Metricool Free Plan Limits: Brands, Posts and AI Credits
- Free includes one brand, twenty published posts per calendar month and thirty days of analytics history. It is an ongoing free plan, not the paid trial.
- Each brand holds one profile per network. A duplicated post consumes one published-post count for each network, while an unpublished draft does not.
- Free excludes LinkedIn and X. Paid X connections are an add-on; post approval and API access require Advanced or Custom rather than any paid tier.
- AI text credits, brand slots and published posts measure different things. Check actual connected brands and the required feature before calculating an upgrade.
Metricool Free can fit one brand with modest publishing needs, but its limits involve several separate meters. A brand is an organizational container, posts are counted by actual publication during the calendar month, and AI text credits measure generation use. This review explains those distinctions and the paid plan gates without converting queue size into monthly output or claiming that a free quota cannot support anyone’s real work.
Count brands, actual published destinations and generation credits separately. A scheduled draft is not a published post, and a free limit is not a universal verdict on product fit.
What the ongoing Free plan includes
The current official Free-versus-paid explanation says Free does not expire and requires no credit card. Its listed limits include one brand, twenty monthly posts, thirty days of analytics history, five fixed competitor profiles and five AI text-generation credits per month. One profile for each supported social network can be connected within that brand. Read these as distinct conditions, not one interchangeable account allowance.
A brand can contain the profiles for one business across several networks. That does not mean unlimited profiles from the same network fit into the same brand. The official explanation says one profile per social network within each brand. Write down the actual connections you need, because one business name with multiple separately managed profiles may require a different inventory from one profile on each of several networks.
Free allows the existing brand to be renamed but not additional brands to be added or the brand to be deleted. It excludes LinkedIn and X connections and also limits reports and integrations. If one of those functions is essential, a small publishing schedule does not make Free suitable. Conversely, a team using only the included functions should evaluate its actual workload before assuming an upgrade is necessary.
- Brands: 1 brand. One profile per social network within the brand.
- Publishing: 20 posts per calendar month. Actual publications count; each duplicate destination counts separately.
- History: 30 days of analytics. Free analytics has a watermark and limited history.
- AI text: 5 credits per month. Generation allowance is separate from posts and connected profiles.
How the twenty-post monthly counter works
The specific current Free-plan FAQ says the counter follows the calendar month and resets on its first day. It counts posts that actually publish, not posts merely waiting in the planner. Drafts do not count until published. The same content published to multiple networks counts separately for each destination, so an item sent to four networks is not one free publication for this counter.
For an illustrative workload, one publication each day to one included network uses twenty counts in twenty days. A single item published to four networks uses four counts, so five such items consume twenty. Those examples explain the counter; they are not recommended growth schedules or forecasts of audience results. Use your own required destinations and completed publication records to budget the remaining monthly allowance.
The FAQ explicitly notes that you may schedule more than twenty, but only twenty publish during that month. Do not treat the remaining drafts as proof of additional successful publication. After a downgrade to Free, posts already published that month on a paid plan also count toward the free allowance. Check the planner’s actual counter if your account changes plans during the month, rather than rebuilding it from a queue screenshot alone.
Network, report and integration gates are separate checks
Free has no LinkedIn or X connection. The official plan and add-on guide makes LinkedIn available on paid plans and lists X as a separately billed extra for Starter or higher. Paying for an X add-on is not described as a way to keep a Free base plan with X added. Check the eligible base plan and the number of X accounts you actually need before making the purchase calculation.
The Free explanation excludes downloadable PDF or PowerPoint reports, custom reports, the hashtag finder, Post library, Canva and Google Drive integrations. Some advanced connectors require Advanced or Custom. These are capability gates, not consequences of reaching twenty publications. A workflow that needs a client report or an external integration should identify the specific gate even if its brand count is only one.
Metricool MCP and the Metricool API also have different eligibility. The official overview makes MCP available on any plan, including Free, while API access requires Advanced or Custom. A connection method’s availability does not remove publishing quotas or grant functions excluded from the underlying plan. Do not buy or recommend a token-based integration by assuming every form of access has the same requirement.
