Smartsheet's free plan: how far it goes before you have to pay
There is no free version of Smartsheet for new users. Smartsheet's help center states that its Free plan has not been open to new signups since August 28, 2024. Anyone creating an account today gets a 30-day trial of the full product, after which the choice is to pay or lose the ability to edit. The cheapest paid plan, Pro, was listed on Smartsheet's pricing page at $9 per member per month billed yearly, or $12 billed monthly, when checked on October 8, 2026.
Two things can still be free, though, and they are the reason this question keeps coming up. People who already had the Free plan before the cutoff keep it, with no expiry. And on paid plans, people who only view or comment can be added as free Contributors without buying a seat. The sections below explain what each of those allows, what the trial includes and what happens at the end of it, and what a small team actually pays.
The three kinds of free, side by side
Smartsheet's own help center separates these clearly, but search results often blur them. Here is how they differ, using the help center articles on the Free plan and the free trial, checked on October 8, 2026.
| Legacy Free plan | 30-day free trial | Free Contributors on a paid plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can get it | Only users who had it before August 28, 2024 | Any new signup | Anyone invited by a paying member |
| How long it lasts | Does not expire | 30 days | As long as the paid plan runs |
| Can create sheets | Two sheets owned | Up to 50 sheets | No |
| Can edit | Yes, with up to two other editors or viewers | Yes | Comment and attachments only, with Commenter permission |
| Credit card needed | No | No | Not for the Contributor |
The practical reading: for a new team, the only route to building in Smartsheet without paying is the trial, and it ends. Free Contributors lower the cost of sharing work with clients and stakeholders, but at least one person has to be paying to create anything.
What the legacy Free plan still allows
For anyone who holds the old Free plan, the Free plan details article lists its limits. They are tight enough that most teams outgrow them in the first week.
- Two sheets you own. Sheets that other people share with you do not count against the limit.
- Up to two editors or viewers, plus yourself. Three people in total.
- Views: Table, Board, Grid, Gantt, Calendar, and Card views are all included.
- Reports are limited to one source sheet each, with no grouping, summary rows, or publishing.
- Dashboards are limited to 10 widgets and one sheet each, and cannot be published.
- 500 MB of attachment storage in total.
- 100 automation runs per month.
- One form, which can be created and submitted but not shared.
- Up to five recipients per notification email.
- No document and image proofing, no Admin Center, and no phone support, Smartsheet University, or support portal.
The Gantt view is the notable inclusion. With only two sheets, though, a team can hold roughly two projects at once. To start a third, an existing editable sheet has to be deleted to free a slot.
One warning from the same article: if a Free plan user sees sheets go read-only, the account may have been moved to trial status. The help center says this is not expected behavior and that Smartsheet Support can review the account history and restore it.
What the 30-day trial includes and how it ends
The trial is the real free version for anyone signing up now. According to the free trial FAQ, it requires no billing information and gives access to:
- Up to 50 sheets
- Sharing
- Dashboards and reports
- Workload tracking across projects
- AI tools, such as generating formulas, analyzing data, and generating text
It has restrictions that disappear on upgrade. Email from Smartsheet is capped at 100 messages a day to a maximum of 20 unique recipients, and forms, sheets, reports, and dashboards cannot be published.
What happens on day 31
When the trial expires without an upgrade, sheets become read-only and are later deleted. The two help articles give different holding periods: the Free plan article says 30 days, while the trial FAQ says 90 days after expiry, and 30 days if the account is cancelled during the trial. Treat the shorter one as the deadline. Either way, export anything worth keeping before the trial ends.
A second trial is not immediately available. The FAQ says a new trial can only be requested after waiting 90 days.
Using the trial well
A trial that runs out mid-project is worse than no trial. Three steps make the 30 days count:
- Build one real project, not a demo. Import an actual schedule from Excel or a current tracker, and run it for two weeks.
- Invite the people who would be Contributors. Check whether view and comment access is enough for them, because that decides how many paid seats are needed.
- Put the end date in the calendar. Decide a week before the trial ends, while there is still time to export.
Checking which plan an account is on
Confusion between the Free plan and the trial is common enough that Smartsheet's help center addresses it directly. The quickest checks:
- A countdown or expiry notice means the trial. The Free plan has no end date and shows no countdown.
- Read-only sheets with only two sheets in the account usually mean an expired trial. When a trial expires, every sheet goes read-only regardless of how many there are. The Free plan's two-sheet limit does not make sheets read-only on its own.
- The plan status in account settings is the definitive answer. The help center points users there to confirm which plan applies.
This matters for anyone who inherited an older account or who joined through a colleague's share. Sheets shared by other users do not count against the Free plan's two-sheet limit, so a person can collaborate on many sheets owned by a paying team while holding only the Free plan themselves.
