Community · Circle · plans · USD

Circle pricing: which plan you actually need

Updated August 29, 2026 · Official Circle pricing, platform, payments, and paywall-fee pages fetched this evening. If a number is missing below, we could not cite it.

Professional is the public floor. The $89 card is annual — month-to-month in the page data is $99. Business is workflows, APIs, and unbranding. Plus is custom. Circle’s 2% / 1% / 0.5% sits on top of Stripe.

Who this page is for

Experts who already have a method, who have decided Circle is the branded-community shape, and who are staring at three cards. It is not a Circle vs Skool vs Mighty table — that is Skool vs Circle vs Mighty Networks. It is not coaching advice. It is which Circle plan you actually need tonight.

If you wanted a $9 room with Skool as merchant of record, stop. Circle requires your Stripe. If you wanted a course-business OS, Kajabi is the cash register in this directory — public Basic $179/mo — not a Circle substitute.

The short version

Cited numbers, August 29, 2026

USD. Visible cards are the asterisked per-month rates Circle shows. Month-to-month dollars are from page data (priceMonth), not a second public card. Platform fee is Circle’s cut, not Stripe.

Sources: circle.so/pricing, circle.so/platform, circle.so/payments, Circle paywall transaction fees. Full list at the bottom.

Official add-ons (not a required bill)

Listed on Circle’s public comparison grid this fetch. They are optional. We are not rolling them into the plan price as a membership you must buy.

• Email Hub: +$99/mo* for 10,000 contacts; first 30 days free; charged on top of the community plan. 10k included on Plus.
• Extra admins: $10/mo per admin (Professional and Business). Unlimited on Plus.
• Extra moderators: $20/mo per 10 moderators (Professional and Business). Unlimited on Plus.
• Extra spaces: $20/mo per 10 spaces (Professional and Business). Talk to sales on Plus.
• Customizable profile fields: $49/month on Professional. Included on Business and Plus.
• Brand email notifications / sender email customization: $40/month on Professional. Included on Business and Plus.
• Live attendees: $20/mo per 100 attendees (Professional and Business). Talk to sales on Plus.
• Hours: $50/month per 10 hours (Professional and Business). Talk to sales on Plus.
• Extra Circle AI credits: $10 per 1,000 on Professional and Business. Included AI credits on those two named plans: 2,500/mo. Plus: negotiable.

Admin API extra requests, Headless API extra MAU, and API included-request rows sit on Business and Plus in the grid. We cite them as existing; we are not using them as a reason to pick a plan tonight unless you already know you need the API.

What the fees do to a simple offer

Circle’s percentage is on top of Stripe. Paywall help (updated May 2026): US cards typically 2.9%+$0.30; subscriptions use Stripe Billing. The help’s Business subscription example stacks 0.7% Billing. Arithmetic on listed price, no tax. Refunds: Circle’s cut is refunded if you refund through Circle; not if you refund in Stripe directly (same help).

• $97 one-time. Professional 2% = $1.94. Stripe 2.9%+$0.30 = $3.11. Combined $5.05. Business 1% = $0.97 + $3.11 = $4.08. Plus 0.5% = $0.49 + $3.11 = $3.60.
• $97 subscription. Same Circle cuts, plus Stripe Billing 0.7% = $0.68. Professional combined $5.73. Business $4.76. Plus $4.28.
• $497 one-time. Professional 2% = $9.94 plus Stripe ($14.71) = $24.65. Business 1% = $4.97 + $14.71 = $19.68. Plus 0.5% = $2.49 + $14.71 = $17.20.
• $2,000 one-time. Professional 2% = $40.00 plus Stripe ($58.30) = $98.30. Business 1% = $20.00 + $58.30 = $78.30. Plus 0.5% = $10.00 + $58.30 = $68.30.

The subscription gap Professional vs Business is $110/mo on the visible annual cards ($199 − $89), or $120/mo in page-data month-to-month ($219 − $99). Business’s extra 1% saved on $97 is $0.97. You do not buy Business to save the fee on a simple membership. You buy it for workflows, APIs, unbranding, or because 3 admins / 20 spaces will not hold — after you have priced the $10 / $20 add-ons.

Kajabi, if the offer was actually a library or a coaching OS: Kajabi Payments, US card, Basic 2.9%+$0.30 = $3.11 on $97, plus the US help-page 0.7% on memberships. No extra platform percentage. Public Basic is $179/mo. That is the cash-register alternative, not a Circle plan.

