Linear Real Costs, AI Credits & Discounts 2026 Guide
Linear lists $10 a seat on Basic and $16 on Business, both billed annually, but AI coding sessions run on separate credits and enforced SSO plus HIPAA sit only on the quote-only Enterprise plan.
Typical cost
$10-$16/seat
Basic to Business a month, billed annually; there is no month-to-month option
Hidden fees
Yes
AI coding sessions draw separate credits, and SAML, SCIM, and HIPAA gate to Enterprise
Free tier
Yes
Free keeps unlimited members but stops at 2 teams and 250 active issues
Cost transparency
Medium
scores 3 of 6 on our transparency checklist
What Linear costs beyond the dev seat
High· Verified July 15, 2026Linear runs $10 a seat on Basic and $16 on Business as of July 15, 2026, both billed yearly, with a free tier and custom Enterprise plan. No monthly option exists publicly, so the figures assume a year up front. Free keeps unlimited members but halts at 2 teams and 250 issues. SAML, SCIM, and HIPAA live on Enterprise, and AI coding sessions run on separate credits over the seat. Cheap for a pure dev squad, pricier once compliance enters, so account for the credits and the Enterprise gate early.
- Basic, per user$10
- Business, per user$16
- Free tier$0, 250 issues
- AI coding creditsseparate
- SAML / SCIMEnterprise
- Billingannual only
- Enterprisequote-only
Linear Basic lists $10 a seat, right on the $10 median across the 20 project management tools we track. Business at $16 sits above it, the tier that adds private teams and Insights.
Linear price breaks, and why they are thin
Linear keeps pricing plain and advertises little off it. Yearly billing is already the default, so no monthly-versus-annual saving exists to chase. What Linear has offered is startup credit through accelerator and partner channels, but no nonprofit or education program is published. The levers here are few, and most of them turn on eligibility you cannot assume you have.
No coupon stream circulates, and no seasonal sale rewards waiting. Should your company clear the startup bar, claim that credit; otherwise the yearly rate is simply the number. Where price genuinely bends is the Enterprise quote and the AI credit rate, both of which a rep controls. The negotiation tactics further down spell out how to lean on each.
Startup credit via accelerators
Linear has passed credits to early-stage companies through accelerator and partner ties. The benefit rides on your program rather than an open code, so treat it as an occasional bonus rather than a rate anyone can redeem.
Right-size before you commit the year
With billing annual, the surest saving on a growing team is buying only the seats you are certain of and adding more later. Prepaying a year for maybe-hires is the most common way a Linear bill runs ahead of real need.
No nonprofit, education, or coupon rate
Linear lists no nonprofit or academic program and circulates no coupon. A site advertising a Linear discount code is almost certainly noise, so the yearly rate and an Enterprise negotiation remain the only genuine levers.
How to push a Linear quote lower
Basic and Business run self-serve, so beneath Enterprise your only choice is committing the right seat count for the year. Everything worth negotiating waits at Enterprise: seat volume, the AI credit rate, and the compliance features a rep can shape. Of those, lean hardest on the credit meter, because it is the cost that climbs without a warning line on the invoice.
Because Enterprise carries no public figure, its first quote is an opening bid. Show up holding a rival rate, a firm headcount, and the term you will sign, and ask the rep to fold the credits into one all-in number. Most of the win comes from three plays.
Pin the AI credit rate in writing
- Target
- Enterprise, agent-reliant
- Argument
- Coding sessions burn credits at a rate Linear does not publish, so make the rep quote a committed price or an included pool. A meter you cannot see is a meter you cannot plan around, so turn it into a capped line before you sign anything.
Fold compliance into the seat number
- Target
- Enterprise, security-required
- Argument
- SAML, SCIM, and HIPAA exist only on Enterprise, so if that is why you are moving up, make the rep count it inside the per-seat rate. Push for one all-in figure with compliance included, not a base tier plus a row of security line items.
Set a rival dev tool alongside
- Target
- Enterprise, 40+ seats
- Argument
- Jira Standard lists $7.91 a user and Shortcut $8.50 annually, neither metering AI credits the same way at scale. Place one next to your quote and ask what Linear plus its credits delivers that earns the difference for a team your size.
When a Linear deal has the most room
Linear runs Enterprise sales on a quarterly cadence, so a rep's approval room shifts as the period moves. Something that will not clear in the first weeks tends to soften near the end, when targets tighten. If your rollout has slack, point the Enterprise ask at the tail of a quarter, with budget approved and the team ready to onboard on the spot.
Jan
Feb
Mar
Q-END
Apr
May
Jun
Q-END
Jul
Aug
Sep
Q-END
Oct
Nov
Dec
Q-END
Pro tip: Start renewal talks roughly two months out. Leave it to the final week and the rep already knows that unpicking a live Linear workspace from an annual contract costs you more than the discount, and the edge has passed to them.
