Trengo Pricing 2026: What Does the Inbox Really Cost? (Analysis)

Trengo pricing – three words, one Google search, and you land on a pricing page that makes you feel like you've got it all figured out. Spoiler: you don't. I'm Johannes, founder of Chatarmin, and I went through the fine print so you don't have to.

Trengo overhauled its entire pricing model in 2024. Gone is the classic pay-per-seat approach, replaced by a conversations model with fixed user packages. Sounds modern. In practice, it's a minefield – especially if you're an e-commerce team of three that suddenly pays for ten.

What bothers me about the whole setup: the pricing page suggests simplicity. Three plans, clear prices, done. But once you start adding up the add-ons, AI surcharges, the wallet system, and conversation limits, your monthly bill looks very different from what you saw on the website.

Full disclosure: I have nothing against Trengo. The tool has its place – and it gets a few things right (more on that in a moment). But as someone who built a SaaS company in the WhatsApp space, I know where pricing models are fair – and where they aren't.

Trengo Pricing 2026 at a Glance: How Much Do the Plans Cost?

Here's the unvarnished truth in table form. No marketing speak, just numbers:

Two things Trengo gets right that deserve a fair mention: No setup fee. Zero euros onboarding cost, regardless of plan. Some enterprise competitors charge €500 to €1,000 just for getting started. And: GDPR compliance with servers in Europe (AWS Frankfurt). For European companies that don't want to risk US-based tools with questionable data handling, that's a real argument – and justifies part of the price tag.

What stands out, though: you don't buy individual seats, you buy packages. 10 or 20 users – nothing in between. And the Boost plan has no API access. If you want to connect Trengo to your Shopify flows, ERP, or a custom dashboard, you need the Pro plan – that's €499 per month minimum. Custom permissions aren't available in the Boost plan either – a problem once your team grows and you need to distinguish between admin, agent, and viewer roles.

The Conversations Trap: Why 6,000 Is Less Than You Think

Trengo no longer charges per seat but per "conversation." Sounds fair – you only pay for what you use. Reality is more complicated.

A conversation is any outbound message or reply to a customer inquiry. So far, so logical. The catch: every conversation has a 7-day window. If your customer writes back on day eight, that counts as a brand-new conversation – eating into your quota. The official Trengo Help Center confirms this billing logic.

Run the numbers for an average e-commerce shop: you send shipping confirmations, handle return inquiries, send follow-ups. A single customer case – say, a complaint with follow-up questions – can easily stretch over two weeks. That's not one conversation, but two or three. For the same customer, the same issue.

A quick calculation: Your shop handles 30 support requests per day, plus 2 outbound campaigns per week (200 recipients each). That's roughly 900 inbound conversations plus 1,600 outbound conversations per month. Around 2,500 monthly – or 30,000 per year. The Boost plan with its 6,000 included conversations? Lasts exactly 2.4 months.

The carry-over rule matters here: With annual contracts, unused conversations roll over to the following month (within the annual cycle). With monthly contracts, they expire at month-end. That makes the annual plan more attractive – but only if your volume fluctuates across months (e.g., lower in summer, higher in Q4). If you have consistently high volume, carry-over won't save you.

The Small Team Trap: €299 for Three People

This is where it gets frustrating. The Boost plan starts at €299 per month – and includes 10 user seats. Fixed. Non-negotiable.

You're a D2C brand with a founder, a CS manager, and a working student? Congratulations, you're still paying for 10 seats. That's €99.67 per actually used seat. For a tool that doesn't even give you API access.

In SaaS, they call this a "growth tax" – you pay for capacity you don't need, hoping you'll grow into it. For a well-funded scale-up with 8-10 agents, that might work. For a bootstrapped e-commerce team, it's simply too much burn rate for a communication tool.

And even if you do grow: the jump to the Pro plan (€499/month, 20 users) isn't a smooth transition – it's a 67% price increase. Nothing in between. No plan for 12 or 15 users, no gradual scaling. You either grow into the plan or overpay. That's the opposite of how software pricing should work for growing e-commerce brands.

