How Much Does a Press Release Cost in 2026? Nine Distribution Services Priced
For one 400-word release with one image and one link, the cheapest fitting tier among the nine dollar-priced services on 20 Oct 2026 is $29 per release, at 24-7 Press Release (Simple Post, own site only) and PRLog (Basic). Among them, listings of outside news-site distribution start at $49 per release. Business Wire's $475 starting price is the highest.
Dupple data: on 20 Oct 2026 we checked the price page of each of 10 distribution services, and 9 print a per-release price while PR Newswire does not. For the same 400 words, the cheapest fitting tiers of those nine, all in dollars, sit $446 apart.
A release price buys a hosted page, a distribution list and a report, not coverage. PR Underground says it cannot promise journalist pickup or AI mentions. Every reach figure below is the vendor's wording, because we compared price pages and did not test distribution.
Three limits decide the real bill: the word cap, whether an image and a link sit inside the release or only attach to it, and whether the price is per release or per pack. Our scenario is 400 words in total, headline and boilerplate included, with one image and one clickable link, priced at the cheapest tier that accepts it.
| Service | Cheapest fitting tier | Highest per-release tier | 12 releases | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-7 Press Release | $29 Simple Post (own site only) | $479 Mass Media Visibility | $348.00 | The top tier caps words at 375, then $110 per extra 100 |
| PRLog | Basic, tied with 24-7 Press Release | $99 Premium2, plus a $389 PR Newswire add-on | $348.00 | 500 words included, $10 per extra 100 |
| Press Release Power | $49.00 Silver (own site only) | $1,499.00 Ultra Premium | $588.00 | First syndication tier is Gold at $99.00 |
| PR Underground | $74.99 Basic | $419.99 US National | $479.88 | Bulk credits expire after 6 months |
| Send2Press | $99 Online Basic | $699 S2P+CISION Pro | $1,188.00 | S2P+CISION Pro: $195 per 100 words or fraction over 400 |
| EIN Presswire | $149 Basic | $149 Basic, packs cost less per release | $999.00 (15 bought) | Packs expire after 365 days |
| PRWeb | $360 Advanced | $480 Premium | $4,320.00 | Basic at $120 has no embedded link or image |
| Newswire | $399 Starter | $965 Feature | $4,788.00 | No pack price printed |
| Business Wire | $475 starting price (US domestic local) | Wider circuits are quoted | $5,700.00 | Starting price for one scope; volume is quoted |
| PR Newswire | Prints no price | Prints no price | No price | Cost varies by scope, reach and extras |
The table is ordered by the price of each service's cheapest fitting tier, with ties alphabetical, and PR Newswire, which prints no price, comes last. All figures were checked on the vendors' own pages on 20 Oct 2026.
What does a press release distribution service sell?
A distribution service publishes your announcement on its own site, sends it to partner news sites and sometimes journalists, and reports where it appeared. The price tracks outlets, word caps and extras, not story quality.
How we read the prices
Each number comes from the service's own pricing, comparison, guideline or FAQ pages, read on 20 Oct 2026, in US dollars. A tier fits when its page allows 400 words, an image and a link, or prints no limit on them, and we say which. Promotions stay out of the table. The order ranks price, not quality or reach. Journalist databases and monitoring are a different purchase, sold by plan or quote, as our PR software ranking shows.
24-7 Press Release: the floor price, and a word cap at the top
24-7 Press Release prices six tiers per release: Simple Post $29, Visibility Boost $49, PR Network Plus $89, Integrated Media Pro $139, Pro+ $199 and Mass Media Visibility $479. Simple Post publishes on the vendor's site only, with no wire distribution or syndication, and allows one feature image and two keyword links. Visibility Boost is the first tier that lists outside outlets, 100+ regional and metro sites in the vendor's words.
Watch out: the $479 tier lists a PR Newswire national wire route, caps a release at 375 words counting headline, subhead and boilerplate, and charges $110 per extra 100 words. Our scenario needs one more block, and the page does not say whether a part block is billed in full.
a dated page with a link, or releases that stay under the cap.
PRLog: a free tier beside the other floor price
PRLog prices per press release: Free (ad supported), Basic $29, Premium $49 and Premium2 $99. Every column includes 500 words, and a hover note puts extra words at $10 per 100, more with the PR Newswire add-on. Basic lists one photo, two links and no ads. Premium lists Google News, syndication to 200+ more industry and news sites, three photos and five links, and Premium2 lists 500+ more sites.
