Cheapest AI social media tools, read from the source
The cheapest AI social media tools in 2026
Buffer, Publer, Metricool and SpeedRun Social all write and schedule posts with AI for $0 a month on a free plan. Later's Starter is the cheapest paid plan, at $25 a month billed monthly or $18.75 a month billed yearly. Every figure was read from each vendor's own pricing page on 18 September 2026.
Four tools hold a $0 plan, and one of them also creates images on free. Every row below links back to the pricing page it was read from.
The cheapest way to get a tool that writes your posts with AI and then schedules or publishes them is a free plan. Four of the nine tools here keep one: Buffer, Publer, Metricool and SpeedRun Social. The catch is that the free plans cap posts, watermarks sit on our free media, and two of those four do not say on the page whether their AI writes text or just polishes it.
Paid-only tools start higher. Later's Starter is the cheapest at $25 a month billed monthly, or $18.75 a month if you prepay a year. SocialBee and Ocoya each ask $29 a month at their entry tier, Predis $32 a month, and Hootsuite $99 per user a month with no monthly rate published at all.
SpeedRun Social, our own product, is placed by its real $0 entry like every other tool, and its free plan is stated exactly once on this page. Three competitors are tied with us at $0 today, and one of them, Publer, also creates images on a free plan, which we do not do watermark-free.
Where every number came from
- The pricing page headed its free plan "Free forever" for up to 3 channels, with 10 scheduled posts per channel, 100 ideas, 1 user account and an AI Assistant it described as "Refine and repurpose your content using AI. Unlimited credits." The feature table listed no image or video generation on any plan. Paid Essentials read $5 a month per channel billed yearly ($60 billed yearly) and Team $10 a month per channel billed yearly ($120 billed yearly). buffer.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
- publer.com/pricing redirects to publer.com/plans, which listed a free plan at $0.00 for 1 user, 1 workspace and 3 social accounts except X, with 10 scheduled posts per account, 25 saved drafts and a 24-hour post history. Its "Included In All" list carried an OpenAI AI Assist described as generating content, completing text and creating photos, and "Unlimited AI prompts" generating "both text and images" sat on the Business plan at $10.00 a month billed monthly or $8.00 a month billed yearly, with Professional at $5.00 a month billed monthly or $4.00 a month billed yearly. publer.com/plans, read 18 September 2026
- The pricing page listed a Free plan at $0 a month managing 1 brand, scheduling up to 20 posts a month and including an "AI social media assistant" metered at 5 credits per brand a month. It did not say whether that assistant writes text or designs images, and it listed no AI image generation. Paid Starter began at $20 a month billed annually or $25 a month billed monthly, and its FAQ read "Yes! You can use Metricool for free, forever." metricool.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
- The page opened on Bill Yearly and listed no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Starter read $18.75 USD a month billed yearly or $25.00 USD a month billed monthly, covering 1 social set of 8 profiles, 1 user, 30 posts per profile a month and "AI content tools" metered at 5 AI credits a month; the page did not say whether those tools write text or design images. later.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
- The pricing page listed no free plan, only a 14-day trial marked "no credit card required". Bootstrap read $29 a month billed monthly or $290 a year billed annually, covering 1 user and 1 workspace with up to 5 social profiles and "Unlimited AI content generation", and the page said its AI generates "captions, images and full content strategies". socialbee.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
- The pricing page listed no free plan, only a 7-day trial. Starter read $29 a month billed monthly or $290 a year billed yearly, covering 1 user, 5 social profiles and 300 credits a month, and the FAQ said credits are "used for AI generation, automation runs and analytics exports" without saying whether that AI writes text or designs images. ocoya.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
- The pricing page opened on Annually and listed no free plan, only a 7-day trial that "take[s] a card to start". Core read $24 a month billed yearly ($288 billed yearly) or $32 a month billed monthly, covering 1 brand, publishing to 10 channels with "No Auto Posting", and 1,300 credits a month shown as "About 86 images or 9 videos"; captions and hashtags sat in its copywriting feature list. predis.ai/pricing, read 18 September 2026
- The plans page listed no free plan, only a 14-day trial needing no credit card. Standard read $99 per user a month billed annually and included "Generate posts and images with AI", scheduling and a shared inbox for up to 10 social accounts, with the page publishing no month-to-month price. hootsuite.com/plans, read 18 September 2026
- Free plan: 300 credits a month refilled forever, one free campaign a week (3 posts, 1 video, 1 cross-post), no card, watermarked media on free. Paid plans are $49.99, $99.99 and $199.99 a month (annual $39.99, $79.99, $159.99 a month). Nothing in that ladder moves with the number of people or connected accounts, so two people and four accounts cost the same as one and one. speedrunsocial.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
Cheapest plan that writes and schedules
Each cell above was read on 18 September 2026 from the vendor's own pricing page: buffer.com/pricing, publer.com/plans, metricool.com/pricing, later.com/pricing, socialbee.com/pricing, ocoya.com/pricing, predis.ai/pricing, hootsuite.com/plans and speedrunsocial.com/pricing. "Text or image not stated" means that page named an AI feature but did not say what it produces. The full quotations sit in the section above.
