Justworks Pricing 2026: Payroll, PEO Basic and Plus Costs

Justworks Payroll costs $8 per employee per month plus a $50 base fee in 2026. PEO Basic is $79 per employee per month and PEO Plus is $124, and neither PEO plan adds a base fee. Ten full-time employees cost $130 a month on Payroll, $790 on Basic, and $1,240 on Plus, before premiums, workers' comp, or add-ons.

Those totals are admin fees only, read on Justworks' pricing page on 17 October 2026, so finance should budget the software line and still expect premiums beside it. Toolradar data: as of October 2026, Toolradar, the software directory we run, evaluated 74 payroll tools for the ranking at payroll software, updated 15 October 2026. Justworks is in that set, and carrier premiums plus workers' comp sit beside the admin fee, so the published card is not the amount that leaves the bank.

A professional employer organization shares payroll, tax, and benefits duties for US employees while you still hire and manage the team, which is the contract Basic and Plus sell. Payroll leaves you as the sole employer, so those duties stay with the company. The product verdict, separate from this bill, is the Justworks review.

At a glance

Plan	Monthly admin fee	Best for	Left off the card
Payroll	$8/employee + $50 base	A US team that will stay the employer, including multi-state pay	Co-employment, named 24/7 support, medical administration
PEO Basic	$79/employee, no base fee	Co-employment, a 401(k), and HR support, with medical kept elsewhere	Medical, dental, and vision administration
PEO Plus	$124/employee, no base fee	Medical, dental, and vision administration inside the PEO	Carrier premiums and workers' comp
EOR	$599/employee, no base fee	A full-time employee in a country where you have no entity	Not sold on Payroll. Basic or Plus comes first

Every US plan on the pricing page includes payroll, multi-state pay, off-cycle runs, tips, tax filings, W-2 and 1099 filings, onboarding, basic timecards, and PTO, so a higher plan is not a second payroll product. The jump from Payroll to a PEO is co-employment, and the jump from Basic to Plus is medical administration, which means a team that will stay the employer belongs on the Payroll row.

What does each Justworks plan include?

Payroll keeps the company as the employer, and the grid includes multi-state payroll, multiple pay rates, custom pay periods, and phone, chat, and a 24/7 help center, enough to open another state without co-employment. It leaves off the line labeled 24/7 support, standard HR consulting, EPLI, an org chart, and applicant-tracking integrations, so a company that needs those is already looking at a PEO. State unemployment administration is an add-on with no printed price, and that unknown line belongs on the order form before a second state is treated as included.

Basic is co-employment without Justworks medical, adding compliance support, HR consulting tools, 24/7 support, and a 401(k) with no base fee, for a company that wants the PEO and means to keep its health plan. The grid also includes EPLI, life and disability, commuter benefits, harassment-prevention training, and an HR resource center, so none of those are a reason to buy Plus. Medical, dental, vision, and COBRA administration stay off, and enrollment lives with the outside carrier, though manual payroll deductions still work. The enrollment FAQ, updated 10 July 2026, says a later move to Plus takes a census, so Basic does not freeze the health decision.

Plus is Basic plus medical administration: the card adds medical, dental, and vision, and the grid adds health-insurance administration, COBRA, mental health resources, and supplemental health, which is what the higher fee buys. Carrier premiums stay a separate quote because Justworks names Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and Kaiser and will not estimate them on the site. A census quote takes about 3 to 5 business days. Health through Plus bars a second external medical plan for the same employees, and there is no health-only product because payroll has to come with the administration.

EOR is a foreign employment contract at the row above, with no base fee, sold on Basic and Plus only, so a full-time hire abroad forces a PEO plan before this add-on. International contractors, covered below, are cheaper and do not require that PEO step. Price both lines before choosing a global tool for a country where you have no entity.

The Plus card lists HSA and FSA accounts, while the comparison grid marks that access as an add-on on Payroll, Basic, and Plus, so a buyer who counted the accounts as included can be billed for them. The pricing help article, updated 15 June 2026, lists fitness memberships on Basic, while the grid marks fitness as an add-on on Basic and Plus and absent on Payroll. Ask which version the agreement uses before treating either note as part of the fee.

What does Justworks cost for 5, 10, and 25 employees?

The table multiplies the published admin fees by full-time W-2 seats and leaves out premiums, workers' comp, contractors, and add-ons. These totals are ours, not a Justworks quote, and the PEO columns grow much faster as headcount rises. For the wider bill at the same headcounts, see how much payroll costs for a small business.

