Missive Pricing in 2026: Plans, Free Tier, and History

Missive's free option may look suitable for a small team, but a 15-day conversation-history limit changes what "free" means in practice. If your team needs to look up an old customer issue, check what was promised, or hand a case to a colleague weeks later, that limit matters as much as the monthly price.

The available 2026 pricing analysis reports that Missive's paid plans start at $14 and have a five-user cap on the entry tier. It also describes the free tier as an ongoing way to try the product, rather than a practical long-term home for a team's conversation record. These details come from Drag's Missive pricing analysis. Confirm the current price, billing terms, and plan limits with Missive before budgeting, since pricing can change.

Missive pricing at a glance

This is a useful starting point, not a complete plan comparison. The supplied pricing evidence does not establish every plan name, feature, billing option, or retention rule. Before choosing a tier, check the current plan details and ask specifically about the limits that affect your workflow.

Is Missive's free plan a real free plan?

It can be a real way to use the product at no charge, but that does not mean it will work as a team's permanent shared inbox. A 15-day history window puts a hard boundary on how far back you can refer to conversations.

That boundary can be a problem even when the inbox is quiet. A customer may reply to a months-old billing question, a teammate may need to confirm an earlier support instruction, or an operations colleague may need context from a previous handoff. If that conversation has aged out of the available history, the team may not be able to use the inbox as a reliable record of what happened.

The practical question is not only "Can we keep using it for free?" It is also "Can we still access the information we depend on?" If the answer is no, the free tier may work for testing the interface or handling short-lived conversations, but it is a poor fit for ongoing customer support or operations.

What the five-user cap means for cost

A five-user limit can be enough for a small group, but it is worth counting everyone who needs to work in the shared inbox, not just the people who send most of the replies. Support agents, managers who review conversations, and colleagues who cover absences may all need access.

The reported $14 starting price is not enough by itself to calculate your team's total. Check whether that figure is per user or applies another way, whether it assumes annual billing, and what happens when you need a sixth user. A price that seems manageable for a small group may change once your coverage model includes more people.

Before committing, estimate the team you expect to have over the next year:

1. Count the people who need to view and work on shared conversations.
2. Check the plan's user limit and the price of the next tier.
3. Confirm the billing cadence and whether the quoted amount depends on an annual commitment.
4. Ask what happens to data and access if you downgrade or cancel.
5. Compare the plan limits with your normal conversation-retention needs.

These checks help prevent a low entry price from obscuring the cost of the plan your team will actually need.

Why conversation history belongs in the pricing decision

A shared inbox does more than collect incoming messages. It helps a team keep ownership clear, coordinate replies, and carry customer context from one conversation to the next. History is part of that context.

Consider a customer who asks about an invoice, gets a response, and comes back several months later with a follow-up. The team needs to see what was already discussed before replying. Or consider a support handoff: the next agent needs the earlier messages to understand what has been tried, what the customer expects, and who should take the next step.

A short retention window can push teams into workarounds. People may copy details into documents, forward old messages to themselves, or rely on individual inboxes to keep records. Those habits make it harder to find the right information and weaken the shared workflow the software is meant to support.

When comparing plans, ask more than whether history is available. Find out:

• How far back can users search and open conversations?
• Does the history limit apply to all users or only certain plan levels?
• What happens to older messages after an upgrade or downgrade?
• Can admins export conversation data before a plan change?
• Are notes, assignments, and other context retained alongside the messages?

The available evidence points to a 15-day limit on Missive's free tier. It does not establish the retention rules for every paid plan, so verify those separately.

What does "five years of history" tell you?

A five-year pricing history can help explain how a product's pricing has changed over time, but it is different from five years of accessible conversation history. Those are separate questions: one concerns the evolution of plan prices, and the other concerns how long your team can keep and retrieve its records.

The available evidence here supports the current pricing points above, but not a detailed year-by-year price timeline or a specific five-year retention promise. If long-term conversation access is important, get the retention policy for the plan you are considering in writing rather than inferring it from historical pricing information.

Is Missive's free tier enough for a small support team?

It may be enough if your goal is to evaluate the product or manage conversations that become irrelevant after a short period. It is less likely to work if your shared inbox needs to serve as an ongoing record for support, billing, or customer operations.

Use these questions to decide:

• Do customers regularly reopen conversations after more than two weeks?
• Does your team need to review earlier replies before resolving a new issue?
• Do agents hand conversations to colleagues who need the full context?
• Do managers need to check how a customer issue was handled?
• Would losing access to older inbox history create a risk or extra manual work?

If you answer yes to several of these, evaluate the paid plan's retention terms before treating the free option as your team's operating plan.

Compare the workflow, not just the starting price

Missive's reported entry price and free-tier limits are only part of the buying decision. Also consider whether the tool fits the way your team handles customer communication: who owns each message, how colleagues coordinate internally, and how an agent finds the context needed to respond.

For a broader overview of options, see shared inbox software tools for support teams. If your team is still defining its process, team inbox management practices can help identify the ownership, follow-up, and handoff needs to include in a product evaluation.

Helpmonks supports shared-inbox workflows for teams handling support, sales, billing, and operations, including assigning customer emails and collaborating with notes and follow-ups. The important comparison is whether a tool's plan limits preserve the context your team needs to keep those conversations moving.

The short version

Missive's free tier is described as ongoing, but the reported 15-day conversation-history limit makes it a trial-like option for teams that depend on older messages. The available 2026 analysis reports paid plans starting at $14 and a five-user cap on the entry tier; verify the current price, billing terms, and retention rules before you buy.

If you only need a way to try the product or handle short-lived conversations, free may be enough. If the inbox needs to function as a lasting team record, compare the paid plan's history limits and total cost with the work your team actually does.