Is Trello Free in 2026? What the Free Plan Covers and Where It Stops
Short answer: yes. Trello's Free plan costs $0 and includes unlimited cards, up to 10 boards per Workspace and 250 Workspace command runs a month. The two limits that matter most are the board ceiling and the collaborator cap. Once a free Workspace passes that cap, its boards turn view-only.
Toolradar data: Toolradar evaluated 366 project management tools as of October 2026, and 38% of them have a free plan. Trello's free tier is one of those. It stops at team size and at a feature list: Custom Fields, the full-access Planner, card mirroring and unlimited boards start on Standard. Toolradar's project management ranking
If you work alone or with a small group, the free plan can carry real projects. The table below shows where the free tier ends and what each paid tier adds, using the features Trello's pricing page prints.
The free plan against the paid tiers
Trello sells one free plan and three paid tiers, all priced per user. The rates below are the ones the pricing page leads with, billed annually, with the monthly rate in brackets.
| What you get | Free | Standard | Premium | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per user | $0 | $5 a month billed annually ($6 billed monthly) | $10 a month billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly) | $17.50 a month billed annually ($210 a year per user) |
| Boards | Up to 10 per Workspace | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Collaborators | Capped per Workspace | No cap | No cap | No cap |
| Workspace command runs | 250 a month | 1,000 a month | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage per file | 10MB | 250MB | 250MB, carried from Standard | 250MB, carried from Standard |
| Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard and Map views | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Admin and security features | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| SSO and user provisioning | Separate Atlassian Guard subscription, from $4 per user a month | Same | Same | Included with Atlassian Guard |
Two rows decide most cases: the board ceiling and the collaborator cap. A solo user or a small team that stays inside ten boards can stay on Free. Standard removes the board ceiling, raises command runs to 1,000 a month and adds Custom Fields and the full-access Planner. The free plan keeps a view-only Planner.
The collaborator cap is the limit that bites
Trello's pricing card for the free plan reads "Free for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace" (trello.com/pricing, as of October 2026). The help center explains what happens past that line: when a free Workspace has more collaborators than the cap allows, its boards become view-only. Members can still open every board, but they cannot change the cards in them, and automations on those boards stop running. Trello's help article on the collaborator limit
That makes the cap a freeze, not a warning. The same article names two ways out: reduce the collaborator count, or move the Workspace onto a paid plan. The help article says paid Workspaces are not capped, with one exception: a Workspace that downgrades to the free plan is limited to 10 collaborators from the day its subscription ends.
For a team, the practical rule is to decide on a paid plan before the person who breaks the cap joins, not after the boards go read-only. A two-person project will never reach the cap. A team that expects to hire through the next quarter should price Standard now. For a wider look at free tiers and their caps, the free project management software guide lists what other tools print.
What the free plan leaves out
The free feature list is short: unlimited cards, unlimited Power-Ups per board, the iOS and Android apps, two-factor authentication, assignee and due dates, an activity log and an inbox. Most of the working features sit on Standard. The pricing page lists the full-access Planner, advanced checklists, card mirroring, Custom Fields, list colors, collapsible lists, saved searches and single-board guests under Standard. The free plan keeps a view-only Planner.
Custom Fields matter most. A team that tracks status, owner or budget on each card will need Standard sooner than it expects, because the free list does not include them at all.
Storage is the second surprise. The free plan caps each file at 10MB, while Standard raises that to 250MB. A larger PDF or a screenshot pack will not attach on the free plan.
Premium adds the Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard and Map views, admin and security features, workspace-level templates, collections, observers and simple data export. A team that plans work against a timeline, or that needs an admin layer, needs Premium. Enterprise adds organization-wide permissions and SSO through Atlassian Guard.
Monthly versus annual billing
The pricing card leads with the annual rate and prints the monthly rate in brackets. Standard shows $5 per user a month billed annually and $6 billed monthly. Premium shows $10 billed annually and $12.50 billed monthly. Because the annual figure is the one that appears first, a quick scan can hide the gap.
Over a year, one Standard seat costs $60 on annual billing and $72 on monthly billing, a $12 difference. One Premium seat costs $120 on annual billing and $150 on monthly, a $30 difference. For an eight-seat Standard team, the year comes to $480 billed annually against $576 billed monthly.
Annual billing is the better deal for a team that expects to keep Trello for a full year. Monthly billing suits a team that may leave within months, and the $96 gap for eight seats is the price of that flexibility.