Hidden Costs: AI Surcharges, Extra Users, and Voice

The list prices are one thing. The real costs are another. Here are the line items that don't appear on any pricing page:

AI surcharges Trengo promotes its AI features – HelpMate, Auto-Pilot – prominently. What's less prominently communicated: after a small free allowance (roughly 50-100 AI conversations per month), each additional AI-powered conversation costs between €0.25 and €0.30. Sounds like pocket change – until you hit 500 AI conversations per month. Then we're talking €125-150 extra. Per month. Annualized: €1,500-1,800 just for AI usage. The irony: the very automation that's supposed to save you agent time generates its own variable costs.

Additional users Need more than the included 10 or 20 users? Each extra seat costs €25 to €50 per month. For a 25-person support team on the Pro plan, that's another €125-250 – every month.

Voice/telephony Inbound calls are typically free, but outbound calls are charged per minute – Trengo uses Twilio as its VoIP backend. In the Boost and Pro plans, voice isn't standard – it's an add-on. If phone support is part of your team's daily routine, budget for it separately.

The Wallet System: Auto Top-Up and WhatsApp Costs

A detail that catches even experienced SaaS buyers off guard: WhatsApp, SMS, and voice costs at Trengo aren't billed at month-end. They run through a prepaid balance – the so-called "wallet."

When the balance runs dry, the auto top-up kicks in: Trengo automatically recharges – with a default ceiling of up to €500 per top-up according to the billing policy – to keep operations running. This happens without manual approval unless you actively disable it. For finance teams, it's a headache: unexpected three-figure charges appearing on the account that nobody authorized. Anyone who doesn't configure the wallet system from day one loses cost control.

WhatsApp costs: marketing vs. service Trengo passes Meta's WhatsApp costs through at a 1:1 rate – no markup, which is fair. But not every WhatsApp message costs the same. Marketing templates (newsletters, campaigns) are significantly more expensive at Meta than service conversations (inbound replies within the 24-hour window, which are often free). If you use WhatsApp primarily as a marketing channel – and that's exactly what most e-commerce brands do – you need to realistically budget Meta costs per campaign. That's easily €200-400 extra per month before Trengo earns a single cent.

What Trengo Users Report: Price Increases and Frustration

Beyond the structural costs, there are community experiences you should know about. You won't find them on Trengo's website – but you will find them on review platforms like G2 and Capterra.

Forced upgrades and doubled prices: Verified Capterra reviewer Giacomo M. reported that his monthly price doubled after a model change – while conversations were simultaneously capped. He's not an isolated case. G2 reviews paint a consistent picture: customers on legacy plans were migrated to the new, more expensive structure. No opt-out, no grandfathering.

As a decision-maker, that means: don't budget based on today's price alone. SaaS providers that fundamentally change their pricing model once tend to do it again. Factor in a 15-20% buffer on the current price structure if you're planning long-term.

Performance at high volume: Some enterprise users report occasional lag at very high message volumes. If you're processing 10,000+ messages per day, validate this during a trial period – not when your Black Friday traffic pushes the system to its limits.

Trengo Costs in Practice: A Real-World Calculation

Theory is one thing. Here's a concrete scenario for a typical D2C shop:

Setup: Mid-sized fashion shop, 8 support agents, ~40 tickets per day, 3 WhatsApp campaigns per week (500 recipients each), AI automation active for FAQs.

Over €14,000 per year. Only €5,988 of that appears on the pricing page. The rest – more than half – is variable costs and add-ons that you only notice when the first invoice arrives. Or when the auto top-up hits.

To be fair: Trengo charges no setup fee. With competitors like Intercom or Zendesk, you can easily spend €500-1,000 just on onboarding. That puts the total cost in some perspective – but only slightly.

Who Should Use Trengo – and Who Shouldn't?

Trengo isn't a bad tool. It's an omnichannel inbox for the mid-market that does its job. GDPR-compliant, hosted in Europe, no setup costs. But it doesn't fit everyone equally well.

Trengo is a good fit if you:

• Have a team of 10-20 agents that needs to consolidate email, WhatsApp, live chat, and social media in one inbox
• Need GDPR compliance with European hosting (AWS Frankfurt) and want to avoid risks with US-based providers
• Primarily handle inbound support with few outbound campaigns
• Use Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics and need a direct integration

Trengo is probably not the right fit if you:

• Are a small team (2-5 people) and don't want to pay for 10 unused seats
• Use WhatsApp as a core channel for retention, loyalty campaigns, and marketing – not just reactive support
• Run outbound campaigns that regularly exceed the 7-day window and burn through your conversation quota
• Need deep integration into your e-commerce stack (Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopware) rather than a generic inbox
• Need full cost control and don't want to manage a wallet system with auto top-up

Frequently Asked Questions About Trengo Pricing

How much does Trengo cost per month?

