QuickBooks Payroll Pricing 2026: Every Plan, Per-Employee Fees and Add-Ons

For five employees, QuickBooks Workforce Payroll lists at $85/mo: a $50 base plus $7 per person. Intuit's 50% offer cuts only the base, so the first three months cost $60/mo. Premium costs $153/mo for the same five people and Elite $219/mo. Bundling payroll with QuickBooks Online lowers the bill by $2.50 to $40/mo against buying the two apart. All of these prices were checked on Intuit's pages on 10 October 2026.

Intuit sells payroll under the QuickBooks Workforce name, in two families. Three payroll-only plans come first: Workforce Payroll, Workforce Premium and Workforce Elite. Three bundles add a QuickBooks Online plan to a payroll tier. This guide prices every plan for one five-person firm that keeps its books in QuickBooks Online.

Toolradar data: QuickBooks is listed as an alternative to 97 other tools on Toolradar, the most of any payroll tool we track. The payroll software ranking covers 73 payroll tools as of 10 October 2026, and QuickBooks has its own Toolradar profile.

Six plans at five employees

The table puts the same five people on every plan and sorts the rows by monthly list price. The offer column applies the 50% discount to the base for the first three months. The first-year column adds three offer months to nine months at list.

Figures exclude sales tax, state tax filing fees and the add-ons covered below. The $50 headline on the cheapest plan leaves out the $35/mo that five employees add.

The 50% offer cuts the base, never the per-employee fee

Intuit's offer terms sit in the "Important pricing details and product information" panel under the plan cards. The discount applies to the monthly base price for the first three months of a new subscription. It cannot be combined with another offer for the same product, and it does not cover per-employee fees, per-contractor fees, state tax filing fees or add-ons.

That makes the saving exactly half the base price: $25/mo on Workforce Payroll, $44/mo on Premium and $67/mo on Elite. The per-employee charge makes up between 39 and 43 percent of a payroll-only bill at five people, and it stays at full price through the promotion.

The 30-day free trial in the same terms follows the same rule. It covers the base price for the first thirty days, and it does not waive per-employee fees. Five people still add $35/mo on Workforce Payroll during the trial.

Payroll alone, or payroll with the ledger

The bundles are where the price gap sits. Each one pairs a payroll tier with a QuickBooks Online plan for one monthly figure. Against buying the two apart at list, the five-person saving is:

• Simple Start: $120.50/mo bundled against $123/mo apart ($38 for Simple Start, plus Workforce Payroll at five employees). Saving: $2.50/mo.
• Essentials: $157.50/mo bundled against $170/mo apart, with Essentials and Workforce Payroll each at list. Saving: $12.50/mo.
• Plus: $253/mo bundled against $293/mo apart ($140 for Plus plus $153 for Premium). Saving: $40/mo.

The bundle also trims the per-employee fee, to $6.50 from $7 on the two lower tiers and to $10 from $13 on Premium with Plus. The saving therefore rises with headcount, by $0.50 per employee on the lower two bundles and $3 per employee on the top one.

The ledger prices are list prices on Intuit's QuickBooks Online pricing page: Simple Start $38/mo, Essentials $85/mo and Plus $140/mo. If your books are moving to QuickBooks Online anyway, the bundle is the cheaper route. If they are not, the payroll-only plan is the cheaper bill, and the ledger stays a separate line. For the ledger side of that choice, see QuickBooks Online pricing and cheaper QuickBooks alternatives. A FreshBooks ledger is priced in FreshBooks pricing, and the FreshBooks review covers that product.

Check the user counts before you pick. Essentials includes 3 accounting users and Premium with Plus includes 5. Employees on payroll do not need a ledger seat, so those counts only cover the people who post to the books.

What Premium and Elite add for five people

Premium costs $68/mo more than Workforce Payroll at five employees. It adds $38 to the base and $6 per employee at any headcount, so the gap widens as you hire. In return, Premium adds same-day direct deposit, where payroll runs by 7:00 am and staff are paid that business day. It also adds time tracking in the Workforce app, time-off management, hiring and onboarding, automated I-9 handling and an expert review of your payroll setup. Intuit's FAQ says time tracking is included with Premium and Elite, so a payroll-only firm that tracks hours needs Premium or a separate time tool. One conflict to settle at checkout: the Payroll with Essentials card also lists same-day deposit, while the fine print limits same-day to Premium and Elite.

Elite costs $66/mo more than Premium at five employees. It adds an expert who completes the payroll setup, tax penalty protection (Intuit pays IRS penalties and interest up to $25,000 a year, under its terms) and Mineral HR experts. Mineral experts are included with Elite and sold as a paid add-on on the other Workforce plans, and the pricing page prints no figure for that add-on.

Benefits administration is not open to a firm this size. It is limited to Premium and Elite, it is sold separately, and it requires 20 or more employees.

