Gusto Pricing
Gusto’s pricing is genuinely simple for US domestic payroll: $49/month base plus $6/employee on the Simple plan.
For a 15-person single-state business, that is $139/month. No contracts. No setup fees.
No termination penalties. You can cancel at any time.
The complication is what happens when you need more than the Simple plan provides.
Multi-state payroll requires Plus ($80 + $12/employee). Performance reviews require Premium ($180 + $22/employee).
International EOR costs $699/employee/month after the March 2026 price increase.
Each step up doubles or triples your per-employee cost, and two price increases in 12 months suggest the trajectory has not finished climbing.
This page breaks down every plan, every add-on, and every hidden cost so you can model the real number for your specific situation, not the $49 headline.
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What does Gusto charge?
Gusto offers four plan tiers for US domestic payroll, a contractor-only plan, and an EOR product for international hiring. The pricing is transparent and published, which is genuinely unusual in this category.
The catch is the tier gating: features you might assume are standard are locked behind higher plans.
| Plan | Base fee | Per employee | Key unlock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $49/month | $6/month | Single-state payroll, basic HR, benefits admin |
| Plus | $80/month | $12/month | Multi-state payroll, time tracking, PTO policies |
| Premium | $180/month | $22/month | Performance reviews, dedicated CSM, phone support |
| Contractor-only | $35/month | $6/contractor | US contractor-only plan; global contractors have no base fee, just a service + FX fee |
| EOR (standard countries) | None | $699/month | Full employment in 12 countries (via Remote) |
| EOR (India, Philippines) | None | $399/month | Reduced rate for two markets |
| Int’l contractor payments | None | $6/contractor + $5/payment | 120+ countries, USD payments to contractors |
Source: Gusto.com/product/pricing, verified March 2026. Simple plan increased from $40 to $49 effective March 2026. EOR increased from $599 to $699 effective March 15, 2026.
What does Gusto’s fee include?
We reviewed Gusto’s full plan documentation and compared the inclusions against six other providers in our coverage.
Across all domestic plans, Gusto includes:
- Automated federal, state, and local tax calculation, filing, and payment
- W-2 and 1099 year-end generation
- Employee self-service portal
- Onboarding workflows (I-9, W-4, offer letters)
- Benefits administration (health, dental, vision, FSA, HSA) at no separate admin fee
- Direct deposit, ATS, and compliance alerts
The benefits brokerage inclusion is the detail worth highlighting for your Finance team. Most competitors either charge separately for benefits administration or do not offer brokerage at all.
For a 30-person company, bundling payroll and benefits on Gusto eliminates a separate broker relationship, and the reconciliation work between payroll and benefits enrolment that creates a headache every open-enrolment period.
The 401(k) integration via Guideline (acquired August 2025 for approximately $600M) adds retirement plan administration.
This is still maturing, but the direction is clear: payroll, health benefits, and retirement on one platform.
What costs sit on top of Gusto’s fee?
Gusto’s pricing is more transparent than most competitors, but three cost drivers catch buyers who budget from the headline.
Tier gating. This is the primary hidden cost.
Multi-state payroll requires Plus. Performance reviews require Premium.
The jump is steep: a 30-employee company on Simple pays $2,748/year. On Plus: $5,280/year (92% increase). On Premium: $10,080/year (267% increase).
If you start on Simple and discover you need multi-state payroll six months later, the budget conversation with your manager is not a pleasant one.
Before signing up, check whether your current and 12-month needs fit within the Simple plan. If you have employees in more than one state, you need Plus from day one.
International contractor fees. $6/contractor/month plus $5 per payment for non-US contractors with US bank accounts. At low volume, this is trivial.
At 20 contractors with weekly payments, the $5/payment fee adds $5,200/year. That number does not appear on the pricing page in a way that is easy to model.
EOR price increases. Two increases in 12 months: Simple up 23% (from $40 to $49) and EOR up 17% (from $599 to $699).
The month-to-month billing that makes Gusto attractive also makes price increases easy to implement, there is no contract to hold your rate.
If you are building a 3-year cost model, budgeting for continued 10-20% annual increases is prudent.
FX opacity for international payments. Gusto does not disclose its FX spread for international contractor payments.
The cost is borne by the contractor, not you, which means it is invisible to your Finance team but visible to your contractors.
If contractor satisfaction matters to your talent strategy, the FX situation is worth investigating before you commit.
Cost modelling
30-employee US company: what each plan actually costs per year
Simple (single-state): $49 + 30 x $6 = $229/month = $2,748/year. Plus (multi-state): $80 + 30 x $12 = $440/month = $5,280/year. Premium (with performance reviews + CSM): $180 + 30 x $22 = $840/month = $10,080/year.
If price increases continue at 15-20%/year, the Plus plan could cost $6,300-7,600/year in two years.
