Smartsheet's free plan: how far it goes before you have to pay
Searching for a free Smartsheet account in 2026 returns a lot of advice that no longer describes reality. Articles still list the free plan's limits as though anyone can sign up for it, and the pricing page does not show a free tier at all. Both are correct, and the gap between them is where people lose an afternoon.
Three separate things get called Smartsheet free, and they behave completely differently. One is a plan that is closed to new accounts but still running for people who got it in time. One is a trial with an expiry date and a deletion date after that. One is a set of permanently free seats that only exist inside a paid subscription. Knowing which one applies decides whether Smartsheet is a zero cost option or a several hundred dollar a year one.
The Free plan is closed, but not cancelled
Smartsheet's help documentation states plainly that the Free plan is no longer available to new Smartsheet signups as of August 28, 2024. It also states that existing free plan holders keep what they have: access continues and plan limits stay the same.
So if an account was created before that date, the free plan is still live and still free, with no expiry. If the account is being created today, that route is closed and no amount of looking for the right signup link will open it.
What the Free plan allows, for those who have one
The limits are tighter than most summaries suggest, and they are worth knowing because they decide whether staying on it is realistic.
- Three people in total. Up to two Viewers or Editors plus the account owner.
- Two sheets that you own. Sheets shared with you by others do not count toward the limit.
- 500MB of total attachment storage across the account.
- 100 automation runs per month.
- Reports limited to one source sheet, with no grouping and no summary rows.
- Dashboards limited to 10 widgets, and one sheet per dashboard.
Two sheets is the limit that ends the conversation for most teams. A single client project usually wants a task sheet and an issues sheet, and that is the entire allowance gone. The free plan works as a personal tracker or a single shared list. It was never a team plan, which is part of why it was discontinued rather than expanded.
The 30 day trial, and the date after it that matters more
For a new account, the free route is the trial. It runs for 30 days and gives access to a Business plan. Smartsheet's trial documentation states that no billing information is collected during the trial period, so there is no card to cancel.
The trial is generous in scope: up to 50 sheets, sharing, dashboards, reports, workload tracking and the AI features. It is deliberately fenced in a few places. Emailing is capped at 100 emails to 20 recipients daily, forms, sheets, reports and dashboards cannot be published, API tokens cannot be generated, and external URLs cannot be included in emails. None of that matters for evaluating the tool, and all of it matters if the plan was to run real client work through a trial.
The date to write down is not day 30. If the trial expires without an upgrade, sheets become read-only for 30 days and are then permanently deleted. That is a 60 day clock, and the second half of it is silent. Anything worth keeping should be exported or transferred to another owner before the read-only window closes. Smartsheet also requires a 90 day wait before a second trial can be requested, so the trial is not something to burn casually while deciding.
The free seats that actually last
This is the part that answers most searches, and it is the part that rarely appears in articles about the free plan, because it is not a plan at all. It is a seat type inside a paid subscription.
Smartsheet's current model splits people into Members, who are paid and can create, and Contributors and Guests, who are free and cannot. Contributors have view access, and when shared with Commenter permissions they can also comment and add or delete attachments. Contributors are free and unlimited on Pro, Business and Enterprise. Guests are free external users on Business and Enterprise.
There is a rule attached that catches people out. Guests automatically revert to a Contributor seat type within 90 days if they do not have Editor permissions or above on any shared item. The seat type follows the permissions, so it moves on its own as sharing changes.
Working out which seat type each person needs is the single most useful thing to do before looking at prices. The test is not seniority or how often someone logs in. It is whether that person ever needs to change a cell. A project manager who updates dates is a Member. A department head who opens the dashboard every Monday morning and changes nothing is a Contributor, and costs nothing, regardless of how senior they are. A client who comments on deliverables is a Guest on Business, and also costs nothing.
For a team where three people build and maintain the plans and fifteen people read them, this structure is genuinely cheap. Three paid seats and eighteen free ones is a very different bill from eighteen seats. For a team where everyone edits their own rows, it is the opposite: every one of those people is a Member, and the count is the headcount.
What it costs once the free options run out
Prices below are from the Smartsheet pricing page in September 2026, in US dollars, excluding tax.
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Members | Free seats included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pro | $9 per member per month | $12 | 1 to 10 | Unlimited Contributors |
| Business | $19 per member per month | $24 | 3 or more | Unlimited Contributors and Guests |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 10 or more | Contributors and Guests |
Pro includes Gantt, table, board and calendar views, unlimited sheets, forms and reports, rich formulas, and 250 automations per month. Business adds timeline view, workload tracking, unlimited automations, admin capabilities and 1TB of attachment storage.
