How much does Clerk cost?

Paid plans start at $25/mo, going up to $300/mo for larger teams. There's also an Enterprise tier with custom pricing. You can get started on the free plan before committing.

Is there a free plan?

Yes. The "Hobby" plan is free forever, not just a trial. You get up to 3 dashboard seats, unlimited applications, 50,000 mru limit per app — plus 6 more features. It's enough to evaluate the product before upgrading.

Can I try it before paying?

There's no trial per se, but the free plan lets you use the product indefinitely with some limits.

Is there a discount for annual billing?

Yes — you save up to 20% if you pay annually instead of month-to-month. They also mention: "Billed annually pricing available on Pro and Business plans."

Clerk Pricing (2026)

Clerk has a free Hobby plan, and paid plans start at $25/mo.

Clerk charges per monthly active user on top of a flat platform fee — Pro starts at $25/mo and scales with your MAU count once you cross the included threshold. It's less 'per-seat SaaS' and more 'pay for the users you authenticate,' so cost tracks your app's growth, not your team size.

From $25/mo 4 plans hybrid Free plan Best Clerk alternatives → Clerk's competitors →

Hobby: $0/mo
Pro Popular: $25/mo
Business: $300/mo
Enterprise: Contact Sales

Verified Sep 30, 2026 Official pricing page

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Screenshot of Clerk's pricing page showing its plans and prices — Their pricing page, captured Sep 30, 2026

Hobby

$0/mo

Up to 3 dashboard seats
Unlimited applications
50,000 MRU limit per app
Up to 5 user impersonations
APIs and prebuilt UIs for sign-up, sign-in, and user profile
Custom domain
Fixed, 7 day session lifetime
Application Logs
Machine Authentication

Pro

Popular

$25/mo $20/mo annual

50,000 MRU included per app
1 Enterprise connection included
Remove Clerk branding
Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Satellite domains
Custom session lifetime
Application Logs
SMS Authentication available
Machine Authentication

Business

$300/mo $250/mo annual

10 dashboard seats included
SOC2 Report
Enhanced dashboard roles
Enterprise SSO for workspace
Priority support
Application and Admin Logs

Enterprise

Contact Sales

Annual committed use discounts
99.99% Uptime SLA
Premium support SLA + dedicated slack channel
Application and Admin Logs
Log sink destinations
HIPAA compliance available with BAA
Onboarding & migration support
Custom security questionnaires

Does Clerk have a free plan?

Yes: the Hobby plan is free forever, not a time-limited trial. When you outgrow it, paid plans start at $25/mo.

What the free plan includes

Up to 3 dashboard seats
Unlimited applications
50,000 MRU limit per app
Up to 5 user impersonations
APIs and prebuilt UIs for sign-up, sign-in, and user profile
Custom domain
Fixed, 7 day session lifetime
Application Logs
Machine Authentication

AI Pricing Analysis

Pricing Model

Tier Strategy

Hobby is a sandbox for side projects and MVPs — fine until you need custom domains or want to remove Clerk branding. Pro is where real production apps live, and Business ($300/mo) kicks in once you need SAML SSO, advanced compliance, or higher support SLAs that startups don't care about but mid-market buyers demand. Enterprise is the inevitable landing spot once procurement wants contracts, custom MAU pricing, or dedicated support.

Competitive Positioning

Clerk isn't the cheap auth API (that's more like Supabase Auth or raw Firebase) — it's priced as a premium, dev-experience-first product competing with Auth0 and WorkOS for teams who'll pay more to ship faster. The free tier is generous enough to hook indie devs, but the real target is funded startups who'll outgrow Hobby fast and don't blink at $300+/mo once they're making money.

Growth Lever

MAU overages are the core expansion engine — every user you onboard past the included cap adds to the bill, so growth in your product directly grows Clerk's revenue. Feature-gating (SSO, custom roles, advanced session management) pushes the enterprise-bound upmarket, while annual billing discounts (~20% off) nudge committed teams to lock in early instead of paying monthly.

Want the strategist's read on the live page? Read the AI teardown of Clerk's pricing page →

Clerk Pricing FAQ

How much does Clerk cost?: Paid plans start at $25/mo, going up to $300/mo for larger teams. There's also an Enterprise tier with custom pricing. You can get started on the free plan before committing.
Is there a free plan?: Yes. The "Hobby" plan is free forever, not just a trial. You get up to 3 dashboard seats, unlimited applications, 50,000 mru limit per app — plus 6 more features. It's enough to evaluate the product before upgrading.
Can I try it before paying?: There's no trial per se, but the free plan lets you use the product indefinitely with some limits.
How does the pricing work?: Clerk charges per monthly active user on top of a flat platform fee — Pro starts at $25/mo and scales with your MAU count once you cross the included threshold. It's less 'per-seat SaaS' and more 'pay for the users you authenticate,' so cost tracks your app's growth, not your team size.
Is there a discount for annual billing?: Yes — you save up to 20% if you pay annually instead of month-to-month. They also mention: "Billed annually pricing available on Pro and Business plans."
Which plan makes sense for me?: Hobby is a sandbox for side projects and MVPs — fine until you need custom domains or want to remove Clerk branding. Pro is where real production apps live, and Business ($300/mo) kicks in once you need SAML SSO, advanced compliance, or higher support SLAs that startups don't care about but mid-market buyers demand. Enterprise is the inevitable landing spot once procurement wants contracts, custom MAU pricing, or dedicated support.

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