Linear terms that move, and terms that stay
Linear splits the way a focused dev tool tends to. What gives are the Enterprise rate, the AI credit price, and the length of your term, all reachable at volume. What holds are the self-serve seat prices and the yearly billing. Time spent arguing the fixed items just drains the standing you want for the Enterprise number and the credit rate.
Usually negotiable
- Enterprise per-seat rate at volumeHIGH
- Committed AI credit rate or poolHIGH
- Compliance folded into the seatMEDIUM
- Multi-year rate lockHIGH
- Renewal cap in writingMEDIUM
- Payment terms (Net 45/60)LOW
Rarely negotiable
- The published $10 Basic and $16 Business rates
- Annual-only billing with no monthly option
- SAML, SCIM, and HIPAA being Enterprise-only
- The 2-team, 250-issue cap on the free tier
Linear negotiation email generator
Hand the tool your numbers and it assembles the note, with current rival rates from our catalog dropped in. Route what it writes to the rep on your Linear account, or send it in through the sales form. Start on your seat count. Flag the AI credit rate as a line to pin, back the ask with two competitor prices, attach the term you will sign, and give a date to close by.
$16/user, private teams, guests, and Linear Insights
Hi Linear team, I lead tooling decisions at [Your company], and we are evaluating Linear Team seats for a team of 10-50 people. As part of this evaluation we are also looking at Jira, which comes in at $7.91/user/mo, and Shortcut at $8.50/user/mo billed annually. Can you help us understand the value difference at your current rates? We are ready to commit to an annual term. What is the best rate you can offer on annual billing, and can you cap the renewal price in the contract? We are aiming to sign before the end of this quarter, and budget sign-off is already in place. Could you share a proposal covering the per-seat or per-credit rate, the renewal terms, and any programs we qualify for? Best regards, [Your name] [Your company]
Send it Tuesday to Thursday, and follow up once after 3 business days.
Before you send
- Track down the rep behind your Linear account. Enterprise deals and credit terms run through a person, not a page.
- Time it for the middle of the week, since a note landing Tuesday to Thursday usually advances quicker than one at the edges.
- Make the AI credit rate a standalone ask. An unpublished meter is the easiest cost to leave uncapped by accident.
- Put two rival prices in the message. The generator lifts them straight from our catalog.
- Get the credit rate and the renewal on paper before you sign, since annual billing makes any surprise expensive.
- Nudge a single time near day three, then let the silence do the talking.
Linear cost mistakes dev teams make
Every slip below grows out of a specific Linear billing rule, and each one is easy to sidestep once you know it is there.
Ignoring the AI credit line. Agent coding sessions draw separate credits at an unpublished rate, apart from seats.
Expecting a monthly plan. Both paid tiers are annual-only, so any commitment is a full year up front.
Buying Business for compliance. SAML, SCIM, and HIPAA sit only on quote-only Enterprise, not on Business.
Prepaying seats for maybes. Annual billing turns every uncertain seat into a year of spend, so add them later.
Reading Free as unlimited. It stops at 2 teams and 250 active issues, which a busy backlog fills fast.
Signing Enterprise at the first quote. It is unlisted, and volume plus a term will bring the number down.
Linear rivals to raise at the table
A named rival with its price attached is what puts weight behind a Linear quote. The three below are the tools engineering teams weigh Linear against most, each carrying a rate we check, and the full Linear alternatives page lists others. Pulling a live Linear workspace across to another tool is real effort. That is why a tried alternative with a number reads as more credible than a loose threat to switch.
Jira
free for up to 10 users
$7.91/user/mo
The incumbent. Jira is deeper and more configurable at a lower seat rate, so it presses Linear to justify its speed premium and its separate AI credits.
Shortcut
$8.50 billed annually
$10/user/mo
The closest match. Shortcut targets software teams at a similar rate with no add-on meters, so it anchors the mid-range against Linear Business plus credits.
Zoho Projects
$4 billed annually
$5/user/mo
The budget floor. Zoho covers project tracking and automation for a fraction of Linear Business, marking the low number a rep has to argue above.
Script“Shortcut is also in the running at $8.50 a seat annually, and it has no separate AI credit meter. What does Linear Business plus its coding credits deliver that earns the difference for a team our size?”
Is Linear worth it for your team? Straight read
For engineering teams that prize speed and a clean, opinionated workflow, Linear ranks among the best tools around, and many developers refuse to go back once they have used it. The pricing is fair at the door and hazier at the edges. Basic at $10 a seat lands on the median, but the real bill turns on the AI credits and on whether compliance forces you up to Enterprise.
