Jira Free Plan: Limits and What the 11th User Costs
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Your team of eight has been on Jira Free for a year. Two people join in January, and then a contractor. The admin adds the eleventh account, and a banner says the site is now on a Standard trial. The question in the next stand-up is “what does that cost us?”, and the honest answer is “more than the Jira price”, because the three apps the team installed while it was free all charge from the eleventh user too.
Below is every limit of the Free plan from Atlassian’s pages, the price of the 11th, 25th and 50th user from Atlassian’s calculator on 5 November 2026, and what happens to Marketplace apps at the same moment, measured on the 100 most installed Jira apps.
Short answer: yes, Jira is free for up to 10 users with no time limit and no credit card. The Free plan gives you projects, boards, backlogs, timelines and automation, but caps storage at 2 GB, email at 100 a day and automation at 150 steps a month for the whole site, and it has no permissions, no roles and no Rovo AI. The 11th user starts a 7-day Standard trial; after it you pay for all 11: $106.70 a month or $1,450 a year. Apps follow the same count, so three common apps add about $640 a year at 11 users.
Every limit of the Free plan
From Atlassian’s Jira pricing page and its support page What is the Free Jira Cloud plan?, read on 5 November 2026.
| Limit | Free | Standard | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Users | 10 | up to 100,000 | pricing page |
| Time limit | none (“Free forever for 10 users”) | paid | pricing page |
| Storage | 2 GB | 250 GB | pricing page |
| Email notifications | 100 emails per day for the whole site | unlimited | pricing page, support |
| Automation | 150 automation steps per month for the site | 400 steps per user per month | pricing page |
| Permissions and roles | none: “everyone with access to Jira is an admin for all Jira spaces” | user roles and permissions | support page |
| Guests, anonymous access | no | free guests (up to 5 per paid user), anonymous access | pricing page, guest docs |
| Audit logs | no | site changes | support page |
| Rovo AI (search, chat, agents) | “The Free plan does not include Rovo.” | 25 Rovo credits per user per month | pricing FAQ |
| Rovo MCP server | not listed on Free | included | pricing compare table |
| Support | Atlassian Community | local business hours | pricing page |
| Site URL | cannot be changed if all apps are Free | can be changed | support page |
| Inactive sites | may be deactivated after a warning | n/a | support page |
The two limits teams hit first are email and permissions. After 100 emails in a day Jira pauses notifications until the next day, which a busy team of ten reaches easily with watchers and mentions. And because there are no permissions, every member can change every project’s settings. If you need a private project for HR or a client, Free cannot do it.
What the Free plan does include is the core of Jira: unlimited projects, work items and forms, workflows and custom fields, backlog, board, list, timeline and calendar views, reports and dashboards, and Marketplace apps.
What the 11th, 25th and 50th user cost
Atlassian’s calculator on 5 November 2026. Monthly billing charges for “the exact number of Jira users you have”; annual billing charges “the tier that most closely matches your user count”.
| Users | Standard, monthly | Standard, annual | Premium, monthly | Premium, annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $0 (Free) | $0 (Free) | n/a | n/a |
| 11 | 11 Ă— $9.70 = $106.70 | $1,450 (tier 11 to 15) | 11 Ă— $19.60 = $215.60 | $2,950 |
| 25 | 25 Ă— $9.70 = $242.50 | $2,450 (tier 16 to 25) | 25 Ă— $19.60 = $490 | $4,900 |
| 50 | 50 Ă— $9.70 = $485 | $4,850 (tier 26 to 50) | 50 Ă— $19.60 = $980 | $9,800 |
Two things to read from it. The monthly per-user price is flat from 1 to 100 users ($9.70 on Standard); it only falls above 100 (we saw $8.80 at 250). And the annual tiers make the 11th user expensive and the 12th to 15th cost nothing extra: $1,450 buys 11 users or 15. If you expect to grow to 15 within the year, annual is cheaper (monthly at 15 users would be $1,746 a year).
Apps are billed for the whole site
This is the part the pricing page does not show. Marketplace apps on Jira Cloud are priced by the site’s user count, not by how many people use the app. Atlassian’s Marketplace licensing FAQ is direct about it: “The app will only function if its license matches or exceeds the tier of the host product – even if only some of your licensed users need to use the app.”
To see what that means at the 11th user, we pulled the 100 most installed Jira Cloud apps from the Marketplace API on 5 November 2026 with their price lists:
- 35 are free at any size (GitHub for Atlassian, Figma, GitLab, Checklists Free…).
- 45 of the 100 are free up to 10 users and paid from the 11th.
- 20 charge from the first user (usually $100 a year for up to 10 users).
