Kajabi Pricing 2026 Plan Costs and Surcharge

Kajabi costs $179 a month on Basic, $249 on Growth, and $499 on Pro, dropping to $143, $199, and $399 on annual billing. There is no free plan. Basic includes 2,500 contacts, Growth 25,000 and Pro 100,000, and extra contacts cost $125 a month per block of 25,000. The number that decides most Kajabi bills is not on the plan card, though: if you process payments through your own Stripe account instead of Kajabi Payments, Kajabi adds a surcharge of 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Growth, and 0.5 percent on Pro. Every figure here was checked against Kajabi's own pricing page.

That surcharge arrived in January 2026, when Kajabi restructured its pricing for the first time in nearly a decade. It changes how the ladder works in a way that is genuinely counterintuitive: past a certain monthly revenue, the more expensive plan is the cheaper plan. Most pricing pages you will read about Kajabi have not been rechecked since the change, so here is the current picture with the arithmetic done.

Kajabi pricing with all plans compared

	Basic	Growth	Pro
Monthly	$179	$249	$499
Annual, per month	$143	$199	$399
Contacts included	2,500	25,000	100,000
Products	5	50	Unlimited
Websites and communities	1 and 1	1 and 1	3 and 3
Admin users	2	11	26
Outside processor surcharge	2%	1%	0.5%
Kajabi Payments rate	2.9% + $0.30	2.8% + $0.30	2.7% + $0.30
Extra contacts	$125 a month per 25,000, on any plan
Money-back guarantee	30 days on every plan
Free plan	None

Card processing rates shown are for US entities. Kajabi notes that the outside-processor surcharge excludes PayPal, and that it does not apply in regions where Kajabi Payments is not offered.

Kajabi now meters contacts, and that changes the math

For years the honest line on Kajabi was that it metered products and admin seats but not your list. That is no longer true. The current pricing page caps Basic at 2,500 contacts, Growth at 25,000 and Pro at 100,000, and sells extra capacity in blocks of 25,000 contacts for $125 a month at any plan size.

The Basic cap is the one that bites. A creator with 4,000 people on the list and one course is over the limit on day one, so the real choice is Basic at $179 plus a $125 block ($304 a month) or Growth at $249, which also brings 11 admin seats and a lower surcharge. Growth wins that comparison by $55 a month before you count anything else.

The Starter tier that used to sit in Kajabi's comparison table without a price has also gone from the pricing page. Third-party sites still quote $89 a month for it. Treat that as a legacy offer you might see at signup, not as a plan you can plan around.

The free trial is still offered from the pricing page, which does not state its length. Third-party coverage reports 14 days as standard and 30 days through partner links. What Kajabi does state is a 30-day money-back guarantee on every plan, which is the safer thing to rely on.

The surcharge break-even where the expensive plan gets cheaper

Software pricing normally works one way: you pay more to get more. Kajabi's surcharge ladder inverts that, because each tier up cuts the percentage it takes from your revenue. So the gap between two plans is a fixed monthly cost, and the saving from upgrading is a variable one that grows with your sales. They cross.

Here is where, on monthly billing, assuming you process through your own Stripe account:

Staying on	Instead of	Monthly saving	Surcharge difference	Upgrading pays off above
Basic $179	Growth $249	$70	2% vs 1%	about $7,000/mo in sales
Growth $249	Pro $499	$250	1% vs 0.5%	about $50,000/mo in sales

On annual billing the numbers move in your favor slightly: Basic at $143 against Growth at $199 is a $56 gap, so the crossover falls to roughly $5,600 a month.

The practical takeaway is that the plan you should be on is a function of revenue, not of features. If you are selling $8,000 a month through your own Stripe on Basic to save $70, that decision is costing you money every month. If you are on Pro at $499 selling $12,000 a month, you are paying $250 extra to save $60 in surcharge, and Growth is the correct plan.

