $97/mo includes unlimited users and multi-currency, and Zoho Books Premium at $70/mo covers ten users, both below QuickBooks Plus. QuickBooks wins back ground on US payroll, bank feeds and the size of its accountant network.

Can QuickBooks Online handle multiple companies?

Each legal entity needs its own subscription, and Intuit does not consolidate across files. Three subsidiaries on Plus cost $420/mo at list and still require a spreadsheet or a consolidation tool for the group close. Companies that need native consolidation move to NetSuite, Sage Intacct or a similar mid-market ledger.

Cite this: CFOpresso, "QuickBooks Online Pricing 2026: Plans After the August Rise", October 2026.

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