The short version: Xero’s UK price increase landed on 1 September 2026, for new and existing subscribers alike: Ignite £16→£18, Grow £37→£39, Comprehensive £50→£55, Ultimate £65→£70, all excluding VAT; Simple stays at £7. Ignite (the cheapest paid plan), takes the steepest rise at 12.5%. Existing discount codes are honoured until they run out, but the multi-organisation discount is being withdrawn.
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Every UK plan price before and after 1 September 2026. Amber is the increase.
Table of Contents
Xero price increase UK: what’s changing, exactly
Xero published the change on its own pricing update page. These are its figures rather than an estimate. All are per month and exclude VAT.
| Plan | Before | From 1 Sep 2026 | Rise | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | £7 | £7 | — | — |
| Ignite | £16 | £18 | +£2 (12.5%) | +£24 |
| Grow | £37 | £39 | +£2 (5.4%) | +£24 |
| Comprehensive | £50 | £55 | +£5 (10%) | +£60 |
| Ultimate | £65 | £70 | +£5 (7.7%) | +£60 |
The change applies to new and existing UK subscribers alike, and shows on invoices dated 1 September 2026 onwards. It only covers the base subscription. Add-ons, payroll charges, expense users and payment fees are priced separately and sit outside this announcement.
The cheapest paid plan takes the biggest rise
Look at the percentages rather than the pounds and the shape of this change is basically the opposite of what you’d expect.
- Ignite: +12.5%: the steepest
- Comprehensive: +10%
- Ultimate: +7.7%
- Grow: +5.4%: the gentlest of the plans that are rising
In cash terms, £2 a month sounds trivial next to £5. But Ignite is the entry plan, the one a sole trader picks when they want the cheapest route to Making Tax Digital compliance. That customer absorbs a bigger proportional increase than a business paying £65 a month for Ultimate. Nobody markets it that way, and the announcement lists the changes in pounds, which happens to be the framing that makes it look even.
What it actually costs you over a year
Every price Xero quotes excludes VAT, and that matters more for some readers than others. If you’re VAT registered you reclaim it and the headline figure is your real cost. If you’re not VAT registered, which covers most sole traders: you pay the VAT and can’t claim it back, so add 20% to everything above.
- Ignite: £24 a year more, or £28.80 once VAT is added
- Grow: £24 a year more, or £28.80 with VAT
- Comprehensive: £60 a year more, or £72 with VAT
- Ultimate: £60 a year more, or £72 with VAT
None of that’s going to decide anyone’s year. The number worth checking is the one below.
If you’re not VAT registered, check the Simple plan first
Xero’s Simple plan sits at £7 a month and isn’t going up at all. Xero describes it as being for non-VAT-registered businesses, with features “designed for sole traders and landlords, supporting MTD for Income Tax”. It’s easy to miss because the main pricing page hides it behind a VAT-registered toggle.
A year of Xero for a sole trader who can’t reclaim VAT.
If you’re on Ignite at £18 from September and you’re not VAT registered, you’re paying £132 a year more than Simple: £158.40 with VAT you can’t reclaim. Whether that’s money wasted depends on one number.
The invoice limit is the whole decision
- Simple: 10 invoices a month. Xero’s own page says for more than 10, move to Ignite.
- Ignite: 20 invoices a month, plus 10 bills entered.
Count your last three months of invoices before you decide anything. Ten a month is comfortable for a freelancer billing a handful of retained clients, and nowhere near enough if you invoice per job.
One trap that’s buried in a footnote and worth knowing: invoices created automatically by connected apps count towards the Simple plan limit. If you’ve got a shop, a booking system or a payment tool wired into Xero, it can quietly eat your ten before you’ve raised a single invoice yourself.
Your discount still counts, but one is being withdrawn
Two details in the announcement that won’t make the headlines:
- Existing discounts and promo codes will be honoured against the new prices until they expire. Signed up on the 80% off, six-month offer? That keeps running, but budget for the new standard price the month it ends instead of the old one.
- The multi-organisation discount was removed on 1 September 2026. If you run more than one Xero organisation (a second business, or several properties), this is a second, separate increase on top of the plan rise, and it’s the one most likely to are easy to miss.
What to do now the rise has landed
- Find out which plan you’re on. It’s in the Subscription area of your Xero account, in the Subscription column. Plenty of people are sat on a plan they picked years ago under a different name.
- Count your monthly invoices. This decides Simple versus Ignite, and it’s the only number that really matters.
- Check whether you’re VAT registered. If not, Simple is open to you and it isn’t going up.
- If you’ve got more than one organisation, work out the new total. Losing the multi-organisation discount may cost you more than the plan rise itself.
- Don’t switch on price alone. Moving accounting software mid-year costs you time and risks your records. A £24-a-year rise isn’t a reason to move; discovering you’re on the wrong plan is.
One constraint if you’re thinking of moving plans: Xero’s terms say that if you upgrade, you have to wait a month before you can drop to a cheaper plan. Downgrading isn’t instant.
If this has you reconsidering Xero altogether, we’ve compared it head to head with the main alternative for sole traders in FreeAgent vs Xero, and looked at the whole UK market in the best accounting software for UK freelancers. The short version: if you bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle, FreeAgent is free and no price rise applies to you at all.
Where to sign up
Xero Simple
£7 a month and not affected by the September rise. Capped at 10 invoices a month, count yours before you commit.
See Xero plansXero Ignite
£18 a month since 1 September, up from £16. Twenty invoices and 10 bills a month.
See Xero plansFreeAgent
No price rise matters if you’re not paying. Free with those bank accounts, and a full product rather than a cut-down one.
Visit FreeAgent (or go direct: freeagent.com/pricing)New to Xero? Start with what Xero actually does, in plain English.
Picking software, or fixing the one you have?
Digital Bookkeeping System (MTD-ready) 2026/27. Seven modules and a seven-sheet toolkit, built around a category-to-tax-box mapping table that makes your quarterly updates fill themselves.
- A software decision sheet costed over three years, split by turnover, VAT status and phone-or-desktop
- The chart of categories mapped to the Self Assessment and MTD boxes, and the three categories never to auto-categorise
- Weekly and month-end cards, an MTD quarter-close checklist, and an export-and-archive index so their cloud is never your only copy
Software is priced monthly, excluding VAT, and you will hold the subscription for years. Pick on the wrong number and the difference over three years is more than every course on this site combined.
Buying more than one? All ten 2026/27 courses for £107, against £328 at full price.
Sources
- Xero — Upcoming Xero price changes (UK)
- Xero UK pricing plans and offer terms
- Xero, Simple plan details
- GOV.UK. VAT registration
All prices checked 19 August 2026 and exclude VAT unless stated. Providers change pricing without notice, confirm on Xero’s own page before you buy. This is general information, not financial or tax advice.