Four free plans are usable for a local business, and each stops somewhere different. Buffer's free plan connects three channels with 10 scheduled posts each. Metricool's free plan covers one brand and 20 posts a month. Mailchimp's free plan sends 500 emails a month to 250 contacts. Canva Free allows up to 20 AI uses.
The useful question is not whether the tools are free but when the free plan starts costing you time or customers. A cap on scheduled posts, for instance, is harmless until the week you plan a launch. The limits below come from each vendor's own pricing page (read on 27 October 2026) and are run through one realistic month, and each tool gets a plain upgrade trigger: the first event that should make you pay.
One month of marketing for a music school, and where each tool breaks
An illustration to measure the limits against. A music school with 180 parents and students on its list runs one newsletter a fortnight, posts to Instagram and Facebook four times a week each, and has one logo and colour set. Over a month that is about 16 posts per channel, two emails, and around 20 graphics (most of them reused templates).
| Job in the month | Volume | Free tool | Limit | Fits? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design graphics and reels covers | 20 designs, 6 using AI | Canva Free | Up to 20 AI uses; brand kit with 3 colours | Yes, if you keep AI for the hard jobs |
| Queue posts to two channels | 32 posts | Buffer Free | 3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time | Yes, with weekly refills |
| Same, using Metricool instead | 32 posts | Metricool Free | 20 posts a month for the brand | No: 12 posts over the cap |
| Send the newsletter | 2 sends to 180 contacts = 360 | Mailchimp Free | 500 sends a month, 250 a day, 250 contacts | Yes, with room for one extra send |
The picture matters more than any single row. Buffer is the free scheduler that fits this posting rate; Metricool's free scheduling would force the school to cut a third of its posts or pay. Mailchimp fits only because the list is under 250 and the school mails twice. Grow the list to 260 and the free plan stops being an option, which is the cleanest upgrade trigger of the four.
Canva Free: the AI allowance is the limit, not the design tools
Canva's free plan gives the drag-and-drop editor, a large template and stock library, one brand kit limited to three colours, 5GB of storage and up to 20 Standard or Premium AI uses. Canva's pricing page lists the AI allowance in a single line, so it is easy to read past it.
What the 20 uses get spent on
An AI use is one go at an AI tool: a background remover, an image generation, a magic edit. Retries count. A realistic month for the music school looks like this:
- 4 uses removing backgrounds from teacher headshots for a new "meet the tutors" series.
- 6 uses generating three poster backgrounds, with a second attempt each.
- 5 uses on resizing and translating a flyer into a version for the school's social tiles.
- 5 left for emergencies, such as a last-minute event poster.
That is exactly the 20, and a bad week of retries would tip it over. Two habits stretch it. Generate with a more specific prompt (for example, "flat illustration of a violin and sheet music, warm yellow background, space for text on the left") so the first result is usable, and build recurring designs from a template that needs no AI at all.
What Canva Free does not do
Two limits matter to local businesses. The brand kit holds three colours only, and social content scheduling appears in Pro's list, not Free's. If you plan to design and schedule from one place, you need Pro, which Canva lists at $144 a year for one person. A Buffer or Metricool free plan can do the scheduling instead, so the question is whether the AI allowance, not scheduling, is what you outgrow.
Upgrade trigger: you have hit the AI cap in two months out of three, or you spend more than 20 minutes a week recolouring designs by hand because the brand kit holds only three colours. Until then, Free is enough.
Buffer Free: ten queued posts per channel suits a weekly refill
Buffer's free plan is the most generous scheduler of the four for a small business: up to three channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel (the page says refill anytime), 100 ideas, one user, an AI Assistant, Insights, a community inbox and one API key. The paid Essentials plan is $5 a month per channel on its pricing page, billed as $60 a year, and removes the cap on scheduled posts and ideas.
How the cap behaves in practice
The 10-post cap is on posts waiting in the queue, not posts per month. If you post once a day to a channel, a full queue is ten days ahead, and each published post frees a slot. That is generous for a local business, which rarely needs to plan more than a fortnight. It bites in two situations: planning a campaign or holiday season a month in advance, and batching a quarter's posts in one sitting.
