OnPay Pricing 2026: $49 Base + $6 per Worker

Key takeaway: $49 a month plus $6 per worker is OnPay's price for full-service payroll. Its pricing page, read on 29 October 2026, puts 10 workers at $109 a month and 50 workers at $349, with unlimited pay runs and multi-state payroll included. HR, Time Tracking, Compliance Resources and Live HR Support are paid add-ons, and three bundles cut $29 to $44 a month off a 10-worker bill.

OnPay is US payroll and HR software for small businesses. It sells one base plan, Payroll Essentials, and lets you add HR, time tracking and benefits on top. Its closest published-price rivals are Gusto, Justworks, while Paychex quotes its prices. OnPay sits in our top 10 payroll software comparison.

Every price below was read in a rendered browser from a US connection on 29 October 2026, including OnPay's cost calculator, which we drove at 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 300 workers. The arithmetic comes from a script committed with this article. Two rules shape the real bill: every worker included in a pay run counts, even at $0 net pay, and the per-worker fee is charged once a month no matter how many times you run payroll.

How much does OnPay cost?

OnPay's page leads with "Get started at just $49 base + $6/worker per month. No hidden fees, ever." That one plan, Payroll Essentials, covers full-service payroll, unlimited pay runs, multi-state payroll, hiring and onboarding basics, benefits administration and support. The cost calculator returned these totals.

The per-year column is our arithmetic, twelve times the monthly price. Because the $49 base is fixed, the all-in cost per worker falls fast with headcount: a 10-person company pays $10.90 a worker, a 50-person company $6.98.

OnPay's sign-up page says "Your first month is free," so the first year for a steady 10-worker payroll would be 11 paid months, or $1,199 at list price.

What do OnPay's add-ons cost?

Four add-ons sit on top of Payroll Essentials. Benefits has no software fee: the page says "Pay plan premiums only," and the calculator shows "Free integration + admin."

In the calculator, Compliance Resources and Live HR Support appear as switches under the HR add-on. Even without HR, Payroll Essentials includes what OnPay calls Team Basics: its help center lists an offer letter eSignature template, offer tracking, and file requests that collect Forms W-4 and I-9.

How much do OnPay bundles save?

OnPay discounts three popular combinations. In each case the list price equals Payroll Essentials plus the add-ons, and the discount comes off both the base and the per-worker rate.

The calculator confirmed the 10-worker figures, showing "Bundling saves: $29 per month" for the first two and "$44 per month" for the full set. A 10-person hourly team on the Hourly bundle pays $170 a month for payroll, time clocks, PTO tracking and the HR dashboard.

How does OnPay bill each month?

OnPay's billing FAQ explains three rules that change what you pay:

1. Lookback billing. Each bill covers workers paid in the previous period. OnPay's own example: pay four people in March and your April charge is $49 + $24 = $73.
2. Every worker in a pay run counts. Its pricing article says the fee applies to "each employee or contractor who's included in at least one pay run," even with no hours or earnings entered. Uncheck people who should not be paid.
3. Run payroll as often as you like. "The per-employee fee applies only once per month," so weekly, biweekly or off-cycle runs do not add cost.

There are a few extras. Mailing year-end forms costs $10 per form (self-printing is free), so mailing W-2s to 10 workers adds $100 once a year. Sales tax applies in many states. OnPay says it is "unable to offer student or other discounts." Its terms of service (updated 12 February 2025) let either side end the service with 30 days' written notice and let OnPay change fees, with an aim, not an obligation, to give 30 days' notice.

How does OnPay pricing compare to Gusto, Justworks and Paychex?

All four were read on their own pricing pages on 29 October 2026. The table prices payroll alone for 10 workers.

OnPay and Gusto Simple cost the same, but Gusto's pricing page limits Simple to one state. A business with workers in two states compares OnPay with Gusto Plus instead: $200 against $109 for 10 workers, $91 or 83.5% more, rising to $181 more at 25 workers. Gusto Plus adds features such as next-day pay and contractor invoice management, so it is not a like-for-like bundle.

