Is Notion Free? Breakdown of Free vs. Paid Plans

Notion is a productivity application for individuals, enterprise companies, and everyone in between. It helps users with note-taking, planning, project management, and creating knowledge wikis.

In a business context, Notion allows companies to consolidate tools, reduce siloed workflows, and save money.

If you are wondering if Notion is free, the answer is yes. Notion’s base-level plan is completely free. But the free plan comes with limitations that we will break down below: 

• Is Notion free?
• Notion’s paid plans: When to upgrade.
• Vendr’s take: Maximizing software investments.
• Notion free plan FAQs. 

Is Notion free?

Yes, Notion is free. However, the availability of certain features will depend on how many members are sharing the workspace.

Key features and limitations

The greatest difference between Notion’s free plan for personal and team use is the number of available blocks.

In Notion, a block is a piece of content on a page, such as images, text, lists, and videos. These blocks allow you to customize pages as much as you want and bring all the information you need into one place.

Here is an overview of the features included with Notion’s free plan:

Because Notion limits the number of blocks available to teams, collaboration is difficult on a free plan. But if you are the only person in the workspace, the free plan is a great choice for planning and organizing your personal and professional projects.

{{cta1}}

Ideal use cases for the free plan

Small startups can use Notion’s free plan if they can work within the one-member-per-workspace limitation.

A startup may use Notion to:

• Store important documentation, such as company guidelines and employee training materials.
• Plan meetings and take notes.
• Track objectives and key results.
• Organize projects and track their progress.

If you are a freelancer, ways to use Notion’s free plan include:

• Use the Kanban board to organize your workload and update the status of individual projects.
• Create to-do lists for administrative tasks.
• Set up a client database with contact information and previous projects.

For students and educators, Notion helps with:

• Taking and organizing notes.
• Compiling reading lists.
• Setting up weekly and monthly agendas. 
• Creating study guides.
• Storing study materials.

One of Notion's biggest advantages is its large template library, which includes social media calendars, product roadmaps, bug trackers, and more. The library allows you to make the most of the platform without spending hours building templates from scratch. 

Notion’s paid plans: When to upgrade

While Notion’s free plan offers many great features for individuals, you will need to upgrade if other team members need access to the collaborative workspace.

Since the free plan comes with a 5 MB upload limit per file, anyone wanting to upload larger files must subscribe to a paid plan. When you subscribe to Notion, you will also get priority support to help you resolve any issues faster.

Comparing Plus and Business plans

Notion’s pricing model is based on the amount of users added to a workspace. The Plus plan costs $8 per user per month, while Business charges $15 per user per month if you choose annual billing. A monthly subscription will cost you $10 and $18 per month, respectively.

The Plus and Business plans are great choices for larger organizations where multiple employees need to collaborate in the workspace. They also include role-based access permissions, which improve security and ensure only specific departments or roles can access certain data. 

The Enterprise plan: Is it worth it?

Notion’s Enterprise plan includes all Business features, advanced security controls, a System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM), workspace analytics, and a customer success manager as a bonus.

{{cta1}}

Notion’s Enterprise pricing is not public, although some Vendr community members report paying $17 per user per month on a two-year contract. 

According to one Vendr user, Notion's enterprise sales team currently only supports and offers discounts to accounts with over 100 employees. The self-serve business handles all other accounts.

Vendr’s take: Maximizing software investments

If you are a large company, you will likely need to invest in Notion’s Enterprise plan. If you want to get the best deal possible, be sure to negotiate your contract.

Contract negotiation involves using various discount levers (budgetary constraints, usage levels, direct competitors, multi-year contracts) to get a better price.

Remember that sales reps rarely offer a discount if you don’t ask. Additionally, huge discount percentages aren’t always the goal. If you can remove or negotiate even small items, this will help you make the most out of your software investment. Typically, companies will use multiple discount levers during the negotiation process for the best results.

For example, one Vendr user says, “We were able to reduce Notion's 24% proposed cost increase to 7% with a 24-month agreement that locked in our price for all subsequent years. We accomplished this by leveraging the solution's perceived value, strict budgets, a high qualification standard for multiyear proposals, and additional layers of review triggered by uplifts above a certain threshold.”

The resulting savings are significant. On average, Notion users who leverage Vendr’s community insights and buyer guides save $6,300 on their contracts.

To discover more Notion community insights and access buyer guides for 250+ SaaS providers, register for a free forever Vendr account.

Notion free plan FAQs

Is Notion really free for personal use?

Yes, Notion is completely free for personal use. You have access to unlimited pages and blocks as long as only one member is added to your workspace.

What benefits do paid plans offer over the free plan?

Notion’s paid plans allow you to upload files larger than 5 MB, add multiple members to a single workspace, publish a public webpage, implement access controls, and more.

How does Notion's pricing compare with other productivity tools?

Notion's pricing is very reasonable compared to that of its competitors. The free version includes plenty of helpful features for individuals and small businesses, while the paid plans offer great value for money with unlimited file uploads, collaboration features, and access permissions.

{{cta1}}