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Gusto prices payroll the way most small-business owners actually shop for it: a flat monthly base fee plus a per-person add-on, with the per-person rate rising as you move up the tiers. That structure is simple to quote but easy to get wrong when you’re trying to figure out what a specific plan actually costs for your headcount, whether contractors are billed differently than employees, or what the 401(k) integration adds on top. This guide breaks down every published Gusto tier, the contractor-only and 1099-only options, what accountants pay through Gusto’s partner program, the 401(k) add-on cost, and how the total compares to ADP and QuickBooks Payroll — all figures verified as of August 2026.
A note on sourcing: Gusto’s own pricing pages block automated fetching (a direct request returns an HTTP 403), so the dollar figures below are cross-referenced across multiple independent payroll-industry aggregators (People Managing People, Workstream, SpotSaas, business.com) rather than pulled from a single source. Where a figure varies by a dollar or two across sources, we note the range. Always confirm your exact quote on Gusto’s own site before signing up — published per-person add-ons in this space change more often than base fees.
Tip: try code CASRAI at checkout for 15% off, if the offer is currently active for this program — codes vary by vendor and aren’t guaranteed.
One thing Gusto’s pricing table won’t tell you: it’s built entirely for a domestic US workforce. If any part of your hiring plan involves contractors or employees outside the US — or you expect it will within the next year or two — that’s a structurally different pricing problem, and it’s the reason a global employment platform like Deel exists as a separate category rather than a Gusto competitor in the strict sense. We come back to exactly who that fits (and who it doesn’t) near the end of this guide.
Gusto pricing plans at a glance
Gusto sells four core plans as of August 2026. Every plan bills a flat monthly base fee plus a per-person monthly fee on top — the per-person fee is what actually scales with your headcount, and it’s the number most Gusto pricing pages bury below the base fee.
| Plan | Base fee/mo | Per-person/mo | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $49 | $6 | Basic payroll + tax filing, single state |
| Plus | $80 | $12 | Multi-state payroll, time tracking, PTO management |
| Premium | $180 | $22 | Dedicated HR support, priority support, payroll migration |
| Contractor Only | $35 | $6 per contractor | Businesses with 1099 contractors only, no W-2 employees |
All paid plans include unlimited payroll runs and automatic federal/state tax filing — Gusto doesn’t charge per pay run the way some competitors do (more on that in the ADP comparison below).
Gusto Simple plan pricing
Simple is the entry tier: $49/month base plus $6/month per person. It covers single-state payroll, basic employee self-service, and automatic tax filing, but it doesn’t include next-day direct deposit, multi-state payroll, or the HR tools bundled into Plus and Premium. It’s the right fit for a small, single-location, single-state shop that just needs payroll to run correctly and cheaply — not a business that needs HR support or is hiring across state lines.
Gusto Plus plan pricing
Plus runs $80/month base plus $12/month per person and is the plan most growing small businesses actually land on. It adds multi-state payroll, time tracking, PTO policies and next-day direct deposit on top of everything in Simple. If you’re searching “gusto plan pricing” without a specific tier in mind, Plus is generally the one being quoted in most cost comparisons, since it’s the plan Gusto positions as its default recommendation for a business with more than a handful of employees.
Gusto Premium plan pricing
Premium is $180/month base plus $22/month per person — a real jump from Plus, and it’s priced that way because the tier is selling HR expertise, not just software. Premium adds access to Gusto’s certified HR professionals, priority phone support, payroll migration assistance, and custom reporting. Unless you specifically need on-demand HR guidance (as opposed to software features), Plus covers most of what a small business needs at a third of the per-person cost.
Gusto contractor-only and 1099 pricing
If your business pays only 1099 contractors and has no W-2 employees, Gusto’s Contractor Only plan is $35/month base plus $6/month per contractor — noticeably cheaper than any of the employee-inclusive tiers, and it exists specifically because contractor payments (1099-NEC filing, no tax withholding, no benefits administration) are a much lighter compliance lift than running employee payroll. This is the plan behind most “gusto 1099 pricing” and “gusto contractor pricing” searches: a 5-contractor shop pays $35 + (5 × $6) = $65/month total, with no per-employee base-plan overhead.
One limitation worth flagging: Contractor Only doesn’t support W-2 employees at all — the moment you hire your first employee, you have to upgrade to Simple, Plus, or Premium, and the contractor pricing no longer applies.
Gusto pricing for 1 employee / solo pricing
There’s no separate “solo” tier — a one-person business (just the owner, or the owner plus a single employee) pays the same Simple-plan structure as everyone else: $49 base + $6 per person. For an owner-only payroll (common for S-corp owners who need to run payroll on themselves for tax reasons), that’s a $55/month floor. If that one person is a contractor rather than a W-2 employee, the Contractor Only plan drops the floor to $35 + $6 = $41/month. There is no cheaper published Gusto tier than that for a single person, regardless of plan.
Gusto for accountants pricing
Gusto runs a free-to-join accountant/reseller program (the “Gusto Partner Program”) rather than charging accounting firms a separate software fee. It’s tiered — Starter, Bronze, Silver, and Gold — based on how many clients a firm brings onto Gusto, with each tier unlocking a larger revenue-share percentage on client subscriptions plus dedicated onboarding support and free continuing-education credits. The clients themselves still pay standard Gusto plan pricing (Simple/Plus/Premium as above); the accountant’s benefit is the partner-tier revenue share, not a discounted client rate. Separately, Gusto Retirement Pro — the accountant-facing side of the 401(k) integration below — is free for accounting professionals to use with their clients.
