In this guide
Quick answer
PagerDuty costs $21 to $41 per user per month billed annually ($25 to $49 monthly), with a free plan for up to 5 users and custom Enterprise pricing. A 25-person on-call team pays $6,300 a year on Professional or $12,300 on Business at list price, before add-ons.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest paid plan: Professional at $21 per user per month, billed annually.
- Teams with ITSM processes usually need Business at $41 per user per month.
- Biggest hidden cost: add-ons like AIOps from $699 a month and full seats for incident watchers.
- Best way to save: move watchers to stakeholder licenses and commit annually.
PagerDuty usually arrives as an engineering tool for on-call paging, then spreads to support, security and leadership. Each new person who needs to see or act on incidents can become a paid user, and add-ons for AI, status pages and automation pile on top.
This guide breaks down every plan and add-on with prices checked against PagerDuty's official pricing page.
How much does PagerDuty cost?
Free
$0
Up to 5 users, 1 on-call schedule, 1 escalation policy, 100 phone and SMS notifications a month, 750+ integrations
Professional
$21
$25 monthly
Unlimited users and phone and SMS alerts, basic Slack and Teams chat, up to 2 teams, external status page with 250 subscribers
Business
$41
$49 monthly
Custom fields, up to 3 custom incident types, advanced ITSM integrations, internal status pages
Enterprise
Custom
Advanced chat with premium Slack actions, 10 custom incident roles, up to 100 incident types, bi-directional ServiceNow sync
PagerDuty Incident Management (Free, Professional, Business, Enterprise) and add-ons. Source: www.pagerduty.com, Prices verified 21 September 2026
PagerDuty charges every full user on the plan, not only people on call, so managers and engineers who only acknowledge the odd incident still cost a full seat unless you use stakeholder licenses, which are sold at $150 per 50 stakeholders a month. Status page subscribers beyond the included allowance cost $89 per 1,000 subscribers a month, AIOps starts at $699 a month on consumption pricing, and standalone PagerDuty Advance starts at $415 a month on an annual commitment. Annual invoicing is available on request.
What each PagerDuty plan includes
| Feature | Free | Professional | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users | Up to 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Phone and SMS notifications | 100 a month | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Slack and Microsoft Teams chat | Not included | Basic | Basic | Advanced |
| External status page | Not included | 250 subscribers | Included | Included |
| Internal status pages | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Custom incident types | Not included | Not included | Up to 3 | Up to 100 |
| ITSM integrations | Not included | Not included | Advanced | Bi-directional ServiceNow sync |
PagerDuty cost calculator
Your estimate
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per year at list price
- per user per month
- —
- Billed
- —
- 3 years
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List prices only. Taxes, custom quotes and negotiated discounts are not included.
Hidden costs to budget for
| Scenario | Annual cost | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Professional, billed annually (25 users) | $6,300 | Headline price |
| ITSM integration needed, so Business annually (25 users) | $12,300 | +$6,000 |
| Professional paid monthly instead of annually (25 users) | $7,500 | +$1,200 |
- Every responder is a full user. Anyone who needs to be paged or manage incidents takes a paid seat, so on-call rotations that grow across teams grow the bill.
- Stakeholder licenses. Execs and support staff who only need updates are sold in packs at $150 per 50 stakeholders a month.
- Status page subscribers. Beyond the included allowance, status pages cost $89 per 1,000 subscribers a month, and premium status pages start at $599 per 1,000.
- AIOps and AI add-ons. AIOps is consumption priced from $699 a month and standalone PagerDuty Advance starts at $415 a month, billed annually.
- Plan jump for ITSM. Needing advanced ITSM integrations moves every user from $21 to $41 a month on annual billing.
Which PagerDuty plan should you choose?
- Free. Choose if up to 5 people share one on-call schedule and 100 phone and SMS alerts a month is enough.
- Professional. Choose if you run on-call for one or two teams and need unlimited phone and SMS alerts.
- Business. Choose if you need internal status pages, custom fields or advanced ITSM integrations.
- Enterprise. Choose if you need bi-directional ServiceNow sync, up to 100 custom incident types or premium Slack actions.
Is PagerDuty worth the price?
PagerDuty is the benchmark for on-call and alerting, and Professional is fair value for engineering teams that just need reliable paging. The real cost comes from Business upgrades, add-ons like AIOps and status pages, and paying full seats for people who only watch incidents.
You are likely overpaying if: Half your paid users are managers or support staff who never go on call, or you moved to Business only for one integration you could handle another way.
How to pay less for PagerDuty
- Move watchers to stakeholder licenses. People who only need incident updates can go on stakeholder packs instead of full user seats.
