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Social Media Management
Buffer
Social media scheduling, publishing and analytics tool priced per connected channel, with a free plan for up to three channels.
✓ Source-checked profile9 sources cited
Spec sheet
All-in India price
₹486/user/mo
For a registered business, billed yearly, $5/user/mo sticker
- Free plan
- Available
- Free trial
- Available
- Status
- Source checked 12 Nov 2026
Work at Buffer?
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Claim this listingFindThatSoftware verdictEditorial ruling
Shortlist Buffer if you are a creator, small business or small team that wants clean scheduling across many networks without a heavy suite. Start on the free plan to test the workflow, then pay only for the channels you actually post to.
Read the full verdict
Before paying, note that it bills in US dollars on a card, prices exclude tax and there is no GST invoice, so an Indian business cannot claim input credit and will pay forex charges on top. Approvals and more than one user need the Team plan, which costs double Essentials per channel for the first ten channels. Against Indian or larger suites, Buffer is simpler and cheap at low channel counts but has no social listening or scheduled client reporting.
FindThatSoftware has source-checked this listing and keeps 9 public sources visible for buyer verification.
In short
Buffer is listed under Social Media Management, reviewed for Indian buyers. All-in it runs about ₹486/user/mo for a GST-registered business ($5/user/mo sticker plus about 3.5% card forex). It does not issue an India GST invoice, so a registered business reclaims the GST via reverse charge. FindThatSoftware rates it best for creators and solopreneurs; a poor fit for Indian businesses that need a GST invoice or rupee billing for input credit.
What Buffer costs in India
The rupee price a business actually pays, after the card forex markup, with GST shown both ways.
True India price
Registered business, per user per month, billed yearly
₹486
Buffer advertises $5/user/mo. A GST-registered business in India pays about ₹486 a month (₹5,829/yr) once the roughly 3.5% card forex markup is added, with GST reclaimed as input credit. If you cannot reclaim GST, it is about ₹573 a month.
- Sticker price
- $5/user/mo
- Card forex markup
- about 3.5% over mid-market
- GST
- 18%, reclaimable if registered
- Registered per user per month
- ₹486
- Registered per user per year
- ₹5,829
- If you can't reclaim GST
- ₹573
- Try first
- Has a free plan, so you can start without a card.
- Watch for
- Buffer charges per connected social channel in US dollars on a card, monthly or yearly, and yearly works out about two months cheaper; rates per channel fall above ten channels.
More
Prices exclude tax, Buffer collects tax only in some US states and the UK, and it issues no GST invoice, so expect your bank's forex markup and no input credit. When you upgrade from free you pay for every connected channel including the three free ones, and refunds are offered within 7 days of a monthly start or 30 days of an annual start.
Indicative, not a bill. The exchange rate is a single mid-market reference, not a live feed, and GST-registered businesses may reclaim input credit. Confirm current pricing on the vendor site.
Full India pricing breakdownPaying for more than Buffer? See your whole stack's real India cost and where you could switch to save.
Audit your spendWho Buffer fits
What it is, what you gain, what you give up, and who should look elsewhere.
What is Buffer?
Buffer is a social media scheduling tool run by Buffer, Inc., a US company. It lets you queue and schedule posts to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Bluesky, Mastodon and Substack, reply to comments from one inbox, and track post and channel performance. It is a web app with iOS and Android apps, a browser extension, an AI writing assistant and a public API that agents and automation tools such as Zapier, Make and n8n can call. Billing is per connected channel, and the free plan caps you at three channels and ten queued posts per channel. Some networks only get reminder notifications rather than automatic publishing, such as Instagram personal profiles and Facebook groups, and the Start Page link in bio builder is being retired.
What you gain, and what you give up.
The case for
- The free plan is permanent for three channels with ten queued posts each, enough for a solo founder posting a few times a week.
- Billing is per channel, so you pay only for the accounts you post to, and the per channel rate drops sharply once you pass ten channels.
- One tool covers scheduling, a comment inbox, analytics and an AI writing assistant across a dozen networks including Threads, Bluesky and Google Business Profile.
The catch
- Billed only in US dollars on cards or Apple Pay, tax exclusive and with no GST invoice, so Indian businesses pay forex charges and cannot claim input credit.
- Approval workflows, more than one user and access permissions need the Team plan, which costs twice Essentials per channel for the first ten channels.
- Some account types only get reminder notifications instead of automatic posting, including Instagram personal profiles and Facebook groups.
- No social listening or scheduled report delivery; branded client reports are only on the Team plan.
Best for
- Creators and solopreneurs
- Small teams wanting simple scheduling
- Small agencies paying per client channel
Who should avoid it
- Indian businesses that need a GST invoice or rupee billing for input credit.
- Social teams that need listening, competitor tracking or scheduled client reports.
India readiness
How well Buffer fits an Indian business operationally, from the verified pricing and company facts we hold.