Getting data out before a deadline
If a trial is about to end, or a team decides Smartsheet is not the right fit, the data can still be moved. The help center lists two routes during the read-only period: change the owner of a sheet, report, or dashboard to someone on a paid plan, or export the sheet. The pricing page's feature table lists sheet export on every paid plan. Exporting to Excel keeps the rows and columns, which is the most portable format for importing into another tool later. Dependencies, automations, and dashboards do not travel in a spreadsheet file, so note how they were set up before the sheets are deleted.
What the paid plans cost a small team
Since there is no ongoing free tier for new users, the real question is the price of Pro or Business at the team's size. These are the US dollar prices shown on Smartsheet's pricing page on October 8, 2026.
| Pro | Business | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per member per month | $9 yearly, $12 monthly | $19 yearly, $24 monthly |
| Members | 1 to 10 | 3 or more |
| Free Contributors | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free Guests | Not included | Unlimited |
| Gantt, table, board, calendar views | Yes | Yes |
| Timeline view, workload tracking | No | Yes |
| Automation runs | 250 a month | Unlimited |
| Attachment storage | 20 GB, 30 MB per file | 1 TB, 250 MB per file |
The Contributor distinction drives the cost. On Pro, someone who only needs to view shared work, or comment and add attachments with Commenter permission, can be a free Contributor. Anyone who creates sheets or edits rows needs to be a Member. Smartsheet's learning center also notes that Pro plans do not include Guests: on Pro, users are either Contributors or Members.
For a team of three editors on Pro billed yearly, that is $27 a month, or $324 a year. Five editors come to $45 a month, or $540 a year. Pro stops at ten members, so a team that expects to grow past that will be moving to Business, where the same ten members would cost $190 a month on yearly billing.
When Smartsheet is worth paying for
Smartsheet's strength is that it looks and behaves like a spreadsheet. For teams who live in Excel, that lowers the learning curve more than any other feature.
It earns its price in a few situations:
- Schedules driven by formulas. Cell formulas, column formulas, and cross-sheet formulas are on every plan. Projects where dates or budgets are calculated from other values benefit most.
- Many stakeholders who only need to look. Unlimited free Contributors on Pro let a team share progress with a wide group without adding seats.
- Imports from Excel and Microsoft Project. The help center lists Excel and Project import and export among the Microsoft 365 integrations.
- Dependencies and baselines. The pricing page's feature table lists dependencies on every plan, including Pro. Baselines, for comparing the current schedule against the original, start on Business.
It is less of a fit when most of the team edits, because every editor is a paid Member, and when the work is better described as cards moving through stages than as rows in a grid.
Free alternatives for a small team
If the requirement is a Gantt chart and a task board for three to five people at no cost, there are tools built that way. Their trade-offs are different: fewer spreadsheet features, but a free plan that does not expire.
Some project management tools include Gantt, kanban, calendar, and timetable boards on a free plan for up to 5 people and 10 boards, with no credit card and no time limit. In one of them, the Gantt board turns each card's start and deadline into a bar that can be dragged to change both dates, and the scale switches between days and weeks. A sixth person or an eleventh board moves the team to a paid plan, and the pricing page lists that cost. The features page shows the eight board types.
What such tools usually do not have is Smartsheet's formula engine, cross-sheet formulas, and baselines. A team that needs those will find Smartsheet Pro the more direct fit. A team that mainly needs a shared schedule and a place to talk about the work may not need them. The comparison overview puts several tools side by side.
What to change first
If the team is new to Smartsheet, start the trial only when a real project is ready to run in it, and put the end date in the calendar on day one. If the team needs Gantt and kanban for five people or fewer and does not need formulas, try a free plan without an end date, such as Pinateca, before committing to a paid seat count.
Q1. Is there still a free version of Smartsheet?
Not for new users. Smartsheet's help center says the Free plan has not been available to new signups since August 28, 2024. New users get a 30-day trial. People who already had the Free plan keep it, and it does not expire.
Q2. What happens when the Smartsheet free trial ends?
Sheets created during the trial become read-only and are later deleted unless the account upgrades. Smartsheet's help articles give 30 or 90 days depending on the article and whether the account was cancelled, so export anything important before the trial ends. A new trial requires a 90 day wait.
Q3. Do viewers need a paid Smartsheet license?
No. Paid plans include unlimited free Contributors. A Contributor can view work shared with them and, with Commenter permission, comment and add or delete attachments. Creating or editing work requires a paid Member seat.
Q4. Does the old Smartsheet Free plan include Gantt charts?
Yes. The help center lists Table, Board, Grid, Gantt, Calendar, and Card views in the Free plan. The limit is the number of sheets: two owned sheets, with up to two other editors or viewers.
Q5. How much is Smartsheet Pro for a team of five?
At the pricing page rate checked on October 8, 2026, Pro costs $9 per member per month billed yearly, so five editing members come to $45 a month or $540 a year. Billed monthly, the rate is $12 per member. Viewers can be added as free Contributors.