The yearly and monthly figures are worth comparing directly rather than assuming the annual commitment is obviously right. On Pro, yearly billing saves $3 per member per month, which is $360 a year on ten Members. That is real, and it is also the price of being locked to a seat count for twelve months during the period when a team is most likely to change shape. Monthly billing for the first quarter and yearly thereafter is a reasonable middle path.
Two thresholds are worth planning around. The first is the tenth Member: Pro caps at 10, so an eleventh person who needs to create moves the whole account to Business, which roughly doubles the per member price. The second is the 250 automation runs on Pro. Teams that use Smartsheet the way it is designed to be used, with approval flows and update requests, reach that figure faster than expected.
How to spend the 30 days so the decision is real
Most trials get wasted in the same way. Someone builds a beautiful sample project alone in week one, shows it to nobody, gets busy, and remembers the account on day 28. The decision then gets made on a demo rather than on evidence.
A trial that produces an answer looks different. Pick one project that is already running and rebuild it as it actually is, with the messy parts included: the task nobody owns, the deadline that already slipped, the approval that always takes three reminders. Then invite the people who would really be in it, on day two rather than day twenty, and let them work there for a fortnight while the old system stays open as a fallback.
Three things are worth measuring during that fortnight. How long a new project takes to set up from nothing, because that cost repeats forever. Whether people update their own rows without being chased, because a tool nobody updates is worse than a spreadsheet. And how often a discussion about a row happens somewhere other than in the row, because that is the coordination tax that shows up later as status meetings.
Those three answers will not come from a feature comparison, and they are the ones that decide whether the subscription is worth renewing in twelve months. Day 28 is also the time to export anything worth keeping, since the deletion clock starts running the moment the trial lapses.
When the shape is the problem, not the price
Smartsheet is a spreadsheet that learned to be a project tool. That heritage is its biggest advantage and its clearest limitation, and it is worth being honest about which side your team falls on before paying for anything.
The advantage is that anyone who can use a spreadsheet can use it on day one. Rows, columns, formulas and cross-sheet references all behave the way a spreadsheet person expects. For finance, operations, construction schedules and anything with a lot of structured numeric data, that familiarity is worth real money.
The limitation is that a spreadsheet is a poor place to hold a conversation. Discussion happens in comments attached to rows, and decisions end up split between the sheet and whatever chat tool the team actually lives in. Teams that find themselves explaining a row in Slack and then summarizing the outcome back into the row are paying a coordination tax that no plan tier removes. Board-first tools, where the card carries the discussion, handle that differently, and it is worth seeing the two shapes side by side before committing to either. A comparison of the main options on the same terms makes the difference easier to judge than a feature list does.
The other thing to weigh is the free tier question this article started with. Some tools in this category limit their free tier by features, holding back Gantt or automation until someone pays. Others limit it by size, giving everything away and counting people or boards instead. The second kind is easier to plan around, because the day the bill starts is a number you can see coming rather than a feature you discover missing mid project.
What to change first
If the account already has the legacy free plan and two sheets is enough, nothing needs to change. If the choice is being made today, start the 30 day trial only when there is time to actually use it, and put the read-only deletion date in a calendar on day one. Before paying, count how many people need to create rather than read, because that single number decides whether Smartsheet is cheap or expensive. A tool that includes Gantt, kanban and chat free for up to five people, such as Pinateca, is a reasonable control to test against during the same 30 days.
Q1. Can you still sign up for a free Smartsheet account?
No. Smartsheet's documentation states the Free plan has not been available to new signups since August 28, 2024. New accounts get a 30 day trial of a Business plan instead. Accounts that already had the Free plan before that date keep it, with the same limits and no expiry.
Q2. What happens to sheets when the Smartsheet trial ends?
If the trial expires without an upgrade, sheets become read-only for 30 days and are then permanently deleted. Work can be preserved by exporting it or transferring ownership before the read-only period ends. A second trial cannot be requested until 90 days have passed.
Q3. Is a credit card needed for the Smartsheet trial?
No. Smartsheet states that it does not collect billing information during the trial period, so there is nothing to cancel. The trial simply expires and the account moves to read-only unless a plan is purchased.
Q4. Are Smartsheet viewers really free?
Yes, within the paid plans. Contributors have view access, can comment and can add or delete attachments when given Commenter permissions, and they are free and unlimited on Pro, Business and Enterprise. Guests are free external users on Business and Enterprise. Only Members, who can create, consume a paid seat.
Q5. How many sheets does the free Smartsheet plan allow?
Two sheets that the account owns. Sheets shared by other people do not count toward that limit. The free plan also allows up to two Viewers or Editors plus the owner, 500MB of total attachment storage, and 100 automation runs per month.
