Element Free tier

What Element actually does

Element is the flagship app for Matrix, an open messaging protocol rather than a closed network owned by one company — which means the software behind it can, in principle, be run by anyone, not just the company that built the app you're using.

The core product

Element is built by Element Creations Limited, headquartered in the UK, and both the client app and the Matrix server software behind it are free and open source under the AGPL license. It covers messaging, voice and video calls, and group rooms, and it runs almost everywhere: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, an F-Droid build for people who avoid app stores entirely, and a web/desktop browser client. Most individual users don't self-host a server — they sign in through the public matrix.org homeserver run by the Matrix Foundation, which lets you start messaging, calling, and joining rooms with no setup beyond installing the app and creating an account, while still benefiting from Matrix's decentralized, federated design under the hood.

What's new or notable

The current pricing structure reflects a deliberate split between free open-source infrastructure and paid organizational hosting. The Community tier — the app, plus the Element Server Suite Community edition and Element Call — is free for non-professional deployments and evaluations, self-hosted via the code Element publishes on GitHub, and works for organizations of up to 100 users. Beyond that, Element's Enterprise tier adds Synapse Pro, enhanced security and support, corporate oversight and control, dynamic scaling, and advanced identity and access management, priced per seat per month for professional deployments over 100 users, backed by a service-level agreement with 4-hour response times. There's also a Sovereign tier aimed at organizations that need to operate with no internet dependence at all — an air-gapped installation option with a dedicated mobile push gateway, priced per deployment rather than per seat. Neither Enterprise nor Sovereign publishes an exact price; both are quoted on request.

Who should use Element

Great fit if…

• You want an open protocol instead of a single-company network — Matrix isn't owned by Element Creations Limited or anyone else, so switching clients or hosting your own server later stays possible.
• You're happy to sign in through the free public matrix.org homeserver — you get messaging, calling, and group rooms with essentially no setup, on infrastructure the Matrix Foundation runs.
• You want to audit or self-host the software — both the client and server are open source under AGPL, so a technically capable team or individual can run the entire stack independently.
• You're an organization that needs enterprise-grade hosting, support, or even fully air-gapped deployment — the Enterprise and Sovereign tiers are built specifically for that, with SLAs and identity management.

Skip it if…

• You regularly share large files or media — the free matrix.org account applies fair-use caps that a heavier user will hit.
• You want a fully managed, zero-setup consumer product — Element's model leans toward self-hosting or an organizational deployment; anyone wanting a consumer messenger with no configuration decisions at all may prefer a simpler alternative.
• You need Enterprise pricing today for a budget decision — both Enterprise and Sovereign require a sales conversation, with no public rate card to check against.

Pricing in detail

Element's model is free and self-hosted at the base, or a per-seat / per-deployment price for organizations that want managed hosting, support, or air-gapped deployment.

Where it falls short

• Fair-use caps limit the free public account — the Matrix Foundation's published limits on matrix.org cap file attachments at around 10MB and total data transfer at roughly 100MB per 24 hours, which anyone sending larger media will notice.
• Lifting those caps means paying or self-hosting — there's no free path to remove the limits short of running your own server, which takes more technical setup than a typical consumer messenger.
• Enterprise and Sovereign pricing isn't public — organizations that want managed hosting or air-gapped deployment have to go through sales rather than seeing a number upfront.

Privacy & data

Element's biggest structural privacy advantage is that it isn't a closed, single-company network: Matrix is an open, federated protocol, and both the client and the reference server software are open source under AGPL, so the code that handles your messages can be inspected rather than taken on trust. Choosing to sign into the public matrix.org homeserver, however, means trusting the Matrix Foundation's infrastructure and its published fair-use policies rather than controlling your own server — a meaningfully different position from an organization or individual who self-hosts and keeps their data under their own control entirely. The Sovereign tier exists specifically for organizations with the strictest data-control requirements, including full air-gapped operation with no internet dependence. We did not verify specific claims about end-to-end encryption defaults or third-party audit results for Element's current release in this pass, and recommend checking Element's own security documentation directly for anything compliance-sensitive.

How we checked this

This entry is based on Element's own pricing page at element.io/pricing, last checked on 2026-09-04, which lays out the Community, Enterprise, and Sovereign tiers and their included features. We did not conduct new hands-on testing of the app for this update; the fair-use figures for the public matrix.org homeserver come from the Matrix Foundation's own published policy rather than independent measurement.

What you get, what you give up