Circle Pricing 2026: What You Really Pay After Fees

Circle pricing starts at $89 per month for Professional and $199 for Business. Circle Plus uses custom pricing. Those are monthly equivalents on annual billing, so the minimum upfront commitments are $1,068 and $2,388. Your real bill also includes Circle's transaction fee, Stripe processing, and Stripe Billing on recurring memberships.

The transaction math changes the plan decision. Business costs $110 more each month but cuts Circle's fee from 2% to 1%. On public annual rates, that extra subscription pays for itself at about $11,000 in monthly membership revenue. Below that point, Professional is usually cheaper unless you need Business-only tools.

Circle pricing at a glance

Circle has two self-serve plans and one sales-led plan. Professional costs $89 per month, Business costs $199, and Circle Plus requires a quote. The first two prices are monthly equivalents when you pay annually. Every plan supports unlimited members, but admin limits, automation, storage, live capacity, and fees change.

These figures come from the official Circle pricing page. Prices are in US dollars, taxes are excluded, and Circle marks $89 and $199 as annual-billing rates. The screenshot below preserves that wording so you can compare the public offer with your checkout before committing.

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What Circle Professional includes at $89 a month

Professional is the sensible starting plan for most new paid communities. Its $89 monthly equivalent becomes a $1,068 annual charge. Circle then takes 2% of every payment before Stripe's own fees. You receive community, course, event, live-stream, website, gamification, analytics, and paid-membership tools without a member cap.

• 3 admins, 10 moderators, 20 spaces, and unlimited members.
• 200 GB of storage and 2,500 Circle AI credits each month.
• Live streams for 100 attendees and live rooms for 15 participants.
• 10 live hours per month, with extra hours available as an add-on.
• Courses, events, discussions, member profiles, gamification, and paid memberships.
• A custom domain, branded community styling, weekly digests, and payment migration.

The practical constraints are staff seats, spaces, and live capacity, not member count. Professional can run a substantial community if its structure is simple. The two costly omissions are workflows and removing Circle branding. Business also includes two Professional add-ons that otherwise cost $89 per month together.

What Circle Business adds at $199 a month

Business is a $199 monthly equivalent, or $2,388 paid annually. It lowers Circle's platform fee to 1%. The plan adds workflows, APIs, branded notifications, custom profile fields, activity scores, and automated transcriptions. It also removes Circle branding and raises limits for staff, spaces, storage, and live delivery.

• 5 admins, 15 moderators, 30 spaces, and 500 GB of storage.
• Live streams for 200 attendees, live rooms for 20 participants, and 15 live hours.
• 20 workflow automations, 20 scheduled workflows, and 20 bulk actions each month.
• 5,000 Admin API requests and 100 Headless Member API monthly active users.
• Branded email notifications, custom profile fields, content copilot, and no Circle branding.

Do not upgrade only because 1% looks lower than 2%. Business costs $110 more every month, so the fee reduction needs $11,000 of monthly revenue to cover that gap. Below it, upgrade only when a Business feature saves enough manual work or makes a better member experience possible.

What Circle Plus costs and includes

Circle Plus is a negotiated plan for organizations that need enterprise controls or higher limits. Circle does not publish a fixed price. The plan cuts Circle's transaction fee to 0.5% and includes 10,000 Email Hub contacts. It also adds custom SSO, advanced AI, a sandbox, priority services, and flexible live capacity.

• Unlimited admins and moderators, 1 TB of storage, and flexible space limits.
• AI Agents, AI workflows, custom SSO, a sandbox, and higher workflow limits.
• 30,000 Admin API requests and 500 Headless Member API monthly active users.
• Concierge onboarding, priority support, a dedicated manager, and migration services.
• 10,000 Email Hub contacts included, with optional branded iOS and Android apps.

The 0.5% fee can matter at high volume, but it is not enough to judge a private contract. Ask for the full annual price, implementation charges, overage rates, support scope, app fees, and renewal terms. Compare that total against Business using your actual revenue and delivery limits.

The real Circle transaction fee

Circle's advertised platform fee is only one layer of payment cost. A US card payment typically adds Stripe Payments at 2.9% plus $0.30. Recurring memberships also use Stripe Billing at about 0.7%. That makes a Professional subscription payment roughly 5.6% plus $0.30 before tax, currency conversion, disputes, or international-card surcharges.

On a $49 recurring membership, that works out to about $3.04 per payment on Professional, $2.55 on Business, and $2.31 on Circle Plus. A one-time course sale avoids the 0.7% Stripe Billing layer. International cards, currency conversion, tax software, refunds, and disputes can add more.

Circle confirms the separate platform and Stripe layers in its transaction fee guide. Its own Business subscription example adds 1% Circle, 2.9% plus $0.30 Stripe Payments, and 0.7% Stripe Billing. The combined percentages above apply that same method to all three plans.

Professional vs Business: the $11,000 break-even point

Professional and Business reach the same combined subscription and fee cost at about $11,000 in monthly revenue. The plans differ by $110 per month and one percentage point in Circle fees. Stripe processing, Billing, and the per-payment charge are identical, so they cancel out when you compare the two tiers.