| Tool | Cheapest plan | Monthly price | Billing unit | What the AI does | Free plan or trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffer | Free | $0 | Per channel | Refines and repurposes text you supply; no image generation listed | Free forever |
| Publer | Free | $0 | Per social account | Writes text and creates photos (AI Assist) | Free forever |
| Metricool | Free | $0 | Per brand | AI social media assistant; text or image not stated | Free forever |
| SpeedRun Social | Free | $0 | Flat per workspace | Writes captions and designs images and video | Free forever |
| Later | Starter | $25 a month | Per social set (8 profiles) | AI content tools (5 credits a month); text or image not stated | 14-day trial, no free plan |
| SocialBee | Bootstrap | $29 a month | Per workspace | Writes captions and images | 14-day trial, no free plan |
| Ocoya | Starter | $29 a month | Per plan (pooled) | AI generation (300 credits); text or image not stated | 7-day trial, no free plan |
| Predis | Core | $32 a month | Per brand | Writes captions and designs images and video | 7-day trial (card required) |
| Hootsuite | Standard | $99 a month | Per user | Writes posts and generates images | 14-day trial, no free plan |
Source: buffer.com/pricing, publer.com/plans, metricool.com/pricing, later.com/pricing, socialbee.com/pricing, ocoya.com/pricing, predis.ai/pricing, hootsuite.com/plans and speedrunsocial.com/pricing, read 18 September 2026
What the cheap plans leave out
Buffer
Its free plan holds 10 scheduled posts per channel and a single user account, and its AI only refines or repurposes text you already wrote; the pricing page lists no image or video generation on any plan, so a photo still has to come from somewhere else.
Publer
The free plan cannot connect an X account at all and holds 10 scheduled posts per account with a 24-hour post history. Unlimited AI prompts are a Business-plan feature, so the free plan's AI is not stated as unlimited.
Metricool
The free plan caps scheduling at 20 posts a month, keeps 30 days of analytics and leaves out LinkedIn and X. Its AI assistant is metered at 5 credits per brand a month, and the page does not say what one credit buys.
SpeedRun Social
Free media carries a watermark and the allowance is one campaign a week, not an open queue. It is also our product, so treat this row as the entrant's claim rather than a neutral one.
Later
Starter holds one user, 30 posts per profile a month and 5 AI credits a month, and the page does not say what one AI credit buys. Extra social sets, users and AI credits are not available on Starter at all.
SocialBee
Bootstrap holds 1 user and 1 workspace, so a second person is a $10 a month add-on. It is a 14-day trial, not a free plan, and the entry tier keeps analytics to 3 months of data.
Ocoya
Starter holds 1 user, 5 social profiles and 300 credits a month, and the page leaves the AI's output vague, so a buyer cannot tell from pricing whether the AI writes, designs or both.
Predis
Core has no auto-posting, so the schedule-and-forget part starts one tier up on Rise at $55 a month billed yearly. The 7-day trial also takes a card up front and charges it when the week ends.
Hootsuite
The rate is per user, so a second person doubles the bill before anything else changes. It prints only the annual rate, so the cheapest honest way in is a year prepaid at a time.
How the billing unit changes the bill
A two person business with four social accounts is the cleanest test, because per-user, per-channel and per-brand billing each move a different number. The four accounts here are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google Business Profile, all of one business.
Per user
Hootsuite bills per seat. Standard covers up to 10 accounts, so all four fit, but two people cost $99 a month each, $198 a month billed annually. The bill moves with headcount, not with the roster.
Per channel
Buffer bills per channel. Four channels on Team, which allows the second person, read $10 a channel a month billed yearly, $40 a month in all, or $12 a channel billed monthly, $48 a month. The one-user Essentials tier is $5 a channel a month billed yearly, but it locks out the second person.
