What happens when you downgrade to the Free plan

Your Buffer account may be downgraded to the Free plan under the following circumstances:

• You explicitly choose to downgrade from a paid plan to the Free plan.
• You've been on a free trial of our paid plans and you don't upgrade at the end of the trial.
• You're on a paid plan but the credit card associated with your account expires, or a payment fails. In this case, we’ll send an email notice of that payment failure immediately, and we’ll retry processing the payment three times over a two-week period. If the payment doesn’t succeed after those attempts, the account will automatically downgrade to the Free plan.

When your account is downgraded to the Free plan, you will then be within the limits of that plan.

On the Free plan:

• You're able to connect up to three social channels.

If you have more than three channels connected at the time of downgrading, the surplus channels will be locked. Locked channels remain connected to your account but are not usable. If you upgrade to a paid plan in the future, with space for the surplus channels, they will automatically unlock. You can also choose which channels are locked and unlocked by following the steps in this guide.

• You're able to store up to 10 posts in each queue at a time.

If a channel has more than 10 posts in the queue at the time of downgrading, all scheduled posts will continue to publish (unless it is a locked account). With the Free plan's 10-post limit per social channel, new posts can't be scheduled until the total number of posts in the queue for that channel is below 10.

• You're able to see 30 days of your post history.

If your account had been on a paid plan for longer than 30 days, you would only see the last 30 days of your post history within the Sent tab of Buffer.

• You're not able to have additional users on the Free Plan, just a sole owner/user.

If your account has additional users at the time of downgrading, those users will also be locked from accessing any social channels you'd invited them to, since additional users are not supported on the Free plan.

• If you have more than three idea groups in your Create dashboard, the surplus groups will be locked.

You will not be able to add any ideas to a locked group, but you can remove an idea from a locked group.

FAQ

My free trial expired and my account was downgraded to the Free plan. Can I start another trial?

We’re glad you’re enjoying Buffer! Free trials are designed to give new users a chance to explore our paid features. At this time, each account is eligible for one free trial only. This helps us ensure fairness and consistency for everyone.

If you’ve already had a free trial and would like more time to try out a specific feature or plan, feel free to reach out to our team at hello@buffer.com. We’re always happy to help you find the best fit!