Vendor · Thinkific · USD · United States rates where noted

Thinkific (2026) — who it’s actually for

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

Public Basic is $54/mo after an approximately 10% increase effective August 13, 2026. Named plans cap current students at 10,000. Keep Stripe and you pay 5% / 2% / 1% on Basic / Start / Grow — a tax on using your own processor, in the US, Canada, UK, and EU.

Who this page is for

Experts with a method, deciding whether Thinkific is the LMS — not whether they should invent a catalog. A recorded library, a membership on top of courses, or a live cohort. You would otherwise buy a player and keep email and checkout somewhere else, or you would buy Start because the group starts on a date.

This is not a Thinkific vs everyone table. Those live on Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific and Thinkific vs Kajabi for cohort / live programs. This page is Thinkific on its own terms: the August 13 hike, the 10k cap, and the Stripe 5/2/1% tax.

The short version

Cited numbers, August 29, 2026

USD. Monthly is month-to-month. Annual is the advertised per-month rate when you pay yearly. Current students, official definition: unique students who currently have unexpired access to at least one course on your site.

Sources: thinkific.com/pricing, Thinkific Aug 13, 2026 update, How much does Thinkific cost?, Third-party payment gateway fee FAQ. HTML for pricing was fetched August 29, 2026 (WebFetch was Cloudflare-blocked; curl from this machine returned 200).

What you are actually buying

An LMS with commerce. Unlimited courses on every named plan. Site builder, landing pages, and email automation are on the public grid. That is still a learning platform, not Kajabi’s business OS. Official FAQ: you can keep your existing website and use Thinkific as the education portion.

Basic is a recorded library plus one community (5 spaces, 5 live events in community), 5 digital downloads, 5 coaching/webinar products, quizzes and in-course discussions, custom domain. It is not live Zoom lessons (dash on Basic). It is not paid memberships, bundles, or payment plans (dashes). It is not completion certificates or assignments (dashes).

Start is where the dated group lives. Public card: “Live cohorts and coaching — unlimited Zoom sessions, bookable calendars, and attendance tracking.” Memberships and subscriptions. HTML/CSS editor. Thinkific does not host the live video — official coaching FAQ tonight: you connect your own video-conference tool. Calendar-date drip so a cohort shares a schedule is already cited on Thinkific vs Kajabi for cohort / live programs.

Grow is white-label and B2B: remove Thinkific branding, 3 communities, group orders, invoicing, PayPal, API and webhooks, phone and priority chat, student engagement reports.

Plus is custom: dedicated support, SSO, SCORM, learning paths, CRM integrations, 10,000+ user seats, branded app on select contracts. Talk to sales. It is not on a public dollar card tonight.

The August 13, 2026 increase

Official update page (“Thinkific’s 2026 Plan Pricing Update”): first subscription price increase since 2022. Approximately 10% on Basic, Start, Grow, Legacy Pro, and Fixed Growth — monthly and annual. Expand is not changing. Existing non-profit customers and customers with active discounts are exempt. Features stay the same.

USD, official current → new:

• Basic: $49/mo → $54/mo. Annual $432/yr ($36/mo) → $475/yr ($40/mo).
• Start: $99/mo → $109/mo. Annual $888/yr ($74/mo) → $978/yr ($82/mo).
• Grow: $199/mo → $219/mo. Annual $1,788/yr ($149/mo) → $1,968/yr ($164/mo).
• Expand: $499/mo, no change. Not on the current public plan cards (those are Basic / Start / Grow / Plus).

When it hits: monthly customers, first billing cycle on or after August 13, 2026. Annual customers, next renewal on or after August 13, 2026. Tonight is August 29, 2026 — the public cards already show the new rates. The official article also lists EUR and GBP, and a legacy Pro / Fixed Growth table (Pro $99 → $109/mo; Fixed Growth $149 → $169/mo). Those currencies and legacy rows are not reprinted in the public-card table above.

The same article: switch monthly to annual before August 13 to convert at the then-current annual rate, with new pricing delayed until the 2027 renewal, plus the standard 25% annual discount (20% for legacy). That lock-in window is closed as of this page’s date. We are not telling you to migrate, downgrade, or cancel.

The Stripe 5/2/1% tax

On Thinkific Payments, there is no third-party gateway fee. Keep Stripe (and, the FAQ says, other third-party providers in the future, including PayPal) in the US, Canada, the UK, or the EU, and Thinkific adds 5% Basic / 2% Start / 1% Grow / 0.5% Expand. Plus: no fee at this time. First $1M of calendar-year sales through Thinkific, then waived. Free plans: Thinkific Payments is required in those regions; third-party processors are revoked on Free — and the public pricing FAQ says there is no free plan tonight, only the 30-day trial.

Rollout dates on the official FAQ: July 3, 2024 (US, Canada, UK); November 6, 2024 (listed EU countries). If TCommerce / Thinkific Payments is not available in your country, the FAQ says you are not charged this fee.

Gateway FAQ, TCommerce vs Stripe: in most countries, Thinkific Payments processing is described as the same as Stripe, with two extras called out — higher fees for Buy Now, Pay Later, and a 0.5% Sales Tax and VAT Solution on US, Canadian, UK, and EU purchases where tax is applicable. That 0.5% is not the Stripe tax. It is a native tax-tool line. Exact country-by-country Thinkific Payments card schedules beyond the public 2.9% FAQ headline were not extracted as a loadable table this fetch.

What the fees do to a simple offer

Say the offer is priced as listed, US sale, one successful charge. Card processing sits on every stack. The extra question is Thinkific’s own cut if you keep Stripe. Thinkific Payments arithmetic below uses the public 2.9% headline — not a full US schedule, and not +$0.30.

