Fees & Figures

Thinkific pricing: what each plan costs, what it takes from a sale, and what the trial showed us

Last updated: September 28, 2026

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Thinkific. If you sign up through one of them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what you pay, and it does not change the arithmetic on this page. Every review states how close we got to the product. Learn more.

How well we know this tool: Free trial — 30-day trial from August 27, 2026 on the Monthly Start plan, opened from Japan, cancelled September 23, 2026, before the trial's end date of September 26, 2026. Nothing was sold and no payment provider was connected, so no fee here was observed on a real sale. Basic and Grow were not seen from inside. The trial screens quoted below were captured by a person on the dates given. Plan prices are from Thinkific's public pricing page, checked by a person on September 9, 2026 and matched by machine on September 28, 2026; the yearly totals were read by machine on September 28, 2026. What this means.

Thinkific is on your shortlist, and you are stuck between Basic, Start and Grow, and between paying monthly or for a year. Before you enter a card you want three numbers: what each plan costs, what Thinkific takes from every sale, and what gets added on top. Every figure below is worked out from Thinkific's own pages, and the arithmetic is shown so you can redo it.

The short answer

On Thinkific Payments, the costs Thinkific's help lists include no transaction fee separate from card processing, on any of the three plans. What comes off each sale there is card processing, which the pricing page puts “in line with other processors like Stripe and Paypal at 2.9%”, and which Thinkific's help says varies by country and by payment method. If you are in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or the EU and connect your own Stripe instead, Thinkific adds 5% on Basic, 2% on Start and 1% on Grow, on your first $1,000,000 of sales in a calendar year. Where Thinkific Payments is not available, Thinkific says that fee is not charged.

Tax is added to the plan price depending on where you are. For sales taken through Thinkific Payments, Thinkific's terms of service say Thinkific determines, collects and remits the tax on those sales as a marketplace facilitator; for other payment routes the same terms leave that to you. Both are covered below, in Thinkific's words.

What each plan costs, monthly and annually

Plan Billed monthly Billed annually A year on annual Saved by paying annually
Thinkific Basic $54 /mo $40 /mo $475 $173 Thinkific: “Save $173”
Thinkific Start $109 /mo $82 /mo $978 $330 Thinkific: “Save $330”
Thinkific Grow $219 /mo $164 /mo $1,968 $660 Thinkific: “Save $660”

The "Billed annually" column is the per-month figure the pricing page shows for annual billing. The "A year on annual" column is twelve months at the monthly price minus the pricing page's “Save” amount, and it matches the “New” column of the annual table on Thinkific's 2026 plan pricing update page. The monthly and per-month annual prices were checked by a person on September 9, 2026 and matched by machine on September 28, 2026; the “Save” amounts and the yearly figures were read by machine on September 28, 2026 and not yet checked by a person.

The per-month annual figure is rounded. Twelve of them come to $480 on Basic and $984 on Start, a few dollars more than the yearly figure. We use the yearly figure.

The annual toggle on the pricing page reads “Annual (Save 25%)”. On the table's own numbers the saving is 25.1% to 26.7% of a year on monthly billing, depending on the plan; that percentage is our arithmetic, not a figure Thinkific prints. It is not exactly 25% on every plan. Thinkific's pricing-update page gives the rule in one sentence: “Annual billing also includes the standard 25% discount (20% for legacy plans).”

The August 13, 2026 price increase. Thinkific's update page: “Starting August 13, 2026, Thinkific is increasing prices by approximately 10% on Basic, Start, Grow, Legacy Pro and Fixed Growth plans.” For existing annual subscribers: “The new price applies at your next renewal date on or after August 13, 2026. If your renewal is before August 13, your current price holds until the following renewal.” So if you are renewing a year bought before that date, the renewal can be higher than what you paid. Creators in the UK and EU are billed in their own currency; from Thinkific's tax help: “Starting in June 2023, Thinkific subscriptions will be charged in GBP or Euros for our UK and EU Creators, with regional value-added tax (VAT) added on top.” The prices on this page are the US dollar ones. (Update page read by machine on September 28, 2026 and not yet checked by a person.)

Plans not in the table. The pricing page shows a fourth plan card, Plus, with no price, only “Talk to sales”. There is no free plan card. Asked “Does Thinkific have a free plan?”, the pricing FAQ answers: “No, instead, you can explore the whole platform with a 30-day free trial. Build courses, host communities and test all the AI tools for a full month before you pay a cent.” Two other Thinkific pages do use the words: the cost help article's gateway fee table has a row for a Free plan (“TCommerce required”), and the terms of service, section 8.3, say of an account whose payment has failed: “If payment is not received within such 21-day period, we will automatically downgrade you to a free plan.” What that free plan includes, neither says. The update page also lists an Expand plan at “$499 USD/mo” with “No change” to its price. Expand is not one of the plan cards on the pricing page, and we could not tell from Thinkific's pages whether it is sold to new customers, so it is left out here.