Justworks Payroll is $21 a month more than OnPay at 10 workers and $51 more at 25. Paychex publishes no price: every package on its plan comparison page says "Request Pricing." Its current offer gives new clients with 1 to 250 employees up to six free months through April 2027, but only for a qualifying bundle on a one-year service agreement signed, with a first payroll run, during a promotion that ends 31 October 2026 unless Paychex extends it. For the wider market see our Homebase pricing breakdown, the top 10 HRIS platforms and the recruiting software pricing index.

Where does Noon fit next to OnPay?

OnPay pays people once they are hired and handles offer letters and I-9s at onboarding. The step before that, finding and contacting the right candidates, is where Noon works: an AI sourcer that searches the whole web, not just LinkedIn, evaluates candidates against your role's criteria, finds their contact details, runs personalised email and SMS outreach and books interviews.

Noon sells one plan with unlimited sourcing, unlimited email enrichment, unlimited contacts, unlimited agents and unlimited seats, so the price does not climb with every hire the way per-worker payroll does. Noon does not publish a dollar price; the pricing page explains how to get a quote. For onboarding tools that sit between the two, see our employee onboarding software list.

Sources and methodology

• OnPay pricing page, read rendered in Chrome via Playwright from a US connection on 29 October 2026: plan card, add-on prices, the three bundles, the "always included" list, and the cost calculator set to 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 300 workers with each add-on switched on. (onpay.com/pricing redirects to OnPay's accountant partner page, so the business pricing page is the one linked from the OnPay homepage.)
• OnPay help center: OnPay Pricing, FAQ: Account and billing and Add HR to your subscription, read 29 October 2026.
• OnPay get started page and terms of service sections 6 and 10, read 29 October 2026.
• Gusto pricing, Justworks pricing and the Paychex plan comparison page with its promotion terms, read rendered on 29 October 2026.
• Vendr has no OnPay listing (404 on 29 October 2026), so there is no buyer-reported figure.
• Demand check: DataForSEO Google Ads volume, US, 29 October 2026: 140 searches a month each for "onpay pricing" and "onpay price," 70 for "onpay payroll pricing."
• Yearly totals, per-worker costs, bundle savings and the comparison table come from seo/research/stats/onpay-pricing-2026/compute.py. Exact quotes and fetch times are in the committed sources.json.

Limitations

• These are point-in-time US list prices on 29 October 2026, before sales tax. OnPay's terms allow fee changes.
• The calculator stops at 300 workers; larger companies were not priced.
• Benefits costs depend on the insurance plans chosen and are not included in any total.
• The comparison is plan to plan. Gusto Plus and Justworks Payroll include features OnPay sells as add-ons, and the reverse, so equal prices do not mean equal bundles.
• Paychex publishes no prices, so it could not be compared on cost.
• The 10-worker and 25-worker companies are illustrative sizes, not measured customers.

FAQ

How much does OnPay cost per month?

OnPay's Payroll Essentials plan costs $49 a month plus $6 per worker, read on 29 October 2026. One worker is $55 a month, 10 workers $109 and 50 workers $349.

Does OnPay charge per payroll run?

No. OnPay includes unlimited pay runs, and its help center says the per-employee fee "applies only once per month," however often you run payroll.

Do contractors count toward OnPay's per-worker fee?

Yes. The fee applies to each employee or contractor included in at least one pay run in the billing period, even if they are paid $0.

Is OnPay cheaper than Gusto?

For payroll alone, OnPay and Gusto Simple cost the same, $49 plus $6 a person. Gusto Simple covers one state, while OnPay includes multi-state payroll, so a multi-state business pays $109 a month for 10 workers on OnPay against $200 on Gusto Plus.

Does OnPay have a free trial?

OnPay's sign-up page says "Your first month is free." It offers no student or other discounts, according to its pricing help article.

How much is OnPay HR?

The HR add-on is $15 a month plus $2 per worker, or $35 a month for 10 workers. Compliance Resources adds $10 and Live HR Support $65 a month, and bundling HR with them saves $29 a month at 10 workers.

About the author

Rey Sivji is Head of Growth at Noon AI and checked these prices on 29 October 2026. Spotted a price change or a figure we should add? Email rey@noon.ai.