Employees	Payroll per month	Basic per month	Plus per month	Payroll per year	Basic per year	Plus per year
5	$90	$395	$620	$1,080	$4,740	$7,440
10	$130	$790	$1,240	$1,560	$9,480	$14,880
25	$250	$1,975	$3,100	$3,000	$23,700	$37,200

Headcount, not the base fee, is what makes a PEO expensive, and Payroll's base fee is a small share of a 25-person bill. Plus over Basic is $45 per employee per month, which is $450 a month, or $5,400 a year, at 10 people. That gap buys medical administration and does not buy the insurance premium, so a team that likes its carrier is paying for paperwork rather than richer coverage.

Seat type moves the Plus invoice even when the offer letters do not. The pricing help article bills an unpaid owner at the full-time rate whether or not that owner enrolls in benefits, so ten employees plus one unpaid founder, counted as eleven full-time seats, come to $1,364 a month on Plus. A part-timer under 30 hours who is not benefits-eligible is billed at the Basic rate: eight full-time seats at the Plus rate and four of those part-timers come to $1,308 a month, against $1,488 if all twelve were full-time. Paid interns follow the Basic rate, and temps are not billed on the PEO admin fee, so a run of temps does not raise this line.

An active employee, in the billing FAQ updated 15 June 2026, has accepted the invite and is not terminated. That includes someone who has not started and someone no longer paid, so a delayed start can still cost a fee, and a payment after the termination date can reopen a closed seat. Admin fees hit on the 5th or the next business day. New customers may prepay the first year, then billing returns to monthly, which changes cash timing and not the rate.

Justworks requires two people on the account to run payroll, and one may be an unpaid owner, so a single person cannot start. The W-2 employee must earn at least the minimum wage, and Justworks says there is no payroll minimum beyond that. Medical needs two benefits-eligible people who do not share a household or claim each other as a dependent, so a married couple alone cannot carry a Justworks medical plan.

Unpaid owners can count toward that pair, and the company pays their premiums in full even when the founder draws no salary. W-2 employees and paid owners need 30 hours a week to be benefits-eligible.

What sits outside the admin fee?

The pricing page says there is no implementation fee, which removes a setup line without capping the invoice. Workers' comp, premiums, and the add-ons below are what move the budget after the plan name is chosen.

Add-on	Price	Where it is sold
Time tracking	$8 per employee per month	Payroll, Basic, and Plus
Payroll health administration	That same per-employee rate, benefits-eligible staff only	Payroll only
US contractors	That same per-employee rate, per paid contractor	Payroll, Basic, and Plus
Dedicated HR consulting	$30 per employee per month	Basic and Plus
International contractors	$39 per paid contractor per month	Payroll, Basic, and Plus, in 60+ countries
Health reimbursements (CHOICE)	$25 per enrolled employee per month	Payroll, Basic, and Plus, through Thatch
Employer of record	The EOR row above	Basic and Plus only

US contractors, on the contractor page, are billed only in months you pay them, and 1099s are included, so a quiet month should not add a seat. International contractors are a different rate on Payroll, Basic, and Plus, and they fit a person abroad who is not a full-time employee. Dedicated HR consulting adds a named consultant on top of the consulting already included on Basic and Plus. The consulting page limits that add-on to US-based support for PEO customers, so a Payroll-only company cannot buy it.

Time tracking is the add-on most likely to be modeled wrong. The pricing page lists a per-employee charge, while the time-tracking billing article, updated 30 December 2025, bills a month in arrears with no setup fee and no base fee. That article then gives two tests that do not describe the same seat. One bills an active user who tracks time, approves a shift, or runs a report, including some terminated accounts, so a manager who only approves shifts can still be a paid seat.

The other test bills every employee, owner, and intern who receives taxable wages, plus owners or contractors counted as active users. Ask which test the invoice uses before treating hourly staff who skip a month as free, because the wage test would bill them anyway.

Workers' comp sits outside the admin fee, calculated in the billing FAQ as a percentage of applicable wages on every payroll invoice. Unpaid owners have no wages to multiply, so a state minimum still applies, and that minimum is not printed. The workers' comp article, updated 17 June 2026, puts PEO employees on Justworks' master policy where the state allows a private carrier, with only limited carve-outs. Keeping the old policy can mean two bills, so cancel it as of the PEO start date, and the policy renews each June with Justworks handling that renewal.

