> This is the markdown version of https://www.classet.ai/blog/indeed-job-posting-cost > Learn more at https://www.classet.ai ![Low-poly illustration of coins flowing into a funnel that narrows to a single figure](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fblog%2Findeed-job-posting-cost.png&w=3840&q=75) # How Much Does It Cost to Post a Job on Indeed? Indeed job posting costs explained for small employers: free posts, sponsored job budgets, pay per click vs pay per started application, and the cost most owners never count. [![Paul Jones](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.basehub.com%2Fe0b5701f%2F6599306507912123f90f150a8bfaaf6c%2Fscreenshot-2026-01-28-at-10.53.16-am.png%3Fwidth%3D100%26height%3D100%26quality%3D100&w=96&q=75) Paul JonesHead of Growth at Classet ](/blog/authors/paul-jones) September 24, 2026 Guides & Insights, Hiring Tips You run a 30-person HVAC shop and need two techs by next month. Before you type the job title into Indeed, you want to know what it'll cost, and the r/smallbusiness threads about surprise Indeed bills don't help. Here's the pricing as of September 2026, taken from Indeed's own pages, plus the cost that never shows up on the Indeed invoice. Quick answer Posting a job on Indeed is free for up to three jobs per calendar month, and each free post stays live for up to 30 days. To get more visibility you sponsor the job: you set a daily budget and Indeed charges per click or per started application, depending on your account and market. There's no flat fee and no public price list, and Indeed invoices monthly or whenever your balance hits $500. ## How Much Does It Cost to Post a Job on Indeed? Posting a job on Indeed costs $0 for up to three free jobs per calendar month, according to [Indeed's employer pricing guide](https://www.indeed.com/hire/resources/howtohub/how-pricing-works-on-indeed) (last updated August 19, 2026). Each free post stays live for up to 30 days, but free posts "fall back in search as new jobs are added," so a free HVAC technician listing in a busy metro gets buried fast. Sponsoring a job on Indeed costs whatever daily budget you set. Indeed says there's "no flat upfront fee," and you pay per click or per started application, depending on your budget type and market. Indeed suggests a budget from your job title, location, and description, and you can ignore it. Indeed bills monthly, or sooner if your balance reaches $500. New US accounts currently get a $75 Sponsored Job credit that expires a year after signup. Jobs past the three-free limit, jobs requiring relocation, and confidential posts may have to be sponsored. Option Status You pay Charged when Watch out for Free job post Available $0 Never Up to 3 per calendar month, live up to 30 days. Sinks in search as newer jobs are added. Sponsored Job, pay per click (PPC) Available Your daily budget A job seeker clicks to view your post Daily budget is an average, not a hard cap. Weekly spend can reach 7.5x the daily figure. Sponsored Job, pay per started application (PPSA) Available Your daily budget A job seeker clicks apply or starts an application Applied automatically to qualifying jobs. You can't switch those back to PPC. Pay per application (PPA) Retired Per completed application Unless rejected within 72 hours Ended December 18, 2023 after employers reported surprise bills. _How Indeed charges employers, as of September 2026. Sources: Indeed employer pricing guide (updated August 19, 2026), Indeed PPSA help article, HR Dive (January 9, 2024). Indeed does not publish a public price list._ ## How Do Indeed Sponsored Jobs Budgets Work? Indeed Sponsored Jobs run on a daily budget that you pick, and Indeed sets the per-click or per-application price through a live auction. Indeed's [help article on sponsored job budgets](https://www.indeed.com/help/employers/articles/360026629712) lists four plans: Standard, Premium, Premium Plus, and Custom. The first three set the budget automatically from your job title, location, and competition, and Custom lets you pick your own number. Two details in that article catch owners off guard. First, "your daily budget is an average, not a strict cap," so one day can run well over it, though weekly spend won't exceed 7.5 times your daily budget on a continuous plan. Second, "there's no fixed public price list." Third-party guides such as [Pin's 2026 Indeed pricing roundup](https://www.pin.com/blog/indeed-pricing/) report clicks from about $0.10 for warehouse and retail roles to $5 or more for competitive ones, but Indeed doesn't publish or confirm those ranges. To see your price, start