• $97. Thinkific Payments at 2.9% → $2.81. Stripe-on-Basic +5% = $4.85 on top of Stripe. Stripe-on-Start +2% = $1.94. Stripe-on-Grow +1% = $0.97.
• $497. Thinkific Payments 2.9% → $14.41. Stripe-on-Basic +$24.85. Stripe-on-Start +$9.94. Stripe-on-Grow +$4.97.
• $2,000. Thinkific Payments 2.9% → $58.00. Stripe-on-Basic +$100.00. Stripe-on-Start +$40.00. Stripe-on-Grow +$20.00.

Stripe’s own processing is omitted (use Stripe’s schedule). The 0.5% native tax solution, if it applies to that purchase, is a separate add. We are not publishing a break-even month against Kajabi or Teachable; those pages already did neighboring arithmetic.

The monthly gap between Thinkific Start ($109) and Kajabi Basic ($179) is $70. That gap is not “Thinkific is cheaper for a cohort.” You are not buying native live video, or Kajabi’s email and funnel bundle, on Thinkific. If those tools are already paid for, Start can be the host. If they are not, Kajabi’s $179 is replacing several tabs, not competing with $109.

Who should pick Thinkific

Basic if the offer is a recorded library, email and checkout already live elsewhere, and 10,000 current students is enough. Unlimited courses. One community. $54 / $40.

Start if the work is a dated group or a paid membership. Live cohorts are a Start add. Do not sit on Basic and expect that row.

Grow if you need the Thinkific logo gone, three communities, group orders, invoicing, PayPal, or the API. The Stripe tax drops to 1%.

Plus if you need SCORM, SSO, or more than 10,000 current students. Custom price. Talk to sales.

Skip Thinkific if

You need Kajabi-style funnels and native email as the marketing system. Thinkific is a learning platform with commerce. Also skip Basic if the program is a live cohort — that starts on Start. Skip keeping Stripe unless you have priced 5/2/1%. Skip SCORM on a named public card — official FAQ: Plus only. Skip if 10,000 current students is not the cap you can live with without a Plus conversation.

If the offer is a feed and the room is the business, read Kajabi vs Skool before you pay for an LMS you will not open. If you wanted Teachable’s school and the 7.5% problem, that page is Teachable.

Visit Thinkific

Thinkific affiliate slot — not live

Thinkific’s button is the official pricing URL 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 Thinkific affiliate.

Omitted on purpose

• Exact Thinkific Payments US schedule beyond the public 2.9% FAQ line. The cost article points at a country fee table; we cite the 2.9% headline and the third-party percentages from official help. We did not invent 2.9%+$0.30 as Thinkific’s native US rate.
• Thinkific public Expand plan card. The August 2026 increase article prices Expand at $499/mo, unchanged, and lists a 0.5% third-party fee on Expand. Current pricing page plan cards are Basic / Start / Grow / Plus.
• Full EUR / GBP and legacy Pro / Fixed Growth dollar tables. They are on the official update page. This vendor page uses USD public cards plus the USD current→new list in the August 13 section.
• Apple Pay / Google Pay / BNPL native fee schedules. The pricing FAQ says those transaction fees vary and points at another help article. Not extracted as a public grid this fetch.
• Custom-admin, Zapier-action, and similar comparison-grid counts where tonight’s HTML did not parse into a clean four-column row. Site admins 1 / 2 / 6 did parse (“includes the Site Owner”) and are in the table.
• How to run a cohort, how to price a seat, keyword volumes, or anything that documents your method for you.

Sources

1. Thinkific pricing — Basic $54/$40 (save $173), Start $109/$82 (save $330), Grow $219/$164 (save $660); Plus talk to sales; unlimited courses; 10,000 current students on named plans; 1 / 1 / 3 communities; 5 / 10 / 20 spaces; live events in community 5 / unlimited / unlimited; digital downloads 5 / unlimited; coaching/webinars 5 / unlimited; site admins 1 / 2 / 6 (includes site owner); bandwidth 100 / 200 / 400 GB/mo; live cohorts on Start; paid memberships / bundles / payment plans dash on Basic; certificates / assignments / compliance dash on Basic; Zoom dash on Basic; remove branding / group orders / invoicing / API / PayPal on Grow; SCORM FAQ: Plus; branded app add-on $199/mo; 30-day trial, no free plan; 2.9% native FAQ; annual save 25%. HTML fetched August 29, 2026 (WebFetch Cloudflare-blocked; curl 200).
2. Thinkific’s 2026 plan pricing update — ~10% increase August 13, 2026; first subscription increase since 2022; Basic/Start/Grow/Legacy Pro/Fixed Growth; Expand unchanged at $499/mo; USD current→new table; monthly = first billing on or after Aug 13; annual = next renewal on or after Aug 13; non-profit and active discounts exempt. Fetched August 29, 2026.
3. How much does Thinkific cost? — third-party gateway 5.0% / 2.0% / 1.0% / 0.5% / no fee on Plus; $1M/year cap; Thinkific Payments avoids the fee; typical processor language 2.9%+$0.30 is “most payment processors,” not a Thinkific Payments US card we cited as exact. Fetched August 29, 2026.
4. Third-party payment gateway fee FAQ — Stripe fee in US/Canada/UK/EU; same plan percentages; $1M cap; Plus excluded at this time; 0.5% Sales Tax and VAT Solution on Thinkific Payments for US/CA/UK/EU where tax is applicable; fee does not apply if TCommerce is unavailable in your country. Fetched August 29, 2026.
5. Thinkific Coaching and Webinars — sellable free or paid live product, hosted outside a Community; FAQ: “Do I need an existing video conference platform to host an event? Yes. You’ll need to set up and connect the event with your video conference tool of choice.” HTML fetched August 29, 2026.