QuickBooks payroll pricing, as of November 2026, starts at a $50 monthly base plus $7 per employee for Workforce Payroll, rises to $88 plus $13 per employee for Workforce Premium, and tops out at $134 plus $17 per employee for Workforce Elite. For a store with 3 employees on the cheapest plan that is $852 a year after the intro period, and for 10 employees it is $1,440. Intuit’s 50 percent intro discount and 30 day free trial only touch the base price, never the per-employee fee.
I teach high ticket dropshipping at Ecommerce Paradise, and the first employee is where a store stops being a side project and starts carrying payroll tax, filings and monthly fixed costs. This guide is a pricing breakdown built from Intuit’s own pages, not a hands-on test. It covers every plan, the cost for 3 and 10 employees with the arithmetic shown, what each tier includes, the fees Intuit does not print, and where the alternatives fit.
Disclosure: some links below are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
This is general information, not payroll, tax or financial advice. Prices and terms change, so check Intuit’s current pages before you buy.
QuickBooks payroll plans and prices at a glance
Intuit now sells payroll as QuickBooks Workforce. You can buy it on its own or bundled with a QuickBooks Online accounting plan. The payroll only prices below come from Intuit’s payroll only plans page. The bundle prices come from its payroll bundles page. I read both in November 2026.
| Plan | Base per month | Intro per month (first 3 months) | Per employee per month | Includes accounting? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workforce Payroll | $50 | $25 | $7 | No |
| Workforce Premium | $88 | $44 | $13 | No |
| Workforce Elite | $134 | $67 | $17 | No |
| Workforce Payroll with Simple Start | $88 | $44 | $7 | Yes, Simple Start |
| Workforce Payroll with Essentials | $135 | $67.50 | $7 | Yes, Essentials |
| Workforce Premium with Plus | $228 | $114 | $13 | Yes, Plus |
The bundles are simply the payroll plan plus the accounting plan. Workforce Payroll at $50 plus Simple Start at $38 is $88. Plus Essentials at $85 it is $135. Workforce Premium at $88 plus Plus at $140 is $228. If you only need payroll, the first three rows are your real choices.
The payroll numbers above are the ones that matter for budgeting: the base fee, the per-employee fee and nothing hidden in the intro price. For the accounting side of the bundles, see my QuickBooks Online pricing breakdown for year one and year two costs.
The formula behind every quote
Monthly cost equals the base fee plus the per-employee fee times your headcount. Yearly cost is that figure times twelve. In the first three months only, the base fee is cut in half. The per-employee fee is not.
Intuit’s offer terms state this directly. The introductory discount is applied to the monthly base price, and it does not apply to per-employee fees, per-contractor fees or state tax filing fees. The free trial works the same way. So when you see $25 a month on the Workforce Payroll card, the true first month for 3 employees is $25 plus 3 times $7, which is $46.
Cost for 3 employees
These are examples, not quotes. I assume 3 employees paid all year, no contractors, no benefits administration and no state filing fees, because those amounts are not shown on the pages I could load. Year two uses list prices. Year one applies the 50 percent discount to the base fee for three months and nothing else.
| Plan | Monthly at list | Year one | Year two |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workforce Payroll | $71 | $777 | $852 |
| Workforce Premium | $127 | $1,392 | $1,524 |
| Workforce Elite | $185 | $2,019 | $2,220 |
| Payroll with Simple Start | $109 | $1,176 | $1,308 |
| Payroll with Essentials | $156 | $1,669.50 | $1,872 |
| Premium with Plus | $267 | $2,862 | $3,204 |
Here is the arithmetic for the first row so you can check it. Monthly at list is $50 plus 3 times $7, which is $50 plus $21, or $71. Year two is $71 times 12, which is $852. For year one, the base discount is half of $50 for three months, or $75, so year one is $852 minus $75, which is $777.
And the Essentials bundle: $135 plus $21 is $156 a month, which is $1,872 a year. The intro saves half of $135 for three months, which is $202.50, so year one is $1,669.50. Compared with Essentials on its own at $1,020 a year, adding payroll for three people costs $852 more.
Cost for 10 employees
The per-employee fee is the part that scales. Same assumptions as above, with 10 employees.
| Plan | Monthly at list | Year one | Year two |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workforce Payroll | $120 | $1,365 | $1,440 |
| Workforce Premium | $218 | $2,484 | $2,616 |
| Workforce Elite | $304 | $3,447 | $3,648 |
| Payroll with Simple Start | $158 | $1,764 | $1,896 |
| Payroll with Essentials | $205 | $2,257.50 | $2,460 |
| Premium with Plus | $358 | $3,954 | $4,296 |
Check on Workforce Premium: $88 plus 10 times $13 is $88 plus $130, which is $218 a month, or $2,616 a year. The intro saves half of $88 for three months, which is $132, so year one is $2,484.
The per-employee line is where the plans diverge. At 10 employees on Workforce Payroll, employee fees are $840 a year against a base of $600. On Elite they are $2,040 against a base of $1,608. Going from 3 to 10 employees adds $588 a year on Workforce Payroll, which is 7 more people times $7 times 12 months.