So a 10-user team can run 80 of the 100 most popular apps for nothing, and the day it adds an 11th user, every “free up to 10” app moves to its 15-user price. Here are the ten most installed of them:
| App (most installed first) | Annual at 10 | at 11 to 15 | at 25 | at 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ScriptRunner for Jira | $0 | $400.50 | $667.50 | $1,335 |
| Jira Misc Workflow Extensions (JMWE) | $0 | $300 | $500 | $1,000 |
| Timesheet Tracking for Jira | $0 | $127.50 | $212.50 | $425 |
| JSU Automation Suite | $0 | $202.50 | $337.50 | $675 |
| Deep Clone for Jira | $0 | $199.50 | $332.50 | $665 |
| BigPicture PPM | $0 | $859.50 | $1,432.50 | $2,865 |
| Time Tracker for Jira | $0 | $144 | $240 | $480 |
| Rich Filters for Jira Dashboards | $0 | $397.50 | $662.50 | $1,325 |
| draw.io Diagrams for Jira | $0 | $117 | $195 | $390 |
| Checklists for Jira (Pro) | $0 | $123 | $205 | $410 |
A worked example with the three apps in the chart (ScriptRunner, draw.io and Checklists Pro): at 10 users the site costs $0. At 11 users it costs $1,450 for Jira plus $640.50 for the apps, $2,090.50 a year, or $153.67 a month on monthly billing (Jira $106.70 plus apps $46.97). At 50 users: $6,985 a year. The apps are a third of the bill at every size.
How to stay on Free longer, or leave it well
- Count real users. Atlassian bills “someone who can log in to one of your Jira sites”. Remove people who left, and check whether occasional viewers need an account at all.
- Use the free JSM plan for requests. If outside people send you requests, a Jira Service Management Free site takes unlimited customers with up to 3 agents, and customers never count as users. See Jira vs Jira Service Management.
- Pick apps with the 11th user in mind. Before installing, open the app’s pricing tab and look at the 15-user and 50-user prices, not only “free up to 10”. Our census of developer apps for Jira and of free diagram apps for Confluence lists those prices.
- Watch the email cap. If notifications stop at noon, that is the 100-a-day limit, not a bug.
- Go annual when you move. If you will reach 15 users within a year, the annual 11 to 15 tier ($1,450) costs less than monthly.
Our apps and the Free plan
All 28 of our apps for Jira and Confluence are free for up to 10 users, so a team on Jira Free can use them at no cost. Above 10 users they cost between $15 and $67.50 a year at the 11 to 15 tier on the Marketplace price list of 5 November 2026, and $50 to $225 a year at 50 users. The full list is on our products page. Checklist apps are a typical case: of 57 we counted, 39 are free up to 10 users and 9 are free at any size; see Jira checklist. Jira Cloud needs no install; for a window of its own on Windows or Mac, see Jira desktop app. Confluence has its own Free plan with different limits; both price lists side by side are in Jira vs Confluence.
Sources
- Atlassian Jira pricing: plan cards, compare table, calculator (1 to 250 users, monthly and annual) and FAQs, read on 5 November 2026.
- Atlassian Support: What is the Free Jira Cloud plan? and Manage guest access in Jira.
- Atlassian Marketplace licensing FAQ, “Which license do I choose when purchasing an app?”.
- Atlassian Marketplace REST API v2: the 100 most installed Jira Cloud apps (
filter=popular) and each app’s live cloud price list, 5 November 2026. Annual list prices in US dollars, commercial licences.
Frequently asked questions
Is Jira free or paid?
Both. Jira Cloud has a Free plan for up to 10 users that Atlassian calls "free forever", with no credit card. Above 10 users you need a paid plan: Standard was $9.70 per user per month on monthly billing on 5 November 2026, Premium $19.60. Annual billing is by tier, for example $1,450 a year for 11 to 15 users on Standard.
How long can you use Jira for free?
With no time limit, as long as you stay at 10 users or fewer. The one catch is activity: Atlassian's support page says it "reserves the right to deactivate Free Jira Cloud sites due to inactivity", and warns before it does. Log in and do something now and then on a site you want to keep.
What happens when I add an 11th user to Jira Free?
Atlassian moves you to a trial. Its pricing FAQ says: "If you're on the Free plan and exceed the user limit, we'll automatically upgrade you to a 7-day free trial of the Standard plan." After the trial you pay for Standard for all 11 users, not just the 11th, and every Marketplace app on the site moves to its paid tier for 11 users too.
What is the difference between Jira Free and Premium?
Free covers 10 users with 2 GB of storage, 100 emails a day, 150 automation steps a month for the whole site, no permissions or roles and community support. Standard adds permissions, guests, Rovo AI, 250 GB and 400 automation steps per user. Premium adds Plans for cross-team planning, approvals, extra hierarchy levels above epics, unlimited storage, 750 automation steps per user, 24/7 support for critical issues and a 99.9% uptime SLA.
Are Marketplace apps free on the Jira Free plan?
Many are. Of the 100 most installed Jira Cloud apps on 5 November 2026, 35 were free at any size and 45 were free up to 10 users, so a 10-user site can run them at no cost. The other 20 charge from the first user. Apps follow the site's user count: at 11 users, the 45 "free up to 10" apps all start charging, for all 11 users.
Can I limit an app to a few users to save money?
No. Atlassian's Marketplace licensing FAQ says an app "will only function if its license matches or exceeds the tier of the host product, even if only some of your licensed users need to use the app." On a 25-user Jira site, an app costs its 25-user price even if two people use it.
Is there a free Jira Service Management plan?
Yes, for up to 3 agents, with unlimited customers who raise requests through the portal or by email. Customers never need a licence in Jira Service Management, so a three-person help desk can serve a whole company for free. Our comparison of Jira and Jira Service Management has the prices above 3 agents.