Per brand
Metricool bills per brand, and four accounts of one business are one brand. The free plan covers that brand at $0 but caps 20 posts a month and leaves out LinkedIn and X; Starter covers it at $20 a month billed annually or $25 billed monthly and adds LinkedIn. Team members are listed as unlimited, so the second person costs nothing extra.
Flat per workspace
SpeedRun Social is our product. Starter is $49.99 a month, and nothing moves with people or accounts, so two people and four accounts cost the same as one and one. The free plan is the one quoted in our row above, flat per workspace.
How this list was built
The stake first: we build SpeedRun Social, and this page ranks it by its real $0 entry alongside three competitors also at $0. A price list written by one of the entrants is worth reading only when it names the tie before the table, so it is named here.
On 18 September 2026 every pricing page below was opened in a real browser and read from the rendered page. Where a page carries a billing toggle it was pressed, and both the monthly and yearly figures are quoted. Nothing here comes from a review site, another list or an assistant's answer.
The ranking rule is the month-to-month price, free plans at $0 first. Where a vendor prints a lower per-month figure for prepaying a year, that yearly figure is stated in the row's quotation and the billing-math section, because a buyer who can prepay re-ranks the paid tools on it.
A tool stays on this list only if its own pricing page shows one plan that both writes posts with AI and schedules or publishes them. "Writes posts with AI" means the page names an AI feature that produces post text. Where a page says only "AI assistant" or "AI content tools" or "AI generation" without saying whether it writes text or designs images, this page says so rather than guessing, because a wrong claim about what an AI makes is the exact lie this page exists to avoid.
There are no scores, stars, testimonials or customer counts anywhere on this page. We are new and have very few customers, and a rating from us would imply a bake-off nobody ran. Prices and limits move, so open the linked pages before any cell here decides anything.
Cheapest-tool questions, answered
What is the cheapest AI social media tool?
On 18 September 2026, the cheapest way to get AI writing plus scheduling is a free plan, and four tools keep one: Buffer, Publer, Metricool and SpeedRun Social, all at $0 a month. Among paid-only tools, Later's Starter is cheapest at $25 a month billed monthly, or $18.75 a month billed yearly. The free plans are not identical: Buffer's AI only refines text you supply, and two of the four do not say on the page what their AI produces.
Is there a free AI social media tool?
Yes. On 18 September 2026, Buffer, Publer and Metricool each list a permanent free plan that includes an AI feature plus scheduling, and ours is the one quoted in our row above, watermarked media included. Buffer's free AI refines or repurposes text rather than writing it from a blank page, and Metricool meters its AI assistant at 5 credits a brand a month. Publer lists an AI that creates text and photos as included in all plans, with unlimited prompts on its paid Business tier.
What is the cheapest Hootsuite alternative with AI?
Hootsuite's entry plan reads $99 per user a month billed annually with no monthly rate published, so almost every tool on this list undercuts it. The cheapest alternatives that both write posts with AI and schedule are the free plans at $0 from Buffer, Publer, Metricool and SpeedRun Social. If you want a paid plan with no free tier, Later's Starter reads $25 a month billed monthly and SocialBee's Bootstrap reads $29 a month billed monthly.
Do the cheapest AI plans write the image too, or just the caption?
It splits. Publer, SocialBee, Predis and Hootsuite name image creation on their pages, and ours writes captions and designs images and video. Buffer's AI only refines text, with no image generation listed. Metricool, Later and Ocoya name an AI feature but do not say on their pricing pages whether it writes text or designs images, so this page says "not stated" for those three rather than guessing.
Why do some tools charge per user and others per channel?
Because they bill for different resources. A per-user tool such as Hootsuite charges for each seat, so two people cost twice as much. A per-channel tool such as Buffer charges for each connected account, so the roster drives the bill. A per-brand tool such as Metricool counts businesses, so four accounts of one business are one brand. A flat tool charges one price whatever the roster, which is what we do. The billing-math section works out each shape for a two person, four account business.
Test the $0 entry against the rest
Run one real week of your own posts through our free plan beside one of the other $0 tools above, then compare what each one leaves you to write yourself. Ours is flat per workspace, so two people and four accounts cost the same as one and one.
Every figure on this page was read on 18 September 2026 from the pricing pages linked above. Prices and limits move; the links exist so you can check theirs and ours.