The short version: QuickBooks Online prices went up on August 1, 2026 — the second increase this year. Plus is now $140/month and Advanced is $340/month. Simple Start held at $38. Across 2026 as a whole, Plus rose 55% and Advanced rose 70%.
If you run your books on QuickBooks Online, your next invoice is going to be bigger. Intuit raised prices on August 1, 2026, and it is the second increase in eight months — the first landed on May 1.
Price rises are ordinary. Two in one year, of this size, are not. Here is the whole year in one table.
| Plan | Start of 2026 | May 1, 2026 | Aug 1, 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Start | $30/mo | $35/mo | $38/mo | +27% |
| Essentials | $60/mo | $70/mo | $85/mo | +42% |
| Plus | $90/mo | $110/mo | $140/mo | +55% |
| Advanced | $200/mo | $250/mo | $340/mo | +70% |
Both increases apply on each subscription's next billing date. New subscribers are protected through their sixth invoice before the new rate applies, so if you signed up recently you may not feel it immediately.
What Advanced Customers Got in Return
To be fair to Intuit, the Advanced increase is not purely a price rise. Advanced now bundles things that used to cost extra — Workforce Elite, previously $160–$250/month, and Bill Pay Elite, previously $540/year — along with new AI features for transaction categorization and cash flow forecasting.
If you were already paying for those add-ons, the bundle may genuinely leave you better off. If you were not, you are paying $140 more per month for capabilities you did not ask for. That distinction is worth ten minutes with your actual invoice before you decide how annoyed to be.
The Plus increase comes with no such offset. Plus went from $90 to $140 and the plan is what it was.
The Part That Compounds
A single increase is an annoyance. The pattern is the problem, because software costs compound in a way that a monthly figure disguises.
A business on Plus was paying $1,080 a year in January. The same business now pays $1,680 — $600 more for the same software, decided by someone else, mid-year. Project that forward and the question is not what QuickBooks costs today but what it costs in year five, and nobody outside Intuit gets a vote.
And QuickBooks Desktop is not the escape hatch. Intuit raised Desktop prices roughly 10% on February 1, 2026 too. A single-user Desktop Pro Plus renewal went from $999 to $1,149 a year — for a product it stopped selling to new customers in September 2024, with support ending on September 30, 2027. Enterprise, the only Desktop edition still sold new, starts around $1,740/year and now adds a per-employee monthly fee on Gold and Platinum. Full breakdown of the Desktop sunset →
What You Can Actually Do
1. Check whether you are on the right plan
Plenty of businesses sit on Plus for one feature. If it is inventory, you need Plus. If it is multi-currency, Essentials is enough and saves $55/month. If it is neither, Simple Start held its price this year. Worth ten minutes in your account before anything else.
2. Ask about ProAdvisor pricing if you work with an accountant
ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing gives firms 30% off the base subscription, and the wholesale program can reach 50% off Essentials and Plus where the firm is billed directly. If you have a bookkeeper, ask — it is their discount to pass on and many clients never think to raise it.
3. Work out your real multi-year number
This is the one most people skip, because the monthly framing makes it feel small. Our QuickBooks cost calculator takes your plan and company count and projects the total forward, including the increases. It is prefilled with Intuit's August 1, 2026 list prices.
4. Price a desktop alternative against it
BizBooks Pro is a desktop-installed, GAAP and IFRS double-entry accounting app sold as one flat annual subscription: Basic at $299/year, Pro at $540. Multi-currency, inventory and the AI assistant are included at every tier rather than gated behind an upgrade — and the rate is locked for 12 years, which is the specific thing this article is about.
See what QuickBooks actually costs you
Enter your plan and we will show the five and twelve-year totals side by side, using Intuit's current published prices.
Open the cost calculatorAn Honest Caveat
We sell a competing product, so treat our framing with the scepticism it deserves. Two things are worth saying plainly.
First, QuickBooks is good software with an app ecosystem we do not match and an accountant network that is genuinely everywhere. If a QuickBooks-only integration runs a core part of your business, the price increase may still be worth absorbing. That is a real answer.
Second, our alternative is also a subscription — an annual one. The difference is not that we are free. It is that the number does not move for 12 years, and everything is in the box rather than behind the next tier.
Frequently Asked Questions
When exactly does the new price hit my account?
On your subscription's next billing date after August 1, 2026. If you subscribed recently, the increase applies from your seventh invoice.
Did Simple Start go up?
Not on August 1. It moved from $30 to $35 to $38 earlier in the year and held at $38 in the August round, along with Ledger and the free tier.
Can I lock in my current QuickBooks rate?
No. QuickBooks Online has no price-lock mechanism, which is exactly why two increases in one year were possible.
Is annual billing cheaper than monthly?
QuickBooks Online is billed monthly at these rates. Some competitors, including us, are annual-only, which is generally a modest discount against paying monthly.
Will there be another increase?
Intuit has not said. On the evidence of 2026 it would be optimistic to assume otherwise, which is why comparing on multi-year totals rather than this month's figure is the sensible approach.
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- 7 Best QuickBooks Alternatives
- BizBooks Pro vs QuickBooks: Full Comparison
- For accountants: BizBooks Pro vs QuickBooks Online Accountant
Sources: Intuit published U.S. pricing and the QuickBooks pricing-changes notice on Intuit's Firm of the Future, plus contemporaneous industry reporting of the May 1 and August 1, 2026 changes. Prices verified August 14, 2026 and subject to change.