None of this applies if you use Kajabi Payments, which is the point of the design. Run the numbers against your actual monthly sales rather than the number you hope to hit, because the crossover is sensitive to it and creator revenue is lumpy across launches. If your income arrives from several places and you genuinely do not know the monthly figure, that is worth fixing first with something that pulls every payout into one running total before you pick a tier off a hunch.

Kajabi Payments or your own Stripe?

Kajabi Payments charges 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on Basic, 2.8 percent on Growth, and 2.7 percent on Pro, for US entities. Those are ordinary card processing rates, roughly what Stripe charges directly, and no surcharge applies on top.

Bring your own Stripe and you pay Stripe's rate plus Kajabi's surcharge. On Basic that is roughly 2.9 percent plus 30 cents to Stripe plus 2 percent to Kajabi, so close to 5 percent all in. The gap is not the platform being punitive so much as it is Kajabi pricing the convenience of you keeping your own processor relationship.

Reasons people keep their own Stripe anyway are real: an existing payout history and reserve terms, accounting integrations already wired to Stripe, subscriptions billing from Stripe for other products, or operating in a country where Kajabi Payments is not supported. If none of those apply to you, using Kajabi Payments is the straightforward way to delete the surcharge from the conversation entirely.

What actually changes between the tiers

Funnels are not where the limits sit. What Kajabi meters is contacts, products and admin seats.

Contacts go 2,500, 25,000, 100,000, with $125 a month per extra 25,000. A tenfold jump from Basic to Growth for $70 more is the best value step on the ladder.

Products go 5, 50, unlimited. A product is a course, a coaching offer, a membership, a podcast, or a community, so the count runs out faster than it reads. Bundling a course with its workbook and a community can be three products.

Admin users go 2, 11, 26. If you have a VA, a course manager, and a customer support person, you are on Growth at $249 for seat count alone regardless of revenue.

The surcharge goes 2, 1, 0.5 percent, as covered above.

Beyond those three, higher tiers add affiliate program access, advanced automations, and code editor access, but contacts, seats and the surcharge are what actually decide the plan for most buyers. All three are easy to model before you buy.

Why did Kajabi raise its prices?

Kajabi restructured in January 2026 after nearly a decade of stable pricing. Reported changes include Growth moving from $159 to $199 a month on annual billing, about a 25 percent increase, alongside the introduction of the outside-processor surcharge. The change drew real pushback in creator communities, mostly aimed at the surcharge rather than the headline increases, because a percentage of revenue behaves very differently from a subscription when your business grows.

The strategic logic is not hard to read. A flat subscription earns the same from a creator doing $2,000 a month and one doing $200,000. A revenue share scales with the customer. Kajabi has effectively moved to a hybrid, with Kajabi Payments as the route that keeps the arrangement simple for both sides.

How Kajabi compares on price

Platform	Entry price	Tier most buyers land on	Cut of your sales
Kajabi	$179/mo Basic ($143 annual)	$249/mo Growth	2% to 0.5% on outside processors
Kartra	$59/mo Essentials	$119/mo Starter	5% on Essentials, 0% above
ClickFunnels	$97/mo Launch	$197/mo Scale	None published, 1% on outside processors (reported)
Systeme.io	$0 free forever	$47/mo Webinar	0% on every tier
GoHighLevel	$97/mo Starter	$297/mo Unlimited	None, usage billed on top

Kajabi is the most expensive per month of the five and the only one that publishes a percentage above its entry tier. What it buys you is the most polished course and membership experience in the group, a genuinely good mobile app for students, and email plus site plus checkout that do not need to be wired together. Creators who have used both usually say Kajabi feels finished in a way Kartra does not.

Whether that is worth $179 against Kartra's $119 depends on how much of the polish your buyers see. It matters for a $2,000 cohort program. It matters much less for a $47 mini-course. The full field, including the transaction-fee math across all of them, is on our ClickFunnels alternatives roundup, with the individual ladders in the ClickFunnels pricing guide and the GoHighLevel pricing guide.

Frequently asked questions about Kajabi pricing

How much does Kajabi cost per month?

