Since 2 March 2026, the people who build software that connects to Xero pay Xero a monthly plan fee based on how many Xero organisations their app connects to and how much data it pulls out of Xero. If your business only uses apps from the Xero App Store, the app company deals with Xero, not you. If you paid a developer to build a private integration, it depends on how it was set up: it may sit on Xero's free plan, a paid plan, or a "custom connection" that your business pays for. Not all of them are treated the same. This guide explains what changed (as at October 2026), who it affects, and what to check in your own setup.
What changed and when
Xero announced the change on 4 December 2025. From 2 March 2026 it retired its old revenue-share model for app developers and moved to five plans based on connections and data volume (Xero Developer pricing). Existing apps were moved across from mid-March 2026, with at least 30 days' notice to each developer (Xero Developer FAQ).
The plans, as published by Xero (prices in AUD per month, excluding tax):
- Starter: no charge. Up to 5 connected Xero organisations. Up to 1,000 calls to Xero per day for each organisation.
- Core: $35 AUD per month. Up to 50 connections, 10 GB of data out of Xero each month, 5,000 calls per day per organisation.
- Plus: $245 AUD per month. Up to 1,000 connections and 50 GB of data out of Xero each month.
- Advanced: $1,445 AUD per month. Up to 10,000 connections and 250 GB of data out of Xero each month.
- Enterprise: price on application, no connection limit, and an App Store listing is required.
On the Core, Plus and Advanced plans, data pulled out of Xero beyond the monthly allowance costs $2.40 AUD per GB on the Xero bill. Sending data into Xero isn't capped on any plan.
Xero also updated its developer terms. Data obtained through Xero's connection may not be used to train AI models, and apps must not use bots or browser extensions to get around Xero's security or imitate a person clicking through Xero. Those terms apply to everyone, including the plans and setups that are exempt from the new pricing.
Who it affects, and who it doesn't
The fee is charged to the developer account that owns the app, on the credit card registered in Xero's developer portal. It is not added to your Xero subscription. Here is how that plays out for the common setups:
- You only use Xero App Store apps (payroll add-ons, inventory, job management and so on). The app company pays Xero. Whether they pass any of it on in their own pricing is their decision, so watch for price notices from your vendors.
- A custom connection. This is a Xero product for one-off integrations with a single organisation, bought by the business itself. Xero lists it at $10 AUD per month (including GST) for each custom connection (Xero custom development). Xero says custom connections remain on the same commercial terms, so the new plans don't apply to them.
- An integration built by your accountant or bookkeeper for their own practice or for a single client. Xero lists these as exempt from the new pricing.
- A private integration your developer built as a normal Xero app, connected to your organisation. With one or a few organisations connected, it would usually sit on the free Starter plan, which allows up to 5 connections and 1,000 calls per organisation per day.
- A developer or IT provider who runs one app for many clients, under their own developer account. Every client organisation counts towards that one app's connection total. Once it goes past 5 connections it needs a paid plan, and that cost sits with whoever owns the developer account.
Xero also exempts banking, credit and payments apps on separate contracts, conversion tools that only move data into Xero from other software, and apps built for franchise networks.
What to check in your own setup
Most growing businesses have more connections to Xero than anyone has written down. Before you worry about cost, make a list:
- Every system that talks to Xero. Open Xero and look at the list of connected apps for your organisation. Add anything that sends or reads data on a schedule: job systems, stock systems, CRMs, reporting tools, spreadsheets that refresh from Xero.
- Who built each one. An App Store vendor, a developer you paid, your accountant, or someone in-house who may have since left.
- Whose developer account it runs under. This decides who gets Xero's bill. If a contractor built it under their personal account, you are relying on them keeping that account and card active.
- What type of connection it is. A custom connection that you pay $10 AUD per month for in Xero, or a normal app. Your developer can tell you, or it shows in the Xero developer portal.
- How many organisations it connects to. One business with several entities may count as several connections.