A realistic example: a kitchen fitter wants to batch four weeks of Instagram and Facebook posts on the first Monday of the month. At one post a day on each of two channels, that is 28 posts per channel. The free queue holds 10 per channel. The fitter must either top up weekly, five minutes each Monday, or pay $5 a month per channel, $10 across the two. Weekly top-ups cost 15 to 20 minutes a month, so at a pay rate of $20 an hour the free route costs about $6 of time, and the paid route costs $10. Free wins unless batching is a firm rule.
The AI Assistant inside the free plan
Buffer lists the AI Assistant on every plan including Free. Use it for first drafts, and edit. A typical exchange looks like this (illustrative):
Prompt: Write an Instagram caption for a kitchen fitter announcing
that October installation slots are open. Friendly, two sentences,
no hashtags, mention free design visits.
Output: October fitting slots are open! Book a free design visit
and we'll plan the layout, storage and finish with you before
anything is ordered.What you would fix: the output is competent and anonymous. Add one detail a competitor could not copy, such as the actual number of slots left or the type of kitchen you most enjoy fitting. See whether a small business should use AI to write its posts for where to draw the line.
Upgrade trigger: you need more than three channels, want a second person to schedule, or you plan more than about ten posts ahead on a single channel and are tired of refilling. Buffer's page lists Essentials at $5 a month per channel and Team at $10 a month per channel with unlimited team members, so the cost scales with channels rather than with posts.
Mailchimp Free: the list and send caps arrive sooner than you think
Mailchimp's free plan includes one seat, one audience of up to 250 contacts and up to 500 sends a month, with a daily maximum of 250. The pricing page states that the free plan has no email scheduling, no way to remove the Mailchimp branding, limited access to pre-built templates and no marketing automation flows. Generative AI features are listed as not included on the free plan; they appear as an add-on at no extra cost on Standard and Premium only.
In other words, Mailchimp's free plan has no AI at all. If you want AI-drafted emails, draft them in a chat assistant and paste them in.
The arithmetic of 500 sends
A "send" is one email delivered to one contact. Two newsletters to a list of 250 is exactly 500, the whole month. Three newsletters to a list of 170 is 510, one over. The daily cap of 250 adds a second wrinkle: a list of 250 can only be emailed once a day, so a welcome email and a newsletter on the same day will collide.
A short table for planning:
| List size | Newsletters per month that fit in 500 sends |
|---|---|
| 100 | 5 |
| 170 | 2 (a third would need 510) |
| 250 | 2 (500 sends, nothing spare) |
Where the free plan hides its cost
The missing scheduling means someone must press send at the right moment: a newsletter planned for Tuesday at 8am needs you at a screen at 8am. The Mailchimp badge on emails and sign-up forms also stays. Neither is expensive in money, but a childcare nursery sending a termly update to 200 families may not want a vendor badge on parents' emails.
The first paid plan, Essentials, lists at $13 a month for 500 contacts on the price books I checked in September 2026 (Mailchimp shows different prices to some visitors, so check the live page). It lifts the sends cap to ten times your contacts, removes the badge, adds scheduling and brings in flows of up to four steps, though not the generative AI features. Standard is where Mailchimp's AI is offered.
Upgrade trigger: your list passes 250, or you need to send more than twice a month, or you want a four-step welcome series. If the first two apply, compare with a bigger free allowance elsewhere before paying; our newsletter tutorial shows the drafting side.
Metricool Free: one brand, 20 posts and a few AI credits
Metricool's free plan manages one brand across its connected networks, with some exceptions: the pricing page says all your networks apart from LinkedIn and Twitter. It lets you schedule up to 20 posts a month and includes an AI social media assistant. The assistant is metered in credits: 5 credits per brand a month on the free plan, 20 on Starter and 35 on Advanced, per Metricool's comparison table. The free plan's analytics show 30 days of history and five competitor profiles.
Why the 20-post cap bites a local business
20 posts a month is under five a week. A business posting four times a week to two channels needs 32, as the main worked example showed. If you only post to one channel at three a week, 12 posts fit comfortably. So Metricool Free suits a business with a light, single-channel rhythm, or one that wants the analytics view and competitor tracking rather than heavy scheduling.
