Is IFTTT Pro worth it in 2026?
What the new credit-based plans cost, what changed for free and paying users on October 28, 2026, and when Starter is enough.
The quick answer
IFTTT Pro is worth it only if your Applets run often enough to outgrow cheaper tiers or you want five-minute checks. Since October 28, 2026 every plan has unlimited Applets and all services, and plans differ by monthly credits and speed. Pro costs $7.99 monthly or $65.88 a year; the new Starter plan at $25.08 a year covers most home users who outgrow Free.
Short answer: for most people, no longer. On October 28, 2026 IFTTT removed its Applet limits on every plan, including Free, and moved to monthly credits. That makes the new Starter plan at $2.99 a month ($2.09 on yearly billing) the sensible upgrade for a smart home, and Pro at $7.99 a month worth it only for heavy or time-sensitive automations, per the IFTTT plans page as of October 29, 2026.
Many third-party pages still quote the old model, where Free allowed two Applets and Pro was $2.99 a month on annual billing. Those figures are out of date. Here is how the plans work now, and what the switch means if you already pay.
IFTTT plans as of October 29, 2026
Yearly billing saves 30%. Yearly prices are shown as the monthly rate with the annual charge in brackets. Credits per day are our arithmetic on a 30-day month.
| Feature | Free | Starter | Pro | Pro+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly billing | $0 | $2.99/month | $7.99/month | $19.99/month |
| Yearly billing | $0 | $2.09/month ($25.08) | $5.49/month ($65.88) | $13.99/month ($167.88) |
| Credits per month | 1,000 (about 33 a day) | 5,000 (about 167 a day) | 20,000 (about 667 a day) | 100,000 |
| Trigger checks | Every hour | Every 15 minutes | Every 5 minutes | Every 5 minutes |
| Extra | All services and AI features | Basic support, 18-hour reply | Prioritized support, 12-hour reply | Multiple accounts per service, 6-hour reply |
What you get
- ✓No more Applet caps: unlimited Applets and all services on every plan, including Free.
- ✓Cheap entry plan: Starter costs $25.08 a year on yearly billing.
- ✓Existing prices protected: current subscribers keep their price.
- ✓AI built in: AI steps and MCP access for assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT on every plan.
- ✓Huge catalog: 1,000+ services, strong on smart home devices.
The trade-offs
- ✕Credit rates are opaque: set by IFTTT, shown as estimates and changeable without notice.
- ✕Free is slower: triggers are checked only once an hour.
- ✕Higher Pro price for new buyers: $65.88 a year vs $35.88 under the old plan.
- ✕Credits expire: unused credits do not roll over, and fees are non-refundable.
- ✕Reliability complaints: recent App Store reviews report Applets that stop working.
Worth it if…
- →Smart home users whose Applets must react within 15 minutes: Starter.
- →People running many Applets or AI steps every day who need five-minute checks: Pro.
- →Small businesses that need several accounts on the same service: Pro+.
Skip it if…
- →A few Applets that fire once or twice a day: Free now covers them.
- →You need multi-step business workflows across work apps: compare Zapier or Make.
- →You can host software yourself and want no usage meter: consider n8n.
What changed on October 28, 2026?
In a post published October 28, 2026, founder Linden Tibbets wrote that capping free accounts in 2020 and moving features behind a paywall “was a mistake, and it was mine.” The new model drops limits on how many Applets you can have and which services you can use, on every plan.
Instead, every account gets a monthly allowance of credits spent when Applets run. IFTTT’s terms say credits are consumed by Applet runs and by the triggers, queries, actions, filter code and AI features inside them. If you run out, Applets pause until the next billing period or until you upgrade; nothing is deleted.
Existing subscribers are protected: the post says “If you already pay for IFTTT, your price doesn’t change,” and Pro or Pro+ users who already exceed their new allowance received a one-time boost of free credits sized to past usage. IFTTT.com also became IFTTT.ai the same day.
How has IFTTT’s price changed?
Archive snapshots of the plans page from June 6, 2025, February 8, 2026 and October 5, 2026 show the old lineup on annual billing: Pro at $2.99 a month ($35.88 a year) for 20 Applets, and Pro+ at $8.99 a month ($107.88 a year) for unlimited Applets. Free allowed two Applets with unlimited runs. Monthly billing was $3.99 and $11.99 in June 2025, then $4.99 and $14.99 in the 2026 snapshots.
For a new subscriber, yearly Pro now costs $65.88, $30 more a year than the $35.88 of the old Pro, and yearly Pro+ costs $60 more ($167.88 against $107.88). The comparison is not like for like, though: the old Pro capped you at 20 Applets, while the new Pro allows unlimited Applets and meters runs instead. The new $25.08 Starter plan sits below both old prices.