Ohio, Wyoming, Washington, and North Dakota require the state fund, so people there can be paid on the platform without joining the master policy. Payroll customers can buy workers' comp through Justworks or an outside carrier, unlike PEO customers, which is a reason to stay on Payroll when the current policy has to remain. The grid marks access on all three plans, and the premium is a quote either way. The enrollment FAQ says a workers' comp reply takes about 2 to 5 business days, and high-risk work such as construction, or a contractor-heavy company whose contractors have no policy of their own, can be declined, so hear back before the old coverage ends.

Justworks does not charge extra for bonuses or for changing employee information. Expedited PEO enrollment often takes 2 to 3 weeks and starts on the 1st or the 16th, and earlier work cannot be paid through the PEO, so those hours need another path.

Does Justworks have a free plan?

No. Justworks does not publish a free payroll plan, so a company that needs a permanent zero license fee is on the wrong page. The pricing page offers a desktop payroll demo, and PEO signup starts with an account that connects you to an enrollment manager, and neither path is a payroll run you can process before you are billed. The admin fee still starts when the account is live.

If the requirement is a permanently free payroll tool, the free payroll software guide is the page for a zero license fee, and HR software for startups is the wider shelf when the company is still the founder and a first hire.

How does Justworks compare with Gusto, Deel, and Remote?

Use Justworks Payroll when you will stay the employer, and use a PEO when you want co-employment and will move workers' comp. The 10-person column below is our multiplication of each vendor's published rate on 17 October 2026. It is an admin or platform fee, not a quote, and it excludes wages, taxes, and premiums, so the lowest row is not automatically the cheapest way to employ the same people.

10 full-time employees	Monthly fee	What you are actually buying
Justworks Payroll	$130	You stay the employer. Multi-state pay is on the plan
Justworks PEO Basic	$790	Co-employment without Justworks medical
Justworks PEO Plus	$1,240	Co-employment with medical administration
Gusto Simple	$109	Single-state payroll. You stay the employer
Gusto Plus	$200	Multi-state payroll and time tracking included
Gusto Premium	$400	A named advisor, HR guidance, and compliance tools
Deel US payroll, self-service	$290	US payroll you run. Managed payroll is not a separate printed rate
Deel PEO Starter	$1,100	Pay-tab PEO. Sponsored health is not included
Deel PEO Pro	$1,200	Pay-tab PEO, with health benefits managed by Deel
Deel US PEO, Hire card	$1,250	Hire-tab rate. The card says benefits are included
Remote US PEO	$990	Floor at the starting rate. A US bank account is required

Gusto's pricing page lists Simple at $49/mo plus $6 per person, Plus at $80/mo plus $12, and Premium at $180/mo plus $22. Plans are month to month, payroll runs are unlimited, and off-cycle payrolls are not an extra charge. Health administration is free when Gusto is the broker, and you pay the premium only, so health is the carrier bill rather than a second admin fee.

Simple stops at one state, so a second state means Gusto Plus, while Justworks Payroll already lists multi-state pay. A 10-person team in a second state can cost less on Justworks Payroll than on Gusto Plus and still stay the employer. The plan-by-plan bill is on Gusto pricing, and the product page is the Gusto review.

Deel's pricing page does not have one US PEO price, so the table shows three rates. The Hire tab lists US PEO at $125 per employee per month and says benefits are included. The Pay tab, set to the US, lists PEO Starter at $110 and PEO Pro at $120, and Starter does not include PEO-sponsored health, so that cheaper row is not the Hire card. Self-service US payroll on that tab is $29 per employee per month, for a team running US pay itself.

A two-year order signed between 15 July 2026 and 31 December 2026 can credit three months of platform fees, but leaving early means repaying full list price, so budget the printed card. Deel's breakdown is Deel pricing, and the product page is the Deel review.

Remote's pricing page starts US PEO at $99 per employee per month, billed in dollars, and it requires a US bank account, so a company without one cannot treat the rate as finished. There is no setup fee, and "starting at" means the 10-person Remote row is a floor the order form can sit above. The Remote review and Deel versus Remote cover the global products, a different purchase from a US-only PEO.

Rippling's pricing page asks for a custom quote: plans start at a per-employee monthly rate, some products add a base fee that is not printed, and payroll itself is a quote rather than a missing discount. Read the Rippling review and Rippling versus Gusto before you treat that quote as comparable, especially if laptops and app access need to live on the same record.

Quote-only national PEOs cannot sit in this 10-person multiplication. The PEO comparison and how much a PEO costs cover that range. If the job is benefits administration without co-employment, use the benefits administration guide and the payroll software roundup, because Plus still makes Justworks a co-employer.

