{"id":7152,"date":"2026-11-13T07:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T07:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.tchop.io\/?p=7152"},"modified":"2026-11-13T07:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T07:42:46","slug":"circle-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tchop.io\/en\/circle-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"Circle pricing in 2026: what each plan includes and what a branded community app costs on top"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Circle pricing, as of 13 November 2026, starts at $89 a month for Professional, then $199 for Business and $419 for Scale, all shown on annual billing, and Circle Plus has no public price. Every plan takes a cut of member payments, from 2 percent on Professional to 0.5 percent on Plus. Email marketing is a separate monthly charge by contact count, and a branded iOS and Android app is only available on Circle Plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circle pricing: the four plans at a glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Circle’s pricing page<\/a> lists three self-serve plans and one custom tier. Prices are in US dollars, based on annual billing, before tax. The page shows no month-to-month price. Reviewers who read the page’s code<\/a> report $99 and $219 for Professional and Business when paid monthly, so budget for a little more if you will not commit to a year; no monthly figure for Scale has been reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>Professional<\/th>Business<\/th>Scale<\/th>Circle Plus<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Price per month (annual billing)<\/td>$89<\/td>$199<\/td>$419<\/td>Custom<\/td><\/tr>
First-year platform cost<\/td>$1,068<\/td>$2,388<\/td>$5,028<\/td>On request<\/td><\/tr>
Transaction fee on member payments<\/td>2%<\/td>1%<\/td>1%<\/td>0.5%<\/td><\/tr>
Admins \/ moderators \/ spaces<\/td>3 \/ 10 \/ 20<\/td>5 \/ 15 \/ 30<\/td>10 \/ 100 \/ 100<\/td>Unlimited \/ unlimited \/ flexible<\/td><\/tr>
Workflows and automations<\/td>Not included<\/td>20<\/td>Unlimited<\/td>Unlimited<\/td><\/tr>
API and MCP<\/td>Not included<\/td>Included<\/td>Included<\/td>Included<\/td><\/tr>
AI agents, AI moderation, AI workflows<\/td>Not included<\/td>Not included<\/td>Included<\/td>Included<\/td><\/tr>
AI credits per month<\/td>2,500<\/td>2,500<\/td>5,000<\/td>Negotiable<\/td><\/tr>
Remove Circle branding<\/td>Not included<\/td>Included<\/td>Included<\/td>Included<\/td><\/tr>
Custom branded iOS and Android app<\/td>Not included<\/td>Not included<\/td>Not included<\/td>Included<\/td><\/tr>
Email Hub<\/td>Add-on<\/td>Add-on<\/td>Add-on<\/td>10,000 contacts included<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three rows in that table decide the budget for a brand community. Professional still shows Circle’s branding to members; removing it starts at Business. Automation, the API and Circle’s MCP server start at Business, and AI agents start at Scale. The branded app sits only in Circle Plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What each plan is for<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Professional, $89.<\/strong> The basics: unlimited members, community spaces, courses, live events, a website builder, member directory, payments, gamification, a custom domain, and Circle’s own iOS, Android and desktop apps. Members use the Circle app, with your community inside it. No automations, no API access, and two common needs cost extra on this plan: custom profile fields at $49 a month and branded email notifications at $40 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business, $199.<\/strong> Adds workflows (20 automations, 20 scheduled workflows, 20 bulk actions a month), custom profile fields, API access and the MCP server, activity scores, branded email notifications, standard migration services and the option to remove Circle’s branding. Circle describes it as the plan to “run on autopilot with workflows, APIs, and our MCP”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scale, $419.<\/strong> Everything in Business plus AI agents, AI workflows, AI moderation, a knowledge engine, unlimited workflows, webhooks, custom single sign-on and higher limits: 10 admins, 100 moderators, 100 spaces, 500 live stream attendees. Circle’s help centre confirms that AI Agents are included in Scale and Circle Plus at no additional cost<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circle Plus, custom.