Limitless The $0 Price, the Pendant & the Catch: 2026 Guide
Limitless is free on both tiers after Meta acquired it and waived fees. The old $99 Pendant is discontinued, and the real cost is not a subscription. Here is what using it actually involves.
Typical annual cost
$0
Both plans are free since Meta waived subscription fees; the old $99 Pendant is discontinued
Hidden fees
None on paper
No subscription cost; the real exchange is data, and consent is a social cost
Free tier
Everything
Free gives 1,200 minutes a month; Unlimited removes the cap, both at no charge
Cost transparency
Medium
scores 4 of 6 on our transparency checklist
Limitless true cost: it is free
High· Verified July 15, 2026Limitless costs $0 across both tiers as of July 15, 2026, since Meta acquired it in December 2025 and waived the subscription fees. The catch is not a price but a horizon: free access is guaranteed only for at least a year. A free, platform-owned recorder means the real exchange is your data, and recording others carries a consent cost. There is nothing to negotiate, so get onto the free Unlimited tier and keep your transcripts exportable before the year runs out.
- Free tier$0
- Unlimited tier$0
- Free transcription1,200 min/mo
- Unlimited transcriptionNo cap
- Old Pendant$99 (discontinued)
- Paid planNone
- Free access1+ year
Limitless costs $0 across both tiers, so it sits far below the $14.20 median across the 17 ai productivity tools we track. The only historical spend was the discontinued $99 Pendant.
The two free Limitless tiers, side by side
Both Limitless plans are free, which is the whole point. The Free tier gives 1,200 minutes of transcription a month, roughly 20 hours, with AI features, notes, and summaries. The Unlimited tier removes the minute cap entirely, adding unlimited transcription and audio storage, and it too costs nothing under the current arrangement.
The practical advice is to make sure you are on Unlimited, since it is free anyway and lifts the only real limit the Free tier imposes. There is no upsell to weigh and no premium to buy, so the decision is simply whether the tool fits how you work. If you are comparing capture tools, the Limitless alternatives worth pricing are the paid meeting notetakers, which charge for what Limitless currently gives away.
Why there is nothing to discount on Limitless
This is the rare tool where the discount question has no answer, because there is no price. Both tiers are $0, so there is no annual rate to prepay, no coupon to chase, and no seat to negotiate. The saving, such as it is, was made for you when Meta waived the fees.
The only historical cost was the $99 Pendant, and buying one is no longer possible since new units are discontinued. So there is nothing to optimise on price. What there is to weigh is whether a free, platform-owned recorder fits your comfort with data and consent, which the ways to weigh the cost below lay out.
Both tiers cost nothing
Free gives 1,200 minutes a month and Unlimited removes the cap, both at $0 under the current arrangement. There is no paid plan, so there is no discount to hunt and no upsell to resist.
The Pendant is discontinued
The $99 wearable was the one real cost, and Meta stopped selling new units. New users cannot buy it, so the hardware spend that used to define a Limitless budget no longer applies.
No paid subscription to buy
There is no purchasable paid plan for new users as of July 2026. That removes the usual levers entirely, so the only real decision is comfort with a free, platform-owned recorder, not a price.
Getting the most from a free Limitless
There is no bill to trim, so the moves here are about value and comfort rather than price. The whole game is being on the right tier and understanding what a free, platform-owned recorder asks of you in return.
Three practical steps cover it, and none of them costs anything.
Make sure you are on Unlimited
- Target
- All current users
- Argument
- Both tiers are free, but Unlimited removes the 1,200-minute cap that Free imposes. Since it costs nothing extra, there is no reason to sit on the capped tier, so confirm your account is on Unlimited to lift the only real limit.
Do not chase the discontinued Pendant
- Target
- Anyone wanting hardware capture
- Argument
- The $99 Pendant is discontinued, so new units are not for sale. Buying one on resale is unsupported and risky. Plan around app-based capture instead, which is the path Limitless leaves open, rather than paying for hardware you cannot properly buy.
Decide where consent is workable
- Target
- Everyone recording others
- Argument
- The real cost of Limitless is consent, not money. Recording others creates social and legal friction, so decide up front which settings are appropriate. Getting that wrong is far more expensive than any subscription would have been.
