Gusto pricing: what Gusto payroll costs in 2026

Gusto pricing at a glance

Entry price

$49 + $6 per personSimple plan, per month, checked Oct 16, 2026

Contract

Month to monthBusiness Compliance add-on is 12 months per state

Tax penalty cover

Penalties, not interestnotice due 30 days before the agency deadline

Our score

69/100payroll category

Gusto is one of the few large payroll providers that prints every plan price. ADP, Paychex and Rippling only quote. That makes Gusto easy to budget, but the bill grows with headcount faster than the base fee suggests: on Premium the per-person fee ($22) is more than three times the Simple rate ($6).

We score providers on published terms, prices and documented complaints, not on hands-on testing. The weights are on our scoring method page.

Gusto plans and prices

• Contractors: Gusto lists no contractor-only plan. US contractors are billed at your plan's per-person rate, and only in months you pay them.
• Global contractor payments: $5 per payment, with no monthly per-contractor fee. Gusto says exchange rates "may vary."
• Gusto Solo (payroll for S corp owners) is named on the pricing page with no price.
• Free trial: none listed for the payroll plans. Account setup is free; you pay from your first billed month.

What Gusto costs for 5, 10 and 25 employees

The formula is base fee plus per-person fee times the number of people paid that month.

Over a year, 10 employees cost $109 × 12 = $1,308 on Simple, $200 × 12 = $2,400 on Plus and $400 × 12 = $4,800 on Premium.

Where the add-ons change the answer

• Simple with next-day pay, 10 employees: $109 + $15 + (10 × $3) = $154 a month.
• Simple with next-day pay and Priority Support, 10 employees: $154 + $30 + (10 × $3) = $214 a month. That is more than Plus ($200), which already includes next-day pay, multi-state payroll and time tracking, though not Priority Support.
• Plus with Business Compliance in one state, 10 employees: $200 + $85 = $285 a month, on a 12-month commitment for that state. Premium includes Business Compliance, so at 10 people Premium ($400) costs $115 more than this setup.

Add-on fees and what each plan leaves out

What Simple leaves out: a second state. If you hire one remote employee in another state, you need Plus or Premium, so a 10-person team goes from $109 to at least $200 a month.

State registration: Gusto is the only provider in our research that confirms it will register state tax accounts for you, either once through Middesk or through Business Compliance. Some states still need you: Delaware and Maine paid leave accounts are self-registration, and Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico and Vermont need a Secretary of State registration first.

R&D credit offset: one Hacker News commenter (October 2025) said Gusto began billing its R&D payroll credit service at $328.59 a month from April, before the offset started, and that this was not clearly disclosed (source). It is a single report, but ask for the fee schedule in writing if you plan to use it.

Gusto's tax filing guarantee: what it covers and what it excludes

Section 11 of Gusto's payroll terms says that if Gusto fails to pay your payroll taxes on time, it will remit them and reimburse "the amount of any penalties directly arising from such failure(s)." Interest is not named.

The promise has conditions:

• You funded payroll as the terms require (no returned debit).
• You send Gusto the agency notice "no less than thirty (30) days prior to any applicable response date."
• You take steps to limit the damage.

It does not cover penalties or interest caused by data you entered, periods while your account was suspended, or errors in final filings after you terminate.

For comparison: QuickBooks pays penalties and interest up to $25,000 a year, but only on its top Workforce Elite plan. ADP RUN pays penalties from its own errors and interest only when it held your tax money too long. See Gusto vs QuickBooks Payroll and Gusto vs ADP for the side-by-side.

This is the most common Gusto complaint we found. Reviewers on Trustpilot say Gusto errors "cost me thousands of dollars in penalties, interest, and fees" (October 2, 2026) and that "Gusto policy is to not pay overdue taxes even though Gusto is at fault" (September 22, 2026) (Trustpilot).

Contract, cancellation and W-2 access after you leave

• Contract: month to month, fees non-refundable, 30 days' notice of fee changes, invoices due in 15 days. The only commitment is Business Compliance, which runs 12 months per state.
• How to cancel: self-serve under Plan & billing, then Cancel account. Gusto says it "takes effect immediately."
• Last bill: you pay the full month if you cancel after the 5th or ran payroll that month. There is no proration.
• Final filings: if Gusto files your final quarter and year-end returns, it charges $100 federal, $100 per state and $5 per W-2 or 1099.
• Records after you leave: admins keep "limited, read-only" access to forms, reports and past payrolls, with no end date stated. Employees keep "limited lifetime access" to their own documents.

Not everyone finds it that smooth. A September 17, 2026 Trustpilot reviewer said Gusto "hold[s] your W2s and payroll reports hostage," and a June 3, 2026 reviewer said "They make it impossible to cancel" (Trustpilot). Download every W-2, Form 941, Form 940, state wage report and payroll register before you click cancel.

By comparison, Patriot lets former customers keep downloading W-2s and tax forms (Patriot review), while Wave ends payroll data access at the end of the month you cancel (Wave Payroll review).

Gusto support hours

• Chat and callbacks Monday to Friday, 5am to 5pm Pacific.
• Chat Saturday and Sunday, 5am to 3pm Pacific.
• Email outside those hours, with slower replies.
• An AI assistant, Gus, answers first. Phone support is by callback, not a number you dial.
• Premium has a premium support button. Priority Support ($30 a month + $3 per person) is sold separately on other plans.
• Tax notice cases get a specialist in 4 to 6 weeks, or about 1 week with Priority Support.

East Coast businesses get support until 8pm Eastern on weekdays. A September 21, 2026 Trustpilot reviewer said "It takes at least five calls to get anything taken care of" (Trustpilot).

What Gusto customers complain about

Gusto has 4.6 out of 5 from 13,492 reviews on G2 and 1.9 out of 5 from 2,535 reviews on Trustpilot (both seen October 16, 2026). G2 reviews tend to be about using the software; Trustpilot reviews are mostly billing, tax and support disputes. These are the patterns that repeat:

• Tax errors and who pays: very common. Penalties left to the customer (Trustpilot, October 2 and September 22, 2026; an older G2 discussion says the same).
• Payroll blocked: a payroll held for late funding with the fee not waived (September 27, 2026), and "Their system prevents you from correcting your own payroll" (October 10, 2026).
• Employees who move states: "I had two employees move from Utah to Massachusetts" (June 10, 2026) and an old work location still on reports (October 6, 2026).
• Benefit deductions: "duplicate benefit deductions from employees' paychecks" after a change (September 17, 2026).
• First hire with benefits: a founder on Hacker News said Gusto ran payroll but "wouldn't provide us health plans for our first W-2 hire," so they moved to Justworks (HN).

How we score Gusto

Gusto scores 69 out of 100, tied with Patriot (69) for the top payroll score on HRPricing, ahead of OnPay (67) and Wave (64). Published prices and state registration earn most of its points; documented complaints (a 1.9 Trustpilot score and repeated tax error reports) cost the most.

Who Gusto fits, and who should pick something else

Pick something else if:

• You want the lowest published price for a small team: Patriot Full Service is $37 + $5 per worker, or $87 a month for 10 (Patriot review).
• You run a restaurant or shop on Square POS: Square Payroll is $35 + $6 per person (Gusto vs Square Payroll).
• You want a dedicated payroll rep and phone support: compare Gusto vs ADP RUN and Gusto vs Paychex.
• You want HR, IT and devices in one system: see Gusto vs Rippling.
• Your books are in QuickBooks Online: see Gusto vs QuickBooks Payroll.

More options with prices are on Gusto alternatives, and the full ranking is in best payroll software for small businesses. For what other providers charge per employee, see payroll service costs compared.