Linear
Issue tracking and product planning for software teams, with a built-in agent that can write code
What is Linear?
Linear is a product development system for software teams: issues, projects, cycles and initiatives, with triage, customer requests and integrations with GitHub, GitLab and Slack. Linear Agent creates issues from Slack or Teams conversations, drafts project updates and plans cycles, and coding sessions let it write code and open pull requests. Plans are per user, shown billed yearly. The free plan allows 250 issues and 2 teams; Basic adds unlimited issues and 5 teams; Business adds unlimited and private teams, Triage Intelligence, Insights and Linear Asks. Coding sessions and Loops draw on a prepaid AI credit balance.
Good for
- Software product teams planning cycles and roadmaps
- Engineering teams that assign issues to coding agents
- Startups that want an issue tracker with a usable free tier
Key features
- Issues, projects, cycles and initiatives with triage, sub-teams and releases
- Linear Agent: turns Slack or Teams conversations into issues, drafts project updates and plans cycles
- Coding sessions in which Linear Agent writes code in a cloud sandbox and returns a reviewable diff
- Loops that run agent work on a schedule or when work matches criteria
- Triage Intelligence (Business) that suggests assignees, teams, labels and duplicates
- Linear Asks intake from Slack, email and web forms (Business)
- Integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Figma and Sentry, plus MCP access and coding agents such as Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot and Devin
- Apps for web, macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, with an API and webhooks
Limitations to know about
- The free plan is capped at 250 issues and 2 teams
- The pricing page shows only yearly-billed prices, although the docs say monthly billing is available
- Coding sessions and Loops draw on a prepaid AI credit balance on top of seat fees
- No refunds for mid-subscription cancellations
Linear pricing
Linear has a free plan. Basic and Business cost $10 and $16 per user a month billed annually. Enterprise is priced on request.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues, 10MB uploads, Linear Agent |
| Basic | $10/user/mo billed yearly | 5 teams, unlimited issues and uploads, admin roles, Loops, coding sessions |
| Business | $16/user/mo billed yearly | Unlimited teams, private teams and guests, Triage Intelligence, Code Intelligence, Insights, Linear Asks, Zendesk and Intercom integrations |
| Enterprise | Custom, annual billing only | SAML and SCIM, granular admin controls, advanced org modelling, migration support, priority support, account management |
Free plan limits: Unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues, 10MB file uploads; includes the agent platform, Linear Agent and MCP access
What a team pays: For a team of five on Basic: $50 a month billed annually ($600 a year).
Costs on top of a plan
- AI credits: Prepaid balance, minimum top-up $10 (Used by coding sessions and Loops; coding sessions bill model tokens at provider rates plus $0.25 per 20-minute sandbox block; credits expire after 12 months)
Linear alternatives
Jira
Atlassian's project and issue tracker with Rovo AI agents on paid plans and a free plan for 10 users
Plane
Open-source project management and wiki with AI agents, on Plane's cloud or self-hosted, including air-gapped
Asana
Work management with prebuilt AI Teammates, an AI chief of staff, and unlimited automations from Starter
ClickUp
Work management app combining tasks, docs, chat and AI in one workspace
monday.com
Board-based work management with AI agents and credits on every paid plan, sold in seat buckets from 3 seats
Trello
Kanban boards with built-in automation and an Inbox for to-dos from email and chat, free for 10 collaborators
Compare Linear with these side by side
Head to head: Linear vs Jira
Frequently asked questions
Is Linear free?
Linear has a free plan. Unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues, 10MB file uploads; includes the agent platform, Linear Agent and MCP access. Paid plans start at $10/user/mo billed annually.
How much does Linear cost?
Basic and Business cost $10 and $16 per user a month billed annually. Enterprise is priced on request. There is also a free plan. On Basic: $10 per user a month billed yearly; 5 teams, unlimited issues and file uploads, admin roles, Loops. Billed for unsuspended users. Coding sessions and Loops use prepaid AI credits on top. Prices as published on Linear's pricing page on 21 October 2026.
How do Linear AI credits work?
Coding sessions and Loops are billed from a prepaid, workspace-level balance in US dollars rather than a per-seat fee. The minimum top-up is $10, funds expire 12 months after purchase, and other Linear AI features are included in the plan.
What is Linear used for?
Linear is a product development system for software teams: issues, projects, cycles and initiatives, with triage, customer requests and integrations with GitHub, GitLab and Slack. People use it for software product teams planning cycles and roadmaps, engineering teams that assign issues to coding agents and startups that want an issue tracker with a usable free tier.
What are the alternatives to Linear?
Tools that do a similar job include Jira, Plane, Asana, ClickUp and monday.com. Each has its own page here with its plans, limits and prices.
Who makes Linear?
Linear is made by Linear Orbit, Inc. The company was founded in 2019.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from Linear Orbit, Inc.'s own pages, read on the dates shown.
- linear.app/pricing (plan prices (billed yearly), free plan limits, plan features, AI and agent features by plan) read 21 October 2026
- linear.app/docs/billing-and-plans (billing: monthly or yearly options, Enterprise yearly, per-user billing, no refunds, education discounts) read 21 October 2026
- linear.app/docs/ai-credits (AI credits pricing: coding sessions, Loops, top-ups, expiry) read 21 October 2026
- linear.app/ai (Linear Agent, Triage Intelligence, Loops, coding sessions) read 21 October 2026
- linear.app/ (product description) read 21 October 2026
- linear.app/download (platforms: web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android) read 21 October 2026
- linear.app/about (company: founded 2019, team distributed across North America and Europe) read 21 October 2026
- linear.app/terms (company legal name (Linear Orbit, Inc.)) read 21 October 2026
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