What Is Buffer? Per-Channel Scheduling With an MCP Server
By Joris van Huët · Buffer's own site
The short answer: with three channels and one person, you are inside Buffer's free plan, which holds 10 scheduled posts per channel at a time and refills as they publish (pricing file, checked on 24 October 2026). Past that, Buffer charges per connected channel, from $6 a month each on Essentials with monthly billing, so a small team or an agency can size the bill exactly.
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Do the sums first:
- Count channels the way Buffer does. One social account is one channel; the pricing file's own example is five brands with an Instagram and a Facebook page each, which makes 10. A Start Page counts as a channel too.
- Price the tier break. For example, 10 channels on Team cost $120 a month on monthly billing and 25 cost $180, because channels 11 to 25 drop to $4 each: $120 + 15 x $4 = $180, as the pricing file shows.
- Know how much history you need. Free insights keep 30 days; Essentials removes the limit and adds reports, and branded reports need Team.
What Buffer does
The homepage calls Buffer "your social media workspace". It publishes to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest, Google Business, Mastodon, X and Substack, from a queue that fills preset time slots or a calendar. Around that sit an Ideas board, an AI Assistant on every plan, a community inbox for replying to comments, analytics, and Start Page, a link-in-bio page.
The developer side is unusually open. Every plan, the free one included, gets API keys, and a remote MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other assistants read channels, browse the queue and drafts, schedule posts and pull post analytics, per the MCP documentation. Buffer also publishes its own numbers: the homepage shows 84,273 customers.
Who it suits, and who it does not
It suits creators, small businesses, agencies whose clients each have a handful of channels, and builders who want an agent to post through an API without an enterprise contract. It suits less well a team whose work is messages and reviews rather than comments, or anyone who needs ad reporting.
Prices on 24 October 2026
USD per month, from the worked examples in the pricing file. Yearly billing saves about two months.
| Channels | Essentials, monthly | Essentials, yearly | Team, monthly | Team, yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $6 | $5 | $12 | $10 |
| 3 | $18 | $15 | $36 | $30 |
| 5 | $30 | $25 | $60 | $50 |
| 10 | $60 | $50 | $120 | $100 |
| 25 | $120 | $100 | $180 | $150 |
| 50 | $195 | $163 | $255 | $213 |
Free covers 3 channels and 1 user; paid plans start with a 14-day trial.
How it compares
Agorapulse. Agorapulse charges per user, $99 a month on monthly billing for Standard with 10 profiles (Agorapulse pricing), and its inbox covers messages, reviews and ad comments with routing between people. Choose it when answering is the job.
Metricool. Metricool prices by brand, $25 a month for up to five on Starter with monthly billing (Metricool pricing), and reports on Meta, Google and TikTok ads beside organic posts. It wins when one report must cover paid and organic.
Social Champ. Social Champ's Standard plan is $23.20 a month billed yearly for 6 accounts and 2 users, with a basic approval workflow, an inbox and MCP access listed (Social Champ pricing). It bundles a second user and approvals into a low tier; Buffer keeps approvals on Team.
Per-channel pricing is designed to grow with every account you connect, and the lower rates above ten channels are there to keep you connecting. That suits an agency whose channel count tracks its revenue; if yours does not, recount at each renewal.
Getting started
How to use Buffer plans a week of posts from last month's results through Buffer's MCP server, with a person approving every draft.
FAQ
Do approvals need the Team plan?
Yes. Drafts are available on every plan, but approving drafts is Team only, per Buffer's approval article.
Is the API really free?
Yes, within limits: the free plan gets 1 API key and 3,000 requests a month, Essentials 3 keys and 7,500 requests, Team 5 keys and 15,000, per the pricing file.
What happens when a free channel hits 10 scheduled posts?
You wait for one to publish, then schedule the next. The limit counts posts scheduled at one time, not posts per month.