Buffer Free 3 channels and 10 posts: when indies should buy Essentials

When an indie shipping overseas needs one queue across X, LinkedIn, or Instagram, the search often becomes how many Buffer channels free allows and how deep the schedule can go. This page does not re-teach calendar workflow. It freezes Free forever limits as of 2026-09-30 on buffer.com/pricing and spells out when Essentials is the rational next buy. Re-open the pricing page before you pay; numbers move.

What Free includes

Buffer labels the free tier Free forever. Official cards list up to 3 connected channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel with refill anytime, 100 ideas, 1 user account, AI Assistant, Insights, and API access with 1 API key and 3,000 requests per month. Essentials is recommended at $5 per channel per month, about $60 billed yearly with a save-two-months note, and unlocks unlimited scheduled posts per channel plus unlimited ideas. Team is $10 per channel per month. Billing is per channel, so disconnect idle profiles instead of paying for ghosts.

For most solos, the first wall is three channels; the second is the ten-post queue. A product account, a personal brand, and a hiring account blow past three immediately. A habit of scheduling two weeks ahead burns ten slots mid-week. Treat those frictions as observable signals instead of accepting slogans about free forever.

A three-channel skeleton that still ships

Keep a product account, a founder account, and one experimental channel. The experiment is the platform you have not yet proven deserves weekly effort—use the third Free slot to test instead of buying every network on day one. Occasional customer-success or hiring posts can ride the main account threads or outbound links rather than consuming a fourth connection. Build a disconnect-after-test habit; reconnect rules still follow checkout.

Ten scheduled posts per channel fit a weekly cadence: weekday product or lead posts, one weekend story or testimonial, and two or three flexible slots for release notes and incident updates. Refill anytime means you can top up after publishing; it is not an infinite backlog. Use the 100-idea pool for draft titles and asset links, then promote into the schedule so the queue does not become a junk drawer.

If more than one person must edit the calendar, note that Free includes one user account. Shared passwords are not a long-term plan; that is a Team-plan collaboration signal and a different purchase line. Write roles down: who approves public copy, who only supplies assets.

Insights, API, and what Essentials actually sells

Free lists Insights and AI Assistant for basic performance and draft help. Essentials copy emphasizes unlimited scheduling and unlimited ideas, with advanced analytics appearing in richer comparisons. Bind the decision to a concrete blocker: queue depth, analytics depth, or account count. Do not upgrade merely because the page says AI.

The Free API key with 3,000 monthly requests is enough for light automation. If agents or scripts stably saturate that budget, evaluate higher key counts and request caps on paid tiers. Start Page can solve link-in-bio needs, but do not buy the wrong channel pack for a link page.

When to buy Essentials—and when not to

Buy Essentials per productive channel if for two consecutive weeks you hit these signals: a fourth formal channel must stay connected; ten posts per channel empty mid-week and refills still cannot cover release cadence; the 100-idea pool becomes inventory debt; you need unlimited scheduling to keep a two-week queue. Also upgrade when a growth experiment is blocked solely by “cannot add another channel,” not when vibes demand a full-stack purchase.

Stay on Free if the three-channel skeleton works, ten slots plus two weekly refills cover shipping, and tagged ideas stay under 100. When you upgrade, pay only for channels that produce; disconnect failed experiments first. Re-check the live $5 per channel per month and $60 yearly figures. If what you actually need is multi-seat approval and agency-style workspaces, look at Team instead of stretching Essentials into collaboration.

How to run three channels in a ship week

Assign fixed roles. The product channel ships verifiable updates and docs. The founder channel ships tradeoffs and failure notes without duplicating product copy. The experimental channel runs one hypothesis, such as whether short video drives signup, then decide in two weeks. Split the ten-slot queue into five weekday posts, one weekend story, and two flexible incident or pricing slots—do not pre-fill flex slots with soft posts.

Tag ideas as asset-ready versus title-only. Only asset-ready items enter the schedule so empty shells do not consume the ten slots. Force a Friday refill: clear sent slots and reserve next week’s mainline first. If you delay important announcements to two hours before publish just to save queue depth, the ten-slot wall is already hurting quality—that is a cleaner Essentials trigger.

Keep this separate from scheduling posts

Toolvori already publishes a Buffer scheduling workflow article. This tutorial answers only Free quotas. Document channel caps, queue caps, and disconnect rules in your ops handbook and re-verify pricing quarterly. If three channels and weekly cleanup remove the need to pay, do not buy the look of a large team. Write the purchase reason as one sentence, such as buying a fourth formal channel and unlimited queues.

Pin the official numbers for buffer-free-indie-channel-limits in your knowledge base with the observation date and URL. When someone claims “free is always enough” or “you must upgrade now,” open the pin instead of arguing from memory. Limits change; habits beat slogans. Treat upgrade triggers as a checklist: you hit the wall for two consecutive weeks, it blocks shipping or acquisition, channel and queue discipline is exhausted, and Essentials maps to the exact blocker. In the first week after paying, wire the unlimited queue into a real two-week content calendar so the subscription does not become shelfware.