What each Workforce plan includes
This section follows the feature lists and footnotes on Intuit’s payroll plans page. Where a detail was not shown, I say so.
Workforce Payroll ($50 plus $7 per employee)
The base plan lists full service payroll, auto payroll, unlimited 1099 e-filing, expert product support, next-day direct deposit, an employee portal, document upload and sharing, employee data management and background checks through Checkr. It also lists access to health benefits, 401(k) plans and workers’ comp administration through partners. Intuit’s footnote says auto payroll becomes available after your first successful payroll run, for salaried employees or hourly employees on default hours, with direct deposit set up.
Workforce Premium ($88 plus $13 per employee)
Premium adds same-day direct deposit, an expert review of your payroll setup, Payroll AI, a company documents center, hiring and onboarding, time off management, automated HR workflows (5 of them), recruiting, a manager role, an HR resource center and handbook creator, and automated I-9. It also lists benefits administration and the Workforce time app with schedules and customizable reports. The footnotes say weekend phone and chat support, certain local tax automation and expert review are for Premium and Elite.
Workforce Elite ($134 plus $17 per employee)
Elite lists everything in Premium plus expert setup of your payroll, tax penalty protection, unlimited automated HR workflows, performance management, a personal HR advisor, geofencing, mileage tracking and project activity and estimate-versus-actual views. I did not find the terms behind tax penalty protection on the pages I could load, so read them before you count on it.
One inconsistency to know about: the payroll plans page lists same-day direct deposit on the Essentials bundle card, while the footnote says same-day is for Premium and Elite only. Confirm which applies at checkout if deposit timing matters to you.
Free trial and intro discount: pick one
Intuit’s offer terms describe two separate offers. The free trial is 30 days and applies to the monthly base price. The introductory discount is 50 percent off the base price for the first 3 months. You sign up using one option or the other, and the terms say offers for the same product cannot be combined.
After either period you are charged monthly at the then-current price until you cancel. You also need to be a new customer to qualify. Neither offer covers per-employee fees, per-contractor fees or state tax filing fees, so you pay those from the start. I wrote up how the trial compares to the discount on the accounting side in my QuickBooks free trial guide.
Fees Intuit does not print as numbers
This is the honest part of any payroll price guide. The headline price is the base plus the per-employee fee, and then there is a list of charges the pages mention without a dollar amount. These are the gaps I found, as of November 2026.
State tax filing fees. The offer terms say they exist. The amount is not shown on the pages I could load, so ask Intuit what applies in your state before you commit.
Per-contractor fees. The terms mention per-contractor fees under Workforce, and the amount is not shown on the pages I loaded. Intuit sells a separate Contractor Payments product, covered below.
Benefits fees. Health insurance through Allstate Health Solutions, 401(k) through Vestwell and workers’ comp through Next are offered as partner products, and the fee amounts are not shown. Intuit also says workers’ comp is not available in Ohio, North Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. Benefits administration is listed on Premium and Elite with a note that additional fees apply.
Background checks. Intuit lists them from $29.99 per report, and says Checkr’s own terms and additional fees apply.
Contractor next-day deposit. The terms say next-day direct deposit is available for contractors for an additional fee. The amount is not shown.
The point is not that any of these are unreasonable. It is that your real annual cost is knowable only after you ask. Treat the tables above as the floor.
Paying contractors instead of employees
Many stores start with contractors, such as freelance support or fulfillment helpers, before hiring anyone. Intuit’s contractor payments page shows a separate product. Contractor Payments is $25 a month at list ($12.50 for the first three months) and includes 20 contractors, then $2 for each additional contractor. It lists next-day direct deposit and unlimited 1099 e-filing. Bundled with Simple Start it is $63 a month at list.
Example: 25 contractors on Contractor Payments is $25 plus 5 times $2, which is $35 a month, or $420 a year. As with the other examples, that is an illustration under stated assumptions, not a quote.
Whether a worker is a contractor or an employee is a legal question, not a pricing one. The IRS lists what employers must deposit and report on its employment taxes page, and I would confirm classification with a tax professional before choosing the cheaper product.
Desktop payroll is not the cheap exit
If you were hoping to pay for desktop payroll instead, Intuit’s stop-sell notice says it stopped selling new subscriptions for QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll, along with Pro Plus, Premier Plus and Mac Plus, to US customers after Sept. 30, 2024. Existing subscribers can keep renewing. For a new store, the online Workforce plans are the route.
Who each plan tends to fit
This is general guidance, not personal advice, and your situation will differ. These are patterns, not recommendations.
Workforce Payroll tends to fit a store with a few employees on a simple schedule that already has its books handled. The base fee is the lowest of the three, and the per-employee fee is $7.
Workforce Premium tends to fit teams that need time off tracking, hiring and onboarding tools, or the time app, because those features are listed from this tier. It costs $6 more per head than Workforce Payroll, so at 10 employees the employee-fee gap is $720 a year (10 times $6 times 12). The base gap is $38 a month, or $456 a year. Together that is $1,176, which matches $2,616 minus $1,440.