PR Newswire is a separate add-on at $389 per release, not for litigation or public-company content, so Premium2 plus the add-on is $488 by our addition.
Watch out: the Free column lists plain links and no search-optimized photo, and the table shows an AP add-on with no price beside it.
a photo, two links and no ads at an entry price.
Press Release Power: Silver stays flat in packs
Press Release Power sells five single-release tiers: Silver $49.00, Gold $99.00, Diamond $349.00, Premium Distribution Network $999.00 and Ultra Premium $1,499.00. Silver is published on its own site with social posts and search indexing, runs 400 to 500 words and allows a featured image and two hyperlinks. Gold is the first tier to list guaranteed syndication (100+ sites) and allows 1,000 words, and the top two add APNews.com and USAToday.com. Its home page promises confirmed syndication starting at the Silver price, but Silver lists only its own site and crosses out the outside channels, so we follow the plan table.
On the Monthly tab Silver is $98.00 for 2 PRs and $784.00 for 16, which is $49.00 each time. Unlimited plans are listed at $499.00 on that tab and $1,999.00 on the Yearly tab, with the same own-site limits. It also takes free submissions on its own site.
rare sends where the price should ignore volume.
PR Underground: the pack discount is the point
PR Underground has two tiers, sold per release, in packs or by subscription: Basic from $74.99 and US National from $419.99. Basic is $74.99 for 1 to 4 releases, $49.99 each for 5 to 9, $39.99 each for 10 to 29 and $37.50 at 30, while US National runs $419.99, $380, $360 and $350 over the same bands. US National adds Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch and the PR Newswire network, in the vendor's words. Subscriptions run Basic $69.99 a month for 1 release, $209.99 for 6 and $345 for 10, and US National $399.99 for 1, with a 3-month minimum and credits that expire after 30 days.
Watch out: bulk credits last 6 months, so 12 releases spread over a year could be two packs of six at $49.99, which is $599.88, and the cheapest subscription route is 3 a month for 4 months at $129.99, which is $519.96, while 6 a month for the 3-month minimum is $629.97 and leaves 6 of 18 credits unused. The pricing page prints no word, image or link cap, but the editorial guidelines allow 100 to 2,000 words and up to 5 images; the one-link-per-100-words cap is listed for plans that include EIN Presswire distribution, and the prohibited list names "embedded or partner links", so confirm a link before buying.
several releases within six months.
Send2Press: twelve packages and no subscription
Send2Press charges per release issued across twelve packages, from Online Basic $99 and National Basic $199 up to National Pro $289, plus S2P+CISION Basic $599 and Pro $699 on the PR Newswire network, in the vendor's description. Its own packages carry a 1,200-word base limit. Online Basic includes one image and unlimited anchor links within reason, all marked nofollow, and leaves out AP distribution.
Watch out: S2P+CISION Basic allows 500 words and charges $95 per extra 100 words or fraction, while Pro allows 400 and charges $195, with every transmitted word counted. Extra images cost more, with no figure printed.
printed prices and one-off sends.
EIN Presswire: cheaper per release in packs
EIN Presswire sells Basic at $149 for one release, Pro+ at $499 for five and Corporate at $999 for 15, each usable for 365 days from purchase. That is $99.80 a release in Pro+ and $66.60 in Corporate. Word limits are 700, 1,000 and 2,500, with three keyword links per release and 1, 3 or 5 embedded images. The vendor says every package includes AP News, Nexstar and the USA TODAY Network.
Promo: a limited-time offer adds a sixth Pro+ release free, making $83.17 each, and the page shows a countdown, so we kept it out of the table.
12 releases in a year, or up to 15.
PRWeb: the link and the image cost extra
PRWeb lists four tiers per news release: Basic $120, Standard $245, Advanced $360 and Premium $480, with Web Influence and Web Power on quote. Basic's description tells you to include a link to your website, but its comparison table shows embedded hyperlinks and images only from Advanced, with Basic and Standard accepting images as attachments, so we price the clickable-link scenario at $360. Standard lists a network of 1,200+ sites powered by PR Newswire.
Watch out: Priority Distribution, a 4-hour send, is a $110 add-on on Advanced and Premium. The pricing and comparison pages print no word limit.
releases that need an embedded link and image.
Newswire: unlimited words and images, no pack price
Newswire prints four tiers per release: Starter $399, Basic $659, Feature $965 and a state tier at $599, and says the prices cover unlimited words and images. Basic lists AP News, and Feature adds Yahoo and Nexstar. The reach numbers on its cards are the vendor's estimates.