When Limitless makes sense to adopt
There is no purchase to time, since nothing is for sale, so the timing question is really about commitment. Free access is guaranteed for at least a year rather than forever. So it is worth adopting Limitless for the value it gives now, while staying aware that the arrangement has a horizon.
The sensible approach is to use it without building a workflow that only Limitless can support. Keep your notes and transcripts exportable, so that if the free arrangement changes after its first year, you are not stranded. Adopt it for what it does today, not on an assumption about what it will cost tomorrow.
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Pro tip: Because there is no paid tier to fall back on, treat portability as the safeguard. Export your important transcripts periodically, so a change in the free arrangement never costs you your own records.
Limitless costs: what is fixed and what you control
There is no price to negotiate, so the split here is between what Meta has set and what you decide as a user. The controllable part is entirely about how and where you use a free recorder.
Usually negotiable
- Which free tier you are onHIGH
- Whether to record given consentHIGH
- Keeping your transcripts exportableHIGH
- How much you rely on it, given the horizonMEDIUM
Rarely negotiable
- The $0 price, set by Meta after the acquisition
- The Pendant being discontinued
- The free-for-at-least-a-year arrangement
- The consent required to record others
How to weigh the real cost of Limitless
Limitless has no price to lower, so the honest cost work is different here. Instead of trimming a bill, you weigh what a free, platform-owned recorder actually asks of you, and whether that trade suits your situation.
Five things frame that decision, and none of them is about dollars.
- The subscription is genuinely $0 on both tiers, so there is no plan to optimise and no upsell to refuse.
- The $99 Pendant was the only real spend, and it is discontinued, so hardware capture is no longer a purchase you can make.
- The value exchange is data rather than money, which is the honest thing to weigh before recording your conversations into it.
- Free access is guaranteed for at least a year under the acquisition, not indefinitely, so treat the zero cost as time-bound.
- Consent is the real friction: recording others carries a social and legal cost that no free price tag ever shows.
Limitless cost misreads to avoid
The mistakes here are not about overpaying, since there is nothing to pay, but about misreading a free, platform-owned tool.
Paying a third party for Limitless access. Both tiers are free, so anyone charging for a subscription is not official.
Hunting for a new Pendant. The $99 wearable is discontinued, so resale is the only route, and it is unsupported.
Assuming free is permanent. Access is guaranteed for at least a year under the acquisition, not indefinitely.
Recording without consent. The real cost of Limitless is social and legal, not a dollar figure on a plan.
Building a workflow only Limitless supports. Keep transcripts exportable, so a change after year one does not strand you.
Paid Limitless rivals, and why they charge
The useful comparison here is inverted: Limitless gives away what these rivals sell, at least for now. The three below are the paid meeting notetakers closest to what Limitless does, with prices from our verified catalog. Switching to a paid tool while a free one exists is not the aim. It is to understand the value Limitless currently hands over for nothing, and to have a costed fallback if the free arrangement ever changes. The Limitless alternatives page lists the wider field.
Granola
billed annually at the same rate
$14/mo
A notes-first meeting tool that charges for clean summaries. The lightest paid fallback if Limitless ever stops being free.
Otter.ai
$8.33/mo billed annually
$16.99/mo
Established transcription with a steep annual rate. The mainstream paid comparison for what Limitless gives away today.
Fireflies.ai
$10/mo billed annually
$18/mo
Recording and transcription with CRM integrations. The comparison if you would want a costed, business-grade fallback.
Script“Limitless currently gives unlimited transcription and AI notes for free after the Meta deal. If that changes, what would Otter.ai or Granola cost me for the same everyday capture?”
Is free Limitless worth adopting?
On price alone, Limitless is impossible to argue with. Both tiers are $0, and Unlimited hands over unlimited transcription, AI notes, and summaries for nothing, which paid rivals charge $14 to $18 a month to match. For anyone comfortable with the tool, free access to that capability is a genuinely strong deal.
The honest caveats are not about dollars. The $0 is a consequence of Meta's acquisition rather than a standing plan. Free access is guaranteed only for at least a year, and a free product under a large platform means the real exchange is your data. The Pendant that once defined the cost is discontinued, so hardware capture is off the table for new users.
