Linear is a project tracking tool built specifically for software teams. It's fast, opinionated, and genuinely popular with engineering-led companies that found Jira too slow and too complex. Linear pricing in 2026: a free plan, Basic at $10 per user per month billed annually ($12 billed monthly), Business at $16 per user per month billed annually ($18 billed monthly), and Enterprise at negotiated rates. This guide breaks down every tier, what you actually get at each level, and which plan makes sense for your team. Pricing is current as of October 2026.

Key Takeaways

• Linear's free plan is genuinely useful for small teams: 250 issues and 2 teams covers most early-stage startups.

• The $10/user/month Basic plan is the sweet spot for growing teams. It removes the issue and team limits without paying for features most teams don't need.

• The $16/user/month Business plan is worth it when you need private teams, guest access, or Linear's advanced AI features like Triage Intelligence.

Linear Pricing at a Glance

• Free: $0/month, unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues

• Basic: $10/user/month (billed annually) or $12/user/month (billed monthly), 5 teams, unlimited issues

• Business: $16/user/month (billed annually) or $18/user/month (billed monthly), unlimited teams, private teams, guest access, advanced AI

• Enterprise: Custom pricing, SAML/SCIM, dedicated account management

Annual billing saves roughly 17% over month-to-month. Linear does not publish the exact monthly billing rate on the pricing page, but it is available at checkout.

Free Plan: What You Get

Linear's free plan is more capable than most free tiers in the project management category. Unlimited members means you're not paying per seat on a headcount basis. The real limits are structural: 2 teams and 250 issues.

For a startup in the first few months, 250 issues is enough. The 2-team limit is more likely to bite first as you start separating frontend, backend, and design work into distinct spaces. Most teams outgrow the free plan within 6 months of active use, not because Linear forces it, but because the limits become genuinely constraining.

What the free plan does not include: unlimited teams, private teams, guest access, roadmaps, advanced analytics, and the Business-tier AI features. Basic Linear Agent automation (creating and routing issues from Slack and other external signals) is available starting on the Free plan. Those are all paid-tier features. The free plan gives you the core issue tracking and workflow without the organizational and advanced AI layers.

Basic Plan ($10/user/month): The Right Choice for Most Teams

The Basic plan removes the issue and team limits that make the free plan feel small. At $10/user/month billed annually ($12/user/month billed monthly), you get unlimited issues, 5 teams, and access to Linear's full core feature set including cycles, projects, roadmaps, and integrations.

For a 10-person engineering team, that's $100/month billed at $1,200/year. Against comparable tools, that's competitive: Jira Standard is $9.70/user/month for teams up to 100, but many teams find the configuration overhead significant. Linear at Basic is faster out of the box and the UX is noticeably better for engineering workflows.

The 5-team limit on Basic is worth noting. If your organization has more than 5 distinct team spaces (frontend, backend, mobile, data, design, etc.), you'll hit this ceiling. At that scale, Business is the right tier.

The Basic plan also includes integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Figma, Slack, and Zapier. For teams that live in GitHub for code review and want to close the loop with their issue tracker, this is particularly useful. See how Linear pairs with GitHub Issues workflows for more on the integration pattern.

Business Plan ($16/user/month): When You Need It

The Business plan adds three meaningful features over Basic: private teams, guest access, and advanced AI features.

Private teams matter when you're working on sensitive projects and don't want every member of the organization to have visibility into certain workstreams (security initiatives, acquisition discussions, or executive planning).

Guest access matters when you work with external contractors, agencies, or client stakeholders who need to view or comment on specific projects without becoming full organization members.

Advanced AI features are the most substantial Business-tier addition. Basic Linear Agent automation (issue creation and routing from Slack, email, and error monitors) is available on the Free and Basic plans. Business adds the higher-level layer: Triage Intelligence for smart cross-team routing and prioritization, Code Intelligence for linking issues to code changes (requires AI credits), Linear Asks for managing incoming requests across channels, and Linear Insights for team analytics. For teams that want AI across the full engineering workflow rather than just basic automation, these capabilities live in Business.

At $16/user/month, the Business plan costs 60% more than Basic. The upgrade makes sense when you need at least one of those three features. If you don't need private teams, guests, or the advanced AI layer, stay on Basic.

Enterprise: For Large Engineering Organizations

Linear's Enterprise plan adds SAML single sign-on, SCIM user provisioning, custom security controls, invoice and purchase order billing, advanced export options, and a dedicated account team. Pricing is negotiated annually and scales with team size.

Enterprise is built for engineering departments that have outgrown the self-serve tiers. The core additions beyond Business are identity management (SAML/SCIM means your IT team controls access via your existing identity provider, so engineers joining or leaving are provisioned automatically) and compliance controls (custom data export, audit logs, and advanced org modeling for separating subsidiaries or acquisitions into distinct spaces).

For a software engineering department, the practical Enterprise threshold is typically 100 or more engineers, an IT security requirement around SSO or SCIM, or a legal or compliance requirement around data handling such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001. At large team sizes (500 users), estimated annual costs run $230 to $300 per user per year based on typical negotiated rates with volume discounts. For most startups and growing teams under 100, Business is enough.

Is Linear Worth the Price?

Linear's pricing is competitive with the alternatives. Against Jira, Linear Basic ($10/user/month annual) is now slightly more than Jira Standard ($9.70/user/month for teams up to 100) but significantly better in usability. Against Asana or Monday.com (which target broader teams, not just engineering), Linear is cheaper and more focused. The AI project management tools landscape has gotten crowded, but Linear's execution speed and keyboard-first design still differentiate it.

