Clerk pricing in 2026: free up to 50,000 users, and what you pay after that
Clerk raised its free tier from 10,000 to 50,000 monthly retained users in February 2026. Here is how its plans, overage rates, B2B add-ons and SSO connections are priced as of October 2026, and the Directory Sync charge that starts on 1 January 2027.
Clerk's pricing changed a lot in 2026. The free tier is five times larger than it was, the billing unit is not the one most competitors use, and one new charge begins in January 2027.
This guide is based on Clerk's pricing page and its own pricing explainer, both read on 5 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars. Check the pricing page before you budget, because these numbers can change.
The short version
| Plan | Monthly | Billed annually | Included users per app |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | Free | Free | 50,000 MRU (hard limit) |
| Pro | $25 | $20 a month | 50,000 MRU, then per-user pricing |
| Business | $300 | $250 a month | 50,000 MRU, then per-user pricing |
| Enterprise | Custom | Annual only | Custom |
The February change
On 5 February 2026, Clerk raised its free allowance from 10,000 to 50,000 users per app. Clerk says the 10,000-user tier had been in place since December 2023.
Many pricing calculators and comparison articles online still show the old 10,000 figure. If you are comparing providers, check the date on anything you read.
What a "monthly retained user" is
Clerk does not bill on monthly active users (MAU). It bills on monthly retained users (MRU), which it defines as "a user who visits your app in a given month at least one day after signing up."
In practice, someone who signs up, looks around and never comes back is not counted. Clerk's pricing FAQ says users who sign up but do not return within 24 hours are not charged. For apps with a lot of one-time sign-ups, the MRU count can be far below the MAU count that another provider would bill.
Going over 50,000
On the Hobby plan, 50,000 MRU is a limit. Clerk says you get "a one-month grace period" to upgrade after you go over it.
On paid plans, extra users are billed per user per month, and the rate falls as you grow:
| Monthly retained users | Price per extra user |
|---|---|
| 50,001 – 100,000 | $0.02 |
| 100,001 – 1,000,000 | $0.018 |
| 1,000,001 – 10,000,000 | $0.015 |
| 10,000,001 and above | $0.012 |
A worked example: an app on Pro with 80,000 retained users pays $25 for the plan plus 30,000 × $0.02 = $600, so $625 a month before add-ons.
Add-ons
Two add-ons cost the same on every plan: $100 a month, or $85 a month billed annually.
- B2B Authentication (Enhanced). Clerk's explainer says it "unlocks unlimited org members, verified domains, and custom roles." Self-serve SSO and self-serve Directory Sync need it in production.
- Administration (Enhanced). The pricing page lists unlimited user impersonation.
Dashboard seats are also limited: up to 3 on Hobby and Pro, and 10 on Business with more at $20 a month each.
Enterprise SSO and Directory Sync connections
This is where B2B costs grow, because the price is per customer connection.
| Connections per app | Enterprise SSO | Directory Sync |
|---|---|---|
| First | Included | Included |
| 2 – 15 | $75 a month each | $75 a month each |
| 16 – 100 | $60 a month each | $60 a month each |
The pricing page says volume discounts are available beyond that.
The January 2027 change
Directory Sync (SCIM and Google Workspace sync) has not been billed separately so far. The pricing page now states: "Billing for Directory Sync connections starts January 1, 2027."
So from January, a customer who uses both SSO and Directory Sync counts as two paid connections. For an app with 10 such customers, that is 9 extra SSO connections and 9 extra Directory Sync connections at $75 each, or $1,350 a month, where today it would be $675.
Two recent releases make this more likely to matter. Since 24 September one Organization can have several enterprise connections, and since 30 September customers' admins can set up Directory Sync themselves. Both are useful. Both also let the connection count rise without you doing anything.
One caution: Clerk's separate pricing explainer still describes Directory Sync as "included with an enterprise connection at no extra charge." The pricing page is the more specific and more recent statement, so we have followed it here. If this affects your budget, ask Clerk to confirm.
Usage-based extras
- SMS codes: $0.01 per SMS in the US and Canada, and market rate elsewhere.
- Clerk Billing: 0.7% of billing volume.
- API keys: 1,000 creations and 100,000 verifications a month included, then $0.001 per creation and $0.00001 per verification.
- M2M tokens: 2,500 creations and 100,000 verifications a month included, at the same rates after that.
API keys and M2M tokens matter more now that agents and MCP servers authenticate through Clerk. An agent that verifies a token on every tool call can use up 100,000 verifications faster than a human user base would.
What it means for developers
- Most small apps pay nothing. 50,000 retained users is a lot of room, and development instances let you try Pro features for free.
- B2B is where the bill comes from. The add-on, plus per-connection SSO and Directory Sync, will usually cost more than the per-user fee.
- Model your January 2027 bill now if your customers use Directory Sync.
- Price is one part of the decision. Your auth provider's uptime becomes your uptime. Our review of Clerk's summer incidents covers that side, and Clerk's live status is checked every few minutes on isuptime.
Sources
- Clerk pricing (Clerk)
- Clerk Pricing Explained (Clerk)
- API Keys General Availability (Clerk changelog)
- Self-serve Directory Sync (Clerk changelog)
- Multiple enterprise connections per Organization (Clerk changelog)
Live status for the services in this post
Checked continuously against each provider's own status feed.