<\/strong> Everything in Scale plus the branded app: custom iOS and Android apps in your name in the app stores, a custom app builder, a customisable welcome experience, a push notification manager and native in-app payments. Circle handles the app store submission and adds a dedicated launch team, unlimited admins and moderators, Email Hub with 10,000 contacts, 90 days of concierge onboarding and recurring strategy calls. Circle publishes no price. SellCoursesOnline’s guide to Circle Plus<\/a> puts the expected cost at $30,000 a year, with a quarterly option of $7,500, and notes the price is not public. Our own Circle comparison page<\/a> works with the same figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The add-ons that move the bill<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The plan price is the floor. Four lines on Circle’s page push it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transaction fees.<\/strong> Circle keeps 2 percent of member payments on Professional, 1 percent on Business and Scale, and 0.5 percent on Plus. The page lists the percentage only and does not itemise payment processing fees, so ask what the processor charges on top. A community that bills $50,000 a year in memberships pays Circle $1,000 on Professional and $500 on Business before any processing fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email Hub.<\/strong> Email marketing is not in any self-serve plan. Circle’s Email Hub billing article<\/a> explains that it is billed monthly by subscribed contacts, in tiers, and that it is charged even when the community plan is paid annually. The slider on the pricing page gives the tiers: free under 100 contacts, $19 a month up to 1,000, $59 up to 5,000, $99 up to 10,000, $149 up to 20,000, $299 up to 50,000 and $439 up to 100,000. Only Circle Plus includes contacts, and only 10,000 of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limits.<\/strong> Each plan caps admins, moderators, spaces, live stream attendees and live hours. Extra admins cost $10 a month each and extra moderators $20 a month per 10. Extra spaces cost $20 a month per 10 on Professional and Business, and per 20 on Scale. Extra live attendees are $20 a month per 100 on Professional and Business, on request for Scale, and extra live hours $50 a month per 10. A Professional community with five admins and 30 spaces pays $40 a month more than the headline price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI credits.<\/strong> Professional and Business include 2,500 credits a month, Scale 5,000, and the credits cover Circle AI, workflow tasks, API calls and agent tokens together. Extra credits cost $10 per 1,000. On Business, workflow tasks and API calls draw on the same 2,500 credits as Circle AI, so a community that automates heavily should price extra credits in. API traffic has its own meter as well. Business includes 5,000 Admin API requests a month and Scale 30,000, with overage at $0.005 and $0.002 per request. The headless member API is included for 100 and 500 monthly active users, then $0.50 and $0.30 per user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a branded community costs: three worked examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All figures use Circle’s listed prices on annual billing, in US dollars, and exclude the payment processor’s fees and tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>Small paid community<\/th>Growing membership<\/th>Branded app<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Plan<\/td>Professional, $1,068<\/td>Business, $2,388<\/td>Circle Plus, custom<\/td><\/tr>
Email Hub<\/td>3,000 contacts: $49 x 12 = $588<\/td>8,000 contacts: $79 x 12 = $948<\/td>10,000 contacts included<\/td><\/tr>
Transaction fees<\/td>2% of $10,000 = $200<\/td>1% of $50,000 = $500<\/td>0.5% of $100,000 = $500<\/td><\/tr>
Extras<\/td>Custom profile fields: $588<\/td>None<\/td>None<\/td><\/tr>
Year one<\/td>$2,444<\/td>$3,836<\/td>Reported $30,000 for the Plus subscription, plus $500 fees<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first two columns show the pattern. The sticker price is 44 percent of the real bill on Professional and 62 percent on Business once email, fees and the add-on are in. The third column shows the step. Between Scale at $5,028 a year and the only plan with a branded app lies a gap that Circle fills with a sales call, and that one third-party guide puts at roughly six times the Scale price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether that step is worth it depends on what the app is for. We made the case for owning the channel rather than renting it in X closed Communities in five weeks<\/a>, and the branded app is where that ownership becomes visible to members. Circle’s own 2026 Community Trends Report, based on a survey of more than 750 community builders, found that 32 percent of communities now have a dedicated budget<\/a>, and that software often takes 30 to 50 percent of it. At that share, the branded app line decides the whole budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five things to check before you sign<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Who do members see?