Linear Pricing 2026: Free, Basic and Business per User

Linear is free for an unlimited number of members until a workspace passes 250 issues or 2 teams, then costs $10 per user a month on Basic and $16 per user a month on Business, both billed yearly. Enterprise is a custom annual contract. Those are the rates on Linear's pricing page as read on 26 October 2026, and they are the yearly rates: Linear's billing docs say monthly billing exists at a higher, undiscounted rate that the cards do not print.

The cap that ends the free plan is issues, not people. A five-person team that files 300 issues in its first quarter has to pay; a fifty-person team that uses Linear for two projects and 200 issues does not. That is the opposite of Jira, which is free for 10 users and then bills every seat, so the right comparison depends on how many issues you file per head.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracked 236 project management tools on 25 October 2026, and 115 of them (49%) offer a free tier, per the project management statistics page. Linear is the second most-listed alternative among the 23 bug tracking tools in that catalog, per its directory entry. For the editor and workflow, read the Linear review.

Linear plans and prices at a glance

Members are unlimited on every plan, so Linear never charges per seat for the free tier; it charges per user once you leave it. The feature table marks coding sessions and Loops as needing AI credits, a prepaid balance that sits outside the seat price, covered below.

Free: where the 250-issue cap bites

The free plan is a working tool, not a trial, and it ends at 250 issues or a third team. Everything structural is there: issues, projects, cycles, initiatives, customer requests, API and webhook access, import and export, Pulse, issue sync and Google sign-in. File uploads are limited to 10 MB each and release pipelines are not included.

Two hundred and fifty issues is roughly a month for a product team that files bugs as it finds them, and a year for a team that uses Linear as a roadmap. The 2-team limit is the other wall: a company that wants engineering and design as separate teams fits, one that adds support does not. Linear's billing docs bill paid plans on the number of unsuspended users in any role, so a seat you stop using keeps costing until you suspend it.

Basic: the plan most small teams land on

Basic removes the issue cap and lifts the team limit to 5, adds unlimited file uploads, admin roles and Loops, and allows one level of sub-teams and 15 release pipelines. For 10 users that is $1,200 a year on our arithmetic from the yearly rate, and for 20 users $2,400.

What Basic does not include is as important. Private teams, guest accounts, Insights dashboards, Linear Asks for Slack intake, the Zendesk and Intercom integrations, and the Triage and Code Intelligence features all sit on Business. A team that needs a contractor who should see one team only, or a support channel that creates issues, is a Business team whatever its size.

Business: guests, private teams and intake

Business costs 60% more per seat than Basic, and the features that force the upgrade are access controls rather than power features. Private teams and guest accounts are the usual trigger, followed by Linear Asks (Slack, email and web-form intake), Insights dashboards and the support integrations. Teams become unlimited, sub-teams go five levels deep, and pipelines are unlimited.

For 20 users, Business is $3,840 a year on our arithmetic, $1,440 more than Basic for the same headcount. Enterprise adds SAML and SCIM provisioning, IP restrictions, audit logs, HIPAA compliance, invoice or purchase-order billing and an account manager, on a yearly contract only, with no printed price.

AI credits: the meter outside the seat price

Coding sessions and Loops bill by usage from a prepaid balance, not from the seat fee. Linear's AI credits docs say a coding session is charged at the model provider's published token rates with no markup, plus sandbox runtime at $0.25 per 20-minute block, and a Loop run without a coding session typically costs $0.07 to $0.20. Both features need Basic or above.

The balance is opt-in. A workspace that never adds funds never sees a charge and never gets the two features. The minimum ad-hoc top-up is $10, the minimum automatic reload is $50, top-ups are card-only and invoiced separately from the subscription, and when the balance hits zero new work stops. The other AI features on the plan table, including the agent platform, MCP access and the Linear Agent, do not draw on credits.

What changed in late 2025

Basic went from $8 to $10 per user a month and Business from $14 to $16, both yearly rates, between 8 October and 12 November 2025. The Wayback Machine's copy of Linear's pricing page on 8 October 2025 prints $8 and $14; its copy on 12 November 2025 prints the same figures as the live page today. The free plan's 250 issues and 2 teams did not change.

For a 20-seat team that is $480 a year more on either plan, on our arithmetic: Basic rose from $1,920 to $2,400 and Business from $3,360 to $3,840. The percentage is steeper on Basic, 25% against 14% on Business, so the smaller teams took the larger increase. Linear's billing docs say subscription changes take effect at the end of the current period, which is the only protection a yearly subscriber had against the new rate.

