What changed
Two figures moved, and they move different sellers differently.
- Starter subscription
- $19 → $39 per month. A flat increase everyone on Starter feels, regardless of how much they file.
- AutoFile per-filing fee
- Now $50 per filing on Starter, $55 on Professional — up from roughly $30–35. Charged once per return, per state, per period. This is the number that compounds.
- Legacy pricing
- Month-to-month legacy customers keep old rates only until 1 October 2026, then accounts auto-convert to current pricing. No permanent grandfathering.
The subscription jump is the headline, but for most multi-state sellers the AutoFile change is the real cost driver. If you file in five states every month, that's 60 returns a year. At roughly $50 each, the filing fees alone are about $3,000 — before the subscription. Put together, a representative seller with nexus in 5 states filing monthly lands near $4,270 all-in for 2026. Figures are estimates from published pricing and vary with your volume and state count.
| Line item | Before | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Starter subscription (annual) | ~$228 | ~$468 |
| AutoFile, 60 filings/yr | ~$1,800–2,100 | ~$3,000 |
| Representative all-in | ~$2,000–2,300 | ~$4,270 |
Illustrative for a sub-$1M seller, nexus in 5 states, filing monthly. Your numbers depend on plan tier, state count, and filing frequency.
When it takes effect
New pricing already applies to new and current plans. The date that matters if you're on older pricing is 1 October 2026: that's when legacy month-to-month accounts auto-convert. There's no action required to trigger it and no way to keep the old rate past it, which is why it's worth deciding before the fall rather than being auto-moved.
If you're on legacy TaxJar pricing, 1 October 2026 is your deadline to choose. On that date, old rates end and your account converts automatically. "Decide later" quietly becomes "pay the new price."
Your options
There's no single right answer — it depends on how many states you file in and whether hands-off automation is worth the premium to you. Four realistic paths:
01 Stay on TaxJar at the new price
If AutoFile across your states saves you real time and the new bill is acceptable, staying is defensible. You keep calculation and filing in one place.
Best for: sellers who file in many states and value full automation over cost.
02 Downgrade or trim AutoFile
Keep TaxJar for calculation but drop AutoFile in the states you can comfortably file yourself. You pay per-filing fees only where automation genuinely earns its keep.
Best for: sellers with a mix of easy and awkward state portals.
03 Switch to a lower-cost tool
Move to software priced for small sellers. Options range from calc-only tools to monitor-only tools. The trade is usually that cheaper tools do less of the filing for you.
Best for: sellers whose real need is knowing where they owe, not automated filing.
04 Go DIY (monitor + file yourself)
Track economic nexus, collect the correct rate, and file returns yourself or through your bookkeeper. A monitor-only tool like NexusRadar — flat $29/mo, no per-filing fees — watches every state's threshold, alerts you when you cross, gives you the rate to collect, and hands you a clean per-state summary to file from. It does not file for you; that's the tradeoff that keeps it flat.
Best for: sub-$1M Shopify, Amazon and Stripe sellers with a handful of states and a bookkeeper or the willingness to file simple returns.
How to decide quickly
Count the states you actually file in and be honest about whether submitting those returns is a burden or a five-minute task. If it's a burden across many states, automation is worth paying for — stay or trim. If it's a handful of states your bookkeeper already handles, you're paying automation prices for a chore you barely have. Start by seeing where you truly have nexus: the free nexus checker runs in your browser and nothing leaves the page. Then read the full TaxJar-alternative breakdown, compare tools side by side in the comparison hub, check your state thresholds in the state guide, or size your own numbers with the cost calculator.