Gusto Pricing 2026: Every Plan With Real Examples

Gusto plan overview

Gusto offers three main plans for businesses with W-2 employees, plus a standalone Contractor plan. All plans include automatic payroll tax filing in all 50 states, direct deposit, W-2 and 1099 generation, new hire reporting, employee self-service, and unlimited payroll runs.

Real cost by team size

5 employees: Simple $70/mo | Plus $140/mo | Contractor-only $30/mo (5 contractors)

10 employees: Simple $100/mo | Plus $200/mo

25 employees: Simple $190/mo | Plus $380/mo

50 employees: Simple $340/mo | Plus $680/mo, at this size, evaluate Rippling.

Add Guideline 401(k) on top: ~$49/mo base + $8/emp/mo. A 10-person team on Plus = $200 (Gusto) + $129 (Guideline) = $329/month all-in for payroll + benefits admin + 401(k). That is the real number to budget against.

Simple plan: who it is actually for

The Simple plan covers the payroll workflow most small businesses need: payroll runs, automatic tax filing in all 50 states, 4-day direct deposit, W-2 and 1099 generation, new hire reporting, basic employee onboarding (I-9, W-4, direct deposit), and basic time-off tracking.

G2 reviewers (4.6/5, 11,246 reviews) most commonly cite ease of setup as the top benefit, most teams run first payroll within a day of signup. The most common complaint: hitting the ceiling of Simple features (specifically next-day deposit and PTO policy management) and needing to upgrade sooner than expected.

Stay on Simple if: under 15 employees, straightforward payroll, no benefits administration needed, and 4-day deposit timing works. Start on Plus if: you offer health insurance through Gusto, need time tracking with manager approval, or want next-day direct deposit.

Plus plan: when the upgrade pays off

The jump from Simple to Plus doubles the base ($40→$80) and per-employee fee ($6→$12). For 10 employees: $100/month more. Worth it if:

Next-day direct deposit is needed, Simple's 4-day window means submitting Tuesday for Friday payment. For hourly teams with tight cash flow, this alone justifies Plus.

Time tracking + manager approval, eliminates a separate time tracking subscription.

Benefits administration, health, dental, vision, HSA, FSA all require Plus. If you offer health insurance, Plus is mandatory.

Performance check-ins, lightweight goal-setting and review cycles, functional for teams that want basics without a separate HR tool.

Contractor-only plan: the hidden value tier

For businesses paying 1099 contractors with no W-2 employees: $6/contractor/month, no base fee. 5 contractors = $30/month. Covers ACH payments, digital W-9 collection, 1099-NEC filing at year-end, and a contractor self-service portal.

vs. Deel: Gusto contractor plan at $6/contractor vs. Deel at $49/contractor. For US-only contractors, Gusto wins on price by 8x. Deel's premium is justified for international contractors (150+ countries, local compliance). For all-US contractor teams, Gusto is the obvious choice.

The contractor plan upgrades cleanly to Simple or Plus when you hire W-2 employees, contractor data and payment history carry over automatically.

Premium plan - when it makes sense

Gusto's Premium tier dropped its old "call us for a quote" model and now lists at $135/month base plus $16.50 per employee. At 10 people that's roughly $300/month, versus about $180/month on Plus ($80 + $12/employee). You're paying a premium of $120+/month, so the math only works when the included services replace something you'd otherwise buy.

The two features that justify it: HR Resource Center with certified HR advisors (live access to a team that reviews handbooks and answers employee-relations questions) and a dedicated support line that skips the general queue. A standalone HR advisory subscription from a PEO-lite provider runs $50-$150/month on its own, so if you're already considering that, Premium folds it into one bill.

Premium also adds compliance alerts tied to your specific states and headcount thresholds - useful once you cross 50 employees and ACA reporting (Forms 1095-C) kicks in, or when you operate in 3+ states with different paid-sick-leave and final-paycheck rules. Plus tier does not include the advisor line or proactive compliance monitoring.

Skip Premium if you're under 15 employees in a single state with a simple W-2 workforce - Plus covers multi-state payroll, next-day direct deposit, and time tracking, which is plenty. The companies that actually extract value are 25-75 employee firms in regulated industries (healthcare, food service, construction) where one mishandled wage-and-hour question costs more than a year of the upgrade. G2 reviewers consistently rate the advisor access as the standout reason to move up a tier.

Add-on costs: health benefits broker fee, 401(k), workers' comp, and R&D credits

The sticker price isn't the whole bill. Gusto bundles several add-ons that carry their own fees, and some are easy to miss until they hit the statement.

Health benefits. Gusto acts as the broker in 38+ states and charges no separate broker fee - the carrier pays them commission, and you pay standard premiums. That's genuinely cheaper than a traditional broker markup. But administration of benefits you bring from an outside broker ("bring your own broker") runs $6 per employee per month on top of your plan. Verify your state is supported before assuming you can enroll through Gusto.

