Picture a cleaning company with six weekly clients. It’s an illustration, not a real business. The owner has just connected a scheduling app to Xero, and the app creates an invoice in Xero after every visit. In a four-visit month that’s 6 × 4 = 24 invoices. In a five-visit month it’s 30.
On Xero’s Early plan, that connection matters. Early allows 20 invoices a month, and Xero’s own footnote says transactions started by app partners “may automatically contribute” to that limit. Invoices count when you approve them, too, not only when you email them. Bill the same six clients once a month instead, and the count is 6.
As of October 2026, Xero’s US plans cost $27 a month for Early, $59 for Growing and $97 for Established, the prices in effect since October 1, 2026, when they rose from $25, $55 and $90. Billing is monthly only, in USD before sales tax. Early caps you at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month. Growing removes both caps, and Established adds project time-and-cost tracking, employee expense and mileage claims, and multiple currencies. Every plan has unlimited users.
Figures come from xero.com/us and Xero’s US Terms of Use, checked October 17, 2026. They’re Xero’s published prices and rules, not results from an account. This isn’t tax or accounting advice.
What each Xero plan costs as of October 2026
| Plan | Per month | Per year (×12) | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early | $27 (was $25) | $324 | 20 invoices and 5 bills a month |
| Growing | $59 (was $55) | $708 | No invoice or bill limit |
| Established | $97 (was $90) | $1,164 | No limit, plus project time and costs, expense and mileage claims, multiple currencies |
There’s no annual plan and no annual discount. Xero charges the subscription monthly, in advance, and it renews each month until you cancel, so a year is just the monthly price × 12. Compared with the prices before October 1, 2026, a year now costs $24 more on Early, $48 more on Growing and $84 more on Established.
A few costs sit outside every plan price. Xero’s payroll add-on is optional and listed at $36 a month plus $6 per employee or contractor paid. Payment fees apply when customers pay your invoices online, and when you pay bills by anything other than standard ACH. For how per-invoice payment fees add up on job-sized amounts, a side-by-side of invoice fees on $300, $1,200 and $3,000 jobs works through two processors’ published rates; Xero’s own payment fees aren’t covered there or here.
One smaller note: if an accountant or another platform bills you for Xero, your price may be different.
What counts toward Early’s 20 invoices and 5 bills
Xero’s pricing page puts a footnote on Early’s 20-invoice line, and that footnote decides most counts:
- Approving counts, not just sending. Xero applies the Early limit to both approving and sending invoices. An invoice you approve and never email still uses one of the 20.
- Invoices from connected apps may count automatically. Xero’s word is “may.” If a scheduling, job-management or payments app syncs invoices into Xero, I’d include every one of them in your count rather than assume they’re exempt.
- Bills are counted per entry, not per supplier. Early allows 5 bills a month. If you enter a separate bill for every supply-house purchase, one supplier can use several of the 5.
Invoices: every invoice approved in Xero that month, whether you created it or a connected app did. Compare with 20.
Bills: every supplier bill you entered that month. Compare with 5.
That’s why the cleaning company at the top lands on either side of the line with the same customers. Invoicing after every visit gives 24 or 30; invoicing once a month gives 6. It’s a way to count, not a client limit for Early. Add one-off jobs and whatever your apps create to your own total.
A busy month on Early: wait, or pay for Growing
Once you reach 20 invoices or 5 bills in a month on Early, anything more saves as a draft. Xero gives you two ways to process it:
- Wait until the next month and process the drafts then.
- Upgrade to Growing, which has no limit: $59 a month instead of $27, or $32 more a month.
The upgrade isn’t a one-month switch. You can move up at any time, but you can only move to a cheaper plan after about a month on the higher one (Xero says 30 days). If the cleaning company in the example upgraded for a five-visit month, it should expect to pay Growing’s price for at least about a month before it could go back to Early.
The three rows that separate Established from Growing
Growing already has no invoice or bill limit. On Xero’s plan comparison, these three rows a service business may need are included only on Established:
- Track time and costs for projects (job costing)
- Employee expense and mileage claims
- Multiple currencies
On the invoice and bill limits, Established gives you nothing more than Growing. If you need one of the three, Established is the lowest plan that has it, at $38 more a month than Growing ($97 vs. $59), or $456 more a year.
Extra logins cost nothing; leaving takes a month’s notice
Every plan includes unlimited users. Your office manager, a business partner and your bookkeeper or accountant can all log in without a per-user charge, so adding staff logins doesn’t raise the plan price. Payroll is the exception if you add it: it’s priced per person paid.
If the increase has you rethinking Xero, these are its exit terms. Cancelling takes one month’s notice, and you pay subscription fees up to and including the day it takes effect. No refund is due. Your data is archived rather than deleted: you can’t access it after cancelling, but you can restore it for up to seven years by reactivating the subscription.
If you’re still choosing bookkeeping software, when paying for bookkeeping software starts to make sense for a small contractor covers that choice. It doesn’t compare anything with Xero.
Let your own Xero records pick the plan
Xero sets the price of each plan; which plan you’re on is the part you control. Count last month’s approved invoices in Xero, including any a connected app created, and the bills you entered. Then do the same for your busiest month.
If invoices go over 20 or bills over 5 in a month you can’t wait out, Growing is the lowest plan that fits, at $708 a year. If you need job costing, expense and mileage claims or multiple currencies, it’s Established at $1,164 a year. If neither applies, Early is $324 a year. All three figures are 12 monthly payments, before sales tax, add-ons and payment fees.
If your count sits near 20, look at how the invoices get there before you look at the price. Whether you bill per visit or per month, and whether an app is pushing invoices into Xero, can decide which side of 20 you land on, as it did for the cleaning company. And because a move up holds you there for about a month, I’d settle the count first and change plans second.
Prices and plan rules were as published on xero.com/us when checked on October 17, 2026; confirm today’s prices before you change plans. Official pages: Xero US pricing plans · Xero US common questions