Sprout Social pricing: the real cost for 1, 3 and 10 seats

Sprout Social plans as of October 24, 2026

Sprout Social, the social media management suite for teams, charges per seat: everyone who uses the tool pays a subscription. Here’s what its pricing page said on October 24, 2026:

For Standard, Professional and Advanced, our data only includes the yearly price: the monthly price is missing data (planned source: Sprout Social pricing page). Every plan includes 100 credits per seat per month for Trellis, Sprout’s AI agent.

How much Sprout Social costs for 1, 3 and 10 seats

The math is simple: seat price × number of people. Per month, taxes not specified on the page we read:

Over a year: 3 seats on Standard come to $7,164, 10 seats on Advanced to $47,880. On Essentials, switching from monthly to yearly billing saves $20 per seat per month, or $240 per seat per year.

What pushes your Sprout Social bill up

1. Every person is a seat. Adding an intern or a support colleague adds a full subscription.
2. The consolidated inbox starts on Standard. Going from Essentials ($79) to Standard ($199) multiplies the seat price by more than 2.5.
3. 5 social profiles max on Essentials and Standard. Six profiles (one brand on six networks, or two brands on three networks each) require Professional ($299).
4. The API is reserved for Advanced ($399 per seat per month, billed yearly). If you want to plug in your own code through the API, that’s the tier you need; the page we read doesn’t say which plan includes CRM integrations.
5. SSO is quote-only (Enterprise).

Sprout Social free trial

The trial runs 30 days with no credit card, and the page says “Annual billing” next to it. That’s long: enough time to test the inbox and reports with your team before committing. No permanent free plan is mentioned.

Sprout Social pricing compared with PlugKit

PlugKit doesn’t charge per seat but per tier of connected accounts: $49 a month up to 5 accounts (Creator), $97 up to 30 (Pro), then $3 per account from 31 to 100. Monthly billing only, prices read October 24, 2026. The full grid is on our PlugKit pricing page.

Two caveats to read this table honestly:

• It’s not the same product. Sprout includes social listening, review management, productivity reports and helpdesk integrations; PlugKit doesn’t mention them. PlugKit includes comment-to-DM, broadcasts, follow-up sequences and WhatsApp and Telegram messaging; Sprout doesn’t mention them.
• PlugKit bills accounts, not people, but its pages read October 24, 2026 don’t detail roles or team approvals. For a team of 10, check that point with PlugKit before comparing.

PlugKit has two variable costs: X API calls, passed through at cost and capped at $20 a month by default, and Reel Studio video credits, sold separately beyond the included ones (10 credits for $15). The feature-by-feature comparison is in Sprout Social vs PlugKit. To see PlugKit at work on a real account, read our PlugKit review.

Cheaper alternatives to Sprout Social?

If per-seat pricing is the problem, four options read on October 24, 2026:

• Sendible: unlimited users on every plan, $35 a month for 6 profiles.
• Agorapulse: inbox included from Standard, at $79 per user per month billed yearly, with 10 profiles.
• Metricool: billed per brand, $25 a month for 5 brands billed monthly, Free plan for 1 brand.
• Buffer Team: unlimited users, $12 per channel per month for the first 10 channels.

Details, plus three more tools sorted by need, are in our Sprout Social alternative guide.