Price QuickBooks Online on the users you actually have. Seats come in blocks of 1, 3, 5 and 25, so needing a sixth person jumps you from $140 to $340 a month. See the real cost per user, the seats you pay for and don't use, and the first-year promo price.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 user, Simple Start | $38.00 a month, $456.00 a year |
| 5 users, the last tier before the cliff | $140.00 a month on Plus, $28.00 per user |
| 6 users, forced into Advanced | $340.00 a month, which is $56.67 per user you actually have |
| 25 users, the same Advanced plan filled | $13.60 per user, the cheapest way to buy QuickBooks |
| Simple Start first year with the 50% promo | $399.00 instead of $456.00 |
| Advanced first year with the promo | $3,570.00 instead of $4,080.00 |
| Plan | List price | Promo price (first 3 months) | Users included | Fee per seat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Start | $38.00 / month | $19.00 / month | 1 | $38.00 |
| Essentials | $85.00 / month | $42.50 / month | 3 | $28.33 |
| Plus | $140.00 / month | $70.00 / month | 5 | $28.00 |
| Advanced | $340.00 / month | $170.00 / month | 25 | $13.60 |
List prices and the “50% off for 3 months” promotion are both taken from Intuit’s pricing page on 17 October 2026 and match an independent third-party comparison of the same four tiers. Annual figures are simply twelve times the monthly list price. Advanced also includes three accountant seats where the others include two.
Plan prices, user limits and the promotion all come from Intuit's own QuickBooks Online pricing page, read on 17 October 2026, and they are corroborated item by item by an independent third-party comparison of the same four tiers. Both agree on $38.00, $85.00, $140.00 and $340.00 a month, and on 1, 3, 5 and 25 users. The promotion is 50% off the first three months on every tier, which the official page prints as $19.00, $42.50, $70.00 and $170.00.
One caveat worth passing on: a price-tracking site that claims to re-check monthly lists $75.00, $115.00 and $275.00 for Essentials, Plus and Advanced as of June 2026. Those numbers do not match Intuit's page today and the gap is large enough to change a decision, so this page follows the current official figures and you should confirm against the official page before signing anything.
QuickBooks does not sell seats one at a time. It sells four blocks: 1, 3, 5 and 25. That means the price you pay is decided less by how many people you have than by which side of a boundary you fall on. A company of five pays $140.00 a month. A company of six pays $340.00, $200.00 more, $2,400.00 a year — because there is nothing in between, and it now owns nineteen seats nobody sits in.
This is also why the per-seat figures flatter Advanced so much. Dividing $340.00 by 25 gives $13.60 a seat, which is genuinely the cheapest way to buy QuickBooks. But that rate only exists if you fill the plan. Six people on Advanced are paying $56.67 each for seats that are worth $13.60 to a team of twenty-five, on an identical invoice.
The other thing the headline prices hide is the promotion. Because the discount covers three months of the first year, the first twelve months cost ten and a half months of list price, not twelve. A budget built off the promotional figure is roughly 12.5% light from month four onwards.
Simple Start is $38.00 a month for 1 user, Essentials $85.00 for 3, Plus $140.00 for 5 and Advanced $340.00 for 25. Those are list prices; the official page currently advertises 50% off the first three months. A five-person team pays $140.00 a month, a six-person team $340.00.
Not one at a time. QuickBooks sells seats in blocks, 1, 3, 5 and 25, so adding a person only costs money when it pushes you past a limit. Going from five people to six does exactly that: Plus stops at five, so you move to Advanced and pay $200.00 more a month, $2,400.00 a year, for twenty extra seats you may never use.
On pure seat maths, Advanced: $340.00 divided by 25 seats is $13.60 per seat, against $28.00 on Plus and $38.00 on Simple Start. But that rate only applies if you fill it. Six people on Advanced pay $56.67 each for the same $340.00 invoice that gives twenty-five people a $13.60 rate. The best value plan is the smallest one that fits your headcount.
With the current promotion, ten and a half months of list price: $399.00 for Simple Start against $456.00 at full price, or $3,570.00 for Advanced against $4,080.00. The discount covers three months and then the price reverts, so a budget built on the promotional figure runs about 12.5% light from month four.
Yes, but only in steps. A filled Advanced plan works out at $13.60 per seat, a filled Plus at $28.00 and Simple Start at $38.00. The catch is that the improvement only arrives when you actually use the seats, and the jump into Advanced costs $200.00 a month, more than the two lower upgrades combined.
Payroll, Payments, QuickBooks Time and paid integrations are all billed separately and none are priced on the public page. Accountant access is listed separately too: two seats on most plans, three on Advanced, and they are not counted against the user limits used above.
Use Intuit's own page. This calculator uses $38.00, $85.00, $140.00 and $340.00, read from the official pricing page on 17 October 2026 and matching an independent third-party comparison. A price tracker listing $75.00, $115.00 and $275.00 as of June 2026 conflicts with those figures; the gap is large enough to matter, so confirm against the official page before committing.