Linear pricing

About

Linear is an issue-tracking and project-planning tool built for software teams. Founded in 2019 by Karri Saarinen and Tuomas Artman, it became the default tracker for a generation of startups by pairing a fast, keyboard-driven interface with an opinionated workflow (“the Linear Method”). The live pricing page states Linear is “trusted by more than 33,000 companies,” with logos including Vercel, Cursor, OpenAI, Coinbase, Cash App, and Ramp.

Linear sells a single product across four per-seat plans — Free, Basic, Business, and Enterprise — rather than a multi-product catalogue. It competes directly with Atlassian’s Jira and with Shortcut, Height, and GitHub Issues, positioning on speed and design polish rather than configurability. By 2025 the company was widely reported to be near $100M ARR.

Linear raised an $82M Series C in June 2025 at a $1.25B valuation, led by Accel with participation from Sequoia and others — funding that coincided with its push into AI Agents that can be assigned issues. The pricing story below is notable precisely because Linear shipped that AI capability without bolting on a usage meter: AI stays inside the per-seat price.

Pricing summary : How Linear’s per-seat freemium plans are structured

Linear uses a per-seat freemium model with two dimensions:

1. The seat price: Free $0, Basic $10/user/mo, Business $16/user/mo (both billed yearly), Enterprise custom. There are no usage meters — the bill is simply seats × tier price.
2. The capacity gate: the Free plan is capped at 250 issues and 2 teams, which is the primary trigger to upgrade, not a feature paywall.

This is a textbook seat-based pricing model with a freemium on-ramp. What makes this different: Linear ships AI Agents that can be assigned issues, yet charges nothing extra for them — the AI suite is folded into existing seat prices instead of becoming a separate token- or agent-metered SKU, which is increasingly rare among AI-era developer tools.

Pricing by product

Linear (Individual & team plans)

Prices are billed-yearly rates; monthly billing is higher. Enterprise is annual-only.

Sales motions across products: PLG / self-serve for Free, Basic, and Business (all sign-up-and-pay); sales-led for Enterprise (contact-sales, custom quote). Business also exposes a “contact sales” path for larger teams.

AI Agents & Code Intelligence (bundled, not separately billed)

Linear’s AI capabilities ride inside the seat price rather than forming a metered product line:

The page footnotes that Coding Sessions “Requires AI credits,” which is the single place Linear hints at usage-based mechanics on top of seats.

Hidden costs : What a real Linear bill looks like beyond the headline seat price

Linear’s per-seat model is unusually honest — there are no overage meters, so the bill is close to fully predictable. The “hidden” costs are structural (annual-vs-monthly delta, the Free cap, and AI credits) rather than metered surprises.

A 20-person product team on Business

The lesson: a Linear bill scales cleanly with headcount and the only real “gotcha” is the annual-vs-monthly delta — choosing monthly billing inflates the effective per-seat price, and Coding Sessions are the one place spend can drift via AI credits.

A startup straddling the Free cap

The lesson: the 250-issue / 2-team Free cap, not a feature wall, is what eventually converts teams to paid — a capacity trigger that is easy to forecast against.

Want to estimate your own Linear bill? Use the Linear pricing calculator to model your monthly cost based on seat count, tier, and billing cadence.

Pricing evolution : From Standard/Plus seats to Basic/Business with bundled AI

Cadence

Tracked range: 2022-01–2026-06. Exact 2025 seat prices are unknown because archived mid-2025 snapshots did not render the Basic/Business dollar figures. Quarters not listed were verified stable (0 price changes, 0 SKU additions).

Notable changes

• 2022-11 — Plus moved from $12 to $14 per user/mo and dropped monthly billing, per the archived pricing page.
• 2024 (by 2024-05) — Standard/Plus rebranded to Basic/Business (Basic $8, Business $12), per the archived pricing page; the two-paid-tier structure was preserved.
• 2025 (by 2025-09) — Linear’s “Artificial intelligence” feature block went live (Linear for Agents, MCP access, Product Intelligence beta), with “AI agents” surfaced on the Free plan, per the archived pricing page.
• 2026 (by 2026-01) — Basic $10 and Business $16 render clearly on the archived page, with the AI suite expanded to Agent platform, Triage Intelligence, and Linear Agent for Slack; the June 2025 $82M Series C at a $1.25B valuation (reported by TechCrunch) coincided with the AI push.