So adopt Limitless for what it does today, with eyes open. Get onto the Unlimited tier, keep your transcripts exportable, and weigh your comfort with recording and data before you lean on it. The Limitless pricing page shows both free tiers; here the point is that the real cost was never a subscription.
Limitless pricing and discount FAQ
Is Limitless really free?
+
Yes. Both listed plans cost $0. The Free tier gives 1,200 minutes of transcription a month, and the Unlimited tier removes that cap with unlimited transcription, AI notes, and summaries, all at no charge. This is not an aggressive freemium play. It is a consequence of the Meta acquisition in December 2025, which waived subscription fees and moved existing customers to Unlimited free for at least a year. There is no purchasable paid subscription for new users today, so the tool genuinely costs nothing to use under the current arrangement.
Why did Limitless become free?
+
Because Meta acquired it. In December 2025, Meta bought Limitless, stopped selling new Pendant wearables, waived the subscription fees, and moved existing customers onto the Unlimited tier free for at least a year. So the $0 price is a result of that deal rather than a pricing decision Limitless made on its own. The practical effect is that both tiers are free. But the arrangement has a stated horizon of at least a year, and there is no paid plan a new user could buy even if they wanted one.
How much was the Limitless Pendant?
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The Pendant, the always-on wearable that captured your conversations, cost $99, and it was the only real spend in a Limitless setup. It is now discontinued: Meta stopped selling new units after the acquisition, so new users cannot buy one. That closes the hardware-capture path that used to define a Limitless budget. Anyone wanting the physical device now has to rely on unsupported resale, which is risky. So the realistic route today is app-based capture, rather than the Pendant the product was originally built around.
What is the catch with free Limitless?
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There are two honest ones, and neither is a fee. First, the free access is time-bound. Existing users were moved to Unlimited free for at least a year under the acquisition, not indefinitely, and there is no paid tier to fall back on. Second, a free product owned by a large platform means the real exchange is data rather than money, which is the thing to weigh before recording your conversations into it. There is also a consent cost, since recording others carries social and legal friction that no price tag shows.
Which Limitless plan should I use?
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Unlimited, without question, because it is free and lifts the only real limit the Free tier imposes. The Free tier caps transcription at 1,200 minutes a month, about 20 hours. Unlimited removes that cap and adds unlimited audio storage, all at no charge under the current arrangement. Since there is no upsell and no premium to pay for, the plan choice is trivial. Get onto Unlimited, and the decision becomes simply whether the tool fits how you work, rather than which tier is worth the money.
Will Limitless stay free?
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The only thing that can be said with confidence is what has been stated: existing users were moved to Unlimited free for at least a year under the Meta acquisition. Beyond that horizon, nothing has been published, and there is currently no purchasable paid subscription for new users. The sensible way to handle that uncertainty is to adopt Limitless for the value it gives today, while keeping your transcripts exportable. That way, if the arrangement changes after its first year, you are not dependent on a tool whose future cost is unknown.
How does free Limitless compare with paid notetakers?
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Limitless currently gives away what several rivals charge for. Unlimited transcription, AI notes, and summaries at $0 compare with Granola at $14 a month, Otter.ai at $16.99, and Fireflies.ai at $18, all for broadly similar everyday capture. On price there is no contest while the free arrangement lasts. The reason to know those figures is not to switch now but to have a costed fallback. If Limitless stops being free after its guaranteed year, those paid tools are what the same capability would cost you, so the number is worth knowing in advance.
What does it really cost to use Limitless?
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In dollars, nothing: both tiers are free and the only historical spend, the $99 Pendant, is discontinued. The real costs are elsewhere. The first is data, since a free product owned by a large platform exchanges access for information rather than a fee. The second is consent, because recording the people around you carries social and legal friction. The third is dependency risk, since the free access is guaranteed only for at least a year. Weigh those three, not a price, and keep your records exportable as the practical safeguard.
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Sources & verification
| Source | What was checked | Last checked |
|---|---|---|
| Limitless official pricing | Verified plan prices, renewal rates and credit allowances | July 15, 2026 |
| Limitless website | Official vendor website | July 15, 2026 |
| Limitless pricing on ComparEdge | Current prices for every plan, with the cost calculator | July 15, 2026 |
Every fact on this Limitless pricing page is tied to a named source and a verification date. Freshness-sensitive figures trace to the sources above; verify against the vendor before relying on them.