Sprout Social

Pricing · read 20 October 2026

Sprout Social pricing explained (2026)

Sprout is priced per seat, which changes the arithmetic completely once more than two people need access. The detail that matters most for anyone comparing it as a listening tool is that listening is not in any published price — it is an add-on.

Start freeSee the full comparison
[01] THE TIERS/ SPROUT SOCIAL

Sprout Social pricing as published on 20 October 2026

Every figure here was read from Sprout Social pricing on 20 October 2026. That date is the point of this page rather than a footnote: when we re-checked all ten tools in this category, three had repriced during the year and every third-party figure we cross-checked was out of date. Confirm anything you are about to sign for.

Essentials

$99 per seat/mo$79 per seat/mo billed annually
  • 5 social profiles
  • No brand keywords
  • Publishing and inbox

Standard

$249 per seat/mo$199 per seat/mo billed annually
  • 5 social profiles
  • 10 brand keywords per group
  • Listening available as an add-on

Professional

$399 per seat/mo$299 per seat/mo billed annually
  • Unlimited profiles
  • 10 brand keywords per group
  • Competitive reports

Advanced

$499 per seat/mo$399 per seat/mo billed annually
  • Unlimited profiles
  • 20 brand keywords per group
  • API access
  • Sentiment in inbox
[02] WHAT IT METERS/ THE REAL LIMITS

Per seat, and the seats are the bill

Every plan is per seat with none bundled, so five people on Standard is five times $249 a month billed monthly. Profile limits are per account rather than per seat, so adding a seat adds cost without adding capacity — which is the specific way this gets expensive.

Listening is not in any listed price

Premium Analytics and Listening are add-ons to Standard and above, and their prices are not published — you have to ask. Anyone comparing Sprout as a listening tool against a monitoring product is comparing against a number that does not include the module.

Essentials has no brand keywords at all

The cheapest tier is a publishing and inbox product. If monitoring is why you are looking, $99 is not the relevant number; $249 plus an unpublished add-on is.

AI is metered in credits

100 Trellis credits per seat per month on every plan, resetting monthly, with burn scaling by query complexity. More is $28 per user per month annually, or $35 monthly.
[03] WHAT IS GATED/ BY TIER

Features that are not on every plan

A tier table shows prices; it rarely shows which features the prices are actually buying. These are the gates that decide the plan for most people — Thirty days, no credit card. The trial banner specifies annual billing, and at the end you pick a plan and enter payment details.
Listening and Premium AnalyticsPaid add-on, Standard and above
REST APIAdvanced and above
Sentiment in Smart Inbox and ReviewsAdvanced and above
Helpdesk integrationsAdvanced and above
Brand keywords (Essentials has none)Standard and above
Unlimited social profilesProfessional and above
[04] WHAT CHANGED/ AND AGAINST US

Recent changes

Essentials at $99/$79 is new in 2026 — its entry was created in March and the plan chart was last updated in August 2026. It is the cheapest Sprout has been, and it is also the tier with no listening in it.

Sprout Social against FishOut

These are not the same kind of product and it would be dishonest to frame them as one. Sprout publishes, schedules, replies, moderates reviews and reports across a whole social operation; FishOut reads public conversation and never posts anything. Where they meet is listening, and there FishOut is $49 a month flat for the whole team against Standard at $249 per seat plus an unpublished add-on. If you need publishing, none of that comparison matters.
The full comparison, row by row →
[05] COST TO GET IT/ SAME NEED

What you would pay Sprout Social for each need, and what FishOut charges

The tiers above answer “what does each plan cost”. This answers the question most readers actually arrive with: which plan would I need for the thing I want?
To getFishOutSprout Social
5 people with keywordsListening is an add-on on topFreeFree$1,245/moStandard ×5
Reply drafting$19/moPlus$499/seat/moAdvanced
The REST APIFreeFree$499/seat/moAdvanced

Monthly-billed prices. Keywords are not always identical units — a keyword rule or filter can hold several terms.

[06] SEE IT ON YOUR KEYWORDS/ FREE PLAN

What you get instead of Sprout Social

What a team gets on the first evening, without a demo: switchers, complaints and press in one inbox, each with its reason. Sprout Social measures the conversation; this tells you which part to answer.
Switchers· Best first7
88
Google NewsThe Inbox Report4h

Notchmail raises prices for teams of ten or more

WatchCompetitor news
90
X@helpdeskhannah20m

Notchmail is down again

Reply, carefullyComplaintComparison
88
Hacker Newsgrumpy_sre8h

AcmeMail’s outage post-mortem

Reply nowComplaint
Google NewsThe Inbox Report4h

Notchmail raises prices for teams of ten or more

Notchmail will move teams of ten or more to its Business tier at renewal, the company confirmed, citing new compliance features.

Relevance

88
Competitor newsAffects your buyersFresh

Labels · Reply call

WatchCompetitor news

Nothing to reply to; brief the team

Draft reply

No reply suggested — this is press. Flagged for the Daily brief and the #competitors channel so sales hears it before renewal calls.

  • No public reply needed
Copy and open threadFishOut never posts
Start freeSee every plan

Questions

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