Which Justworks plan should you buy?

Buy Payroll to stay the employer, including in a second state, and to keep workers' comp with an outside carrier.

Buy Basic for co-employment when medical already lives with another carrier and Justworks will not run enrollment.

Buy Plus when Justworks will run medical administration and the company can pass workers' comp, including the two-household rule.

Count unpaid owners and part-timers before you treat the 10-person Plus row as the bill, because those seats change the invoice even when the offer letters look the same. Walk away from the PEO if finance will not share employer duties, or if the open role is a full-time hire abroad and the EOR add-on is not yet on top of Basic or Plus. Gusto is the published month-to-month bill for teams that will stay the employer and leave without a co-employment contract.

How we priced this

We read vendor pages and Justworks help articles, and we did not run payroll on any of these products. Plan prices, the feature grid, and add-on rates come from the Justworks pricing page on 17 October 2026. Seat rules come from the pricing help article and the billing FAQ, both updated 15 June 2026, and enrollment minimums, medical rules, and the note on bonus payments come from the enrollment FAQ updated 10 July 2026. Workers' comp rules come from the article updated 17 June 2026, and time-tracking billing comes from the article updated 30 December 2025. Competitor rates come from the Gusto, Deel, Remote, and Rippling pricing pages on 17 October 2026.

The 5, 10, and 25 person totals are this page's multiplication of the published fees, and Justworks did not issue them. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, edited these Justworks figures. The about page, the editorial policy, and how we rate describe the check. Match the order form to these fees before anyone commits.

FAQ

How much does Justworks cost in 2026?

Justworks Payroll is $8 per employee per month plus a $50 base fee, and PEO Basic is $79 per employee per month while PEO Plus is $124, with no base fee on either PEO plan. Those figures are admin fees, checked on Justworks' pricing page on 17 October 2026, and premiums, workers' comp, and add-ons sit outside them. There is no implementation fee, so setup is not a separate charge.

How much does Justworks cost per employee?

Payroll adds a per-employee fee to the $50 base, while Basic is $79 per employee and Plus is $124, and neither PEO plan adds a base fee. On Plus, a part-timer under 30 hours who is not benefits-eligible is billed at the Basic rate, and an unpaid owner is a full-time seat even with no benefits. Paid interns follow the Basic rate, and temps are not billed on the PEO admin fee.

Does Justworks have a free plan or a setup fee?

Justworks does not publish a free payroll plan, and there is no implementation fee, which is still not a free month of payroll. A desktop demo and an enrollment account are not a live payroll run. New customers may prepay the first year of admin fees, then pay monthly on the 5th or the next business day.

What do 10 employees cost on Justworks, Gusto, Deel, and Remote?

On published fees, 10 full-time employees are $130 a month on Justworks Payroll, $790 on Basic, and $1,240 on Plus. Gusto is $109 on Simple, $200 on Plus, and $400 on Premium. Deel's US self-service payroll is $290, and its three US PEO rates come to $1,100, $1,200, and $1,250. Remote's US PEO floor is $990 and that floor can move. Premiums and workers' comp are extra on every row.

Does Justworks charge for contractors and international hires?

US contractors are billed at the Payroll per-employee rate only in months you pay them, and 1099s are included, so a quiet month should not add a seat. International contractors are $39 per paid contractor per month, in 60+ countries, on Payroll, Basic, and Plus. A full-time employee abroad is the EOR add-on at $599 per employee per month on Basic and Plus, not on Payroll.

Is workers' comp included in the Justworks admin fee?

No. Workers' comp is a percentage of wages on each payroll invoice, and unpaid owners owe a state minimum that Justworks does not print. PEO customers must use the master policy where a private carrier is allowed, with rare carve-outs, so an old policy can mean two bills. Ohio, Wyoming, Washington, and North Dakota use the state fund instead. Payroll customers can buy coverage through Justworks or outside it.

Which Justworks plan should a small team buy?

Choose Payroll to stay the employer, including for a second state, with workers' comp kept outside. Choose Basic when medical stays on an outside plan. Choose Plus when Justworks will administer medical, dental, and vision and workers' comp can move over. The 10-person Plus figure is in the cost table, and an unpaid owner adds a full-time seat, so count founders before you send finance a number.

Cite this: HRpresso, "Justworks Pricing 2026: Payroll, PEO Basic and Plus Costs", October 2026.

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