Xero: invoicing software platform

The short answer

Buy Xero if more than one person needs to work in the books. Pricing is per organisation with no per-seat charge published anywhere on the page, so adding a bookkeeper, a partner and an external accountant costs nothing, which is the opposite of how most of this category prices. Standard at $50 per month is where most real businesses land, because that is where unlimited invoicing starts.

Skip it Skip the cheap tiers if you send any volume: Lite at $7 allows 5 invoices and quotes and Starter at $29 allows 20, and the limit counts approving as well as sending. Skip Xero entirely if you need multi-currency below the top tier, because multiple currencies only appear at Premium at $75. And think hard before signing on the current figures at all, since the page states that Xero subscription prices are increasing in November 2026 and publishes no new number alongside that notice.

Where Xero fits

Xero pricing

Xero publishes a full rate card, in US dollars, with no annual option. Read on 16 October 2026, the standing prices are Lite at $7 per month, Starter at $29, Standard at $50 and Premium at $75, each billed monthly and auto-renewing until cancelled. An 80% off for the first 3 months offer for new customers was running, with Standard shown at $10 per month during that period. The important caveat is not the discount: the page also states that Xero subscription prices are increasing in November 2026, and it publishes no new figure.

What Xero publishes

Lite

$7 per month (Monthly, auto-renewing until cancelled)Send 5 invoices and quotes, accept online invoice payments with fees applying, reconcile bank transactions, Smart Document Capture, real-time reports, Hubdoc included when connected.

Starter

$29 per month (Monthly, auto-renewing until cancelled)Send quotes and 20 invoices, enter 5 bills, reconcile bank transactions, Smart Document Capture, 30 day cash flow forecast, performance graphs. Optional add-ons: expense claims from $4 per month, projects from $7 per month, auto-reconcile at $5.00 per month.

Standard

$50 per month (Monthly, auto-renewing until cancelled)Unlimited invoices and quotes, automated bill entry and bill tracking, bulk reconciliation, 60 day cash flow forecast and 3 budgets, customisable performance dashboards, tailored financial health scorecards.

Premium

$75 per month (Monthly, auto-renewing until cancelled)Everything in Standard plus multiple currencies, KPI and ratio analysis, a 180 day cash flow forecast, industry benchmarking, and auto-reconcile transactions included rather than charged.

Prices as published on the Xero pricing plans page and read on 16 October 2026, in USD on the Global region setting. Xero sells in local currency elsewhere, so a buyer outside that setting should read their own regional page. Some promotional figures on the page are printed with spaces inside the numbers, so they are deliberately not recorded here.

There is no quote, but four things decide what you actually pay each month.

1. Invoice volume, because it forces the first upgrade and the caps are tighter than they look. Lite allows 5 invoices and quotes and Starter allows 20, and Xero states the limit applies to both approving and sending. Transactions initiated by app partners may automatically count towards it too, so a business with an e-commerce or booking integration can consume its allowance without sending anything by hand. Unlimited invoicing starts at Standard at $50 per month, which is the realistic entry price for most trading businesses.
2. The three usage add-ons, which are priced on top of every tier. Auto-reconcile transactions is optional at $5.00 per month and included at Premium. Employee expense and mileage claims are optional from $4 per month on Starter, Standard and Premium. Project time and cost tracking is optional from $7 per month on the same three tiers. A Starter plan carrying all three costs materially more than its $29 headline, and all three are usage charges invoiced for the previous month rather than fixed lines.
3. Payment acceptance, which is the unpublished number here. The page says payment fees apply to the use of online invoice payments and links out rather than publishing a rate, and adds that additional fees may be charged to customers whose Stripe account is managed by Xero for online payments. For a business collecting most of its revenue through Xero invoices, that is the largest line you cannot read off this page.
4. The November 2026 price rise, which is the one driver that affects every tier at once. The page states that Xero subscription prices are increasing in November 2026 and publishes no new figures alongside the notice. That makes $7, $29, $50 and $75 a snapshot rather than a rate card, and it makes asking for your plan's new figure in writing the first thing to do rather than the last.