So price the whole picture rather than the seat. A team that leans on the coding agent should cost the AI credits in from day one, not meet them by surprise. A team that needs SAML or HIPAA should plan for the Enterprise jump. And since billing is annual, put only the seats you are sure of on the contract and grow into the rest.
Handle it that way and Linear is well worth it for a focused dev squad, though a harder sell for a broad team that will never touch its depth. The per-tier feature list lives on the Linear pricing page. Everything here has circled what sits outside it: the AI credits, the yearly lock, and the compliance held back for Enterprise.
Linear pricing and discount FAQ
What does Linear cost a month?
+
Linear Basic is $10 a seat and Business is $16, both billed annually rather than monthly. A free tier keeps unlimited members but caps you at two teams and 250 active issues, and Enterprise is a custom quote. No public month-to-month option exists, so the rates assume a year's commitment. The costs sitting off the seat are AI coding credits, which bill on their own, and the compliance features on Enterprise. Account for the credits and the Enterprise gate alongside the seat rather than reading the per-user number by itself.
Does Linear charge for AI separately?
+
Yes. Linear Agent's coding sessions do not draw on your seat fee. They spend AI credits bought on the side, so a team using the agent to write or triage code carries a usage line that grows apart from headcount. Linear does not publish the per-credit rate, which makes the AI cost hard to size ahead of time. If the agent is part of your plan, ask a rep for a committed credit rate or an included pool in the contract. That turns the meter into a capped line rather than an open one.
Is Linear billed annually only?
+
On the public pricing page, yes. Both paid tiers, Basic and Business, bill yearly, with no month-to-month option shown. A 20-person team on Basic therefore commits to roughly $2,400 for the year at signup instead of testing a month at a time. That makes Linear harder to trial on the paid tier than a tool with a monthly plan. The workable route is to evaluate on the free tier and its 250-issue ceiling first. Then move to a paid plan committing only the seats you are certain about.
How good is Linear's free plan?
+
For a small team or an early project, genuinely useful. The free tier keeps unlimited members and includes core issue tracking, cycles, projects, and roadmaps. Its limits are structural rather than per-user: two teams and 250 active issues. A busy backlog reaches the issue ceiling fast, which is the real nudge toward Basic. So Free serves well to evaluate the workflow and to run a small effort. A growing team with an active backlog outgrows the 250-issue cap long before it runs into any member limit.
Will Linear discount for a bigger team?
+
Beneath Enterprise, rarely; Basic and Business are self-serve and annual-only. Enterprise is where the give is, and the AI credit rate is the sharpest thing to target, being unpublished and usage-driven. Arrive with a rival price and your headcount, request a committed credit rate or an included pool, and ask for compliance built into the per-seat number. Offer a longer term for a better rate and a renewal cap in writing. Point the talk at a quarter's end, where quota pressure leaves a rep the most latitude to agree.
What raises a Linear bill above the seat?
+
Two things, mainly. AI coding credits bill on their own at a rate Linear keeps unpublished, so heavy agent use adds a variable line apart from seats. And the compliance features, SAML, SCIM, and HIPAA, exist only on quote-only Enterprise, so needing them means climbing a whole tier. Annual-only billing further locks you in for a year, so a plan that stops fitting is expensive to exit. Each of these becomes visible once you price the credits and the Enterprise gate rather than the seat by itself.
Is Linear cheaper than Jira or ClickUp?
+
At the entry seat it is comparable, not clearly cheaper. Linear Basic at $10 sits above Jira Standard at $7.91, and ClickUp Unlimited at $7 undercuts both. Where Linear diverges is the separate AI credit meter and the annual-only billing, while Jira folds automation into its tiers and ClickUp bundles lighter AI. For a team that values Linear's speed and workflow, the price is fair. For raw cost, Jira or a cheaper option like Zoho Projects usually lands lower, especially after Linear's AI credits are counted in.
How do I keep a Linear bill lean?
+
Put only the seats you are sure of on the contract, since annual billing turns each uncertain seat into a year of spend. Add the rest as the team grows. If you use the coding agent, pin the AI credit rate in the contract so the meter cannot surprise you. Stay on Basic until a real need for private teams or Insights justifies Business. Steer clear of Enterprise unless compliance truly requires it, and negotiate that quote hard when it does. Together those habits hold a Linear bill near its seat rate.
Explore Linear
Every page on Linear in one place, you are on cost guide.
Sources & verification
| Source | What was checked | Last checked |
|---|---|---|
| Linear official pricing | Verified plan prices, renewal rates and credit allowances | July 15, 2026 |
| Linear website | Official vendor website | July 15, 2026 |
| Linear pricing on ComparEdge | Current prices for every plan, with the cost calculator | July 15, 2026 |
Every fact on this Linear 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.