The Boost plan costs €299/month (annual) or €349 (monthly), the Pro plan €499/month (annual) or €599 (monthly). Enterprise pricing is negotiated individually. Add variable costs for AI usage, extra users, voice, and conversation overages – realistically 30-50% on top.

Is there a free version of Trengo?

No. Trengo doesn't offer a permanently free plan. There's a time-limited trial, after which the entry point is €299/month with 10 fixed user seats.

What counts as a "conversation" at Trengo?

A conversation is any outbound message or reply to an inbound inquiry. It's valid for a 7-day window. If the customer writes again after those 7 days, it counts as a new, billable conversation.

Do unused conversations expire at month-end?

It depends on your contract. With monthly plans, unused conversations expire at month-end. With annual plans, there's a carry-over rule: you can roll unused conversations into the following month within the annual cycle.

Do I have to pay extra for WhatsApp messages on Trengo?

Yes. Trengo passes Meta's WhatsApp Business API costs through at a 1:1 rate – no markup. However, marketing templates (campaigns, newsletters) are significantly more expensive than service conversations. These costs run through the wallet system and come on top of the plan price.

Is there a setup fee for Trengo?

No. Trengo charges no setup fee – €0 onboarding cost, regardless of plan. Compared to enterprise solutions that charge four-figure onboarding fees, that's a clear plus.

How does the "balance" system work at Trengo?

Trengo uses a prepaid balance (wallet) for third-party costs like WhatsApp, SMS, and voice. When the balance is depleted, the auto top-up function kicks in. Billing doesn't happen at month-end – it happens in real time through this wallet.

What is "auto top-up" at Trengo?

Auto top-up is a feature that automatically recharges your wallet balance when it's empty – with a default ceiling of up to €500 per top-up according to the billing policy. It's enabled by default and must be manually disabled.

Is Trengo GDPR-compliant?

Yes. Trengo hosts its infrastructure in Europe (AWS Frankfurt) and actively promotes GDPR compliance. For European companies that want to avoid US-based tools with unclear data handling, that's a relevant buying argument.

Is the Trengo Boost plan worth it for small teams?

For teams under 5 people, the Boost plan is often not cost-effective. You pay €299/month for 10 fixed user seats – whether you use 2 or 10 of them. Plus: no API access and no custom user roles.

Are Trengo's prices stable?

Not necessarily. Trengo fundamentally restructured its pricing model in the past. Verified Capterra reviewer Giacomo M. reported a doubling of his monthly price. Anyone planning long-term should factor in a 15-20% buffer.

Can I cancel Trengo on a monthly basis?

Yes, Trengo offers monthly contracts. However, they're roughly 17-20% more expensive than the annual plan (Boost: €349 vs. €299, Pro: €599 vs. €499). Monthly plans also don't carry over unused conversations – annual plans do.

What's a good Trengo alternative for e-commerce?

If you want to use WhatsApp not just for support but as an active marketing and retention channel, Chatarmin offers a specialized alternative built for the European market. No seat lock-in, no conversation limits, direct shop integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopware). Pricing at Chatarmin is available through a personal consultation.

Bottom Line: What Does Trengo Really Cost?

The honest answer: between €299 and well over €1,000 per month – depending on how many agents, conversations, AI features, and WhatsApp campaigns you actually need. The pricing page shows you the floor. The ceiling you have to calculate yourself – and don't forget the wallet system, AI surcharges, and overage fees.

Trengo's sweet spot is classic mid-market support: teams of 10-20 people who need a centralized inbox, GDPR-compliant hosting, and zero setup costs. For that use case, it's a solid tool.

But if you're in e-commerce, want to use WhatsApp as a real revenue channel, and need a solution that scales with your shop – without seat packages, conversation caps, and auto top-up surprises – it's worth looking beyond the obvious choices.

We at Chatarmin specialize in exactly this gap: WhatsApp marketing and automation for e-commerce brands. No pricing page – because every shop has different requirements. Let's talk instead.

Book a call and find out if Chatarmin fits your setup →

Author: Johannes Mansbart, Founder of Chatarmin. All pricing information based on publicly available data, Trengo Help Center, and user reviews on G2/Capterra (as of 2025/2026). Subject to change.