- ✗GST invoice
No Indian GST invoice, so a registered business cannot claim input tax credit on the bill.
- ✗Bills in INR
Priced in a foreign currency, so your card or bank adds forex conversion on top.
- ✗India HQ
Headquartered outside India, so check support hours and India-specific features.
Compare Buffer
How it stacks up on what we verified, the tools buyers weigh it against, and where it appears in our guides.
How Buffer compares
Against the 10 other social media management tools we list, from what we verified on each vendor’s own pages.
Less common among the other social media management tools
Recorded for Buffer and for at most a third of the 10 others we list.
- AI reply suggestions
- Browser extension
- Engagement analytics
- Saved replies
- Approval workflows
- First comment scheduling
- Link in bio page
- Report export
This compares only the capabilities enough rival tools share for a comparison to mean anything, roughly a quarter of what we verified. The full list is under “What we verified” below, and anything absent from both is something we did not record rather than something the product lacks.
Similar tools to Buffer
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Featured in our buying guides
See how Buffer stacks up against the best options for a specific kind of business.
Where Buffer fits in a workflow
These stacks show when to use this tool, what comes before it, and what should be handled manually first.
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What we verified about Buffer
Read from Buffer’s own pages. Each line is a finding and what it was based on, so you can check any of it yourself.
What Buffer does
Features we confirmed36
- Visual content calendar
- Content schedule is visualised across weeks or months on all plans
- Two factor authentication
- 2FA via email or authenticator apps is available on every plan
- Saved replies
- Saved replies are 1 on free and unlimited on paid plans
- REST API
- API access with keys and OAuth clients is offered on all plans including free
- Report export
- Essentials exports data as CSV, PDF or markdown for client reports
- Link in bio page
- Start Page is a landing page of links, counting as one channel
- First comment scheduling
- Scheduling the first comment on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn starts on Essentials
- Engagement analytics
- Insights cover follower growth, engagement, impressions and post performance
- Browser extension
- A browser extension adds content to the queue from any web page
- Approval workflows
- Approval workflows managing draft and approve rights are Team-only
- AI reply suggestions
- AI replies learn your voice, 5 a week free and unlimited on paid
- AI content assistant
- AI Assistant with unlimited credits refines and repurposes content on all plans
- AI performance takeaways
- Takeaways give plain-language AI observations on what is working
- Branded reports
- Adding your logo and cover page is a Team-plan-only feature
- Channel groups
- Essentials adds channel groups for bulk selection when scheduling
- Channel level permissions
- Custom access and permissions per channel are a Team-plan feature
- Comment inbox
- Community inbox replies to comments across ten named networks
- Comment insights
- Comment insights pull themes from replies for content inspiration
- Comment to post conversion
- A comment exchange can be turned instantly into a new post
- Content tags
- Tags organise content by campaign or topic, 3 free and 250 on paid
- Custom analytics filters
- Essentials filters Insights by tag or channel to isolate campaigns
- Custom utm parameters
- UTM parameter values can be set in Buffer from Essentials
- Custom video covers
- Choosing a video frame for Facebook, Instagram and TikTok starts on Essentials
- Duplicate posts
- Posts can be cloned and reused across all plans
- Hashtag manager
- Saving and reusing hashtags is an Essentials-tier feature
- Idea capture
- Ideas store content thoughts, 100 free and unlimited on paid
- Internal notes
- Notes add internal comments to content from the Essentials plan
- Kanban board view
- Board view organises ideas into kanban-style columns on every plan
- Link shortening
- Links are automatically shortened on every plan
- Machine readable pricing
- Buffer publishes a pricing.md endpoint explicitly for AI agents
- Period over period comparison
- Performance overview compares any date range period over period
- Post queue
- A queue of posts can be rearranged or shuffled on every plan
- Post templates
- Social post templates for inspiration are included on all plans
- Reminder notifications
- Mobile reminders prompt native posting for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
- Social post scheduling
- Core job is scheduling posts per connected social channel
- Threaded posts
- Threads publish to X, Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon, unlimited on paid
What people use it for4
- Reply to social comments
- Community inbox centralises comment replies across ten networks
- Run marketing for clients
- FAQ describes managing a portfolio of 30 client accounts in one dashboard
- Schedule social posts
- Publishing to many social channels from one queue is the core job
- Run a link in bio
- Start Page provides a link landing page for creators
Works with22
- Zapier
- Zapier connects Buffer to hundreds of other apps on all plans
- Youtube
- YouTube Shorts is a supported publishing channel
- X twitter
- X free and premium profiles are both supported channels
- Wordpress
- A WordPress plugin adds blog content to the Buffer queue