a post and read Indeed's recommendation. ## What Happened to Indeed's Pay-Per-Application Pricing? Indeed ended its pay-per-application (PPA) pricing on December 18, 2023, so older forum threads often describe a billing model that no longer exists. Under PPA, employers paid for each completed application unless they rejected it within 72 hours. [HR Dive reported](https://www.hrdive.com/news/indeed-kills-pay-per-application-model-what-happened/704061/) that small business owners who couldn't check applications every day got bills in the thousands of dollars after previously paying hundreds. Indeed said the model "requires more iterations to maintain high performance." The replacement is pay per started application (PPSA). According to [Indeed's PPSA help article](https://www.indeed.com/help/employers/articles/pay-per-started-application-ppsa-overview), you're charged when a job seeker clicks apply, opens a link to start an application, or begins applying through a chatbot or QR code. The applicant doesn't have to finish. PPSA applies automatically to qualifying Sponsored Jobs, and you can't switch those jobs back to pay per click. ## Why Cost per Applicant Is the Wrong Number Cost per applicant is the number Indeed's dashboard makes easy to track, and it tells a small employer almost nothing. Say your sponsored job costs $450 for the month and brings 50 applicants. That's $9 an applicant, and it looks cheap. Now count the applicants you spoke to. Hambleton Handyman, a Washington, DC home services company, walked through its old Indeed and Craigslist funnel in its [case study](/blog/case-study-hambleton-handyman): about 50 applicants, 30 worth calling, 15 who picked up, 6 interviews booked, 3 no-shows, and one hire. Thirty-five of those 50 applicants never had a conversation with anyone at the company. At $450 for the month, about $315 of that ad budget would have paid for people nobody talked to. That leak is normal. Classet's data shows 75% of applicants never hear back, and hires drop 50 to 70% for every day an employer waits to respond. Classet's data also shows 64% of candidates apply after hours, while you're on a job site or at dinner. Indeed charges at the click or the apply start, and whether that turns into a hire depends on what happens in the next hour. ## What Response Speed Does to Your Cost per Hire The example below keeps the Indeed budget identical and changes how fast applicants hear from you. The left column is Hambleton's real funnel. The right column is illustrative and built on stated assumptions, so read it as a model. Same $450 Indeed budget You call back when you get to it Applicants get a call within minutes (illustrative) Applicants 50 50 Called 30 50 Had a real conversation 15 (picked up) 30 (finished the phone screen) Met your must-haves n/a 12 Showed up to an interview 3 7 Hired 1 2 **Cost per applicant** **$9** **$9** **Cost per applicant you talked to** **$30** **$15** **Cost per hire** **$450** **$225** _The $15/day budget for 30 days is illustrative. The left column is Hambleton Handyman's reported pre-Classet funnel. The right column assumes 60% finish the screen, 40% of those meet your must-haves, and a high show-up rate for quickly engaged candidates. Indeed spend only; software cost not included._ Cost per applicant stays at $9 in both columns. Cost per applicant you talked to drops from $30 to $15, because a call within minutes reaches people while they're still holding their phone and still interested. Cost per hire falls from $450 to $225 because the same pool produced a second hire. Classet costs money too. Add Classet's Starter plan at $349 month-to-month and the right column comes to $799 for two hires, about $400 each. That's still below $450, and the owner skipped roughly 30 screening calls to get there. Erich Kleine, co-founder of Goodsmith, put the show-up side plainly: "If we engage quickly, 96% show up for interviews." ## How Does Indeed Compare to ZipRecruiter Pricing? ZipRecruiter charges a monthly subscription per active job slot, where Indeed charges for clicks or started applications on a daily budget. ZipRecruiter doesn't publish a rate card either. [Pin's ZipRecruiter pricing guide](https://www.pin.com/blog/ziprecruiter-pricing/) cites third-party estimates of roughly $299 to $399 a month per slot for the Standard plan, with Premium and Pro above that. ZipRecruiter's cost stays fixed while the slot is open, and Indeed's moves with the auction but stops when you pause the job. Either way, the applicants arrive and someone still has to call them. ## Get More Hires From the Indeed Budget