Kajabi costs $179 a month for Basic, $249 for Growth, and $499 for Pro on monthly billing, or $143, $199, and $399 on annual. Basic includes 2,500 contacts and extra contacts cost $125 a month per 25,000. Add 2 percent to 0.5 percent of your sales if you process through your own Stripe rather than Kajabi Payments.

Does Kajabi have a free plan?

No. Kajabi offers a free trial (its pricing page does not state the length; third parties report 14 days, or 30 through partner links) and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but there is no free forever tier. If a genuinely free plan is a requirement, Systeme.io has one with 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, unlimited email sends, and no transaction fee, though the editor and templates are noticeably plainer than Kajabi's.

Does Kajabi take a percentage of my earnings?

Not as a platform fee, but yes if you use an outside payment processor. Kajabi states it takes no revenue share, then charges 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Growth, and 0.5 percent on Pro when payments run through your own Stripe account. Use Kajabi Payments instead and there is no surcharge, only ordinary card processing at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents, falling to 2.7 percent on Pro.

What is the cheapest Kajabi plan?

Basic, at $179 a month or $143 billed annually, with 5 products, 2,500 contacts and 2 admin users. The old Starter tier is no longer on the pricing page. Once your list passes 2,500 contacts, Growth at $249 is usually cheaper than Basic plus a $125 contact block.

Can you use your own Stripe with Kajabi?

Yes. Kajabi supports outside payment providers on every tier, and the trade is the surcharge: 2 percent on Basic down to 0.5 percent on Pro, on top of whatever Stripe charges you. Creators usually keep their own Stripe for accounting continuity, existing integrations, or country support. If none of those apply, Kajabi Payments removes the surcharge entirely.

Is Kajabi cheaper than ClickFunnels?

No, on both counts. Kajabi Basic is $179 against ClickFunnels Launch at $97 and Scale at $197, ClickFunnels publishes no revenue share on any tier while Kajabi publishes 2 percent on Basic through an outside processor, though reviewers report ClickFunnels adds 1 percent of its own if you connect your own Stripe. Kajabi is the stronger course and membership platform; ClickFunnels is the stronger checkout with order bumps and upsells.

Is Kajabi worth the money?

It is worth it if you sell courses or memberships as the main business and the student experience affects what you can charge. The mobile app, the community features, and the finish of the product genuinely support higher prices. It is poor value if you mainly need landing pages and email, where $179 a month buys far more capability elsewhere.

Does Kajabi charge per contact?

Yes, now. Basic includes 2,500 contacts, Growth 25,000 and Pro 100,000, and extra contacts are sold in blocks of 25,000 for $125 a month on any plan. Older reviews that say Kajabi never meters your list predate this change, so price your current list size before choosing a tier.

Before you commit to a tier

Pick the plan from three numbers: your list size, how many admin seats you need, and what you sell in a typical month. Contacts and seats are the hard gates (2,500 contacts and 2 seats on Basic, 25,000 and 11 on Growth), and revenue decides whether the surcharge or the subscription is the bigger line. Everything else on the feature comparison is noise for most buyers.

And before you conclude that the platform is why sales are flat, check the page doing the selling. Course sales pages fail for the same reasons every other page does: a headline about the curriculum instead of the outcome, a buy button that never appears above the fold on a phone, testimonials placed after the price rather than before it, and a checkout that asks for more than it needs. Those are page problems, and moving them to a different platform changes nothing about them. The checks and where to fix each one in the page builder are on Kajabi sales page optimization, and if you would rather pay someone to rebuild the page, Kajabi expert cost sets out what designers charge.

Converto reads a live URL, including a Kajabi sales page, and scores the copy, layout, CTAs, page speed, and AI-readability, then writes ready-to-ship variants for the headline, CTA, and body copy. Nothing to install and no rebuild, self-serve from $29/mo. Suggestions are data-informed, not guarantees. Start with a landing page audit, or read why a landing page is not converting and how to write a headline that converts if you want to work through it yourself first.