If you are looking for invoicing software that does not charge extra for recurring invoices, you probably bill some of the same clients every month. A retainer, a maintenance contract, a cleaning schedule, a membership. The work is steady and the invoice is the same each time, so the one thing you want is for it to go out on its own. Then you find the recurring feature sits on a higher plan, or you discover something else about it is costing you money.
The short answer: recurring invoices can cost extra in three ways. The feature itself can be locked to a higher plan. Every automatic payment can carry a card fee through the tool's own payments. And each recurring invoice counts toward any monthly invoice limit. Check all three, because a tool can pass the first and still cost you on the other two.
Is this you?
- You copy last month's invoice, change the date and send it again, every month.
- You have forgotten to send a retainer invoice at least once and noticed weeks later.
- Your regular clients pay by card, and you have never added up what the fees come to in a year.
- You upgraded, or were asked to upgrade, just to make invoices repeat.
- You are close to your plan's monthly invoice limit and most of those invoices are the same ones.
The second one is the expensive one. A retainer invoice that goes out late gets paid late, and one that is never sent is money you earned and did not ask for.
The three ways recurring invoices cost extra
1. The feature sits on a higher plan
Some tools include recurring invoices on every paid plan. Others keep them for the top tier, so the cheapest way to automate one invoice a month is to pay for the whole premium plan. Two examples, at list prices in US dollars checked for our comparison pages in August 2026:
- Invoice2go keeps recurring invoices on Premium, at $44.99 a month. Its $7.99 Starter plan also allows only 2 invoices a month. See Billbooks vs Invoice2go.
- Wave sends invoices for free, but recurring invoices, your logo and automatic reminders are on Pro at $19 a month. See Billbooks vs Wave.
Billbooks includes recurring invoices on every plan, from $7.95 a month. So does PayPal Invoicing, which is free to use, and that is where the second cost comes in.
2. Every automatic payment carries a fee
A tool that is free or cheap often earns its money from the payments instead. That is fine for a one-off invoice. On a recurring one, the fee comes out every month, for as long as the client stays.
Take a $500 monthly retainer paid by card, at the rates our comparison pages list:
- PayPal Invoicing, about 3.49% plus 49 cents: $17.94 a month, or $215.28 a year. See Billbooks vs PayPal Invoicing.
- Square Invoices, about 3.3% plus 30 cents on its free plan: $16.80 a month, or $201.60 a year. See Billbooks vs Square Invoices.
- Wave, 2.9% plus 60 cents, in the US and Canada only: $15.10 a month, or $181.20 a year.
That is for one client. Ten clients on the same retainer pay about ten times as much. Card processing always costs something, whichever tool you use. What differs is whether the rate is fixed by the invoicing tool or set by a payment provider you choose and can change. Billbooks works the second way: you connect your own gateway, so the rate is whatever you arrange with it. The lowest-fees comparison goes into that in more detail.
3. Recurring invoices count toward invoice limits
A recurring invoice is still an invoice. On a plan with a monthly cap, every one uses up a slot, and a business with steady clients reaches the cap faster than it expects.
- Xero Early, at $25 a month, stops at 20 invoices a month. Twenty-one retainer clients means the $55 Growing plan. See Billbooks vs Xero.
- Invoice2go allows 2 invoices a month on Starter and 5 on Professional, before counting whether recurring is available at all.
- Zoho Invoice is free up to 500 invoices a year, a little over 40 a month. Plenty for most, but worth checking if you bill dozens of clients monthly. See Billbooks vs Zoho Invoice.
Billbooks has no monthly invoice limit on any paid plan. Its limits are users and clients by plan, so check the client number if you bill a large list: 100 on Basic and 500 on Standard.
See what card fees take from a recurring invoice
Enter the invoice amount, the percentage and fixed fee your tool or provider charges, and how many invoices a month. You get what the fees come to, and you can compare a second rate side by side. Free, no signup.
What a recurring invoice should do for you
Whichever tool you use, check it can do these, because a recurring feature that needs watching is only half automated:
- Repeat on your schedule, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, from a start date you choose.
- Stop on its own, after an end date or a set number of invoices, so a finished contract does not keep billing.
- Send automatically, or create a draft for you to check, for clients whose amount changes a little each month.
- Follow up if unpaid, with reminders you do not have to send yourself.
- Let you change the amount when your price goes up, without starting the whole thing again.
What to do now, with what you already have
- List your repeat clients. Who you bill on a schedule, how much, and how often. Most people find more than they expected.
- Check which plan the feature is on in your current tool. If you are paying for a top tier mainly for recurring invoices, that is worth knowing.
- Add up the fees. Take the monthly card fees on your repeat invoices and multiply by twelve. Then ask whether those clients would pay by bank transfer, which usually costs far less.
- Count against the cap. Add your recurring invoices to your one-off ones and compare with your plan's monthly limit, including where you expect to be in six months.
- Set an end date on every recurring invoice tied to a contract, today, so none keeps billing a client who has left.
Tools for the money side of repeat billing
If you also want to know what else sits behind higher plans, the every feature on every plan comparison lists it tool by tool, and invoicing software that does not charge per user covers what adding a colleague costs.
Frequently asked questions
What invoicing software does not charge extra for recurring invoices?
Billbooks includes recurring invoices on every plan from $7.95 a month, and PayPal Invoicing supports them for free, though it charges a fee on each card payment. Invoice2go keeps them on its $44.99 Premium plan and Wave on its $19 Pro plan, at August 2026 list prices.
Do recurring invoices count toward monthly invoice limits?
Yes. A recurring invoice is still an invoice, so on a plan with a cap, each one uses a slot. Xero Early stops at 20 invoices a month and Invoice2go Starter at 2, so a business with many repeat clients can reach the limit quickly.
How much do card fees cost on a monthly retainer?
On a $500 monthly invoice paid by card, PayPal's rate of about 3.49% plus 49 cents comes to $17.94 a month, or $215.28 a year. Rates vary by tool and provider, so run your own amounts through a payment fee calculator.
Can a recurring invoice stop automatically?
In most invoicing tools, yes, if you set it up to. Choose an end date or a number of invoices when you create it. Doing this for every contract-based recurring invoice stops a finished contract from billing a client who has already left.
Should recurring invoices send automatically or as drafts?
Send automatically when the amount is the same every time, such as a fixed retainer. Use drafts when the amount changes a little each month, so you can check it before it goes. Many tools let you choose per invoice.
Is bank transfer cheaper than card for recurring payments?
Usually, yes. Bank payments tend to cost far less than card payments, often a small flat fee. For a client you bill every month, asking them to pay by bank transfer can save more over a year than most software subscriptions cost.