Watch the credit meter
The comparison table shows that some AI tools in Metricool, such as the AI alt-text generator, use credits on the free tier, while others are included in the plan without using credits. With five credits a month you can generate a few captions and then you are out. Treat it as a taster of the AI, not a daily tool, and use a general chat assistant for the volume.
Upgrade trigger: you need LinkedIn, you need more than 20 posts a month, or you want more than 30 days of analytics. Starter lists from $20 a month on annual billing for up to five brands, which is built for agencies; a single local business pays for brand slots it will never use. Compare it with Buffer's $5 a channel before choosing.
Picking the right free stack for your posting rhythm
You do not need all four. Match the stack to the job that would actually hurt if it stopped.
A music school or nursery with a small list and weekly posts
Canva Free for designs, Buffer Free for two or three channels, Mailchimp Free while the list is under 250. Total cost zero. Review the list size every month; the day it nears 250 you must decide whether to prune inactive contacts or pay.
A kitchen fitter who posts photos of finished jobs
Canva Free for before-and-after layouts, Buffer Free for Instagram and Facebook. Skip Mailchimp until you have a list from showroom or quote enquiries. A simple spreadsheet can hold enquiry details until then.
A care agency that needs LinkedIn for recruitment
Metricool Free excludes LinkedIn, so use Buffer Free for LinkedIn and Facebook. Carers and clients appear in photos only with written consent, so keep posts to staff-approved images. Use Metricool, if at all, for its analytics view.
Making the free plans last longer
Six small habits stretch the same limits further:
- Prune the list quarterly. Remove contacts who have not opened an email in six months. It brings you back under 250 and improves delivery.
- Recycle posts. A post that worked three months ago can run again with a new first line, using none of your AI allowance.
- Use AI for the drafts only. A general chat assistant is a better free caption writer than most tool-bundled ones, since it has no per-month credit cap. Review each draft before posting.
- Save AI uses for what only AI can do. Background removal and image generation burn Canva uses; resizing and text edits often do not need AI.
- Batch top-ups. With Buffer's 10-post queue, set a five-minute Monday ritual to refill.
- Record the date you checked. Free plans change. A note reading "Checked 27 October 2026" prevents decisions based on a stale memory.
A realistic mistake: the queue that quietly emptied
A common failure with capped schedulers is a silent gap. Imagine a nursery that queues ten posts on a Monday, goes on holiday for two weeks and finds the queue empty on day eleven, while the Facebook page goes quiet during enrolment season. The free cap did what it said; nobody was watching. The fix is cheap: set a calendar reminder to look at the queue every Monday, and when the queue has fewer than four posts, refill it before doing anything else.
Ten minutes to check a limit before you build on it
Pricing pages show what a plan promises. Your own account shows what you will actually get. Before moving a month of marketing onto any free plan, run this short test.
- Open the vendor's pricing page and copy the exact free-plan line into a note with today's date, such as "500 sends a month, 250 a day, 250 contacts".
- Open your account and find where the limit is displayed (Canva shows AI usage in your account, Mailchimp shows contacts and sends in the audience and billing screens). If you cannot find a meter, ask yourself how you would notice a breach.
- Do the month's arithmetic on paper, as in the music school table: your planned volume against each limit.
- Find the one limit you would hit first, and write its upgrade trigger beside it.
A filled-in note for the nursery might read: "Mailchimp Free: 250 contacts, 500 sends. Current list 212. Two termly newsletters plus one reminder per term would be 636 sends in the busiest month, so the reminder must go by text message or social post instead. Trigger: list passes 240." That single line prevents an unpleasant discovery on the morning of a send.
If a number on the page and a number in your account disagree, believe the account and plan around its figure until the cause is clear. Promotions, regional pricing and legacy plans can all make two screens differ, and a legacy plan that is more generous than the current free tier is worth keeping for as long as the vendor allows.
When paying earns its fee
Use a simple test before upgrading anything. Write down the task the paid feature removes, the minutes it takes you per month, and your hourly value. A $5 channel fee that saves 30 minutes a month is a bargain at $20 an hour ($10 of time). A $20 plan that saves ten minutes is not. If the number is close, stay free for another month and see if the limit is really hit.
