Podium pricing in 2026 starts at $399 per month for the Core plan and $599 per month for Pro, with a third plan, Signature, priced by quote. Unlike most reputation and messaging platforms, Podium prints these numbers on its own pricing page, along with a long feature table and a short FAQ. We read that page on November 2, 2026, and every figure in this guide comes from it or from Podium's published terms of service, with the source named where it is used. Prices are current at the time of writing and can change.
The plan price is the easy part. The harder part is the layer underneath: a carrier compliance fee per location, per-number and per-user charges, add-ons that are extra on Core and included on Pro, monthly bulk message credits that run out, and usage limits on automations, AI and phone minutes. This guide covers the plans, the fees, the limits, the contract terms, three worked monthly budgets, and how to negotiate before you sign.
What Podium costs in 2026.
| Plan | Published price | Bulk message credits | Phone numbers included | Positioned for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core | $399 per month | 250 per month | 5 | A single business that wants reviews, a shared inbox and basic automations |
| Pro | $599 per month | 500 per month | 15 | Businesses that want lead routing, surveys, text marketing and the AI features included |
| Signature | Custom pricing | Custom | Custom | Multi-location operators with custom billing, migration and quarterly reviews |
Three things on the page frame those numbers. First, the plan cards say "HVAC businesses should contact sales for applicable pricing," so if you run an HVAC company the $399 and $599 figures are not your quote. Second, a footnote under the comparison table says pricing plans may vary based on industry, partnerships, integrations, volume and carrier fees. Third, the FAQ answer to "What does Podium cost monthly?" says the monthly cost may vary and that the sales team builds a plan around your industry, partnerships, integrations, volume and carrier fees. Read all three together: the list price is a floor for a standard account, not a fixed menu price.
The page does not state how many locations a plan covers. The only per-location items it publishes are the 10DLC fee and the Podium Phones network optimization fee, both covered below. If you operate more than one location, the number of locations a Core or Pro subscription includes is the first thing to get in writing.
What is in each Podium plan.
Every plan includes unlimited contacts, unlimited one-to-one text messages, unlimited conversation history, unlimited team members, and unlimited call recordings, transcripts and voicemail transcriptions. The lead capture layer is the same on all three: website contact form leads, third-party website leads, a website chat widget, Google and Facebook reviews, industry review sites, a reviews leaderboard, a customer database, segments, basic reporting and more than 200 integrations. AI suggested replies, AI review responses and the standard automations (review reminders, payment reminders, after-hours auto-response, appointment reminders, birthday and loyalty messages) are on every plan too.
Pro adds the pieces most growing businesses actually pay for: automatic and topic-based lead routing, advanced website widget branding, hosted and text-based surveys, text marketing with images and GIFs, advanced customer segmentation, an AI text marketing generator, the AI Concierge, AI Reputation Specialist and AI phone call summaries, and lower payment processing fees. Several items that cost $15 per month each on Core are included on Pro, which matters for the math in the next section.
Signature is the enterprise tier. The page lists AI Scheduler, AI Salesperson and AI Marketer, advanced multi-location management, an advanced reporting add-on, advanced branding, discounts on the Phones plan, desk phones, point of sale hardware and high-volume bulk messages, account migration, quarterly business reviews, a personalized account plan, priority phone support, a fraud alert system, custom billing and custom processing rates. None of it carries a price.
The AI Employee, which Podium markets as an assistant that sells, schedules and answers customers around the clock, is sold as an add-on to any plan. The pricing page gives it no price and routes you to a demo. Treat it as a separate line on the quote.
The fees under the plan price.
These are the published charges that sit on top of $399 or $599. All of them come from footnotes and cells in the comparison table on the pricing page.
- 10DLC fee: $5 per month per US location. The FAQ says the base fee covers 3 message segments per second and up to 2,000 T-Mobile messages per day per location. This is the carrier registration layer for business texting, and it applies on every plan.
- Extra phone numbers: $5 per month each beyond the 5 included on Core or the 15 on Pro.
- Core add-ons at $15 per month each: high-volume carrier-verified messaging, bulk actions, review response templates, review response controls, review notes and the close review function. Each is marked included on Pro.
- Podium Phones seats: $30 per user per month for 1 to 4 users, $25 per user per month for 5 or more, on both Core and Pro. Signature lists discounts available.
- Podium Phones network optimization fee: $500 per location, plus usage rates.
- Automated AI review responses and AI instant answers are marked add-on available on Core and included on Pro. No add-on price is published.
- Payment processing is extra when you use Podium Payments. The page says Pro has lower processing fees and Signature has custom rates, and does not print the standard rate in a form we would quote.
Usage limits and overages.
Podium separates two kinds of limits. Bulk messages are credit based. Core includes 250 credits a month and Pro 500, with higher limits available. The FAQ says credits expire at the end of each month and do not roll over, and that once you hit the limit you cannot send more bulk messages until the start of the following month unless you raise the limit through your customer success manager. There is no metered overage on bulk messages; the campaign simply stops.