OnPay ($49 + $6/employee, all features included, no tier gating) becomes increasingly attractive as Gusto’s pricing climbs.
How does Gusto compare on price?
For US domestic payroll, Gusto is competitive for small teams but the tier gating makes direct comparison tricky. OnPay and Justworks offer simpler pricing with no feature lockout.
For international EOR, Gusto’s $699/month is now more expensive than Deel ($599) and Remote ($599).
| Provider | US payroll (30 employees) | EOR price | Contracts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto (Plus) | $5,280/year | $699/month | Month-to-month, no lock-in |
| OnPay | $5,388/year | N/A | Month-to-month |
| Rippling | ~$6,000-$8,000/year | $499-1,000/month | Annual commitment |
| Deel (US Payroll) | $6,840/year | $599/month | Month-to-month |
Source: Provider pricing pages, verified March 2026. Rippling US payroll is estimated from third-party reports.
Whichapp view
Gusto’s pricing advantage over Deel and Rippling for US payroll is real but shrinking.
The March 2026 price increase narrowed the gap, and the tier gating means the cheapest plan is only relevant for single-state businesses.
For EOR, Gusto’s $699/month is now $100 more than Deel and Remote at $599, and covers only 12 countries via a white-labelled Remote partnership. If your international needs extend beyond those 12 countries, you are paying more for less coverage.
Go directly through Remote instead.
Is Gusto worth the cost?
Gusto is worth the cost when your workforce is primarily US-based, your headcount is under 100, and you want payroll, benefits, and basic HR on one platform without the overhead of a contract negotiation or implementation project.
The value is clearest for a US company with 10-50 employees in one or two states that wants to stop managing payroll manually or escape the contract lock-in of ADP or Paychex.
In that scenario, Gusto’s combination of automated tax compliance, integrated benefits brokerage, 401(k) via Guideline, and month-to-month pricing is genuinely hard to beat.
It is not worth the cost for international employment (Deel and Remote are cheaper with broader coverage), for companies approaching 200 employees (Rippling handles scale better), or for businesses that need all features on every plan (OnPay has no tier gating).
In each case, the savings from choosing the right tool now exceed the switching cost of changing later.
For the full platform review, see our Gusto. For the comparison, see Gusto vs Deel.
Check Gusto’s current pricing and plans
View the provider’s latest pricing, plans, and setup details.
Gusto
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Frequently asked questions
What does Gusto cost for a 30-employee company?
On Simple (single-state): $229/month ($2,748/year). On Plus (multi-state): $440/month ($5,280/year).
On Premium (with performance reviews and dedicated CSM): $840/month ($10,080/year). No setup fees, no contracts.
Month-to-month billing means you can switch plans at any time, but recent price increases of 15-23% should factor into your multi-year budget.
Has Gusto raised prices recently?
Yes. Two increases in 12 months: Simple plan from $40 to $49 (23%) effective March 2026, and EOR from $599 to $699 (17%) effective March 15, 2026. The month-to-month model means increases take effect immediately with no contract protection.
Budget for 10-20% annual increases based on this trajectory.
Is Gusto cheaper than Deel for EOR?
No. Since the March 2026 price increase, Gusto EOR costs $699/employee/month, $100 more than Deel ($599) and Remote ($599). Gusto’s EOR is also limited to 12 countries via a Remote white-label, versus Deel’s 150+ and Remote’s 90+.
For EOR, going directly through Deel or Remote gives you more coverage at a lower price.
Can you negotiate a lower rate with Gusto?
Gusto’s domestic payroll pricing is published and non-negotiable for the standard plans. There is no enterprise pricing tier and no volume discount structure for the Simple, Plus, or Premium plans.
For EOR, Gusto uses Remote’s pricing infrastructure via a white-label arrangement, so the per-employee rate is similarly fixed.
The practical lever is switching to a competitor: OnPay’s all-inclusive $49 base plus $6/employee and Justworks‘ flat-fee PEO model are the alternatives most commonly used as negotiating benchmarks.
If you are currently on Simple and approaching 30 employees in multiple states, model the Plus cost against those alternatives before your next renewal.
What is the cheapest alternative to Gusto with no tier gating?
OnPay: $49/month base + $6/employee/month, all features included on every plan. No multi-state payroll paywall, no performance review paywall.
For a 30-employee company, OnPay costs $5,388/year versus Gusto Plus at $5,280/year, and includes features that Gusto locks behind Premium.
Methodology and disclosure
Whichapp is an independent comparison site. We do not sell EOR, payroll, or contractor services.
We may earn a commission from provider links. This does not affect our editorial judgement.
We assessed Gusto’s public pricing page, support documentation, and third-party pricing analyses. Price increase dates verified against multiple sources. Gusto was not tested as a live product.
Last reviewed: April 2026