- How much it calls Xero. Some older integrations ask Xero "anything new?" every few minutes, all day. That uses up the daily call limit and adds to the data pulled out, even when nothing has changed.
If an integration has slowed down, started missing records or shown errors since March 2026, the plan limits are worth checking along with the usual causes. Our Xero and MYOB integration repair service covers this kind of problem.
Options if your costs or limits changed
- Combine integrations. Two or three small integrations that each pull the same data from Xero can often become one. That means fewer apps to maintain and less data pulled out.
- Move to an App Store app when one now does the job properly. If a supported product covers what your custom build does, the vendor carries the Xero plan and keeps it up to date. Custom work makes sense only when a marketplace app won't do.
- Sync less often, or in batches. Many integrations don't need minute-by-minute updates. Syncing only what changed, a few times a day, or when something happens, uses far fewer calls.
- Switch a single-organisation integration to a custom connection. For a private integration used only by your business, this can be a simpler setup with a known monthly cost. Your developer needs to check that it suits how the integration works.
- Ask your developer directly. Ask which plan the app is on, who pays, how close it is to the limits, and whether Xero's notice asked them to do anything.
If you'd like someone independent to look at the whole picture, we build and review Xero API integrations for Australian businesses.
The technical side (for whoever looks after your systems)
- Xero defines a connection as an organisation (tenant) connected to your app with a valid OAuth connection. Counts and data volume are measured per app, and apps from the same developer can't pool them. Xero suggests the connections endpoint as the most reliable count, and the developer portal now has a "manage your connections" page for removing inactive ones.
- "Egress" means data read out of Xero across all of Xero's APIs, except the Organisation endpoint, which Xero leaves out because many integrations use it as a keep-alive call. Xero measures it in binary gigabytes, and the allowance resets on the first of each month (UTC). The developer dashboard has an API egress usage report covering two months of daily figures.
- The other rate limits haven't changed: 5 calls in progress at once, 60 calls per minute, and 10,000 calls per minute across the whole app. The daily limit is 1,000 calls per organisation on Starter and 5,000 on the paid plans.
- New apps start on Starter. Adding a 6th connection requires a payment card and moves the app to Core. Higher plans need Xero's app certification (and a security assessment for the premium features), so connections stay capped at the plan limit until those requirements are met. Billing is by credit card only. Moving up mid-month is billed at the lower plan until the end of that month, and you can ask to move down twice a year.
- The Journals endpoint, the Xero Practice Manager API and bulk connections are only on the Advanced plan and above, and need a security assessment and use-case approval. Manual journals are still available on every plan.
- To use less data: request only records changed since the last sync, use webhooks rather than polling where Xero offers them, page through large lists instead of re-reading everything, and cache reference data such as accounts and tax rates.
MYOB made its own change in 2026, to permissions rather than pricing. See why some MYOB integrations stopped working after its API change.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay Xero for my integration now?
Usually not directly. The plan fee is charged to the developer account that owns the app. Your business pays Xero directly only if you bought a custom connection, which Xero lists at $10 AUD per month including GST and which stays outside the new plans. If you own the developer account yourself, the bill is yours.
What counts as a connection?
One Xero organisation connected to the app. If your group has three Xero organisations linked to the same integration, that's three connections for that app.
What happens if an integration goes over its plan's limits?
Connections are capped at the plan maximum until the app moves up a plan. On the paid plans, data beyond the monthly allowance is charged at $2.40 AUD per GB. Calls beyond the daily or per-minute limits are refused by Xero, so the integration slows down or misses records until the limit resets.
Will Xero App Store apps cost more because of this?
Xero charges the app company, not you. Whether a vendor changes its own prices is up to them, and Xero's pages don't say. Check notices from your vendors.
Is my Xero subscription price affected?
No. These are developer plans. Your own Xero subscription is priced separately.
Want someone to check your integrations?
If you're not sure what connects to your Xero, who built it or whose account it runs under, we can work through it with you. Book a free initial chat and we'll talk through your integrations and what, if anything, needs to change.