Buffer
Draft, repurpose, and schedule social posts from one calendar, with an optional AI Assistant included even on the Free plan.
Last verified
The verdict on Buffer: Solo creators and small teams who want social scheduling and AI drafting in one workspace Buffer combines social scheduling with AI drafting without making the assistant a separate subscription. Pricing: Free (3 channels; 10 queued posts/channel) / Essentials $6/channel/mo or $60/channel/year / Team $12/channel/mo or $120/channel/year; base rates for first 10 channels.
Best For
Solo creators and small teams who want social scheduling and AI drafting in one workspace
Standout Feature
AI drafting is included on the Free plan alongside three connected channels and refillable scheduling queues
TL;DR
Start with the Free plan for a small publishing queue; price your actual channel mix before upgrading.
Alternatives
Fit Score: use-case reference
How this is scoredBuffer scored 1 to 5 on five dimensions for the named use cases below. Part of our catalog-wide use-case reference, not a product-quality review rating.
Solo creator managing a few social profiles with AI drafting included
4.2/5- Capability
- 4/5
- Reliability
- 4/5
- Value
- 5/5
- Ease
- 5/5
- Compatibility
- 3/5
The Free plan includes three channels, an optional AI Assistant, and ten refillable queue slots per channel. This covers a small recurring publishing workflow, but network-specific feature limits and draft review still matter.
Agency coordinating publishing and approvals across many client channels
3.4/5- Capability
- 4/5
- Reliability
- 3/5
- Value
- 3/5
- Ease
- 4/5
- Compatibility
- 3/5
Team provides unlimited collaborators and approval workflows. Channel costs accumulate, although marginal volume discounts apply above ten channels. Verify the actual annual total and required network features before choosing it for a large client portfolio.
Editorial judgment grounded in this tool's own published pricing, features, and our existing pros and cons, not a certification or a measured benchmark. Product quality is assessed separately under our review methodology.
Overview
Not yet reviewedProduct quality is assessed from original evidence. How reviews work.
Plan, draft, schedule, and manage social posts from one calendar instead of switching between channel accounts. Buffer's optional AI Assistant is built into Buffer, including its Free plan; the former Buffer AI listing described this same platform. Use it for post ideas, rewrites, tone adjustments, and repurposing, then review the draft before publishing. Buffer supports 11 publishing channels, with network-specific differences in analytics and comment management.
Free includes three channels, one user, and ten queued posts per channel at a time. A published post frees a queue slot; this is not a ten-post monthly allowance. Essentials costs $6 per channel per month, or $60 per channel per year. Team costs $12 per channel per month, or $120 per channel per year, and adds unlimited team members, approvals, and access controls. These base rates apply to the first ten channels; additional channels receive tiered discounts. Paid scheduling is subject to fair use, and Buffer's calculator should be used for larger channel totals.
The displayed aggregate score is from G2: 4.3 out of 5 across 1,041 reviews, checked September 8, 2026. These are external reviews, not reviews collected by The Workflow Finder.
G2 reference rating: 4.3/5 from 1,041 reviews.
Checked . These reviews were collected by G2, not The Workflow Finder. This external score is not used as a TWF aggregate rating in structured data.
Workflow Fit Scores are separate, use-case-specific editorial judgments, not user-review averages. Read the Fit Score methodology.
- • AI drafting is included on the Free plan, not sold as a separate product
- • Free queues refill as posts publish, without a monthly ten-post allowance
- • Scheduling, analytics, and comment management share one workspace
- • Marginal channel discounts help reduce the added cost above ten channels
- • Free is limited to one user, three channels, and ten queued posts per channel
- • Analytics, publishing, and comment capabilities vary by social network and plan
- • Multiple paid channels still add to the bill; verify annual totals with the pricing calculator
Key Features
- Optional AI Assistant for ideas, rewriting, tone changes, and repurposing on every plan
- Content calendar and scheduling queue across 11 social publishing channels
- Insights analytics and reporting, with limits varying by plan and network
- Community inbox for managing comments on supported networks
- Start Page link-in-bio pages
- Public GraphQL API with plan-specific request allowances
- Unlimited team members, approval workflows, and access controls on Team
Trust & Data
Verified 2026-09
- Training on your data
- Not publishedBuffer says its optional AI Assistant sends the text entered into it to OpenAI, but does not share other account details, media, or unrelated work through this feature. This describes transmission scope, not a Buffer-wide promise against model training. Buffer states it is SOC 2 compliant; the audit type, auditor, reporting period, and report were not verified.
- Compliance
- SOC 2
- Retention
- Buffer's retention notice says active customers' User Content is stored indefinitely. Deleting a Buffer account removes that content from Buffer's service, not from the connected social networks. No fixed AI-prompt or log retention period was verified.
- Export
- Partial export
Sources: buffer.com/ai assistant, buffer.com/legal, buffer.com/legal, buffer.com/legal, buffer.com/every team feature in buffer built for agencies
As published by the vendor. Verify independently before purchase decisions.
Supported platforms
Web browser, Android, iOS
Web access and mobile apps. Buffer documents Android 7.1+ and iOS 17+ for its current mobile apps.
Vendor platform documentation · Checked
Our Take
That makes it a practical starting point for a creator managing up to three channels, but the Free plan's ten queued posts per channel limits how far ahead you can schedule. Essentials expands scheduling and analytics, while Team adds collaborators and approvals. For an agency, calculate the full channel total rather than multiplying the base rate blindly: marginal discounts apply above ten channels, and Buffer's calculator and help page disagree on one high-volume annual tier. Check the selected total before committing to annual billing.
Workflows Using This Tool
Step-by-step playbooks whose entries name Buffer. The step shown is where the workflow uses it.
- BeginnerEstimate: 45 min. Planning estimate from the workflow entry, not measured time saved.
Design Social Media Graphics in Minutes
Step 4 of 4: Batch-export and schedule
- IntermediateRecurring: 2 hrs per week. Planning estimate from the workflow entry, not measured time saved.
Produce Short-Form Video Content at Scale
Step 5 of 5: Schedule across platforms
- AdvancedSetup, then recurring: 3–5 hours per episode after setup. Planning estimate from the workflow entry, not measured time saved.
Full Podcast Production Pipeline
Step 5 of 5: Distribute and schedule promotion
- IntermediateEstimate: 1.5–2 hrs. Planning estimate from the workflow entry, not measured time saved.
Turn a Webinar Recording into a Content Library
Step 5 of 5: Generate Social Posts
14 workflows in the catalog name Buffer; the first 4 in catalog order are shown, with step-level mentions first.