What the archived pricing page shows
Archived captures of Trello's pricing page from March 2, 2024 to August 1, 2025 print the same Standard and Premium rates. Six captures, from March 2, 2024, September 3, 2024, January 2, 2025, April 1, 2025, July 2, 2025 and August 1, 2025, each print the same Standard and Premium rates shown in the table above, with the same annual and monthly split. The September 2024 capture and the January 2025 capture show the change that matters for the free plan.
That change is the Free card's wording. The September 2024 capture reads "Free for your whole team." The January 2025 capture reads "Free for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace," the cap language that is still on the page as of October 2026. The wording changed between the September 3, 2024 and January 2, 2025 captures.
What users report
Several Hacker News comments discuss the free tier's terms. One January 2017 commenter wrote: "They used to have a blurb on their pricing page that said Trello will always have a free option. It's curiously not there anymore" (the comment then links the pricing page). Hacker News comment, January 9, 2017
In the same thread, a team that compared Trello with Jira reported: "It cost more for less features. So we stayed with JIRA." Hacker News comment, January 9, 2017
A June 2025 commenter wrote: "Trello pricing just got a lot more reasonable, but there is one feature that might get me thinking of moving: conditional logic in automations." Hacker News comment, June 2, 2025 The captures from April 1 and July 2, 2025 print the same rates, so no rate change is visible between them.
How the price compares
Asana, a project tool that competes for the same team budget, lists a Personal tier at $0 for up to two users, and its page reads "2 users collaborate for free" (Asana pricing, as of October 2026). Its Starter tier is $10.99 per user a month billed annually, or $13.49 billed monthly. At the annual rate, that Asana seat costs more than twice a Trello Standard seat. Toolradar keeps a separate Asana page next to the Trello one for side-by-side reading.
The two tools do not match feature for feature, so count the views, automation runs and guest rules you need before you compare seat prices.
Who should pay and who should skip
Stay on the free plan if you run a solo workflow or a small team, your board count stays at ten or below, and you do not need custom fields, the Planner or a timeline. A freelance client board or a household project tracker fits here, as long as everyone on it stays under the collaborator cap. If the free tier is too tight for your work, the free task management apps guide compares what other tools give away.
Pay for Standard when the board count goes past ten, when you need Custom Fields or the Planner, or when attachments grow past 10MB. For teams that outgrow the free plan, Standard is the first paid step. If your work runs in sprints rather than boards, the agile project management guide covers tools built around that workflow.
Pay for Premium only when one of its features is the reason you are upgrading: the Calendar, Timeline or Table views, admin controls or simple data export. Standard covers the day-to-day board work. Teams that want timeline-first planning across several projects can compare tools built for that in the portfolio management guide.
Our view: the free plan is a fair test of Trello's board model for one team. The collaborator cap is the right point to start paying, because a view-only board blocks card edits for every member, and its automations stop running.
Frequently asked questions
Is Trello free in 2026?
Yes. The Free plan costs $0 and includes unlimited cards, up to 10 boards per Workspace and 250 Workspace command runs a month. Free Workspaces are capped at a fixed number of collaborators, and above that cap the boards become view-only.
How much does Trello cost per user?
Standard is $5 a month billed annually or $6 billed monthly. Premium is $10 a month billed annually or $12.50 billed monthly. Enterprise starts at $17.50 a month billed annually, which the pricing card expresses as $210 a year per user.
How many boards can a free Trello account have?
A free Workspace can have up to 10 boards, according to the free plan's entry on the pricing page. Standard, Premium and Enterprise list unlimited boards.
What happens when a free Workspace has too many collaborators?
Its boards become view-only. Members can still see every board but cannot change the cards. Trello's help center says only Workspaces on the free plan are limited to 10 collaborators, and that a Workspace which downgrades to free is limited from the day its subscription ends.
Is Trello free for students or nonprofits?
Trello's pricing FAQ says it offers a non-profit community discount and an education discount, and it links a help article for each. Read those articles for the eligibility terms before you sign up, because the discounts are not the same as the free plan.
Cite this: Dupple, "Is Trello Free in 2026? What the Free Plan Covers and Where It Stops", October 2026.
The free plan carries a small team inside ten boards. Standard is the first paid step once the board count or the collaborator cap gets in the way. Try Dupple X →
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