Trigger.dev review (2026): is the free plan enough?
Open-source platform for long-running background tasks and AI agents
Black Friday: is there a Trigger.dev sale?
Trigger.dev report card
Fair · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 12, 2026
Best for running long background jobs in code
Trigger.dev runs long background tasks and AI agents that you write in TypeScript in your own codebase. The free plan stops running tasks once its $5 of monthly credits are used, and there's no visual builder, so it's for developers only.
Who Trigger.dev is for
- Fits if you write TypeScript and need jobs that run for minutes or days
- Works for developers building AI agents that must survive crashes
Who Trigger.dev is not for
- Not for you if you want a visual builder, as everything is code in your own project
- Tight if you stay free: $5 of credits a month, 10 schedules and 1 day of logs, and tasks stop when the credits are gone
- Pricey if you need more runs, since extra concurrency is $10 a month per 50 and Pro seats beyond 25 are $20 each
- Watch out: compute is billed per second by machine size plus $0.25 per 10,000 runs, so the bill is hard to predict
- Watch out: a HIPAA BAA is a $500 a month add-on
Why Trigger.dev gets a 2.2
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- BValue for moneyHobby is $10 a month with $10 of usage credits, which is the edge of the cheapest quarter ($10) in this category. Compute is billed per second on top, and a signed HIPAA BAA is $500 a month extra.
- CFree plan and trialA free plan with $5 of monthly credits, 20 concurrent runs, 5 team members and 1 day of log retention. When the credits run out, tasks stop.
- CFeaturesTasks with no time limit, schedules, queues, webhooks, a dashboard and open-source self-hosting. There's no visual workflow builder, and schedules are capped from 10 on Free to 1,000 on Pro.
- DEase of useNo store rating on record. Tasks are TypeScript in your own codebase, and self-hosting is an option, so you need to be a developer to start.
- BPlatforms and integrationsWeb dashboard, with an API, webhooks, streaming to a frontend through Realtime and a self-hosting guide.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Trigger.dev's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/trigger-dev#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/trigger-dev.svg" alt="Trigger.dev: 2.2 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Trigger.dev stands among automation tools
Trigger.dev's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 21 of the 71 other automation tools we grade, and level with 18.
It stands best on value for money (B, above 51 of 71) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0).
Its paid plans start at $10 a month, against a middle price of $19 for the category: 8 of the 38 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 5 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 72 automation tools we grade, cut by the letter each got. Trigger.dev’s own letter is outlined.
- BValue for moneyAbove 51 of 71, level with 6
- CFree plan and trialAbove 15 of 71, level with 40
- CFeaturesAbove 1 of 71, level with 33
- DEase of useAbove 0 of 71, level with 8
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 19 of 71, level with 52
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 43 automation tools. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Keep Trigger.dev, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Trigger.dev you would be making connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 32 of the 71 other automation tools grade higher. It costs $120 a year. Trigger.dev is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.
What you could not
- Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change.
- An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it.
What this rests on. Trigger.dev’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Trigger.dev?
Trigger.dev runs background tasks and AI agents that developers write as code in their own repository. Tasks run on its managed workers with no maximum duration, or on your own servers using the open-source version. Cloud billing is a monthly plan with usage credits, plus charges for compute seconds and runs.
Worth knowing
- Tasks are written in TypeScript in your own codebase; there is no visual workflow builder.
- Compute is billed per second by machine size, plus $0.25 per 10,000 runs; a Small 1x machine costs $0.0000338 a second.
- A signed HIPAA BAA is a $500 a month add-on on the Hobby and Pro plans.
- The Free plan stops running tasks once its $5 of monthly credits is used up.
Key features
- Tasks with no maximum duration
- Tasks are code that run on managed workers with no set time limit, so a single run can last minutes, days or longer. Waiting on a subtask or a long delay does not count toward compute.
- AI agents and chat
- Agent runs can last minutes or hours and survive crashes. Responses and tool calls can be streamed to a frontend through Realtime, and it works with the Vercel AI SDK.
- Schedules and webhooks
- Cron-style scheduled tasks and verified webhooks start runs. Schedules are capped by plan, from 10 on Free to 1,000 on Pro.
- Concurrency and queues
- Queues control how many runs execute at once. Limits only count while code is running, and extra concurrency on Pro is sold in bundles of 50 for $10 a month.
- Self-hosting
- The platform is open source under the Apache 2.0 license, and the vendor publishes a self-hosting guide for running it on your own infrastructure.
- Observability
- Runs are monitored and traced in a dashboard, with billing alerts at set share-of-budget levels. Log retention runs from 1 day on Free to 30 days on Pro.
Trigger.dev pricing
As of Nov 12, 2026, Trigger.dev has a free plan, and paid plans start at $10 per month (Hobby), with $10 of usage credits included.
- Starts at
- $10 per month (Hobby), with $10 of usage credits included
- Free plan
- $5 of monthly credits, 20 concurrent runs, 5 team members, 10 schedules, 1 day of log retention and community support.
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $5 monthly credits, 20 concurrent runs, 5 team members, 10 schedules and 1 day of log retention. |
| Hobby | $10per month, with $10 of usage credits included | 50 concurrent runs, 5 team members, 100 schedules, 7 days of log retention and 3 alert destinations. |
| Pro | $50per month, with $50 of usage credits included | 200+ concurrent runs, 25+ team members ($20 per extra seat), 1,000+ schedules, 30 days of logs and Slack support. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Everything in Pro plus custom log retention, priority support, role-based access control, SSO and SOC 2 and pen-test reports. |
Read from trigger.dev on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Trigger.dev before you buy.
Works with
- Vercel AI SDK
- Claude Agent SDK
- Next.js
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Common questions
Does Trigger.dev have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Trigger.dev is listed for Web.
Does Trigger.dev have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Trigger.dev is listed for Web.
Is Trigger.dev open source?
Yes. Trigger.dev is open source, according to its own site. It can also be run on a server of your own.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026.