The AI-without-a-meter decision in detail

The most strategically interesting move in Linear’s history isn’t a price change — it’s a non-event. When Linear shipped AI Agents (2025), it did not create a per-token, per-agent, or per-resolution meter. Instead, the Agent platform landed on the Free plan, Triage Intelligence and agent automations landed inside the existing Business seat price, and only Coding Sessions carry an AI-credit cost. In an era when peers (Cursor, Intercom Fin, Zendesk AI) were attaching usage or outcome meters to AI, Linear chose to keep its pricing legible — AI is a reason to be on a higher seat tier, not a separate line on the invoice.

What’s unique : The pricing mechanics that set Linear apart from Jira and AI-metered peers

1. AI is bundled into seats, not metered. Linear gives the Agent platform away on Free and folds Triage Intelligence, agent automations, and Code Intelligence into the Business seat price. There is no token, agent, or resolution meter — a deliberate contrast with outcome-based pricing peers like Intercom Fin.

2. The Free cap is a capacity gate, not a feature wall. Free includes the AI agent platform and unlimited members but caps issues at 250 and teams at 2. Linear converts on capacity exhaustion rather than by paywalling marquee features.

3. Only two paid tiers, held stable for years. Linear has run exactly two paid tiers since launch (Standard/Plus, now Basic/Business). The simplicity is the product — buyers can reason about the whole catalogue in seconds.

4. Annual-only at the top. Both Business’s headline rate and the entire Enterprise tier are annual-anchored (Enterprise is annual-only), which smooths revenue and discourages monthly churn at the high end.

Strengths & weaknesses

Billing UX : The named controls Linear exposes for plans and billing

• Billing-cycle toggle — the pricing page defaults to “Billed yearly”; monthly billing is available at a higher effective per-seat rate.
• Self-serve “Get started” upgrade — Free, Basic, and Business all upgrade in-product without sales contact.
• “Contact sales” path on Business — larger Business buyers can route to sales alongside the self-serve button.
• Admin roles & granular admin controls — Basic adds admin roles; Enterprise adds granular admin controls and advanced org modeling for seat governance.
• Invoice/PO billing (Enterprise) — Enterprise unlocks invoice/PO billing on top of the default card-based self-serve flow.

Strategic wins : The pricing decisions that compounded for Linear

1. Bundling AI into seats kept pricing legible

By refusing to meter AI, Linear avoided the bill-shock and forecasting anxiety that usage-based AI pricing can create. AI became a reason to be on Business rather than a new invoice line, which protects Linear’s core promise of a predictable, design-led product. It is a sharp counter-position to outcome- and token-metered rivals.

2. A capacity-gated Free plan that actually converts

Linear’s Free plan is generous on features (it even includes AI agents) but tight on capacity — 250 issues, 2 teams. That makes the upgrade trigger a natural value metric tied to real usage growth, not an artificial feature lock, which keeps the funnel friendly while still converting.

3. Holding to two paid tiers for years

Most SaaS tools accrete tiers and add-ons over time. Linear kept exactly two paid tiers and simply renamed them (Standard/Plus → Basic/Business), preserving the simplicity that makes its pricing page trivially scannable. Simplicity is a retention and conversion asset, not just an aesthetic one.

Areas to improve : Where Linear’s per-seat model leaves money or clarity on the table

1. Clarify the Coding Sessions AI-credit mechanic

“Requires AI credits” is the only consumption hint on an otherwise meter-free page, and it’s a footnote. As AI coding usage grows, Linear should publish the credit price, included allowances per tier, and overage rates so buyers can forecast it — the way transparent usage pricing tools surface their pools.

2. Offer volume or commit discounts on large seat counts

The per-seat price is flat regardless of headcount, so a 500-seat org pays the same per seat as a 6-seat team until it negotiates Enterprise. Publishing a volume-discount curve or a committed-use option would give midmarket buyers a reason to consolidate on Linear rather than negotiate ad hoc.

3. Anchor the Enterprise tier with a “starting at” price

Enterprise is fully quote-based with no published anchor. A “starting at $X/user/mo” or minimum-seat floor would reduce sales friction and help finance teams budget, without sacrificing the negotiation room Linear wants on large deals.