The second kind is what Podium calls Scope of Use limits, and these do carry overages. The FAQ lists them: automations include 4,000 message segments per location per month, of which up to 1,000 may be MMS; Voice AI includes 300 minutes per month; AI messaging includes 1,500 segments per month; and each Podium Phones user includes 1,000 minutes per month. Usage above those limits is billed at Podium's then-current rates, which the page does not print. The same FAQ notes that toll-free numbers are not a standard option with Phones.
The practical point is that a text marketing program and a phone system are both metered. A 2,000-contact list on Core burns the 250 bulk credits on the first send. A busy front desk on Phones can pass 1,000 minutes per seat. Before you sign, estimate your monthly bulk sends, automation volume and call minutes, and ask for the overage rate in writing. The rate is not on the pricing page, so the quote is the only place you will see it.
“The plan price is the one number Podium prints in large type. The bill is written in the footnotes.”
What the terms of service say about renewal.
Podium's Terms of Service (version 7.0, effective October 15, 2026, at legal.podium.com) fill in what the pricing page leaves out. The initial term for any subscription is twelve months unless your subscription documentation says otherwise, and the subscription automatically renews for subsequent periods of equal duration. Either party can stop the renewal with notice at least thirty days before the end of the current term, and the terms allow clients to send that notice by email to Podium support.
Fees are non-refundable and non-creditable except in the specific cases the terms name, and you must cancel before the renewal date to avoid being billed for the next period. Podium may increase subscription fees on forty-five days' written notice, taking effect at the start of the next subscription term, and may change usage rates on thirty days' notice. Usage fees are invoiced monthly in arrears, and industry fees such as 10DLC charges are billed separately and may change at any time.
Three worked monthly budgets.
These examples use only published figures and leave out payment processing, AI Employee and any overage, all of which are quote-only.
Podium vs Birdeye on price.
Buyers price Podium against Birdeye more than any other tool. The structural difference is that Birdeye is quoted per location, with third-party trackers putting its tiers at $299 to $449 per location per month, while Podium publishes a per-account plan price and bills the location-level items ($5 10DLC and $500 phones setup) on top. For a single location, Podium Core at $399 sits $100 above Birdeye's reported entry tier. For several locations the answer depends entirely on how Podium prices your additional locations, which its page does not say. Our Birdeye pricing guide has the other side of the comparison.
On features, Podium leans toward lead conversion: a shared inbox, lead routing, webchat, text marketing, payments and a phone system. Birdeye leans toward reputation and listings at scale. If the job is reviews and listings across many locations, Birdeye's per-location model is usually the cleaner fit. If the job is answering and converting inbound leads for one to a handful of locations, Podium's plan structure fits better, and Pro is usually the right tier.
How to negotiate a Podium quote.
Because the list price is public and the page itself says plans vary by industry, partnerships, integrations and volume, the negotiation is about the unpublished items rather than the headline. Ask for the location allowance and the per-location price in writing. Ask for the bulk message credit count you actually need rather than the default 250 or 500. Ask for the overage rates on automations, AI messaging, Voice AI and phone minutes. Ask whether the $500 network optimization fee can be waived if you are buying Phones seats. Ask for the AI Employee price as a separate line so you can decline it.
Then run the renewal math. A twelve-month term with 30 days' notice and 45 days' price-increase notice is the standard; a shorter term or a renewal price cap is worth more than a first-year discount, because the first-year discount disappears at month thirteen. If the rep offers a discount, ask for it to be written as the renewal price, not a promotional credit.
Podium is one piece of a lead system, not the system. The reviews, the inbox and the text campaigns only pay off when the leads behind them are tracked to booked jobs and revenue, which is the work we do in lead generation systems for home services and other local businesses. If you want the platform decision made inside a plan that measures it, hire Theory Road.
How much does Podium cost per month in 2026?
Podium's pricing page lists Core at $399 per month and Pro at $599 per month, with Signature on custom pricing. HVAC businesses are directed to sales for their own pricing, and the page says plans may vary by industry, partnerships, integrations, volume and carrier fees. A $5 per month 10DLC fee applies to every US location.
Does Podium charge per location?
The pricing page publishes a per-account plan price and does not state how many locations a plan covers. The per-location charges it does publish are the $5 per month 10DLC fee and the $500 network optimization fee for Podium Phones. Get the location allowance and any per-location rate in writing before you sign.
What happens when I hit the Podium bulk message limit?
Core includes 250 bulk message credits a month and Pro 500. Podium's FAQ says credits expire at the end of each month, do not roll over, and once you reach the limit you cannot send more bulk messages until the following month unless you raise the limit through your customer success manager.
Can I cancel Podium before the year is up?
Podium's terms of service set a twelve-month initial term that renews automatically for equal periods, with fees non-refundable except in cases the terms name. To stop a renewal, either party must give notice at least thirty days before the end of the current term.