Free changed direction. It used to allow two Applets with unlimited runs; it now allows unlimited Applets with 1,000 credits a month. If you ran two busy Applets for free, that is a cut; if you wanted ten quiet ones, it is an upgrade.
What do credits actually buy?
This is the weak spot. The plans page lists allowances but not how many credits one run uses. The terms say the credit rate of each trigger, query and action “is determined by IFTTT”, that rates displayed in the service are estimates, and that IFTTT may change any rate at any time, with or without prior notice. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing period, and fees are non-refundable.
So treat the allowance as a budget rather than a number of runs. On a 30-day month, Free works out to about 33 credits a day, Starter about 167 and Pro about 667 (our arithmetic). An Applet that fires a few times a day, such as lights on when you arrive home, fits a small budget. One that polls a busy feed or calls an AI step on every trigger burns through it far faster.
Check the credit estimate the app shows for each Applet before you turn it on, then look at your usage after the first week. That tells you which plan you need better than any review can.
Free, Starter, Pro or Pro+?
Free now includes every service, AI features and unlimited Applets, but checks triggers only every hour. That is fine for a daily weather email and too slow for a doorbell or a garage door.
Starter ($25.08 a year) gives five times the credits and 15-minute checks. For a typical smart home with a handful of Applets, it is the plan to try first. Pro ($65.88 a year) is for people who need five-minute checks or run many Applets through the day; it costs $40.80 a year more than Starter (our arithmetic).
Pro+ ($167.88 a year) adds 100,000 credits, the fastest speeds and multiple accounts per service, for example a work and a personal Google account. It suits small businesses more than households. Yearly billing saves 30% on every paid plan: Pro costs $95.88 over a year on monthly billing against $65.88 paid yearly (our arithmetic).
What do users say about IFTTT?
The IFTTT.ai iPhone app averages 4.6 stars from 59,667 ratings on the US App Store, but recent reviews are rougher. On October 26, 2026 a long-time user wrote “apparently now I gotta pay to use the applet I’ve used for free for years.” Others in October 2026 complained that workflows “randomly stop working after weeks of working” (October 7) and that location-based Applets were unreliable (October 22).
Coverage focused on the trade-off. German site smarthomeassistent.de reported on October 22, 2026 that IFTTT would move to usage-based pricing on October 28 and had not yet published the limits. On launch day a Hacker News submission summed it up as “IFTTT ends unlimited runs on its free plan”, which is the other side of the same change.
Academy data: none of the prompt packs in our library names IFTTT, while 16 name Zapier, including the Claude prompts for Zapier.
IFTTT vs Zapier and n8n
IFTTT is the cheapest paid option for personal and smart home automation. Zapier’s pricing page lists a free plan with 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps, and a Professional plan starting from $19.99 a month for multi-step Zaps and webhooks. Zapier is built around work apps; IFTTT’s strength is consumer devices and services.
n8n offers a self-hosted Community Edition on GitHub. The software costs nothing, but you run and maintain the server, which suits technical users rather than someone who just wants lights to switch on at sunset. Our n8n review, Zapier review and Make review cover those tools in depth.
The verdict
IFTTT Pro is worth $65.88 a year only if you need five-minute trigger checks or run enough Applets to outgrow Starter’s 5,000 monthly credits. For most homes the better buy is Starter at $25.08 a year, and many light users can now stay on Free.
If you already pay for the old Pro at $35.88 a year, keep it: your price does not change. The answer would shift if IFTTT published fixed credit rates per run, which would let you price a setup in advance instead of watching the meter.
Better alternatives?
If it is not the right fit, these are worth a look.
Frequently asked questions
Is IFTTT still free?▾
Yes. Since October 28, 2026 the Free plan includes unlimited Applets and all services, with 1,000 credits a month and hourly trigger checks.
How much is IFTTT Pro in 2026?▾
As of October 29, 2026, Pro is $7.99 a month on monthly billing or $5.49 a month on yearly billing, charged as $65.88 a year, with 20,000 credits a month.
What is the IFTTT Starter plan?▾
A new plan at $2.99 a month or $25.08 a year with 5,000 credits a month and 15-minute trigger checks.
What happens when I run out of IFTTT credits?▾
Applets that use credits pause until the next billing period or until you upgrade. Nothing is deleted, and unused credits do not roll over.
Will my old IFTTT Pro price go up?▾
IFTTT says existing subscribers keep their price and are not forced to upgrade. Heavy Pro and Pro+ users received a one-time boost of extra credits.