The table assumes US cards, recurring $49 memberships, annual-billing plan prices, and no tax or international surcharges. The formula is simple: divide the $110 monthly plan gap by the 1% fee reduction. The answer is $11,000, or about 225 successful $49 payments each month.

For a broader platform comparison, use our Creator Platform Fee Calculator. It compares 11 platforms with the same revenue input. Read the Circle billing note before treating a recurring-membership total as final, because Stripe Billing is a separate percentage layer.

Circle add-on costs that raise the bill

Circle's add-ons can erase the apparent gap between plans. Professional charges separately for branded email notifications and custom profile fields. Business includes both. Each plan can incur fees for staff, spaces, live capacity, AI credits, Email Hub contacts, and API overages.

Professional with both branding add-ons and Email Hub at 10,000 contacts has a displayed run rate of $277 per month before payment fees. Business with Email Hub is $298, only $21 more, while adding workflows, APIs, higher limits, and the lower transaction fee. Compare complete configurations, not bare plan cards.

Email Hub starts free below 100 contacts and scales with contact count. Circle explains automatic upgrades and prorating in its Email Hub billing guide. Circle Plus includes the first 10,000 contacts in its custom contract.

Monthly vs annual Circle billing

Circle offers monthly and annual billing, but the public pricing page displays only annual-billing equivalents. That means $89 and $199 are not month-to-month checkout prices. Circle shows the exact monthly rate inside the trial or account flow. Use the public figures for annual comparisons, then verify the shorter commitment before paying.

Several third-party pricing guides publish month-to-month numbers as if Circle lists them publicly. Circle's current pricing page does not. If cash flow matters more than the lowest annual rate, start the no-card trial, open the billing screen, and record the exact monthly offer before choosing a commitment.

Circle free trial, refunds, and cancellation

Circle offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Its Creator Terms add a 30-day money-back guarantee for the initial Professional or Business subscription. It covers monthly and annual purchases, but Circle Plus is excluded. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the active billing cycle.

• The 14-day trial does not require a card, and you can cancel before selecting a paid plan.
• The 30-day guarantee covers the initial Professional or Business purchase, subject to the Creator Terms.
• Canceling stops the next renewal. Access continues through the paid billing period.
• Member paywall subscriptions do not end when you cancel Circle; you must cancel or migrate them separately.
• Process member refunds inside Circle if you want Circle to return its platform-fee portion.

Read the Circle Creator Terms before relying on the guarantee, and use Circle's account cancellation guide before closing a paid community. The second step matters because customer subscriptions can continue even after the community plan is scheduled to end.

The Bouncer: who should not pay for Circle

Circle is a poor fit when its polished community experience does not justify a $1,068 upfront annual commitment. It is hard to defend for price-sensitive creators who need a simple group, basic course, and payments. The transaction stack matters more as revenue grows, because Circle never becomes a zero-fee option.

• Pre-revenue creators who need a permanent free plan or the lowest possible monthly commitment.
• High-volume sellers whose main priority is the lowest all-in checkout fee.
• Course businesses that need advanced LMS controls more than community spaces and live events.
• Businesses that cannot or do not want to use Stripe for payment processing.
• Creators who need native branded apps but cannot justify a Circle Plus contract and app add-on.

Circle earns its premium through presentation, flexible spaces, events, workflows, and an integrated member experience. If you will not use those strengths, a cheaper platform is not a compromise. It is a better allocation of cash. Start with the outcome your community needs, then buy only the features that support it.

Circle vs Skool on price

Circle wins on community design flexibility, spaces, events, workflows, websites, and brand control. Skool wins on price simplicity. Its $9 Hobby and $99 Pro plans include payment processing in their published 10% and 2.9% fees. Circle starts higher and adds Stripe, but it offers a broader set of community and automation tools.

Our full Skool vs Circle comparison runs the fee math at multiple revenue levels and compares the product experience. The separate Skool pricing guide explains its $9 and $99 tiers. Use those pages if price simplicity matters more than Circle's wider feature set.

Which Circle plan should you pick?

Choose Professional until either a Business-only feature becomes essential or monthly membership revenue reaches about $11,000. Choose Business above that revenue level, or sooner for workflows, APIs, branded notifications, custom fields, and white-label presentation. Choose Circle Plus only when SSO, enterprise service, advanced AI, or much higher delivery limits justify a negotiated contract.

• Professional: the default for most new communities and any paid community below the fee break-even point.
• Business: the operational plan for automation, integrations, brand control, or revenue above roughly $11,000 per month.
• Circle Plus: the procurement choice for SSO, advanced AI, service guarantees, much higher limits, or branded apps.

The cleanest buying rule is to ignore the longest feature list. Price the exact setup you need, add the payment stack, and compare it with current revenue. For most readers, Professional is the correct first choice. Business is an upgrade you should be able to justify with either saved work or saved fees.