The honest answer: if your team is primarily engineers and you're currently using Jira, the productivity gain from switching to Linear likely pays for itself within the first quarter. Linear's sub-100ms response times and opinionated workflows reduce the friction of issue management enough that engineers actually use it rather than working around it.

If your team is mixed (sales, design, customer success, engineering all sharing one tool), Linear is a worse fit. It's designed for engineering workflows and the non-engineering views feel secondary. For mixed teams, Notion or another general-purpose tool may be a better value.

Is Linear worth it for a 20-person startup?

For a 20-person engineering team on Basic, the cost is $200/month billed annually ($2,400/year). That's slightly more than Jira Standard at the same headcount ($1,940/year), but most 20-person teams report that Linear's lower configuration overhead and better engineering workflow pays for the difference quickly. At 20 people, even 30 minutes of recovered time per engineer per week adds up to real capacity. The 5-team limit on Basic is rarely an issue at this size. Most 20-person startups stay on Basic until they exceed 50 or 60 engineers and start needing more than 5 distinct team spaces.

Linear vs Competitors on Pricing

• Linear Basic vs Jira Standard: Linear $10/user/month vs Jira $9.70/user/month (for up to 100 users). Linear wins on speed and UX; Jira wins on feature depth and enterprise integrations.

• Linear Basic vs GitHub Issues: GitHub Issues is free but limited. Linear has much stronger project and roadmap tooling. Worth the premium for teams that need cycle planning.

• Linear Business vs Notion: Notion Plus at $10/user is cheaper but serves different workflows. Linear for engineering execution, Notion for documentation and knowledge management.

• Linear vs Motion: Motion is for individual AI scheduling ($14.99-19/month) vs Linear for team project tracking. Different tools for different layers of the work.

Best Tool for Engineers' Personal Productivity: Lifestack

Linear tracks what your team is building. It doesn't tell you when to work on it. That's where a personal scheduling layer becomes valuable.

Lifestack reads your sleep, recovery, and focus data, then builds a daily plan that puts your deep work during your peak cognitive hours. For engineers and product managers who use Linear to track their work, Lifestack handles the personal scheduling problem: which issues do I actually work on today, and when do I work on them?

The combination works well. Linear gives you the project-level view and team coordination. Lifestack gives you the personal execution layer that accounts for your energy and calendar. It's $7/month or $50/year, with a 7-day free trial. See the time-blocking approach it uses for scheduling focus work.

FAQ

How much does Linear cost per month?

Linear has a free plan ($0), a Basic plan at $10 per user per month (billed annually) or $12 per user per month (billed monthly), and a Business plan at $16 per user per month (billed annually) or $18 per user per month (billed monthly). Enterprise pricing is custom. These are current as of October 2026.

Does Linear have a free plan?

Yes. Linear's free plan includes unlimited members, 2 teams, and 250 issues. It includes the core issue tracking, projects, and cycle features. It does not include private teams, guest access, roadmaps, or the advanced Business-tier AI features. For most early-stage teams, the free plan is enough to start.

What does Linear cost billed monthly?

If you pay month-to-month rather than annually, Basic is $12 per user per month and Business is $18 per user per month. Annual billing (Basic $10/user, Business $16/user) saves roughly 17%. Linear recommends annual billing on the pricing page but monthly billing is available at checkout.

How does Linear billing work?

Linear bills per active seat. You can add or remove users at any time; the charge adjusts on your next billing cycle. Annual plans bill the full year upfront. Monthly plans bill each month and can be cancelled at any time. Enterprise plans are invoiced annually through a sales contract and support purchase orders.

What's the difference between Linear Basic and Business?

Basic ($10/user/month annual) gives you unlimited issues, 5 teams, and core Linear features including cycles, roadmaps, and integrations. Business ($16/user/month annual) adds unlimited teams, private teams, guest access, and the advanced AI layer: Triage Intelligence, Code Intelligence, Linear Asks, and Linear Insights. Upgrade to Business when you need any of those capabilities.

Is Linear cheaper than Jira?

Slightly more expensive now. Linear Basic is $10/user/month vs Jira Standard at $9.70/user/month for teams up to 100. The price difference is small; the bigger difference is usability. Linear's speed and keyboard-first design reduce the time engineers spend on project management overhead. Most teams switching from Jira to Linear report a noticeable improvement in how quickly they can move issues through a workflow.

Who should use Linear's Business plan?

Teams that need private project spaces, external guest access, or Linear's advanced AI features (Triage Intelligence, Code Intelligence, Linear Asks). If your organization has more than 5 distinct team spaces, Business is also necessary since the Basic plan caps at 5 teams. If you don't need those features, Basic is the better value.

Is Linear worth it for a 20-person startup?

Yes, for an engineering-led startup. At 20 people on Basic, the cost is $2,400 per year. The productivity gain from switching from a heavier tool like Jira is typically measurable within the first month: faster issue creation, better adoption among engineers, and less time spent on configuration. The 5-team limit on Basic is not a constraint at 20 people. If you need private teams or more than 5 team spaces, move to Business at $3,840/year for 20 people.

Can individuals use Linear?

Yes. Solo developers and individual contributors use Linear's free plan to track personal projects. The 250-issue limit and 2-team cap are generous enough for individual use. For more personal productivity tools that complement Linear, the digital planner guide covers the best options for managing your own work alongside a team tracker.