The fees the table leaves out

The monthly prices cover the base and the per-employee fee. These charges sit outside them, and Intuit prints no dollar figure for most of them:

• Per-contractor fees. The offer terms exclude them, and the pricing page prints no amount.
• Next-day deposit for contractors. Intuit says it costs an additional fee. Same-day deposit is for employees only.
• State tax filing fees. Outside the offer, with no amount printed.
• 1099 printing and mailing. E-filing of 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC is unlimited, but printing and mailing copies to contractors costs extra. Automated 1099s is an add-on that needs QuickBooks Online or Intuit Enterprise Suite.
• Background checks. From $29.99 a report, through Checkr.
• Workers' comp. Policies come through NEXT, and additional fees apply.
• Health plans and 401(k). Offered through Allstate and Vestwell. Intuit or its insurance arm receives a fee for referred clients, per the terms.

The checkout panel on the main pricing page also shows a "+10% off annual price" line, but it prints no annual figure. These tables use monthly billing for that reason, so check the annual total at checkout before you prepay.

Which tier fits five people

• Workforce Payroll. The cheapest line in the table. Pick it if your books stay where they are and you do not track time in the Workforce app. Next-day deposit is included. If the ledger is still open, the cheapest accounting software for a small business compares the field.
• Payroll with Essentials. Pick it when the books move to QuickBooks Online and three people need to post. It saves $12.50/mo against buying the two apart.
• Workforce Premium. Pick it when you need time tracking or same-day pay. It is the cheapest payroll-only tier with time tracking.
• Premium with Plus. Pick it when the ledger also needs project tracking and inventory, which Plus adds.
• Workforce Elite. Pick it when you want an expert to set up payroll and the IRS penalty cover, and the extra $66/mo over Premium is worth it to you.

Premium costs more than Workforce Payroll at every headcount, so the choice between those two comes down to features, not team size. If the ledger is the open question, QuickBooks vs Xero sets the two side by side, and Xero pricing shows the other side of the market in full. The Xero review covers the product itself.

How we priced this

Every price on this page comes from Intuit's own pages, read on 10 October 2026: the payroll pricing page, which holds the bundles and the offer terms, the payroll-only plans page, and the QuickBooks Online pricing page. Five-person totals are the base plus five times the per-employee fee. Year one is three months at the offer plus nine months at list. Sales tax and add-ons are excluded. The byline is Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple. This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Intuit can change the list or the offer at any time, so check the price at checkout before you pay.

Cite this: Finpresso, "QuickBooks Payroll Pricing 2026: Every Plan, Per-Employee Fees and Add-Ons", October 2026.

FAQ

How much does QuickBooks Payroll cost in 2026?

On Intuit's pages checked on 10 October 2026, Workforce Payroll lists at $50/mo plus $7 per employee, Premium at $88/mo plus $13 per employee, and Elite at $134/mo plus $17 per employee. For five employees, those come to $85, $153 and $219 a month before tax and add-ons. The bundles with QuickBooks Online start at $120.50/mo for five people with Simple Start.

Does the 50% offer cover per-employee fees?

No. The offer applies 50% to the monthly base price for the first three months of a new subscription. Per-employee fees, per-contractor fees, state tax filing fees and add-ons stay at full price. At five employees on Workforce Payroll, the offer lowers the bill from $85/mo to $60/mo, a $25 saving that equals half the base.

Is there a free QuickBooks Payroll plan or a free trial?

The pricing page lists no free payroll plan. Intuit's offer terms describe a 30-day free trial on the base price of a new subscription. The trial does not cover per-employee, per-contractor or state tax filing fees, and it cannot be combined with the 50% offer for the same product. For the ledger's own free tier, see is QuickBooks free, and for a free ledger from another vendor, see free accounting software.

Which QuickBooks Payroll plan includes same-day direct deposit?

Workforce Premium, Workforce Elite and the Premium with Plus bundle. Same-day deposit means payroll runs by 7:00 am and employees are paid that business day. The Payroll with Essentials card lists it too, but Intuit's fine print limits it to Premium and Elite, so confirm the timing at checkout. Workforce Payroll and Payroll with Simple Start get next-day deposit, with the cutoff at 5:00 pm. Same-day deposit covers employees only, not contractors.

Is QuickBooks Payroll cheaper bundled with QuickBooks Online?

For five employees, yes, by a modest margin on the lower tiers. Payroll with Simple Start costs $120.50/mo, against $123/mo for the two bought apart at list, a $2.50 saving. Payroll with Essentials saves $12.50/mo, and Premium with Plus saves $40/mo, measured against Premium payroll plus QuickBooks Online Plus at list.

Can a five-person company use QuickBooks Workforce benefits administration?

No. Benefits administration is limited to Workforce Premium and Elite, it is sold separately with additional fees, and Intuit requires 20 or more employees. A five-person firm pays the Premium or Elite price without access to that feature.

Finpresso's daily brief covers the bills and fee changes that finance teams sign off on. Read it at finpresso.com.

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