- Commit annually. Annual billing cuts Professional from $25 to $21 and Business from $49 to $41 per user per month.
- Audit users before renewal. Remove leavers and people outside rotations from schedules and escalation policies before the seat count is fixed.
- Price add-ons separately. Ask for AIOps, PagerDuty Advance and status pages as separate line items so you can drop the ones you do not use.
- Bring competing quotes. Grafana Cloud IRM, incident.io and Better Stack all publish lower per-responder prices.
- Go multi-year. Vendr reports multi-year PagerDuty terms can unlock 15% to 30% savings.
Copy-ready renewal email
Hi [PagerDuty account manager], Our PagerDuty renewal is on [renewal date]. We reviewed usage: [active responders] of [licensed users] were on a schedule or escalation policy in the last 90 days, and [number] users only need incident updates. We would like to renew [target users] full users on [plan] and move the rest to stakeholder licenses, on a [term] term with increases capped at [cap]. We are also evaluating Grafana Cloud IRM and incident.io. Please send your best offer, including add-ons, by [date].
PagerDuty alternatives and what they cost
| Tool | Entry price | Cheaper when |
|---|---|---|
| Grafana Cloud IRM | $20 per active IRM user per month (Pro, first 3 users in the $19 platform fee) | You already use Grafana for monitoring |
| incident.io | $15 per user per month (Team, annual) plus $10 for on-call | You run incidents in Slack and want on-call bundled |
| Better Stack | $29 per responder license per month (annual) | You want uptime monitoring, status pages and on-call in one tool |
The bigger picture: why PagerDuty bills drift
PagerDuty spend drifts because engineering owns the tool, but seats and add-ons get added during incidents, when nobody is thinking about cost. By renewal, schedules include leavers, watchers hold full seats and an AIOps trial has turned into a contract line.
Usage spikes surprise finance
PagerDuty bills move with usage, and nobody owns the budget line.
Spend by vendor, team and category against budget, synced with your ERP.
Shadow accounts on cards
Engineers open new PagerDuty accounts or workspaces outside procurement.
Purchase requests with approvals
New tools and upgrades are requested and approved before anyone buys.
Commitments renew unnoticed
Annual commits and plan renewals roll over before anyone reviews usage.
Contract management with renewal alerts
Commit terms, renewal dates and owners tracked with alerts ahead of time.
Variable invoices are hard to check
Usage invoices rarely match the original PO amount.
AP automation with PO matching
Invoices matched to POs and receipts, with exceptions held before payment.
Security reviews start from zero
SOC 2 reports and DPAs for PagerDuty live in someone's inbox.
Vendor onboarding and compliance
Vendor documents collected once, tracked for expiry and kept audit-ready.
The bottom line
Professional covers most on-call teams, and Business is worth it only when internal status pages or ITSM integrations are real requirements. Ninety days before renewal, audit who is on a schedule, move watchers to stakeholder licenses and price each add-on separately. Zapro is built to run that renewal habit across every tool you pay for.
PagerDuty pricing FAQs
How much does PagerDuty cost per user?
PagerDuty Professional costs $21 per user per month billed annually or $25 monthly. Business costs $41 annually or $49 monthly. Enterprise is quoted by sales. Add-ons like AIOps, PagerDuty Advance, status pages and stakeholder licenses are priced separately.
Is there a free version of PagerDuty?
Yes. The Free plan covers up to 5 users with one on-call schedule, one escalation policy, 100 phone and SMS notifications a month and more than 750 integrations. Paid plans also come with a 14-day free trial that needs no credit card.
How much is PagerDuty Enterprise?
PagerDuty does not publish Enterprise prices. Vendr reports a median PagerDuty contract of $40,000 a year across 701 purchases, with buyers saving about 13.2% on average through negotiation. Your quote depends on users, add-ons and term length.
Can you get a discount on PagerDuty?
Yes. Annual billing saves about 16%, multi-year terms are reported by Vendr to unlock 15% to 30% savings, and moving watchers to stakeholder licenses cuts full seats. Competing quotes from Grafana Cloud IRM or incident.io add leverage.
Is PagerDuty cheaper billed annually?
Yes. Professional drops from $25 to $21 per user per month and Business from $49 to $41. For a 25-person team on Business, annual billing saves $2,400 a year compared with paying monthly, which is roughly a 16% saving.
What is the cheapest alternative to PagerDuty?
Grafana Cloud IRM has a free tier for 3 active users and costs $20 per active user per month on Pro. incident.io Team starts at $15 per user per month billed annually, plus $10 for on-call.