A 20-seat year: Linear against Jira Standard

Twenty people on Linear Basic cost $2,400 a year; the same twenty on Jira Standard cost $2,450 on an annual plan or $2,328 month to month, our arithmetic from each vendor's printed rates. Jira sells annual Standard in user tiers, and 20 users fall in the 16-to-25 band priced at $2,450 on Atlassian's licensing page. Monthly Standard is $9.70 per user for the first 100 users, which is $194 a month for 20 people.

The two entry plans are within $50 of each other for twenty seats, so the choice is not price. Jira's free plan stops at 10 users and Linear's never does, which flips the comparison for a 12-person team with a light backlog: free on Linear, paid on Jira. Above 25 users Jira's annual tier jumps to $4,850 for up to 50, while Linear scales one seat at a time, so a 26-person team pays $3,120 on Linear Basic and $4,850 on Jira Standard annual. The Jira vs Linear page sizes that curve at 10, 25 and 50 users, Jira pricing covers Atlassian's own October rise, and the Jira review and Jira alternatives cover the product side.

Where Linear sits against the rest of the category

Linear prices like a developer tool, not like a work management suite: no per-seat free plan, no storage tiers, and a yearly-first price card. The project management pricing comparison puts ClickUp, Jira, Asana and monday.com side by side for a 10-user team, and ClickUp pricing and Asana pricing carry those vendors' seat ladders. Teams that want docs and tasks in one tool should read Notion pricing before paying for two subscriptions, and the best project management software ranking covers the wider field.

Non-profits get 75% off Basic and Business, per the billing docs, and Linear says it does not refund a yearly plan mid-term, which is why its own docs suggest starting monthly and switching once the team is sure.

Which Linear plan should you pick?

Stay free until the 250th issue, buy Basic when the cap ends and the team is one company, and buy Business the day you need a guest, a private team or Slack intake. Enterprise is for SAML, SCIM and purchase orders, not for size. Add AI credits only when a coding session or a Loop would replace work someone is paid to do, because the balance is a separate invoice with its own minimums.

How we checked these prices

Plan prices, limits and the feature table were checked on Linear's pricing page on 26 October 2026, and the billing rules, non-profit discount and AI credit rates on Linear's billing and AI credits documentation the same day. The 2025 prices come from Wayback Machine copies of Linear's own pricing page dated 8 October and 12 November 2025. Jira figures come from Atlassian's licensing page, read the same day. Yearly totals are our arithmetic from printed per-user rates. This site runs no test lab and did not subscribe to any plan for this page.

Techpresso data: Beehiiv's export for this newsletter, refreshed November 8, 2026, counts 800,000+ active subscribers, with an average open rate of 37%.

FAQ

How much does Linear cost in 2026?

Linear is free for unlimited members up to 250 issues and 2 teams. Basic is $10 per user a month and Business is $16 per user a month, both billed yearly, and Enterprise is a custom yearly contract. Monthly billing is available at a higher rate that the pricing page does not print. Those figures were read on Linear's pricing page in October 2026.

Is Linear free?

Yes, with a cap on issues rather than people. The free plan allows unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues, 10 MB file uploads and the full core of projects, cycles, initiatives, API access and the agent platform. Once a workspace passes 250 issues or needs a third team, it has to move to Basic.

How much does Linear cost for 20 users?

Twenty users cost $2,400 a year on Basic and $3,840 a year on Business, our arithmetic from the yearly per-user rates. Before the late-2025 price rise the same seats cost $1,920 and $3,360, so the increase is $480 a year on either plan for a team that size.

Did Linear raise its prices?

Yes. Wayback Machine copies of Linear's pricing page show Basic at $8 and Business at $14 per user a month on 8 October 2025, and the current rates on 12 November 2025. The free plan's limits did not change.

Is Linear cheaper than Jira?

For 20 seats they are nearly level: Linear Basic is $2,400 a year and Jira Standard is $2,450 on Atlassian's 16-to-25 user annual tier. Jira's free plan stops at 10 users while Linear's free plan has no member limit, so small teams with few issues pay nothing on Linear and pay on Jira. Above 25 users Jira's next annual tier is $4,850, which Linear Basic does not reach until 41 seats on our arithmetic.

Do Linear's AI features cost extra?

Two of them do. Coding sessions and Loops draw from a prepaid AI credit balance: provider token rates with no markup plus $0.25 per 20-minute sandbox block for a session, and typically $0.07 to $0.20 for a Loop run. The minimum top-up is $10 and the minimum automatic reload is $50. The agent platform, MCP access and the Linear Agent are included in the plan.

Cite this: Techpresso, "Linear Pricing 2026: Free, Basic and Business per User", October 2026.

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