AI credits and upgrade steps: calculate the actual configuration
The current pricing comparison lists AI social text credits at five per brand per month on Free, twenty on Starter and thirty-five on Advanced. These are separate from publishing counts and analytics history. A generated suggestion is not a published destination, and an unused brand-capacity slot is not proof that a customer has connected or used that brand. Confirm how the actual account displays and allocates credits before treating a maximum-capacity calculation as an available balance.
A capacity illustration using fifty Advanced brands and five Starter brands gives 50 × 35 = 1,750 against 5 × 20 = 100, a ratio of 17.5. It is not 8.75. This illustration uses the displayed per-brand rates and assumes those brand counts; it does not measure customer usage or certify credit pooling or rollover. For a real comparison, use the actual brands and required actions rather than the largest permitted capacity by default.
Starter has five- and ten-brand options. Advanced has fifteen, twenty-five and fifty, with feature gates as well as larger capacities. Current annual EUR equivalents include €16 for Starter five and €29 for Starter ten; these are already discounted annual equivalents, not month-to-month rates. Adding a sixth brand can trigger a subscription step, so the average price of unused slots is not the incremental bill for an individually purchased slot.
Choose Free, a paid plan or a separate creative workflow
Free is a reasonable candidate when one brand, the included networks, the publication allowance and the available reporting are sufficient for your real work. A paid plan may be justified by a required network, more brands or a specific reporting or collaboration feature. Paid publishing still carries a fair-use condition. Neither the word unlimited nor a generation credit allowance certifies a platform permission exemption, an optimal cadence or successful delivery.
NoobClaw publishes this review. Its caption, hook and script tools draft different types of text under their current allowance conditions; they are not a replacement for a monthly publishing counter or a reporting dashboard. The separate public local-video execution record used 441 English input characters and exported one 32.6-second video at 1080 × 1920 pixels and 30 frames per second. Those are bounded creative observations, not a scheduling or audience test.
The local record flags generic or off-topic stock footage requiring scene-by-scene review and does not independently approve voice quality or stock licensing. It contains no external publication, account-safety, retention or business-result measurement. Evaluate that route if the unresolved job is creative production, with its current plan and credit terms. Evaluate Metricool’s gates if the unresolved job is publishing or analytics; a creative output does not make the other job disappear.
Choose the output you need: post-caption drafts, opening-line drafts or spoken-script drafts. These text tools have a limited anonymous allowance; they do not transcribe or publish a video.
For the related content and workflow decisions, read Metricool Pricing: EUR, USD and Annual vs Monthly Billing and Cheaper Metricool Alternatives: Match Brands and Workflow. Each review has its own evidence and scope.
A hypothetical multi-network monthly plan
Suppose one business needs the same five prepared items to appear on four included network profiles during a calendar month. If all twenty destination publications complete, that consumes twenty free counts under the current FAQ. Extra drafts can exist without changing that completed count, but an additional required publication needs the applicable allowance. This is an arithmetic planning example, not a verified campaign or a recommendation to publish identical content without adapting it. Review the actual network requirements and each output.
NoobClaw publishes this article. Its script-to-video guide and public creative execution record document a local video result, not external-platform publication. Check the current product offer against the supported action you need.
Frequently asked questions
Does a scheduled draft use the monthly count?
The current specific Free FAQ counts actual publications. An unpublished draft does not count, and each network destination of a duplicated publication counts separately.
Can I buy an X add-on while staying on Free?
The official add-on guide describes X for Starter or higher. Free excludes X and LinkedIn; confirm the eligible paid plan before budgeting either connection.
Does paid access include the API?
Not on every paid tier. The official overview places API access on Advanced or Custom, while MCP access is available on any plan and remains subject to that plan’s limits.
Sources
Official material reviewed on October 11, 2026. Document conditions apply to their stated service and scope; the editorial examples are explicitly hypothetical.