For the bigger picture of what AI costs a small business once you leave free plans, see how much AI costs a small business in 2026. And if you would like help working out which of these tools your business needs at all, that is the kind of question an AI implementation consultation covers; you can ask through the contact page.
Questions about free marketing plans
Can a local business run its marketing on free plans alone?
For a small audience, yes. Buffer's free plan handles three channels, Metricool's free plan handles one brand with 20 scheduled posts a month, Canva Free covers designs, and Mailchimp's free plan sends up to 500 emails a month to 250 contacts. The limits show up when you grow your list or post daily.
Which free plan runs out first?
Usually Mailchimp, because its free plan caps contacts at 250 and sends at 500 a month, and a list of 250 people can only be emailed twice. Canva's AI allowance is next, at up to 20 AI uses on the free plan, which a few image edits can use up.
Do free plans put adverts or branding on my content?
Mailchimp's free plan keeps the Mailchimp badge on emails and sign-up forms; removing it needs a paid plan. The other three tools list no such branding on their free plans, but check the exported design or post before relying on that.
How often do free plan limits change?
Often enough to matter. Vendors rewrite plan tables without much notice, and AI allowances in particular are adjusted as usage grows. Check each vendor's pricing page on the day you decide, and note the date you checked in your records.
Further reads
- Free vs Paid AI Marketing Tools: What Is Worth Paying For — Decide which marketing tools deserve a paid plan.
- Best AI Social Media Tools for Small Businesses (2026) — Wider picks if a free plan is not enough.
- Can AI Run Your Social Media on Autopilot? What Breaks — Learn what breaks when posting runs unattended.
- How Much Time Can AI Save on Social Media Management? — Estimate the hours a scheduler really saves.
- Who in Your Team Actually Needs a Paid AI Licence? — Decide who on the team needs a paid seat.
- Best All-in-One AI for Marketing vs Separate Tools: A Cost Check — One real small-firm marketing stack costed against an all-in-one platform, with a break-even sum, a decision rule and lock-in and export checks.
- Free AI Tools for Restaurants: 7 to Try and Where Free Stops — Seven free AI tools for restaurants by job: menu copy, graphics, posts, sales questions, training, enquiries and a second opinion, each with its free limit.
- Metricool Nonprofit Pricing: What to Check Before a Charity Pays — Metricool publishes no nonprofit discount. See what the free, Starter and Advanced plans cost and what a charity should check before paying.
- AI Poster Maker for a Supermarket: Weekly Offers in Canva — A step-by-step weekly offer poster routine in Canva: one master template, AI for headlines and images, print sizes and a price check.
- AI-Powered Marketing Tools for a Motorcycle Dealer: Spring Campaigns — A ten-week spring plan for a motorcycle dealer: which AI tools to use for used-bike posts, service reminders and demo days, with list prices.
- Free AI Restaurant Menu Generator: What the Free Tiers Allow — Canva Free, ChatGPT and Gemini compared for menu making: AI allowances, watermarks, print resolution and the free route that works.
- Free AI Tool to Create an Advertisement: Five Options for Local Shops — Canva, Adobe Express, ChatGPT, Gemini and Ideogram weighed against the three checks a shop needs: licence, print pixels and watermarks.
- Yoga Workshop Ideas: Plan, Price and Promote a Weekend With AI — A worked weekend workshop: the break-even ticket count, three price tiers, a fact sheet, three emails, five posts and a weekly sales check for studio owners.
- Free AI Video Generator for Small Business Ads: Limits to Check First — Ten free-tier limits to check before a small business builds an ad on a free AI video generator, with a credit sum, a script and a shot list.
- How to Market With AI: What a Local Shop Can Hand Over to It — Which marketing jobs a local shop can hand to AI, which stay with the owner, and the five-minute check that stops invented details reaching customers.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Canva pricing page, Buffer pricing page, Mailchimp marketing pricing page and Metricool pricing page, all fetched 27 October 2026; Mailchimp Essentials list price from the price books checked in September 2026.