What costs extra

• Auto-reconcile transactions: optional $5.00 per month on the lower tiers, included at Premium.
• Employee expense and mileage claims: optional from $4 per month on Starter, Standard and Premium.
• Track time and costs for projects: optional from $7 per month on Starter, Standard and Premium.
• Online invoice payment fees apply and are not published on the pricing page. Additional fees may be charged where Xero manages your Stripe account for online payments.
• Payroll, projects and expenses usage charges, and a chargeable direct bank feed, are invoiced in arrears for the previous month rather than billed up front.
• Hubdoc is included in Lite, Starter, Standard and Premium as long as it stays connected to the subscription, so it is a feature rather than an add-on.

Implementation and commercial terms

Xero publishes its commercial terms in full on the pricing page, which is rare enough to be worth reading before you compare it with anything. These rows are what the page confirms, read on 16 October 2026.

Published price

Yes, for all four tiers and all three usage add-ons

Billing basis

Flat monthly fee per organisation. No per-seat charge is published

Annual billing

None published. Subscriptions auto-renew monthly until cancelled

Implementation fee

None published. Xero points buyers to its accountant and bookkeeper directory instead

Free trial

30 days, with access to all features before choosing a plan. One month free is offered as an alternative to the current discount

Cancellation

Requires one month's notice

Downgrades

You can move to a less expensive plan one month after upgrading

Announced change

The page states Xero subscription prices are increasing in November 2026, with no new figures published

Price Xero from Standard at $50 per month, not from the $7 or $29 headline, unless you genuinely send fewer than twenty invoices a month and will not add an integration that consumes the allowance. Then add the usage add-ons you need at $5.00, from $4 and from $7 per month, and leave a line for payment fees the page does not publish. Finally, ask what your chosen plan will cost after the November 2026 increase and get it in an email. Everything else here is knowable today; that one figure decides whether the comparison you are running is still valid in six weeks.

Source: the Xero pricing plans page, checked 16 October 2026. Confirm current prices with the vendor before you budget.

What Xero gives up

How Xero compares

Small-business accounting is the most price-transparent corner of finance software: all four of these publish rate cards you can read without a sales call. The differences that matter are how they charge for people, and where the invoice and client caps sit. Every figure comes from that vendor's own pricing page, checked on 16 October 2026, with standing rates given rather than promotional ones.

What to test in a Xero trial

Xero publishes a 30-day free trial with access to all features before you choose a plan, set up either with your own data or a demo company, and no credit card required. That is enough to answer the four questions that decide the plan, plus one you have to ask rather than test.

1. Count your real monthly invoices, including anything an integration will create for you. Lite allows 5 invoices and quotes and Starter allows 20, and the limit counts approving as well as sending. Connect whatever app will feed Xero during the trial and watch what it does to the count, because that is the specific mechanism that pushes businesses from $29 to $50 unexpectedly.
2. Add every person who will ever need a login, and confirm none of them costs anything. This is Xero's main structural advantage and the trial is where you verify it on your own account: the bookkeeper, the partner, the external accountant. If your team is three or more people in the books, this one test is most of the reason to choose Xero over a seat-priced competitor.
3. Connect your bank and run a full reconciliation on a real month. Smart Document Capture and bank reconciliation are on every tier, bulk reconciliation starts at Standard, and auto-reconcile is an add-on at $5.00 per month below Premium. Reconciling one real month tells you which of those you actually need, which is a cheaper way to pick a tier than reading the comparison table.
4. Test online invoice payments end to end and then go and find the fee. The pricing page says payment fees apply and links out without publishing a rate, so this is the number you have to chase rather than read. Send a real invoice, let a client pay it, and get the rate in writing, including whether Xero manages the Stripe account and whether additional fees apply if it does.
5. Before the trial ends, email Xero and ask what your chosen plan will cost after the November 2026 increase. The page announces the rise without publishing new figures, so there is no way to answer this from the outside. If the answer changes your comparison against QuickBooks or FreshBooks, you want it during the trial rather than after you have moved your books.

Frequently asked questions about Xero