<\/strong> On Professional, your community lives inside Circle’s app under Circle’s branding. If the brand on the home screen matters, the cheapest honest comparison is Circle Plus against a white-label platform, since no plan below Plus gives you an app in your name. Ask which developer account the app is published from and whose name appears as publisher; Circle’s page says submission and ongoing app store operations are handled by Circle but does not say whose account holds the listing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. What do you sell through the platform?<\/strong> Transaction fees only hurt if member payments run through Circle. A free brand community pays none. A paid membership pays 0.5 to 2 percent of revenue for as long as it runs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. How many email contacts will you have in a year?<\/strong> Email Hub grows with the list. At 20,000 subscribed contacts it costs $1,788 a year on any self-serve plan.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Which limit will you hit first?<\/strong> Admins and spaces are the ones to check for a brand team with several departments. Price the add-ons, or the next plan, before you choose.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Where does the data live, and what can you take out?<\/strong> Circle’s plans list no data-residency option, and bulk import and export is included on every plan. For a European brand the first point is a data-protection question as much as a pricing one, so ask before you sign. For the second, check what the export contains (profiles, posts, payment history) and write it into the contract.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Where tchop fits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    tchop is built for the third column. Every project ships as a white-label native iOS and Android app plus a web app, under the client’s brand and published in the client’s own developer accounts, with no separate tier for it. Pricing is a licence: a setup fee, a monthly licence and a per-user component, with no percentage of what you charge members. Hosting is in Germany, on AWS Frankfurt or Hetzner, which answers the data question for European brands before the first call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Our comparison page draws the same line. A solo creator selling courses with a web-first community will get more from Circle’s payment and course stack at $89 a month. A brand, publisher or member organisation that needs the app in its own name, reach to members who never open a browser, and a bill that does not grow with revenue is comparing against Circle Plus. That is the comparison we publish ranges for. Why the owned channel pays off over time is the subject of how community becomes a brand’s moat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    See the full tchop vs Circle comparison<\/a>, or the shorter Circle alternative<\/a> page, for the side-by-side on pricing model, white-label app, hosting and member ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    How much does Circle cost per month?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    As of November 2026, Circle lists $89 a month for Professional, $199 for Business and $419 for Scale, all on annual billing, which means $1,068, $2,388 and $5,028 paid up front. Circle Plus is custom priced. Reviewers report month-to-month prices of $99 and $219 for the two lower plans, which Circle does not display. Storage is capped at 200 GB on Professional, 500 GB on Business and 1 TB on Scale and Plus, and live rooms hold 15, 20 and 50 participants respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Does Circle charge transaction fees?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Yes, on every plan. Professional keeps 2 percent of member payments, Business and Scale 1 percent, Circle Plus 0.5 percent. The pricing page does not list payment processing fees separately, so confirm those with Circle. Communities that do not sell anything through Circle pay no transaction fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How much does Circle Plus cost?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Circle does not publish a price. One third-party guide, SellCoursesOnline, puts the expected cost at $30,000 a year, with a quarterly option of $7,500; Circle has not confirmed it. Plus is the only plan with a custom branded iOS and Android app, and it includes Email Hub with 10,000 contacts, unlimited admins and moderators, and AI agents. It also carries ongoing app store operations handled by Circle, an SDK for ad-performance tracking and priority platform migrations, and 90 days of concierge onboarding against 60 on annual Scale plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Does Circle have a free plan?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    No. Circle offers a 14-day free trial without a credit card, and the cheapest plan is Professional at $89 a month on annual billing. Email Hub is free under 100 contacts and the first 30 days are free, after which it is billed monthly by contact count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n