Whether a year paid up front is worth it for you depends on how long you will stay. That arithmetic, for Thinkific and the other course platforms, is in annual vs monthly pricing.

Does Thinkific take a percentage of your sales?

Thinkific's help article “How much does Thinkific cost?” starts with a list: “Here is a quick breakdown of all associated costs on the Thinkific platform:”

Two of those four are percentages of your sales. The processing fee, in the help article's words: “This is a charge administered directly by a payment gateway and you will see these charges when you start accepting payment for your courses.” “Most payment processors charge around 2.9% + $0.30 for each successful transaction, but it does vary from country to country.” And for Thinkific Payments: “An exact transaction fee will depend on the payment method your students selected (credit card vs Buy Now Pay Later, etc) as well as your and student's location.” The pricing page's FAQ gives the headline figure:

When using our built-in processor, Thinkific Payments, we offer pricing in line with other processors like Stripe and Paypal at 2.9%.

So the 2.9% is the rate on Thinkific Payments as the pricing page states it, not a rate for every country and every card. The per-country rates are on Thinkific's supported-countries page; our page on which countries can use Thinkific Payments covers the country list, not those rates. The help article's list of “all associated costs” has no transaction fee separate from processing and the gateway fee described next.

The other percentage is the third-party payment gateway fee, for using your own processor. The pricing page: “When using third-party processors like Stripe or Paypal on Thinkific, an additional third-party payment gateway fee applies and it varies per plan type.” And: “Customers processing payments on Thinkific Payments will not incur a third-party payment gateway fee.”

How you take payment BasicStartGrow
Thinkific Payments 0%0%0%
Your own Stripe
in a fee country
first $1,000,000 a year		 5%2%1%
Your own Stripe
Thinkific Payments
not available		 0%0%0%

Thinkific's own cut and surcharge only. Card processing comes on top in every row, charged by Thinkific Payments, Stripe or PayPal. Sources: the cost help article and the gateway fee FAQ, read September 3, 2026 and September 13, 2026.

Who pays it, from the FAQ: “This fee was rolled out for customers in the US, Canada, and the UK on July 3, 2024.” And “…as of November 6th, 2024, the third-party payment gateway fee applies to EU customers who continue using Stripe”. The cap: “This fee will only apply to your first $1M in sales made through Thinkific in a calendar year, after that we will waive the fee.” Outside those countries, asked “TCommerce is not available in my country, will I still be charged this fee?”, the FAQ answers: “No, you will not be charged a fee if you are not able to use TCommerce in your country.” The Plus plan: “No, at this time, the third-party payment gateway fee will not apply to Plus customers.” Expand, the plan left out above, is listed at 0.5%. The table says Stripe, not PayPal, because the cost help article's sentence does: “The Third-Party Payment Gateway fee is charged on all transactions processed using third-party payment providers, like Stripe (in the future all third-party payment providers such as Paypal), as a percentage of the transaction value for creators in the USA, Canada, and the UK as of July 3rd, 2024 and for creators in the EU countries as of November 6th, 2024.” The pricing page, quoted above, says “Stripe or Paypal”. The two pages differ on PayPal, and we cannot tell you which one describes today's billing.

What that surcharge costs in dollars on each plan, and the countries that have Thinkific Payments but are not on the fee list, are on which countries can use Thinkific Payments. How it compares with Kajabi's surcharge for the same choice is on the course platform comparison. We have not worked it again here, so that each question has one answer on this site.

What Start and Grow add

Start costs $55 a month more than Basic on monthly billing, or $503 a year more on annual. Grow costs $110 a month more than Start, or $990 a year more. The pricing page's feature table (read by machine on September 28, 2026 and not yet checked by a person) moves these numbers by plan:

Plan A year on annual Video bandwidth Administrators Communities Spaces
Thinkific Basic $475 100 GB/mo 1 1 5
Thinkific Start $978 200 GB/mo 2 1 10
Thinkific Grow $1,968 400 GB/mo 6 3 20

"Video bandwidth" is the table's “course video bandwidth” row. "Communities" is its “Number of Communities” row and "Spaces" its “Number of Spaces” row. Published courses are listed as Unlimited on all three.

And these switch on at a particular plan:

A branded mobile app is sold separately at “$199/mo”, with the note “Included on select Plus plans”.