You Already Spend [Classet Hiring Hub](https://www.classet.ai/product/joy-ai-powered-ats) is built for owners and office managers who post on Indeed and have no recruiter and no applicant tracking system. You connect your own Indeed account and post organic or sponsored jobs from one screen. Indeed still bills your sponsorship directly, and applicants land on a board for each job with stages from Applied to Offer. Joy, Classet's AI interviewer, phone-interviews applicants within minutes of applying, 24/7, in 25+ languages. In about 5 minutes, Joy asks your screening questions, checks must-haves like a driver's license or weekend availability, and answers questions about pay and schedule from your FAQ. You get a summary, recording, and transcript on each card, and you decide who moves forward. Candidates who miss the call get text and email follow-ups. Across 10,167 post-interview ratings, 88% of candidates rated their Joy interview positively. Pricing starts at $249 a month billed annually ($349 month-to-month) and includes 50 AI phone interviews a month ($5 per interview after that), with unlimited jobs, seats, and users and no cap on applicants. See [pricing](/pricing) for details. If your hiring runs on a spreadsheet today, our guide to [hiring without an ATS](/blog/hiring-without-an-ats) covers where that setup loses candidates. [Try Classet Hiring Hub with 20 free interviews](https://www.classet.ai/product/joy-ai-powered-ats) and let Joy make the first call on your next Indeed job. ## FAQ Is it free to post a job on Indeed? Yes. As of September 2026, Indeed lets employers post up to three free jobs per calendar month directly on Indeed, and each free post stays live for up to 30 days. Free posts sink in search results as newer jobs are added. Jobs beyond the monthly limit, jobs requiring relocation, and confidential posts may require sponsorship. How much do Indeed Sponsored Jobs cost? Indeed Sponsored Jobs cost whatever daily budget you set, charged per click or per started application depending on your account and market. Indeed doesn't publish a price list; prices come from a live auction based on job title, location, and competition. Your daily budget is an average, and weekly spend can reach 7.5 times the daily figure. Does Indeed still charge per application? No. Indeed retired pay-per-application pricing on December 18, 2023. Its current results-based option is pay per started application (PPSA), which charges when a job seeker clicks apply or starts an application, whether or not they finish it. PPSA applies automatically to qualifying Sponsored Jobs. Is Indeed or ZipRecruiter cheaper for a small business? Indeed costs nothing for up to three free posts a month, and sponsored spend stops when you pause a job. ZipRecruiter bills a monthly subscription per active job slot, with third-party estimates starting around $299 a month. For either one, how quickly you contact applicants moves cost per hire more than the listing price. Can Classet post my jobs to Indeed? Yes. Classet Hiring Hub connects to your own Indeed account, so you can post organic or sponsored Indeed jobs from Hiring Hub. Indeed bills sponsorship directly. Joy then phone-screens applicants within minutes of applying, and your first 20 completed interviews are free. ## Key Points - Indeed allows three free job posts per calendar month, each live for up to 30 days, as of September 2026. - Sponsored Jobs use a daily budget billed per click or per started application, with no public price list. - Pay per application ended on December 18, 2023; pay per started application charges even if the applicant never finishes. - Track cost per applicant you actually talked to. In the Hambleton funnel, 35 of 50 paid-for applicants never spoke to anyone. - Calling applicants within minutes of applying lowers cost per hire more than any budget tweak. [![Paul Jones](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.basehub.com%2Fe0b5701f%2F6599306507912123f90f150a8bfaaf6c%2Fscreenshot-2026-01-28-at-10.53.16-am.png%3Fwidth%3D100%26height%3D100%26quality%3D100&w=128&q=75) Paul Jones Head of Growth at Classet Paul comes from an operator background running an Alpine-owned company, and brings firsthand experience with the hiring challenges Classet was built to solve. He's driven by a belief that the right technology can make meaningful work more accessible. ](/blog/authors/paul-jones) Follow Classet in Google Add classet.ai as a preferred source and our hiring research is more likely to show up in your Top Stories and AI Overviews. 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