The bundles tend to fit owners who want one bill and one login for books and payroll. In my experience, owners who add payroll later usually just want the numbers to flow into the ledger without a manual step. The cost is that you also take on the accounting plan, which has its own seat limits and ceiling.
The simple test I use for any software fee: divide it by what the store earns per order and see how many orders it takes to cover it. If one extra employee costs $84 a year in Workforce Payroll fees, $7 times 12, that is a small number against a single high ticket order. The wage and payroll taxes are the real cost, not the software.
Payroll as a business expense for a store
Payroll software sits next to your other fixed costs: your storefront, your accounting plan, your payment fees and your sourcing terms. It also depends on having the entity set up properly, because payroll setup asks for your business details and tax IDs, which is why I cover business formation for a high ticket store before anything else.
If you are still choosing what to sell, my list of profitable high ticket niches shows where margins can absorb a first hire. If the model is new to you, what high ticket dropshipping is explains how orders and suppliers work.
In my experience, dropshipping stores hire for support and operations long before they need warehouse staff, because the supplier ships the product. That is why the supplier sourcing guide matters for payroll planning too: strong supplier terms keep headcount lower.
Alternatives to QuickBooks payroll
QuickBooks is one of several options, and Gusto is the one people most often compare it with. My Gusto pricing guide covers its plans. If you want to look at it directly, my link is Gusto. I could not load Gusto’s own pricing page while writing this, so I am not quoting its numbers here.
ADP RUN is the other name most owners know. ADP’s own RUN product page shows no dollar amounts and asks you to request a quote. It lists four packages: Essential, Enhanced, Complete Payroll and HR+, and HR Pro. You can start from my ADP RUN link. Because pricing is by quote, a direct comparison to QuickBooks needs an actual quote from ADP.
For a wider view, read my roundup of the best payroll software for small business.
For a head to head, see my Gusto vs QuickBooks Payroll comparison. If ADP is on your list, my guide to ADP alternatives covers the field.
How to check the price yourself before you buy
Intuit’s pricing pages are rendered by script and cached, so a different browser or tool can show different numbers. The reliable way to check is to open the payroll plans page in a normal browser and read the card for each plan. Then open the offer terms link on the page and read the lines about per-employee, per-contractor and state filing fees. Finally, ask Intuit sales for the state filing fee in your state and any benefits fees you plan to use, and get the answer in writing.
While researching this guide, an automated page reader returned older per-employee fees than the live page showed in a normal browser. That is a good reminder to confirm any payroll price, including mine, against the live page on the day you buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does QuickBooks payroll cost per month?
As of November 2026, Workforce Payroll is $50 a month plus $7 per employee, Workforce Premium is $88 plus $13 per employee, and Workforce Elite is $134 plus $17 per employee. Bundles with QuickBooks Online start at $88 plus $7 per employee with Simple Start.
How much does QuickBooks payroll cost for 3 employees?
As an example, Workforce Payroll for 3 employees is $50 plus $21, which is $71 a month, or $852 a year at list. Workforce Premium is $127 a month, which is $1,524 a year, and Elite is $185 a month, which is $2,220 a year. Year one is lower by half of the base fee for three months.
Does the 50 percent discount apply to per-employee fees?
No. Intuit’s offer terms say the introductory discount and the free trial apply to the monthly base price only. Per-employee fees, per-contractor fees and state tax filing fees are not discounted.
Can I use the free trial and the 50 percent discount together?
No. The terms describe them as two separate options, and say offers for the same product cannot be combined. You choose the 30 day trial or the 3 month discount when you sign up as a new customer.
Are state filing fees included in QuickBooks payroll?
Intuit’s offer terms say state tax filing fees exist and are not covered by the discount or trial. The dollar amount is not shown on the pages I could load, so ask Intuit what applies in your state.
Bottom Line
QuickBooks payroll costs a $50, $88 or $134 monthly base plus $7, $13 or $17 per employee, depending on the Workforce plan. For 3 employees that is $852, $1,524 or $2,220 a year at list, and for 10 employees it is $1,440, $2,616 or $3,648. The intro discount saves half of the base fee for three months and nothing else.
The gaps are state filing fees, per-contractor fees and benefits fees, none of which have a dollar amount on the pages I could load. Budget for the tables here as a floor, confirm the rest with Intuit, and check the live pages on the day you buy. This is not payroll, tax or financial advice, terms change, and you should check the provider and a tax professional before you commit.
Related Articles
If you are comparing payroll tools or costing out your first hire, these are the posts I would read next.
- QuickBooks Pricing 2026: Every Plan Costed for Year One and Year Two
- Gusto vs QuickBooks Payroll: Which Payroll Platform Wins in 2026?
- 9 Best Payroll Software for Small Business in 2026
- Gusto Pricing Explained: Simple vs Plus vs Premium Costs Breakdown 2026
- Best ADP Alternatives in 2026: 4 Payroll Options Compared by Price, Free Trials and Fit
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and world traveler from Seattle, Washington, and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
He maintains homes in Seattle and Bali, spends most of the year overseas, and usually returns to Seattle for about a month each summer.
