{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "later",
 "name": "Later",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "later.com",
 "category": "Growth & Revenue",
 "task": "Social media",
 "summary": "Visual social media scheduler and planner. Plan, preview and auto-publish posts across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and more from one calendar.",
 "best_for": "creators and visual-first brands (Instagram/TikTok-centric) that want drag-and-drop visual planning, link-in-bio and scheduling in one",
 "skip_if": "you need deep multi-network publishing, listening and team workflows at agency scale (suite-class tools fit), or the post caps chafe immediately",
 "honest_knock": "The Starter caps are where the price really lives: 30 posts per profile and 3 months of analytics run out fast for an active brand, pushing real users toward Growth — so compare at the tier you'll actually need, not the entry price. Later's visual-first planning (born from Instagram) is still its strength; if your world is link-in-bio commerce and grids, that focus earns its seat.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$18.75",
  "entry_price_terms": "a month billed yearly",
  "from_price_usd_month": 18.75,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "(re-verified 2026-08-17 and 2026-10-07) Starter $18.75/month, Growth $37.50 and Scale $82.50, all billed yearly, which Later advertises as three months free and 25% off against monthly. Every plan opens with a 14-day trial, and on the page as we read it on 31 August 2026 that trial is the only no-cost route offered: three paid tiers, nothing beneath them, and an FAQ that discusses users per plan rather than any zero-price option. Our earlier note here also described a permanently free option, which we could not source; Later has historically run a no-cost link-in-bio product that may still sit behind the signup flow, but the pricing page does not sell it. Included per plan: Starter 1 Social Set (one profile on each of eight networks), 1 user, 30 posts per profile a month and 5 AI credits; Growth 2 sets, 2 users, 180 posts and 50 credits; Scale 6 sets, 4 users, unlimited posts and 100 credits. Add-ons are sold on Growth and Scale only; the Starter card says extra Social Sets, users and AI credits are not available. On Growth and Scale extra Social Sets are $11.25 a month each, extra users $3.75 a month each, and extra AI credits $3.75 a month per 100 credits. Starter covers casual scheduling; Growth adds the inbox, approvals and longer analytics; Scale is aimed at enterprise-level analytics without an enterprise contract.",
  "verified_at": "2026-10-07",
  "source_url": null
 },
 "free_plan": false,
 "free_plan_evidence": null,
 "cost_traps": [
  {
   "id": "usage_metered",
   "label": "Usage-metered",
   "evidence": "Included per plan: Starter 1 Social Set (one profile on each of eight networks), 1 user, 30 posts per profile a month and 5 AI credits; Growth 2 sets, 2 users, 180 posts and 50 credits; Scale 6 sets, 4 users, unlimited posts and 100 credits.",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-07",
   "source_url": null
  },
  {
   "id": "addons_extra",
   "label": "Key features are paid add-ons",
   "evidence": "Add-ons are sold on Growth and Scale only; the Starter card says extra Social Sets, users and AI credits are not available.",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-07",
   "source_url": null
  }
 ],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "Buffer or Vista Social",
  "why": "Buffer is the lean generalist, Vista undercuts on breadth — Later wins on visual planning UX for Instagram-first work"
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/later.json",
  "review": "https://marketingandsalessoftware.com/later-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/later/",
  "vendor_site": "https://later.com"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://try.later.com/mc4lhvgxp83g",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "later:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "later:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "later:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "later:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}