- Unsplash
- Unsplash images can be searched and attached from within Buffer
- Tiktok
- TikTok business profiles publish automatically with community engagement
- Threads
- Threads profiles support automatic publishing and engagement
- Pinterest business and personal accounts are supported channels
- Onedrive
- OneDrive file import is listed in the integrations table
- Mastodon
- Mastodon profiles are a supported publishing channel
- LinkedIn pages and profiles both publish automatically
- Instagram business, creator and personal profiles are supported channels
- Ifttt
- IFTTT automation is available on every Buffer plan
- Google drive
- Google Drive and Photos imports are included on every plan
- Google business profile
- Google Business Profiles publish automatically though without analytics
- Feedly
- Content can be shared from a Feedly feed
- Facebook pages publish automatically and groups via reminders
- Dropbox
- Files import directly from Dropbox on all plans
- Canva
- Content can be imported directly from Canva on every plan
- Bluesky
- Bluesky profiles publish automatically with community engagement
- Bitly
- Bitly adds custom shortlinks to Buffer posts
- Pocket saved articles can be shared through Buffer
Terms, compliance and how you buy29
- Self serve signup
- Sign-up links take you straight into the product with no sales call
- Nonprofit discount
- Nonprofits and charities get 50 percent off paid plans
- Creator oriented
- Product simplicity and Start Page target creators and solo founders
- Cheap entry price
- Essentials is 5 dollars per channel monthly, low for the category
- Annual discount
- Annual billing gives 20 percent off, described as two months free
- Agency friendly
- A dedicated agency page and per-channel billing suit multi-client teams
- API rate limits
- API is capped at 100 requests per 15 minutes and 3,000 to 15,000 per 30 days
- Auto downgrade after trial
- Without payment details the account drops to Free rather than being charged
- Billing frequency switchable
- You can switch monthly and annual any time with automatic prorations
- Card only payment
- FAQ states no PayPal, cheques or bank transfers are accepted
- Channel volume discount
- Channels above 10 cost less each, lowering average cost as you grow
- Cost scales with accounts not people
- Team plan has unlimited members but bills per channel
- Email support only
- Support is a knowledge base plus email on every tier including Team
- Fair use post cap
- Unlimited scheduling is capped at 5,000 posts per channel by fair use
- Fourteen day free trial
- Both paid plans offer a 14-day free trial
- Free forever plan
- Free plan is permanent covering 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts each
- Instagram analytics needs 100 followers
- Meta API limits mean Instagram analytics only pull above 100 followers
- Limited analytics on some networks
- Google Business Profiles and personal Pinterest accounts get no analytics
- No bank transfer payment
- Only card payments are accepted, awkward for Indian company procurement
- No INR billing
- Only USD pricing is published, so Indian buyers add forex and GST
- No social listening
- Our verdict notes it is lighter on listening than full suites
- Per channel pricing
- Both paid plans are priced per connected channel, not per user
- Pricing recently changed
- FAQ says pricing was last updated in November 2025 with legacy plan differences
- Single user on lower tiers
- Free and Essentials include one user account only
- Thin analytics
- Our researched cons say analytics stop short of a monthly client report
- Three channel free cap
- Exceeding three channels locks them when you drop back to Free
- Unlimited team members on top tier
- Team plan includes unlimited users at 10 dollars per channel
- Usd billed
- Prices are quoted in US dollars per channel per month
- Vat charged in uk
- FAQ says UK B2C customers pay local VAT with reverse-charge exclusion for B2B
Source trail
Pricing and free-plan claims can change. FindThatSoftware keeps source URLs visible so users can verify before buying.
- Buffer billing, currency and taxhttps://support.buffer.com/articles/why-was-i-charged-that-your-bill-taxes-and-vat-explained-YMilE1mo8m
- Buffer machine-readable pricinghttps://buffer.com/pricing.md
- Buffer pricinghttps://buffer.com/pricing
- Buffer refund policyhttps://support.buffer.com/en-us/articles/refund-policy-d1GbglDfJa
- Buffer API docshttps://developers.buffer.com/
- Buffer integrationshttps://buffer.com/integrations
- Bufferhttps://buffer.com/
- Buffer accepted payment methodshttps://support.buffer.com/articles/buffers-accepted-payment-methods-PQpO40rDXV
- Retiring Start Pagehttps://buffer.com/start-page
Verified against the sources above. How we research & rate software →
Buffer questions
Does Buffer give a GST invoice in India?
- Buffer does not issue an India GST invoice. A GST-registered business can still reclaim the 18% through the reverse-charge route by raising a self-invoice, but there is no vendor GST invoice to claim against directly.
Is Buffer good for Indian small businesses?
- It suits creators and solopreneurs. It bills in a foreign currency with no India GST invoice, so expect the card forex markup and reverse-charge GST paperwork. It is not the right pick for Indian businesses that need a GST invoice or rupee billing for input credit.
Does Buffer have a free plan?
- Buffer lists a free plan, but check the official pricing page for current usage limits before choosing it.
What users say
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