Which plan you actually need

Stay on Professional if

You want a branded community with paid memberships, courses, events, and a site, and 3 admins / 10 moderators / 20 spaces will hold. Custom branding and a custom domain are already on this card. Paid memberships are already on this card. The 2% is the fee, not a reason to upgrade until volume makes the 1% gap obvious — and even then, run the add-on math first.

Move to Business if

You need workflows, the APIs, custom profile fields without the $49 add-on, branded email without the $40 add-on, or to remove Circle branding. Or 5 admins / 30 spaces, if extra-admin and extra-space add-ons would cost more than the plan gap. Course migrations are listed as free for Annual Business and above (pricing FAQ) — eligibility not verified here.

Talk to Plus if

You are buying branded iOS/Android apps, custom SSO, AI Agents, a sandbox, or a dedicated CSM. There is no public dollar. Do not treat Plus as “the next card after $199.”

Skip Circle if

You wanted Skool’s merchant-of-record simplicity and no Stripe account. Skool Hobby is $9/mo; Pro is $99/mo. That fork is Skool vs Circle vs Mighty Networks. Skip Circle if you only needed a course player. Skip if the work is a coaching OS with one community attached — that is Kajabi, cap 1 on Basic.

Visit Circle

Circle affiliate slot — not live

Circle buttons are official product URLs only. Kajabi’s trial box and visit button use the 30-day trial affiliate, justinwise.net/kajabi. The Kajabi pricing button is a pricing-page affiliate. Official Kajabi pricing remains the source for Kajabi numbers. No invented Circle affiliate.

Omitted on purpose

• Circle Plus public dollar card. Custom. Third-party “starts at” quotes are not official cards.
• Add-ons as a required bill rolled into Professional or Business. They are listed; they are optional.
• Admin API extra-request dollars ($.005 / $.002) and Headless extra MAU ($0.5 / $0.3) as a plan-choice input unless you already know you need the API. Listed on the grid; not priced into the table as a membership.
• A break-even month presented as advice. The $97 / $497 / $2,000 arithmetic is Circle’s official percentage plus the US card rate Circle’s help cites.
• Tax as a dollar table. Circle’s asterisk: displayed prices do not include applicable taxes. We did not invent a tax rate.
• Skool, Mighty Networks, Discord, Teachable, and Thinkific as this three-plan fork. Those comparisons live elsewhere. Kajabi is cited only as the OS alternative with public Basic $179.
• Keyword volumes, “Circle is expensive” threads as pricing sources, and anything that documents your method for you.

Sources

1. Circle pricing — Professional priceMonth 99 / priceYear 89; Business 219 / 199; Plus custom; visible cards $89/mo* / $199/mo*; meta “starting as low as $89 per month”; 14-day trial; no credit card required; 30-day money-back; members unlimited; admins 3/5/unlimited; moderators 10/15/unlimited; spaces 20/30/flexible; transaction fees 2%/1%/0.5%; storage 200GB/500GB/1TB; live 100/200/flexible attendees, 15/20/flexible room, 10/15/flexible hours; Email Hub +$99/mo* for 10k contacts, first 30 days free; add-ons as listed; Professional and Business feature lists. Fetched August 29, 2026.
2. Circle platform — “Prices displayed in USD, based on annual billing and do not include applicable taxes.” Professional feature list includes courses, events, website builder, live streams, live rooms, paid memberships, custom domain. Fetched August 29, 2026.
3. Circle homepage — “Build a home for your community, events, and courses — all under your own brand.” Paywalls: one-time, memberships, or recurring; connect Stripe. Fetched August 29, 2026.
4. Circle payments — paywalls powered by Stripe; connect existing Stripe; Professional 2% / Business 1% / Plus 0.5% in addition to Stripe. Fetched August 29, 2026.
5. Circle paywall transaction fees (updated May 2026) — same 2%/1%/0.5%; Stripe cards typically 2.9%+$0.30 (US); subscriptions use Stripe Billing; Business subscription example stacks 0.7% Billing; Circle’s fee refunded on Circle-issued refunds, not Stripe-dashboard refunds. Fetched August 29, 2026.
6. Kajabi pricing — public Basic $179 / $143, Growth $249 / $199, Pro $499 / $399; Kajabi Payments US grid; 3rd-party 2%/1%/0.5%; 30-day trial. Cited as the OS alternative, not a Circle plan. Fetched August 29, 2026.