Watch out: no pack or subscription price is printed, so 12 releases are twelve times the per-release price. The page states no link limit.
long stories, since words are not capped.
Business Wire: the highest starting price
Business Wire prints one price: $475 as a starting price for 400 words with U.S. domestic local distribution. Every release includes 400 words with unlimited hyperlinks and a full-color linked logo, and the page states no other image rule. Wider circuits by geography, industry and audience, and volume discounts, are quoted rather than printed.
Watch out: that starting price covers one scope, so 12 releases at that scope are $5,700.00 by our multiplication, before any quoted discount.
a 400-word local U.S. release you want priced before a sales call.
PR Newswire: no price printed
PR Newswire prints no price. Its FAQ answers the cost question with "Costs vary based on distribution scope, geographic reach and additional services such as multimedia, targeting and amplification channels." Several services above name a PR Newswire route on their own pages: the $389 PRLog add-on, PR Underground's US National tier, the $479 tier at 24-7 Press Release and Send2Press's two S2P+CISION packages. Those are other sellers' prices with their own word caps, not PR Newswire's rate card.
buyers who can request a quote and compare it with those prices.
Where the order changes
At 12 releases the order changes in two places: PR Underground's 10-to-29 band ($479.88 for twelve, used within six months) moves ahead of Press Release Power ($588.00), and EIN Presswire's 15-release pack ($999.00) moves ahead of Send2Press ($1,188.00). The 12-release column is the per-release price times twelve, except PR Underground (12 × $39.99) and EIN (one Corporate pack of 15), and Business Wire's figure is a starting price.
Past 400 words the top tiers change first. A 401-word release on Send2Press's S2P+CISION Pro costs $894, which is $699 plus one $195 block, and the 24-7 Press Release top tier needs a $110 block for ours.
How to choose
- One release, lowest price: the two entry tiers in the table.
- Outside news sites: the $49 tiers that list them, 24-7 Press Release's Visibility Boost and PRLog's Premium.
- Several releases a year: EIN Presswire's Corporate pack or PR Underground's pack bands, both with expiry dates.
- A different job: a contact list or outbound sequence belongs in our lead generation tools ranking, and publishing from one draft to a site you own and several channels is in our content marketing platforms ranking.
- Posts around the release: scheduling them is a monthly subscription, priced in our social media management tools ranking.
Common mistakes
- Buying the top tier of a capped service. A 401-word release on Send2Press's S2P+CISION Pro costs $894, and 24-7 Press Release adds a block past 375 words.
- Assuming a link and an image come with the entry tier. PRWeb's Basic is $120, and the tier with an embedded link and image costs $240 more.
- Buying a pack you cannot finish. EIN's 15-release pack costs $83.25 per release if you use 12, and PR Underground's credits end after six months.
FAQ
How much does a press release cost in 2026?
On 20 Oct 2026 the cheapest tiers that fit a 400-word release with one image and one link sit $446 apart across nine dollar-priced services, starting at $29 per release, and the highest tiers printed reach $1,499.00. PR Newswire prints no price.
Is there a free press release site?
PRLog has a Free column, ad supported, with plain links and no search-optimized photo, and Press Release Power takes free submissions on its own site.
How much does PR Newswire cost compared with Business Wire?
Business Wire prints $475 as a starting price for 400 words with U.S. domestic local distribution (read 20 Oct 2026 on its pricing page), with wider circuits and volume discounts quoted. PR Newswire prints no price and says costs vary with scope, reach and extras, so the two cannot be compared on printed figures.
Is a press release worth it for SEO?
We did not measure search effects, so these are vendor statements. PRWeb says posting increases visibility in relevant search results, and Send2Press says every link in a release is marked nofollow.
How long should a press release be?
Vendors set caps, not targets. EIN Presswire allows 700, 1,000 or 2,500 words by package, Send2Press names 800 words a good length, and PR Underground allows 100 to 2,000 and recommends under 800. The 24-7 Press Release top tier caps at 375 before extra charges.
Bottom line
Pick on limits before price. Take an entry tier when an own-site page with a link is enough, a tier that lists outside news sites when you want them, and a pack when you send many releases. Read the word cap and the link and image rules of the tier you buy. Prices were checked on 20 Oct 2026 and move.
Dupple X is a paid membership; the plan includes an ad-free Techpresso, software deals and 300+ AI courses.
Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.