On fees, the step up changes nothing if you use Thinkific Payments: the table above shows the same 0% on every plan, and the pricing page gives one card rate, 2.9%, not one per plan. It matters only if you are in a fee country and keep your own Stripe, where the surcharge drops from 5% to 2% to 1%. What that surcharge comes to in dollars on each plan, at one monthly revenue level, is on the countries page; we have not worked out the revenue at which a lower surcharge pays for a more expensive plan. So move up for the features, or for the surcharge if it applies to you.

Tax on top of the price

There are two separate taxes here: the tax on your Thinkific plan, and the tax on what you sell.

Tax on your Thinkific plan. From the cost help article: “In addition to the subscription fees, depending on your location, you may also be required to pay sales tax, value-added tax (VAT), or other taxes on top of the subscription fee.” Thinkific's tax help names two regions: “For Creators in the United States and Canada, subscription prices will be charged in USD with an additional localized sales tax based on the applicable rate at the time of billing.” and “Starting in June 2023, Thinkific subscriptions will be charged in GBP or Euros for our UK and EU Creators, with regional value-added tax (VAT) added on top.” If you are VAT-registered: “Adding your VAT number will prompt us to issue you an invoice without VAT on a reverse charge. If you are VAT registered and do not enter a valid VAT number on your subscription, then Thinkific will issue you an invoice with VAT. You may be able to reclaim the VAT as input tax on your VAT return.”

The trial's billing page, on September 9, 2026, showed what that looks like from Japan: an invoice for Monthly Start with a subtotal of $109.00, a tax line reading “… Japan (0.00%) $0.00” and a total of $109.00. (We have left out a number at the start of the tax line; it is not the rate.) That is one account in one country, on one date. It says nothing about the rate where you are.

One more line may appear on your card statement. From the same help article: “Thinkific is a Canadian company. Depending on your card type, you may see a small additional fee (usually less than $1.00) appear on your credit card statement that coincides with your Thinkific subscription charge.” “This fee is not charged by Thinkific.”

Tax on what you sell. The tax help asks “Does this affect the fees my students pay?” and answers “No.”, followed by two sentences:

Sales tax is only applied to the fees for your Thinkific subscription plan. If you are interested in collecting Sales tax on your student payments, see: TCommerce: Sales Tax Solution Early Access.

The last words are the title of the help page it links to; we have not read that page. Thinkific's terms of service go further, but only for Thinkific Payments. Section 8.10, “End User Taxes”:

For payments facilitated by Thinkific Payments (as defined below), Thinkific will be responsible for (a) determining the Taxes that apply to transactions occurring between you, your customers, students and other users, in its capacity as an online marketplace facilitator, based on information that you provide to us; and (b) collecting, reporting and remitting such Taxes to the appropriate Tax authorities in a timely manner when due and payable.

The same section adds: “You are responsible for providing accurate information to Thinkific for determination purposes.” And the terms' own plain-English summary of it: “For transactions processed through Thinkific Payments, we will determine and remit end user Taxes to the government as a marketplace facilitator, based on the information you provide to us.”

That covers payments through Thinkific Payments only. For everything else, section 8.5: “Except as described below in Section 8.10, you (and not Thinkific) are responsible for (a) all Taxes applicable to the Services and for paying those Taxes in a timely manner when due and payable; (b) determining the Taxes that apply to transactions occurring between you, your customers, students and other users or otherwise through your sites; and (c) collecting, reporting and remitting the corresponding Taxes to the appropriate Tax authorities in a timely manner when due and payable.” So if you take payment through your own Stripe or PayPal, including because Thinkific Payments is not available where you are, the tax on your sales is yours to handle. (The tax help and these sections of the terms were read by machine on September 28, 2026 and not yet checked by a person.)

What the free trial showed us

The trial terms, from the pricing page: “No, instead, you can explore the whole platform with a 30-day free trial. Build courses, host communities and test all the AI tools for a full month before you pay a cent.” And on cancelling during it: “Yes. If you are on either Basic, Start, or Grow you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time, including during your 30-day trial.” (read by machine on September 28, 2026 and not yet checked by a person.)

Two things a trial user wants to know are whether a card is needed to start and whether the trial turns into a paid plan by itself. We did not find a statement on either on the pricing page or the sign-up page as read on September 28, 2026. Not finding it on those two pages is not the same as Thinkific not saying it anywhere. The nearest line in the terms of service, section 8.1, is about processing live orders, not about starting a trial: “With the exception of free trial subscriptions, a valid credit card is required to be able to process orders using a live payment gateway.” What we can give you is what the Monthly Start trial's own screens showed, with the date each was captured by a person:

So on this trial, a card was registered and the billing page named a date and an amount. The trial was cancelled on September 23, 2026, 3 days before that date. Whether the charge would have gone through on the date shown, we did not wait to find out.