Gusto 401(k) pricing
Gusto’s 401(k) plan is powered by Guideline, not run in-house, and it’s priced and billed separately from the payroll subscription. As of August 2026, Guideline’s published tiers (available through the Gusto integration with no setup fee) are:
- Starter: $49/month + $6/month per active participant
- Core: $49/month + $8/month per active participant
- Flex: $79/month + $8/month per active participant
- Max: $129/month + $8/month per active participant
On top of the employer-side fees above, employees pay an asset-based fee of roughly 0.08%–0.35% annually on their invested balance, deducted monthly. This is genuinely additive to your Gusto plan cost, not bundled into it — a Plus-plan business adding a Core 401(k) for 10 employees is paying its Plus subscription plus roughly $49 + (10 × $8) = $129/month for the retirement plan on top.
How Gusto pricing compares to ADP and QuickBooks Payroll
Two of the most common Gusto price comparisons are against ADP RUN and QuickBooks Payroll — neither directly involves Deel, so we cover both briefly here rather than as separate pages.
Gusto vs ADP pricing: ADP RUN’s entry Essential package is commonly quoted around $79/month plus roughly $4/month per employee, but ADP’s real pricing model is quote-based and per-pay-run rather than flat-monthly — the published entry figure is a starting point, not a guaranteed rate, and ADP typically charges extra for services (like year-end tax forms or HR support) that are bundled into Gusto’s higher tiers. If you run payroll more than twice a month, ADP’s per-run structure can end up costing more than its headline number suggests, where Gusto’s flat monthly-plus-per-person model doesn’t change based on how often you pay people.
Gusto vs QuickBooks Payroll pricing: QuickBooks Payroll is the more directly comparable flat-fee competitor: Core is $45/month + $4/employee, Premium is $75/month + $8/employee, and Elite is $125/month + $10/employee. Tier-for-tier, QuickBooks’ base fees run slightly below Gusto’s equivalent tiers, but QuickBooks’ natural advantage is deep native integration with QuickBooks Online accounting — if you’re not already a QuickBooks Online shop, that integration edge mostly disappears and the two are close enough in list price that the HR features (Gusto’s stronger suit) become the deciding factor.
See Deel’s global payroll plans →
When Deel is the better fit than Gusto — and when it isn’t
Deel and Gusto aren’t really pricing alternatives for the same buyer — they’re built for different hiring shapes. Gusto’s entire pricing model above assumes a US-based, W-2-and-1099-domestic workforce. Deel’s core product is Employer of Record (EOR) and international contractor/payroll infrastructure: it exists specifically to let a US company legally hire and pay people in other countries without setting up a local entity, handling in-country tax withholding, statutory benefits, and labor-law compliance in each jurisdiction. That’s a fundamentally different compliance problem than anything in Gusto’s tier table, and it’s priced accordingly — Deel’s plans are quoted per contractor/employee and per country, not as a flat small-business monthly fee.
Who should NOT buy Deel: if your business is entirely US-based — every employee and every contractor is a US taxpayer, you have no near-term plan to hire internationally, and you’re under roughly 10 employees — Gusto’s simpler flat-rate pricing is genuinely the better buy. You’d be paying for global-employment infrastructure (in-country legal entities, international compliance, multi-currency payroll) that a domestic-only shop never touches. That’s not a hedge — it’s the honest answer for the majority of small US businesses searching “gusto pricing” in the first place.
Who Deel is actually built for: a business that already has, or is actively hiring, contractors or employees outside the US — even just one or two people in another country — where the alternative is either standing up a foreign legal entity yourself (expensive, slow) or paying contractors informally with real compliance risk (misclassification, unpaid local taxes). Once international hiring is real, not hypothetical, Deel‘s EOR and global-contractor infrastructure solves a problem Gusto’s pricing table was never built to address at any tier.
Compare Deel’s pricing for global teams →
Frequently asked questions
How much does Gusto payroll cost per month?
Gusto payroll costs range from about $41/month for a single 1099 contractor (Contractor Only plan) up to $180/month base plus $22 per employee on Premium. Most small businesses land on the Plus plan: $80/month plus $12 per person.
What is Gusto’s cheapest plan?
Contractor Only is the cheapest published tier at $35/month + $6/contractor, but it only works if you have zero W-2 employees. Among employee-inclusive plans, Simple ($49/month + $6/person) is cheapest.
Does Gusto charge extra for HR features?
Yes — HR support is tier-gated rather than an add-on. Certified HR professional access and priority support are exclusive to the Premium plan ($180/month + $22/person); Plus and Simple don’t include them.
Is Gusto’s 401(k) included in the payroll subscription?
No. The Guideline-powered 401(k) is billed separately from your Gusto payroll plan, starting around $49/month + $6-$8 per active participant depending on tier, plus a small employee-side asset fee.
Do accountants get a discount on Gusto for their clients?
Not a client-side discount — clients pay standard plan pricing. Accountants instead earn tiered revenue share through the free Gusto Partner Program, and can use Gusto Retirement Pro for free to manage clients’ 401(k) plans.
Is Gusto or Deel cheaper for a small US business?
Gusto is cheaper for a domestic-only US business, full stop — its flat monthly-plus-per-person pricing is built for exactly that case. Deel is priced for international EOR/contractor compliance, which a US-only shop doesn’t need and shouldn’t pay for.
Pricing verified as of August 2026 via cross-referenced third-party payroll-industry aggregators, since Gusto’s own pricing pages block automated fetching. Confirm exact current rates on Gusto’s and Guideline’s own sites before purchasing, as per-person add-on pricing in this category changes more frequently than base fees.
