Short answer: MAXQDA is not free. As of October 28, 2026, the official MAXQDA pricing page lists a student license at €50 for six months or €88 for twelve months, and an academic annual subscription at €242 per seat (€275 for MAXQDA Analytics Pro). There is a 14-day free trial. AI Assist Free costs nothing, while AI Assist Premium is a paid add-on from €66.
Last updated: October 28, 2026
Before buying qualitative data analysis (QDA) software, PhD students, lab managers and research agencies usually ask three things. Is it free? What does the cheapest license include? And what will it really cost across a whole project? This guide answers those questions on MAXQDA pricing in 2026, using the prices published on the official MAXQDA pricing page on October 28, 2026. The page shows prices in euros for a European visitor. MAXQDA says the listed amount covers the whole license period. Taxes, currency and your customer type can change the price at checkout, so confirm it before you buy.
Key takeaways
- MAXQDA has no free plan. The free trial runs for 14 days with full features and 60 minutes of automatic transcription. It then ends automatically.
- Cheapest full license: the student license at €50 for six months or €88 for twelve months. Student or PhD status must be verified first.
- Academic staff: €242 per year for one seat, €581 for three years or €847 for five years.
- AI has two levels. AI Assist Free is included at no cost. AI Assist Premium, which adds more prompts, coding across several documents and local AI models, costs €132 per year for academic users.
- Add-ons are extra. Transcription hours (from €20 for two hours) and TeamCloud (€220 per year for academia) are sold separately.
Is MAXQDA free?
No. MAXQDA is commercial QDA software sold by VERBI Software in Berlin. The only general free access is the MAXQDA free trial. MAXQDA describes it as fully functional for 14 days with no feature limitations, and says it ends automatically without renewing. The sign-up form asks only for an email address. MAXQDA also lists a Free Course License for students in research-methods courses, which instructors arrange. Many universities also hold campus licenses, so check your library or IT software catalog before paying.
MAXQDA pricing in 2026: every license tier
The shop sells to four customer groups: Academia (universities, colleges, schools), Non-profit, Business, and Students with verified student or PhD status. Each group can buy the standard MAXQDA edition or MAXQDA Analytics Pro, which adds a Stats module for descriptive statistics, group comparisons, correlations and cluster analysis. Standard licenses come as annual subscriptions or as three-year and five-year licenses.
| Segment | MAXQDA, 1 year | MAXQDA, 3 years | MAXQDA, 5 years | Analytics Pro, 1 year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Student (verified) | €88 (or €50 for six months) | Not offered | Not offered | €99 (or €55 for six months) |
| Academia | €242 | €581 | €847 | €275 |
| Non-profit | €297 | €713 | €1,040 | €352 |
| Business | €550 | €1,320 | €1,925 | €660 |
Source: MAXQDA pricing page, read on October 28, 2026. Euro prices per single-user license, for the whole period shown.
Single-user and network licenses
Buyers can order 1 to 20 single-user licenses, or a network license with 5 to 20 seats. For more than 20 licenses, MAXQDA asks for a personalized quote. A single-user license is meant for one person, so a lab where five people code needs five licenses or a network license. Unlike ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA does not sell its single-user license as a shared concurrent seat.
Student license rules
According to the pricing page, students upload proof of current enrollment, such as a student ID or enrollment certificate, in any language. After verification, which takes about one working day, they get a purchase link. Student licenses are personal, can only be bought by students or PhD candidates (not by universities), and expire automatically. To keep working, you buy a new student license.
Transcription and TeamCloud
Activating MAXQDA Transcription includes 60 free minutes, unless you already used them in the trial. Extra hours cost €20 for 2 hours, €49 for 5 hours, €78 for 10 hours and €150 for 20 hours, and MAXQDA says transcription works in more than 50 languages. TeamCloud, for collaborative projects with 25 GB of storage, one team lead and up to four team members, costs €220 per year for academia, €330 for non-profits and €440 for businesses.
What does MAXQDA AI Assist cost?
MAXQDA's AI features are grouped under AI Assist. There are two levels:
- AI Assist Free (€0): a limited number of prompts for occasional use, coding of single documents, code and subcode suggestions, chat with your data and summaries.
- AI Assist Premium: more prompts for extensive use, coding across multiple documents and local AI models. It costs €66 for six months or €132 for twelve months on academic and student licenses, €198 per year for non-profits and €264 per year for businesses. You can also buy it for the time left on an existing license, priced per day with a minimum of 40 days.
The AI Assist page says MAXQDA is GDPR compliant, stores encrypted data in the EU and works with trusted third parties. The MAXQDA 27.0 update post, dated October 5, 2026, says all AI Assist features now run on the latest available Google Gemini models. The same update added local AI: Premium users can connect AI Assist to a language model running on their own computer or server, so project data stays on their device or in their organization. MAXQDA notes that local results may be slower and less accurate, depending on hardware and the chosen model. For ethics boards that forbid cloud processing, this is the most important pricing detail in 2026: local AI is only available with the paid Premium add-on.