Cancelling and refunds

Thinkific's pricing FAQ, asked “Can I cancel or change my account at any time?”: “Yes. If you are on either Basic, Start, or Grow you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time, including during your 30-day trial.” On refunds, its terms of service (section 8.9): “Thinkific does not provide refunds unless an error was made by us or unless otherwise required by applicable law, including any refund rights set out in Section 10.” And section 10.3:

Where the consumer protection laws of your jurisdiction require a refund upon cancellation of an auto-renewing annual subscription, you may be entitled to a pro-rata refund of the unused portion of your current annual term, including any applicable taxes on the refunded amount. Thinkific will process any such refund to the original payment method within 15 calendar days of your cancellation, with no separate refund request required. Monthly subscribers are not affected by this provision; monthly subscriptions end at the close of the current billing cycle with no further charges.

So a pro-rata refund on an annual plan is tied to what the consumer protection law where you are requires, and a monthly plan simply ends at the close of the billing cycle.

What happens after you cancel. Both of Thinkific's pages describe cancelling as a downgrade, not as closing the account. The terms of service, section 10.1, headed “Account Downgrade” (the doubled punctuation is in the original):

If you cancel before your next renewal date, no further subscription charges will apply.. Upon cancellation,, your access to paid features will be removed but you will retain access to your Account without incurring further fees. Your Content may be retained following cancellation or downgrade to a lower-tier subscription. However, Thinkific makes no guarantee regarding data retention during plan changes and you are responsible for backing up any Content you wish to preserve.

Closing the account for good is a separate step, section 10.2, “Termination Process”: “Should you decide to fully cancel and terminate your Account after being downgraded, please contact customer support. Our team will provide you with cancellation instructions. Once your Account is cancelled, all of your Content may be permanently deleted from the Services.”

Thinkific's help article on cancelling ends its steps with “Your account will now be downgraded”. Its overview says:

Canceling your subscription will prevent any future subscription payments, and you will lose access to any paid features at the end of your billing cycle. Any add-on features will be immediately unavailable upon cancelation. Your site will still be available and your students will still be able to access their purchased products.

and further down:

You will no longer be able to access, edit, or interact with any areas of Thinkific, including: Your Admin Dashboard; Your learning products; Your landing pages and product pages; Your order, transaction, and user tables.

followed by: “You can upgrade if you need to regain access to any of the features.”

Where they differ, and where they do not. Both say the paid features go and the account is downgraded rather than deleted, and the help adds that your site stays up and your students keep what they bought. Where they part is access: the terms say you “retain access to your Account”, and the help says you will not be able to access, edit or interact with “any areas of Thinkific”, listing the admin dashboard, products, pages and order tables among them. Neither page says what “access to your Account” covers, or which page takes precedence, and we are not picking one. The terms also make no promise that your content is kept, so export what you need before you cancel. We cancelled the trial on September 23, 2026 and have no record of what the admin showed afterwards, so we cannot settle it from the screen. (Both pages read by machine on September 28, 2026 and not yet checked by a person.)

For comparison, Kajabi's pricing FAQ says: “Yes. Upgrade, downgrade or cancel whenever you like, and every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.” That page is summarised in Kajabi pricing.

Who Thinkific's pricing is wrong for

What this page does not tell you

Check it yourself

Every dollar figure on this page comes from three lines of arithmetic:

a year on annual = monthly price × 12 − the "Save" amount on the pricing page

saved by paying annually = monthly price × 12 − a year on annual

monthly cost = plan + revenue × (card rate + gateway fee, if it applies) + sales × $0.30

The $0.30 per sale is from the help article's “around” figure quoted above, not a Thinkific Payments price.

To run your own revenue and number of sales through the same formula, with Thinkific's three plans next to the other platforms, use the course platform fee calculator.

Who pays us

Thinkific pays us 30% of what you pay it, once, on the first payment only, if you sign up through our link. A caveat on that: their dashboard shows a single payout and their approval email calls the same commission recurring; until they tell us which is right, we assume the smaller one. Because it is a share of what you pay, a higher plan or a year paid up front pays us more. Nothing on this page recommends either.

Two platforms this page links to pay us as well, on our records:

If you have read this far and Thinkific is still the one, this is our affiliate link: start a Thinkific trial. It costs you nothing extra and changes no number on this page.

Thinkific's plan prices matched by machine against its public pricing page on September 28, 2026, and last checked by a person on September 9, 2026. If a number here is out of date, tell us at hello@feesandfigures.com and we will fix it and note the change at the top of this article.