401(k) via Guideline. Gusto's retirement integration uses Guideline, priced separately from payroll: roughly $49/month base plus $8 per participating employee on the Core plan, with participants paying about 0.15-0.35% in account fees. At 15 enrolled employees that's around $170/month - billed by Guideline, not Gusto. It's competitive, but budget for it as a distinct line item.

Workers' comp. Gusto offers pay-as-you-go workers' compensation through NEXT Insurance with no upfront deposit and premiums calculated off actual payroll each run. There's no Gusto surcharge, but factor in the policy premium itself, which varies wildly by class code - clerical work might be $0.30 per $100 of payroll while roofing exceeds $15.

R&D tax credits. For startups, Gusto partners on R&D credit identification and applies the payroll-tax offset (up to $500,000/year against employer Social Security and Medicare under the post-2022 rules). The service typically takes a percentage of the credit captured, so it's contingency-based rather than a flat monthly cost - worth it only if you have qualifying engineering or product-development wages.

Gusto vs OnPay vs Patriot at 5, 15, and 30 employees - total cost

Per-employee pricing scales differently across the three most-compared SMB platforms, so the cheapest option flips depending on headcount. Here's the monthly full-service payroll math using each vendor's standard published rates: Gusto Plus ($80 + $12/employee), OnPay (flat $46 + $6/employee, one tier), and Patriot Full Service ($37 + $5/employee).

At 5 employees: Gusto Plus runs $140, OnPay $76, Patriot $62. Patriot is the budget winner, and OnPay is close behind with a more polished feature set. Gusto's higher base only pays off if you're using its benefits, time tracking, or onboarding tools heavily.

At 15 employees: Gusto Plus $260, OnPay $136, Patriot $112. The gap widens - Patriot and OnPay stay under half of Gusto's cost. At this size Gusto's value case rests almost entirely on its integrated benefits brokerage and slicker UI, since the core payroll engines are comparable.

At 30 employees: Gusto Plus $440, OnPay $226, Patriot $187. Annualized, choosing OnPay over Gusto saves about $2,568/year; Patriot saves roughly $3,036/year. The tradeoff: Patriot's benefits administration is thinner and its interface dated, while OnPay handles multi-state and specialized payrolls (nonprofits, ag, clergy) that Patriot charges extra for or doesn't cover.

Bottom line by size. Under 10 employees in one state, Patriot or OnPay almost always wins on cost. From 15-30, the decision hinges on whether you'll use Gusto's benefits and HR layer - if you're running health insurance and 401(k) through one vendor, the consolidated admin can offset the price gap. Pure payroll at scale favors OnPay's flat $46 base.

Hidden fees and gotchas

Gusto's pricing is more transparent than most, but several charges surprise new users. Read the fine print on these before you migrate.

The biggest one: you're billed per person who received any pay in a month, not per active seat. Run a final paycheck for a terminated employee, pay a one-time bonus to a contractor, or process an off-cycle severance, and that person counts toward your per-employee fee for the full month. Seasonal businesses get hit hardest.

Two more worth flagging. State tax registration is on you, not Gusto - the platform files and pays once accounts exist, but it won't open your withholding or unemployment-insurance accounts, and several states levy penalties for paying employees before you're registered. And switching mid-year means re-entering year-to-date wage data; get it wrong and your W-2s won't reconcile, so run a parallel test payroll before cutting over from your old provider.

None of these are dealbreakers, but they explain why a quoted "$80 + $12/employee" can land 10-20% higher on the actual invoice. Model your real headcount including off-cycle payments before committing.

Frequently asked questions

How much did Gusto's pricing actually go up? The Simple plan base fee rose from $40 to $49/month in March 2026, a roughly 22% increase on the entry tier. The per-employee rates ($6 on Simple, $12 on Plus) have stayed the same.

Do I get billed for an employee I only paid once this month? Yes. Gusto bills per person paid in a billing month, not per active seat, so a final paycheck for a terminated employee or a one-time bonus still counts as a full per-employee charge for that month. Seasonal businesses feel this the most.

Is Gusto's 401(k) included in the Plus or Premium price? No. Retirement runs through Guideline as a separate line item, roughly $49/month base plus $8 per participating employee, billed by Guideline directly rather than folded into your Gusto invoice.

When does Premium actually pay for itself? Premium lists at $135/month base plus $16.50/employee, a real premium over Plus. It tends to be worth it once you're 25-75 employees in a regulated industry, where the certified HR advisor access and compliance alerts replace a standalone HR advisory subscription that would otherwise cost $50-150/month on its own.

Are there hidden fees beyond the advertised base and per-employee rate? A few common ones: bring-your-own-broker benefits administration adds $6/employee/month, off-cycle corrections and reversals can trigger extra fees if submitted past the payroll deadline, and state tax registration is the employer's responsibility, not Gusto's, which can delay a first payroll run if skipped.

Is Gusto cheaper than OnPay or Patriot at any team size? Rarely on pure price. At 5, 15, and 30 employees, OnPay's flat base and Patriot's lower base and per-employee rate both undercut Gusto Plus, sometimes by more than half at 30 employees. Gusto's case rests on its benefits brokerage and HR tooling, not on being the lowest-cost option.