Xero licensing is the set of terms under which Xero Limited, a New Zealand company, supplies its online accounting and financial software. A customer does not buy a copy of software. A subscriber creates a subscription for a Xero organisation, pays a monthly fee set by a regional pricing plan, and decides which people are invited to use the service and at what level of access.[1] The pricing pages for the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia all state that plans carry “No per-user license fees”, so the licensing question for most organisations is not a count of seats but a count of the other quantities that a plan includes: approved invoices and bills, people paid through payroll, users claiming expenses, users tracking projects and payments made through the platform.[2][3][4]
Three separate commercial relationships sit under the Xero name. Businesses and their advisers contract under the Terms of use. Accountants, bookkeepers and advisers who want free practice software, partner-only plans and client discounts also accept the Partner Terms.[5] Software developers who connect an application to Xero’s APIs accept the Developer Platform terms and, from 2 March 2026, pay a monthly platform fee set by connections and data volume.[6][7] Each relationship has its own metric, and a software asset manager who finds Xero in an environment will usually need to identify which of the three applies.
Editions
Xero’s editions are regional. The contracting Xero entity is “the Xero entity you contract with and pay fees to based on the edition of the Xero product you’re using”, and section 77 of the Terms of use lists seven entities, each with its own governing law and venue: Xero Australia Pty Limited (Victoria), Xero Software (Canada) Ltd. (Ontario), Xero (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Xero South Africa Proprietary Limited, Xero (UK) Limited (England), Xero, Inc. (California) and Xero (NZ) Limited (New Zealand and the rest of the world).[1]
Plan names differ by country:
| Edition | Plan names sold on the pricing page | Included add-on limits |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Early, Growing, Established | Expenses and Projects on Established; Payroll and Inventory Plus optional[2] |
| United Kingdom | Simple, Ignite, Grow, Comprehensive, Ultimate | Payroll for 1, 5 and 10 people, expenses for 1, 5 and 10 users on Grow, Comprehensive and Ultimate[3] |
| Australia | Ignite, Grow, Comprehensive, Ultimate 10, 20, 50 and 100, Ultra | Payroll for 2, 5 and 10 or more people on the Grow to Ultimate plans[4] |
The detailed comparison, including New Zealand and Canada, is in Xero pricing plans by country. Xero withdrew its earlier Starter, Standard and Premium plans in the United Kingdom, which are no longer sold since the new plans became available on 12 September 2024.[3] Canada still lists Starter, Standard and Premium.[9]
Two partner-only editions exist: Xero Cashbook and Xero Ledger, which accountants buy on behalf of small clients.[5] They are covered in Xero Partner Program and Partner Edition plans.
Metrics
Xero publishes no licence metric glossary. The metrics below are the quantities its Terms of use, pricing pages and developer pages use to price or limit use. Each has a catalog row.
- Subscription: one per Xero organisation on a pricing plan, billed monthly.
- Invited user: a person other than the subscriber invited into the subscription. Invited users are not charged a licence fee, but they can trigger usage charges.[3]
- Approved invoices per month: the cap on the entry-level plan.
- Payroll person, Expenses user and Projects user: included numbers with additional per-unit charges.
- Online bill payment: included domestic payments per month on higher plans.
- Partner Points and Practice Management user: partner tier and practice tool quantities.
- Connection, API egress gigabyte and API call: developer-side quantities.
Counting / floors
For a customer organisation the main floor is the entry plan’s cap. In the United States, the Early plan sends quotes and 20 invoices and enters 5 bills, and the footnote states that the limits “apply to both approving and sending invoices” and that transactions started by app partners may count toward the limit.[2] The UK Simple plan allows 10 invoices a month.[3] See Approved invoices per month and the rule Early plan limits approved invoices and bills.
Xero’s fair use principle adds a general ceiling. Section 52 says that “responsible use means not using our services in a way we see as excessive or unreasonable” and that some services may be subject to limits “such as a cap on the number of monthly transactions”. Xero says it will tell a customer who breaches it and ask them to stop within 14 days before it may suspend or terminate.[1] The Terms of use do not publish a numeric cap. See Fair use principle can cap monthly transactions.
Billing is monthly. Invoices are issued at the end of the billing period, and usage charges for payroll, projects or expenses are invoiced for the previous month.[3] A customer who moves to a cheaper plan can do so one month after upgrading.[2]
Virtualization & partitioning
Not applicable. Xero is delivered as a hosted service, and the Terms of use contain no hardware, virtualisation or partitioning rules. The service is not installed on customer servers.[1]
Cloud / BYOL
Not applicable. There is no bring-your-own-licence model. Xero’s terms say that new or updated features may be released gradually and may not reach all customers at the same time, and that some services are available through other companies’ services such as the Apple App Store.[1]
Programs
- Free period and introductory offers. A customer who selects a plan for a free period has all features of that plan, while the trial edition is limited. Regional offers (80% off for 3 months in the United States and Australia, 90% off for 6 months in the United Kingdom) apply to the base plan only, not to add-ons, usage or payment fees.[1][2][3] See Free period and introductory offers.
- Connected platforms. If a bank or financial platform embeds Xero, the price is set by that platform and “may be different to our pricing plans”.[1] See Connected platform subscription.
- Partner Program and Partner Edition plans. Free to join, with certification and paid-client prerequisites.[5]
- Xero Developer plans. Five plans, Starter to Enterprise, effective 2 March 2026.[6]
- Payments services. Stripe, Crezco, Airwallex, Melio and pay by bank are third-party services under their own agreements.[8]
Audits and compliance
The Terms of use for subscribers contain no audit clause. Compliance runs through the fair use principle, the prohibition on reselling or leasing the services “in any way not expressly permitted”, and Xero’s right to terminate or suspend for breach not remedied within 14 days.[1] Developers face an explicit monitoring right: Xero says it uses “automated monitoring and other measures” and “may conduct audits” to verify compliance with the developer terms.[7]
Tax treatment is a further compliance point. Depending on region, subscription fees may be inclusive or exclusive of transactional taxes, as shown in the pricing plan.[1] Australian prices include GST, while United States and United Kingdom prices exclude tax and VAT.[2][3][4]
Out of scope
This article does not cover third-party apps sold through the Xero App Store, which carry the app provider’s own fees and terms, nor hardware or tax-filing obligations. It does not cover Syft Analytics, Hubdoc or Xero Tax beyond noting them as separately termed services; the Terms of use say additional services may carry an additional fee and their own terms.[1] Pricing shown is that published on the retrieval date and the plan details can change.