Link in bio tools compared
Compared side by side, link in bio tools differ on one number: the cut of each sale. Instagram already gives you five free links, so a tool earns its place only when you sell. Free plans take 9% to 12%; paid plans take 0%, and Linktree Pro pays for itself once sales pass $125 a month.
- Not selling yet: Instagram's five free bio links are enough
- Selling a little: a free plan, at 9% to 12% of each sale
- Selling over $125 a month: a 0% plan such as Linktree Pro costs less
- Compare the cut per sale before the monthly price
Which link in bio tool should you use?
A link in bio tool is a single mobile web page, hosted by a service such as Linktree, Beacons or Stan, that gathers every place you want followers to go behind the one link in your profile. The right one depends on whether you sell. The paid features worth having are the ones that cut the fee per sale.
Instagram’s bio links help page lets you add up to five links to your profile, free. If you only send people to a video, a newsletter and a shop, that is your link in bio tool already.
Linktree’s seller fee is 12% on its Free plan, set out in Linktree’s guide to selling digital products on Instagram in February 2026. A 0% plan at $15 a month pays for itself once you sell more than $125 a month, because 12% of $125 is $15.
Divide the monthly price by the fee per sale it removes. The answer is the sales level where the paid plan becomes the cheaper one.
What to do next: add up what you sold through your bio last month, then pick the plan whose break-even sits below that number.
This page sits inside the wider guide to how Instagram creators make money, part of CreatorSync’s Earn section for content creators. Prices are in US dollars, as the tools publish them, and were checked in October 2026.
How do link in bio tools work?
A link in bio tool gives you one short web address to paste into your profile. That address opens a page you design: buttons, embeds, a shop, an email sign-up.
Instagram’s own five links do the first job and none of the second. They take no cut because they sell nothing: no checkout, no product page, no email capture.
The tools make their money twice over. Once through a monthly plan, and again through a share of what you sell. The second grows with you, which is why it decides the choice.
2026 brought the first crack in the bio-link model. In March, Meta confirmed to Engadget’s report on Instagram caption links that it was testing clickable links in feed captions for Meta Verified subscribers, capped at 10 links a month. Meta gave no date for a wider release, so the bio is still the one link every account gets.
The link is only as useful as what sits behind it. Fan Instagram Subscriptions and Gifts, the Instagram monetisation feature on Reels, are paid inside Instagram and need no bio link at all. If Reels are your main channel, our guide to Instagram Reels monetisation covers what Instagram pays directly; the bio link is for everything it does not.
What do link in bio tools cost?
Link in bio tools charge in two ways, a monthly fee and a cut of each sale, and the cheapest one depends on how much you sell. This is what each charges, checked in October 2026.
| Tool | Free plan | Paid plans, billed monthly (US$) | Fee per sale | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram’s own profile links | Yes, up to five links | None | No selling, no fee | Instagram’s bio links help page |
| Linktree | Yes | Starter $8, Pro $15, Premium $35 | 12% Free, 9% Starter, 0% Pro and Premium | Linktree’s pricing page; Linktree’s selling guide |
| Beacons | Yes | Creator $10, Creator Plus $30, Creator Max $100 | 9% Free and Creator, 0% Creator Plus and Max | Beacons pricing page |
| Stan | No; 14-day free trial | Creator $29, Creator Pro $99 | 0% on every plan | Stan’s pricing guide |
| Carrd | Yes | Pro Lite $9 a year, Pro Standard $19 a year, Pro Plus $49 a year | No built-in store | Carrd Pro plans page |
Linktree’s pricing page lists 0% selling fees on Pro. Card processing is charged on top on every plan: Linktree’s guide to transaction and processing fees puts Stripe’s fee at 2.9% + $0.30 per sale, plus US$0.25 per payout.
Annual billing lowers the monthly price on Linktree, Beacons and Stan. Beacons charges $100 a year for Creator, against $10 a month.
Carrd is the outlier. It has no store and takes no cut, from $9 a year, which suits a creator who already sells through a separate checkout.
When does a paid plan start saving money?
A paid plan saves money once the fee it removes on your sales is bigger than its monthly price. These are the break-evens for four switches between the plans above.
| Switch | Extra cost a month | Fee per sale removed | Paid plan is cheaper above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linktree Starter to Linktree Pro | $7 | 9% | $78 a month in sales |
| Linktree Free to Linktree Pro | $15 | 12% | $125 a month in sales |
| Linktree Free to Stan Creator | $29 | 12% | $242 a month in sales |
| Beacons Free to Beacons Creator Plus | $30 | 9% | $333 a month in sales |
Calculated from the prices in the table above, billed monthly.
Most creators should stay on a free plan for longer than the upgrade screens suggest. Linktree’s 2023 Creator Report found that half of creators had made money from their content in the previous 12 months, and put 72% of them under $500 for the year. That is about $42 a month, below every line in this table.
What should you do next?
- Count last month’s sales through your bio. Zero means Instagram’s five free links are all you need.
- Find your break-even. Divide each plan’s monthly price by the fee per sale it removes, and upgrade only when your sales sit above the result.
- Read the fee row before the feature list. The cut per sale is charged every month you sell; a discount on the plan price is not.
- Decide what the link sells. Compare the routes in our guide to how many followers you need on Instagram before you pay for a storefront.
Frequently asked questions
What changed in link in bio tools in 2026?
Instagram started testing links outside the bio. Meta confirmed in March 2026 that it was testing clickable links in feed captions for Meta Verified subscribers, up to 10 a month, with no date for a wider release.
Is Linktree free?
Yes, with a cut. The Free plan costs nothing a month but takes 12% of each sale, according to Linktree’s February 2026 selling guide, and Stripe’s card processing comes on top. Paid plans run from $8 to $35 a month, billed monthly.
Which link in bio tools take no fee per sale?
Stan takes 0% on every plan, from $29 a month. Beacons drops its 9% store fee on Creator Plus and Creator Max, and Linktree lists 0% selling fees on Pro and Premium. Carrd has no store, so it has no fee per sale to charge.
What is the cheapest way to add more than one link to your Instagram bio?
Instagram’s own profile links are the cheapest: up to five, free. A paid tool earns its place only when you need a page with a shop or an email sign-up behind one link.