How Many Scheduled Posts Each Plan Allows

A scheduled post limit is the number of posts allowed to sit in a queue, or to go out in a month. Four of the eight pricing pages read on October 27, 2026 print such a number. The other four print the word unlimited.

That word is rarely the end of the story. Two of the four attach an asterisk, and two move the real ceiling to a daily send limit instead. Both are caps; they are just measured somewhere else.

The figures below come from the rendered page source of each vendor's own pricing page, read on October 27, 2026. Where a page prints nothing, that is recorded as nothing printed, not as no limit.

Buffer and Publer both stop at 10 on the free plan

Buffer's Free card reads "10 scheduled posts per channel - refill anytime", with three channels included. Its FAQ repeats the rule: once a post publishes, the slot comes back, up to ten per channel.

Buffer's paid cards read "Unlimited scheduled posts per channel". The same FAQ then puts a number on unlimited: "a fair use policy, which caps usage to 5000 posts per channel". That is the real ceiling.

Essentials is listed at $5 per month per channel with "$60 billed yearly (save 2 months)", and Team at $10 with "$120 billed yearly". Twelve monthly payments equal the yearly total, so the save-2-months label does not resolve on the page alone.

Publer's Free card reads "10 scheduled posts per account", also with three social accounts and the same refill rule. Its paid Professional card reads "Unlimited scheduling & drafts" at $5.00 per month, or $4.00 billed yearly.

Free also carries "25 saved drafts" and "24-hour post history" on Publer, so an unpublished backlog has two separate ceilings. The two vendors sit close enough on tiers that the tier-by-tier comparison of Publer and Buffer is the shorter read.

Later is the only page that sells the queue in tiers

Later prints a number for every plan. Its comparison table row for social posts reads "30 per profile, per month", "180 per profile, per month" and "Unlimited" across Starter, Growth and Scale.

The plan cards repeat it as "Schedule up to 30 posts per profile" and "Schedule up to 180 posts per profile". A help note on the same page works the example: 30 posts each for one Instagram and one TikTok account is 60 total.

Prices on that page are shown billed yearly at $18.75, $37.50 and $82.50 USD per month, labelled 25% off. Dividing by 0.75 puts the monthly rates at $25, $50 and $110; that is our arithmetic, not a figure Later prints.

Later also sells seats and social sets as separate add-ons at $3.75 and $11.25 per month. A profile cap and a post cap multiply, which is the trap described in what counts as a channel.

Metricool caps the free plan at 20 posts a month

Metricool's feature table has a row called Post Limit per month. Its four columns read 20, Unlimited*, Unlimited* and Unlimited* for Free, Starter, Advanced and Custom. The free card repeats it as "Schedule up to 20 posts per month".

The asterisk points to a fair use policy. Metricool does not print a number behind it on the pricing page, so the paid ceiling could not be read on October 27, 2026.

Metricool also counts brands rather than seats: 1 brand on Free, 10 on Starter, 50 on Advanced. Starter is $20 per month for up to 5 brands on annual billing and $25 monthly, per the USD panel.

The per-brand model against a per-seat one sets out why that unit matters more than the headline price. It is the same question as what counts as a seat.

Sendible and Hootsuite move the cap to the send, not the queue

Sendible's Core card reads "Unlimited scheduling" at $35 per month. Its comparison table then adds a row called Daily posting limit per workspace, reading 100, 200, 300, 500 and 500 sends per day across Core, Plus, Premium, Elite and Enterprise.

The row's own description makes the split explicit: you may schedule as many posts as you need in advance, and the number quoted is the limit on posts published per day per workspace.

One caution on that page. A Sendible FAQ still describes the trial limit as 100 posts per day per user and says paid users "on the Traction plan and above" get more. Traction is not one of the five plans the table lists.

Hootsuite's Standard card reads "Schedule unlimited social posts*". The asterisk resolves to a footnote under the cards: "Trial accounts have daily posting limits (10-20 posts per organization, depending on plan)".

That footnote covers trials only. Hootsuite publishes no post ceiling for paid plans, which are listed at $99, $199 and $399 per user per month on annual billing. The seat count is the cost driver, as the Sprout and Hootsuite price comparison shows.

Vista Social and SocialBee publish no queue cap at all

Vista Social's comparison table has a row called Post scheduling. All four columns read Unlimited, with no asterisk and no daily send row anywhere on the page. Posting schedule per profile also reads Unlimited on all four.

SocialBee prints no post or queue limit either. It caps something adjacent instead: a row called Posts per category reads 1,000, 5,000 and 5,000 across Bootstrap, Accelerate and Pro, with content categories at 10, 50 and Unlimited.

Because SocialBee schedules out of categories, those two rows together behave like a queue ceiling. Bootstrap, at $29 monthly or $24.20 per month billed annually, allows 10 categories of up to 1,000 posts each.

The four shapes a post limit takes

• A queue slot cap. Buffer and Publer both allow 10 unpublished posts per channel or account on their free plans, and the slot returns once a post goes out.
• A monthly volume cap. Later counts 30 or 180 posts per profile per month; Metricool counts 20 per month on Free, across the whole account.
• A daily send cap. Sendible publishes 100 to 500 sends per day per workspace; Hootsuite publishes 10 to 20 posts per organization during trials only.
• No published cap. Vista Social reads Unlimited on all four tiers, and SocialBee prints no post limit, only 1,000 to 5,000 posts per content category.

What to check before you pay

Start by working out which unit the vendor counts. A cap of 30 posts per profile per month is generous for one account and tight across eight, which is how Later's social sets are sold.

Then look for an asterisk. Buffer, Metricool and Hootsuite all attach one to the word unlimited, and only Buffer prints the number behind it. A fair use policy with no figure is a cap you cannot plan around.

Finally, separate the queue from the send. Sendible will hold an unlimited backlog and release at most 100 posts a day on Core, so a 400-post campaign launch takes four days whatever the queue allows.

The same reading order applies to every row on these pages, and is written up in how to read a social media tool pricing page. The free tiers specifically are compared in Buffer, Later and Hootsuite free plans.

Frequently asked questions

Which free plan allows the most scheduled posts?

Metricool's free plan allows 20 posts per month across the account. Buffer and Publer both allow 10 unpublished posts per channel or account, with three channels included, so up to 30 can sit queued at once. All three figures were read on October 27, 2026.

Does unlimited scheduling really mean unlimited?

Buffer says no: its FAQ caps unlimited at 5,000 posts per channel under a fair use policy. Metricool and Hootsuite attach an asterisk to the word but publish no number. Vista Social prints Unlimited with no asterisk at all.

What is the difference between a queue limit and a daily posting limit?

A queue limit counts posts waiting to go out. A daily posting limit counts posts actually published in 24 hours. Sendible has no queue limit and a 100 to 500 send per day ceiling, so a big backlog drains slowly.

How many posts per month does Later allow?

Later's comparison table reads 30 per profile per month on Starter, 180 per profile per month on Growth, and Unlimited on Scale, checked October 27, 2026. The cap is per profile, so it multiplies by the number of connected accounts.

Do any tools cap the number of drafts as well as scheduled posts?

Publer does. Its free card lists 25 saved drafts alongside 10 scheduled posts per account, and the draft slot returns when a draft is used or deleted. Its paid Professional plan lists unlimited scheduling and drafts together.

Is a post limit ever the reason a scheduled post fails?

It can be. Hitting a daily send ceiling or a queue cap stops the post before the network ever sees it, which looks identical to a network error in most dashboards. The error-handling differences are compared separately.