MAXQDA License Cost Planner (3-year view)
Annual sticker prices hide the real decision: how long you need the software, how many people use it, and whether you need AI Premium. This planner applies the October 28, 2026 prices to five common situations. It is a worked example built by Qualitati, not a quote.
| Situation | Sensible MAXQDA option | Cost over the period | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Master's thesis, one analysis semester | Student, six months, AI Assist Free | €50 | Verification takes about one working day |
| Same thesis with AI Premium | Student, six months + AI Premium, six months | €116 (€50 + €66) | AI Premium more than doubles the cost |
| PhD, three years of coding | Student, twelve months, renewed | €264 (3 × €88) | Enrollment must still be valid at each renewal |
| Faculty member, three-year grant | Academia, 3-year license | €581 (vs €726 paid yearly) | Paid upfront; AI Premium adds €132 per year |
| Agency team of five, coding in parallel | Business, 5 single-user licenses, annual | €2,750 per year | AI Premium (€264 each) and transcription are extra |
Two rules come out of the numbers. First, longer terms pay off only if the project really lasts that long: the three-year academic license costs 20% less than three annual subscriptions (€581 vs €726), and the five-year license costs 30% less than five (€847 vs €1,210). Second, AI Premium changes the budget more than the edition choice does. For a student, Premium costs more than the license itself.
MAXQDA vs ATLAS.ti vs NVivo vs Qualitati on price
The table compares entry prices from each vendor's public pages on the dates shown. ATLAS.ti lists US dollars for a US visitor, while MAXQDA, NVivo and Qualitati were read in euros, so compare the structure rather than the decimals.
| Criterion | MAXQDA | ATLAS.ti | NVivo | Qualitati |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free option | 14-day trial; AI Assist Free | Trial: 5 active days in 20 | 14-day trial | Free tier: 30 credits per month, no card |
| Student entry price | €88 per year (€50 for six months) | $130 per year | €115 per year | €9 per month (€90 per year) |
| Academic entry price | €242 per year | $336 per year | €470 per year | €19 per month (Researchers plan) |
| Collects data (interviews, surveys) | No | No | No | Yes: AI-moderated interviews, focus groups, conversational surveys |
| Manual coding depth | Very deep (mixed methods, visual tools) | Very deep | Very deep | AI-assisted coding in QDA Workspace and ThemeLens; lighter manual toolset |
| Price date | October 28, 2026 | October 21, 2026 | October 6, 2026 | October 28, 2026 |
Where Qualitati fits
Qualitati is a European, budget-friendly qualitative research platform for universities and research companies, with GDPR and data privacy as central priorities. It does not replace every MAXQDA feature. It covers a different part of the workflow:
- Collect and analyze in one place. Run AI-moderated interviews in text or voice, AI-moderated focus groups and conversational surveys, in 10 languages.
- AI-assisted analysis. ThemeLens runs thematic analysis across up to 100 transcripts at once, with quotes linked to participants. QDA Workspace supports inductive and deductive coding and codebook generation.
- Published pricing. A free tier gives 30 monthly credits that do not roll over, with no credit card needed. Paid plans start with Student (€9 per month) and Researchers (€19 per month). See transparent pricing.
Many researchers combine tools. They collect data and run a first AI-assisted pass in Qualitati, then do deep interpretive or mixed-methods coding in MAXQDA. For a wider comparison, read our MAXQDA alternatives guide, the MAXQDA vs ATLAS.ti vs NVivo comparison or the Qualitati vs MAXQDA page.
Limitations and methodology concerns
- Price snapshots age quickly. These figures were read on October 28, 2026, in euros. MAXQDA chooses the currency from the visitor's location, and your checkout price may differ by country and customer type.
- AI capacity is not unlimited. MAXQDA describes both AI levels as having limited capacity and reserves the right to throttle unusually high or automated use.
- Local AI is a trade-off. It keeps data on your own machine, but MAXQDA itself warns that results may be slower and less accurate than the cloud version.
- Software does not make analysis rigorous. Reviewers judge your coding process, memos and audit trail, not the tool's brand. Report which AI features you used and how you checked their output.
Who this is for, and when not to use it
This guide is for PhD students, academics and research agencies budgeting MAXQDA for a thesis, grant or client project. Do not use it as a formal procurement quote. Request a written quote from MAXQDA, especially for network licenses or purchases above 20 licenses.
FAQ
Is MAXQDA free for students?
No. As of October 28, 2026, verified students pay €50 for six months or €88 for twelve months for MAXQDA, unless their university has a campus license or their course uses MAXQDA's Free Course License. There is a 14-day free trial.
How much does MAXQDA cost per year?
For one single-user annual subscription: €242 (academia), €297 (non-profit) and €550 (business). MAXQDA Analytics Pro costs €275, €352 and €660. All prices are from the MAXQDA pricing page on October 28, 2026.
How long is the MAXQDA free trial?
14 days, fully functional, with 60 minutes of automatic transcription. MAXQDA says the trial ends automatically and does not renew.
Is MAXQDA AI Assist free?
AI Assist Free is included at no cost but has limited capacity. AI Assist Premium costs €132 per year for academic and student users and is required for coding across multiple documents and for local AI models.
What is the difference between MAXQDA and MAXQDA Analytics Pro?
Analytics Pro adds a Stats module to MAXQDA, with descriptive statistics, group comparisons, correlations and cluster analysis. It costs about 14% to 20% more depending on segment, for example €275 instead of €242 per year for academia.
What is a cheaper alternative to MAXQDA?
For basic text coding, free open-source tools such as Taguette or QualCoder (see our free QDA software guide). If you also want AI-moderated interviews and AI-assisted analysis, Qualitati's free tier gives 30 credits per month.
Bottom line
MAXQDA pricing in 2026 starts at €50 for a six-month student license and €242 per year for an academic seat, with a 14-day free trial and a free AI level. The real cost depends on three choices: license term, number of named users, and whether you need AI Assist Premium for multi-document coding or local AI. Check for a campus license first and match the term to your project length. If you want a lower-cost, GDPR-focused platform that also collects the data, start free with 30 credits on Qualitati or view transparent pricing.