Circle Pricing (2026): Plans, Transaction Fees and Add-ons

Circle (circle.so) is a community platform with courses, events, live streams, a website builder and payments. It's polished and broad, and it's priced for businesses: plans start at $89 a month, and every plan adds a transaction fee on top of Stripe's.

Here are Circle's plans, fees, limits and add-ons from its pricing and payments pages, checked on October 30, 2026.

The short answer

Circle's plans cost $89 (Professional), $199 (Business) and $419 (Scale) a month on yearly billing, and Circle Plus is custom-priced. Every plan adds a transaction fee on top of Stripe's processing: 2% on Professional, 1% on Business and Scale, 0.5% on Circle Plus. There's a 14-day free trial with no card required.

Key takeaways

• Plans: Professional $89, Business $199 and Scale $419 a month, prices Circle says are based on annual billing; Circle Plus is priced by sales. The pricing page doesn't show monthly-billing prices.
• Circle charges 2%, 1%, 1% or 0.5% of each payment by plan, in addition to Stripe's processing fees. Payments go through your own connected Stripe account.
• Every plan has unlimited members, courses, events, a website, gamification, a custom domain and Circle's iOS, Android and desktop apps. Your own branded app needs Circle Plus.
• Limits on admins, spaces, storage and live-stream hours rise by plan; extra admins, spaces, live attendees, hours and AI credits are paid add-ons.
• A 14-day free trial with no card, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Disclosure: we make Klasira, a course platform that competes with Circle. Every price and rule here comes from Circle's own public pages, checked in October 2026 and linked at the end. Prices change, so confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.

Circle plans and prices

Circle's pricing page says its prices are "based on annual billing" and exclude taxes. When we checked, it showed no monthly-billing toggle, so we can't confirm what a plan costs month to month; ask Circle before you choose monthly billing.

How much does Circle cost?

Professional, at $89 a month on yearly billing, is the entry plan: unlimited members, a community with discussions and chat, courses, live events, a website, member profiles and directory, gamification, payments, a custom domain and Circle's iOS, Android and desktop apps. Business, at $199, adds workflows, custom profile fields, Circle's APIs and MCP, activity scores, branded email notifications, standard migration services and the option to remove Circle branding. Scale, at $419, adds AI agents and AI workflows, unlimited workflows, webhooks, custom single sign-on, higher limits, priority support and, on annual plans, 60 days of concierge onboarding.

Circle Plus is custom-priced and adds your own branded mobile apps, branded push notifications, unlimited admins and spaces, Email Hub with 10,000 contacts, and a dedicated Circle expert. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial with no card, and Circle offers a 30-day, full money-back guarantee.

Does Circle charge transaction fees?

Yes, on every plan. Circle's payments page says its transaction fees "are in addition to Stripe's standard processing fees": 2% on Professional, 1% on Business (and Scale, per the pricing table) and 0.5% on Circle Plus. With Stripe's US card rate of 2.9% + 30¢, a $200 sale on Professional costs about $10.10 in fees; on Business, about $8.10.

You connect your own Stripe account to take payments, in 25+ currencies depending on your country. Circle supports one-time purchases, subscriptions, trials, installment plans and coupons. Its pages don't describe payouts, so with your own Stripe account they follow Stripe's schedule.

What costs extra on Circle?

Email marketing is the add-on most course sellers notice: broadcasts, forms and marketing automations come with Email Hub, which is extra on every plan except Circle Plus. Course migrations are free on annual Business plans and above, if eligible.

Which Circle plan should you choose?

• Professional: a community with courses and events, with up to 3 admins and 20 spaces.
• Business: once sales are large enough that the lower fee pays for the higher price (see below), or when you need workflows, APIs or no Circle branding.
• Scale: large communities that want AI agents, SSO, webhooks and higher live limits.
• Circle Plus: brands that want their own app in the app stores.

Circle's strengths are real: a polished community, chat, events and live streams on every plan, apps for members, and unlimited members. If your product is a course more than a community, compare Skool's pricing and the platforms in course platform transaction fees compared.

What it costs on real sales

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How Circle's fees compare with Klasira

Circle's fee is small next to some platforms', but it never reaches zero, and it grows with your sales. Klasira charges no transaction fee on any plan, pays sales into your own Stripe account and includes email automations, though it has no live streams or branded app.

Klasira: 0% transaction fees on every plan, with each sale paid into your own Stripe account. Plan prices are on Klasira's pricing page; we leave them out here so this post doesn't go stale when they change.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Circle cost per month?

$89 for Professional, $199 for Business and $419 for Scale, on yearly billing. Circle Plus is custom-priced. Circle's pricing page didn't show monthly-billing prices when we checked.

What are Circle's transaction fees?

2% on Professional, 1% on Business and Scale, and 0.5% on Circle Plus, on top of Stripe's processing fees.

Does Circle have a free plan?

No. There's a 14-day free trial with no card required, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Does Circle include email marketing?

Basic notifications and a weekly digest, yes. Broadcasts, forms and marketing automations need Email Hub, from $99 a month for 10,000 contacts, except on Circle Plus.

When is Business cheaper than Professional on Circle?

Business costs $1,320 more a year and saves 1% of sales, so it pays off above about $132,000 of sales a year, or sooner if you'd otherwise buy add-ons it includes.

Try Klasira with your own course

If your community exists to teach a course, compare it with a school that keeps none of your sales. Pick a theme, add one course and connect Stripe, then judge it on your own material. Start your school or see pricing.

Related: Skool pricing, Skool alternatives, course platform fee calculator, all course platform pricing and alternatives.

Sources

Details about other companies in this post were checked against these public pages in October 2026. Products, prices and rules change, so confirm with each source before you decide.

• Circle pricing (plans, limits, add-ons, FAQ)
• Circle payments (transaction fees, Stripe, currencies)