Key takeaways

1. Bundling AI into seats can be a feature, not a missed monetization. Linear shipped assignable AI agents with zero AI surcharge, betting that predictability and adoption beat the incremental revenue of a token meter. For tools where AI augments an existing workflow, this preserves trust.
2. A capacity cap converts better than a feature wall. Linear’s Free plan gives away marquee features (including AI) but caps issues at 250 — upgrades happen when teams genuinely outgrow the workspace, aligning the upgrade trigger with realized value.
3. Tier stability is underrated. Two paid tiers held for years (just renamed) make the catalogue scannable and lower the cognitive cost of buying — a quiet conversion advantage over competitors that pile on tiers and add-ons.
4. Annual anchoring at the top smooths revenue. Making Enterprise annual-only and leading Business with the yearly rate nudges buyers toward longer commitments without a hard contract requirement.
5. One footnote can undermine “no surprises.” The “Coding Sessions require AI credits” footnote is the single crack in Linear’s predictable-bill promise; the lesson is to price even small consumption mechanics in the open.

UBP implications

1. AI can be a tier driver instead of a usage meter. Linear demonstrates that an AI capability can pull buyers up the seat ladder without being separately metered — a viable alternative to per-token or per-outcome billing when AI augments rather than replaces a seat’s work.
2. Capacity caps are a clean upgrade metric for seat-based tools. Tying the free-to-paid trigger to a usage ceiling (issues, teams) gives seat-based products a usage-aligned conversion lever without abandoning per-seat simplicity.
3. Predictability has monetizable value. In a market drifting toward consumption pricing, Linear’s flat per-seat bill is itself a differentiator — proof that “no surprises” can be a competitive position, not a concession.

Sources

• Linear pricing page (accessed 2026-06-20)
• Linear changelog (accessed 2026-06-21)
• Linear blog (accessed 2026-06-21)
• Linear documentation (accessed 2026-06-21)

Bottom line

Linear is the rare AI-era developer tool that shipped agents without shipping a meter: Free $0, Basic $10, Business $16 per user/mo (billed yearly), and custom Enterprise, with AI bundled into every seat. The bill is seats × price — predictable by design — and the only crack in that promise is the “Coding Sessions require AI credits” footnote. For teams that value a forecastable invoice, Linear’s per-seat freemium is about as legible as SaaS pricing gets.

Want to compare Linear against other developer-tools pricing? Browse the pricing blueprint.

Pricing timeline : Major events on a vertical axis

Each milestone below corresponds to a public pricing change, product launch, or material adjustment. Major events use a filled marker; minor adjustments use a faded one.

Current: Free / Basic $10 / Business $16 / Enterprise, AI bundled

Jun 2026

Live pricing page shows Free ($0, capped at 250 issues / 2 teams, includes the Agent platform and Linear Agent), Basic $10 per user/mo, Business $16 per user/mo (both billed yearly), and custom Enterprise. Business now includes Triage Intelligence, Linear Agent automations (beta), and Code Intelligence (beta) at no AI surcharge. Coding Sessions require AI credits.

Basic $10 / Business $16 with full AI agent suite

Jan 2026

Wayback snapshot renders Basic at $10 per user/mo and Business at $16 per user/mo (billed yearly). The AI block is now Agent platform, MCP access, Triage Intelligence, Issue discussion summaries, and Linear Agent for Slack; Pulse and a Salesforce add-on appear. The exact month seats moved from $8/$12 to $10/$16 is unknown because mid-2025 snapshots did not render prices.

AI Agents added across tiers (prices not rendered in archive)

Sep 2025

Wayback snapshot shows Linear's "Artificial intelligence" feature block live: Linear for Agents, MCP access, and Product Intelligence (beta), plus "AI agents" listed on the Free plan. Basic/Business dollar figures did not render in this archived snapshot, so exact 2025 prices are unknown.

Tiers renamed Standard/Plus → Basic/Business

May 2024

Wayback snapshot shows the paid tiers rebranded to Basic ($8 per user/mo) and Business ($12 per user/mo, billed yearly), with a four-tier Free/Basic/Business/Enterprise grid. Business bundles Linear Insights, Zendesk/Intercom integrations, and Triage responsibility.

Plus raised to $14 and made annual-only

Nov 2022

Wayback snapshot shows Standard held at $8 while Plus moved to $14 per user/mo and dropped monthly billing (annual-only). The page introduces a stacked Free / Standard / Plus / Enterprise layout with a 250-issue Free cap.

Free / Standard $8 / Plus $12 (per-seat freemium)

Jan 2022

Wayback snapshot shows three plans on yearly billing: Free $0, Standard $8 per user/mo, and Plus $12 per user/mo (both −20% vs monthly), with Enterprise as contact-sales. Free is capped at 250 issues; paid tiers unlock unlimited issues and file uploads.