Keeper sells four plans, and the first two are worth reading in the order they are printed. The monthly plan is $20 a month, which is $240 over a year, and the pricing page says beside it that tax filing is not included. The plan that files, Standard, is $199 a year and brings a federal return, up to two state returns, and a tax professional who reviews and signs the result. The option that sounds cheaper is the more expensive way to buy less of the product.
Above that the ladder turns normal again: Premium doubles the price to $399 for quarterly estimated payments, returns in three or more states, rentals and K-1s, and audit protection, and Business is $1,199 for S-corporations and partnerships. Every price and plan detail below was read from Keeper's own pricing and product pages on September 27, 2026, and the sources are listed at the end.
What Keeper Actually Does
Keeper is two products sold as one subscription. The first is a bookkeeping app: you connect business bank accounts and cards, transactions arrive on their own, and software sorts them and proposes which ones look like business deductions for you to confirm or overrule. The second is a filed tax return, prepared from those books, reviewed and signed by a tax professional, and sent to the IRS electronically.
The pitch is aimed at people who are not bookkeepers and do not want to become one. If your transactions are already categorized somewhere, the sorting half of the product has little to do. If they are not, the sorting half is the whole reason to pay.
The Plans, Priced
Four plans, all read from Keeper's pricing page on September 27, 2026, with the monthly figure they print beside the yearly ones.
| Plan | Price | What it includes | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeping Only | $20/mo, billed monthly | Expense tracking, AI categorization, unlimited connected accounts | Tax filing. Keeper prints "Tax filing not included" on the plan itself |
| Standard | $199/yr ($16.58/mo) | Everything above, plus a federal return, up to two state returns, and a tax pro who reviews and signs | Quarterly tax payments, rentals and K-1s, three or more states, audit protection |
| Premium | $399/yr ($33.25/mo) | Everything in Standard, plus audit protection, multi-state returns, rentals, K-1s and investors, quarterly tax payments, and meetings with a tax pro | S-corporation and partnership filing |
| Business | $1,199/yr ($99.92/mo) | Everything in Premium, plus S-corporation and partnership filings, quarterly estimated tax payments, and a year-end book review and close | Nothing on the list at this price |
Every plan carries the same trial terms: 14 days, described as risk free and cancellable.
The Shape of the Ladder
The bottom of the ladder runs against the usual advice about subscriptions. Month to month is normally the flexible, low-commitment way to try something. Here it is the choice that costs the most and finishes the least, because the monthly plan cannot file a return at any point.
The second step, Standard to Premium, is the one that needs a real justification. It doubles the price, from $199 to $399, in exchange for quarterly tax payments, returns in three or more states, rentals and K-1s, amendments, late returns up to five years back, and audit protection. The Business tier at $1,199 is not a freelancer plan at all; it exists for S-corporations and partnerships that need a 1120-S or 1065 as well as a 1040.
What the Alternatives Cost
The real comparison is not Keeper against nothing. It is Keeper against the combinations people actually run, priced from each vendor's page on this site in September 2026.
| Stack | Year | What you still do yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Wave (free) plus FreeTaxUSA | $15.99 | Categorize every transaction, then enter the whole return |
| TurboTax Premium, books done by hand | $139 plus a state fee the product pages do not print | Everything except the return interview |
| Keeper Standard | $199 | Review what the software suggests. A professional reviews and files the return |
| QuickBooks Solopreneur Lite plus FreeTaxUSA | $230.99, which is $215 for the year of Solopreneur plus $15.99 for the state return | Categorize with software, then enter the return yourself |
The Solopreneur figure is the annual price, not the three month promotion this site has written about elsewhere. And the comparison leaves Keeper in a clear place: it is not the cheapest way to file a return, and it does not pretend to be, since two of these stacks cost less. It is the only one of the four where a person's review and signature sit on the finished return, and the only one where the bookkeeping and the filing are the same subscription rather than two things you keep in sync.
Who Should Skip It
Skip it if your books are already clean. The product's value is sorting transactions you have not sorted. If you reconcile monthly in a spreadsheet or another tool, you are buying a service you are already performing, and the subscription is a tip.
Skip it if you own a rental or hold a K-1. Those are Premium features, so the price you would actually pay is $399, and at that number the honest comparison is a local preparer who knows the property.
Skip it if you want to test month to month. The monthly plan cannot file, so the low-commitment option does not actually let you try the thing you would be buying. The 14 day trial does, and it is free.
Skip it if your return is complicated in a way forms do not capture. A business sale, equity compensation, partnership income, foreign accounts: that is a CPA's job. Keeper will prepare a return from your books, which is not the same as planning around your situation.
Skip it if you are paying for it and not using it. A bookkeeping subscription only works when the books are the thing you open weekly. If the app notification is the only time you think about categorization, cancel and put the $199 toward the preparer.
Who It Fits
A freelancer who does not categorize. One Schedule C, one or two states, a bank account and a card that only the business uses. That filer gets the sorting, the categorization, the return, and a professional's signature for $199 a year, and never has to learn what a chart of accounts is.
A gig worker with a pile of small charges. Rideshare, delivery, and creator income arrives as a long list of small transactions, and expenses nobody wrote down are the usual reason a Schedule C looks thinner than the year did. Software that asks about each transaction is well suited to that.
Anyone who wants a human on the return without paying for a full-service firm. The pro review and signature is included from Standard upward, which is a different offer from the self-service software this site reviews elsewhere.
How Keeper compares with those self-service options is a separate question, covered in the accounting software roundup and the TurboTax review.
How This Score Works
The criteria below were written before this product was scored, and they are the same five on every review here. Each one takes only inputs you can check yourself on a vendor page: what a plan includes, where it caps you, what processing costs, what is sold separately, and what is printed versus quoted. Nothing in the score depends on how the software feels to use, because that is not something this page can evidence.
| Criterion | 2 points | 1 point | 0 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the entry plan includes | The cheapest paid plan does the product’s core job without an upgrade, and nothing a solo user needs monthly sits a tier up | Core job works, but at least one routine monthly need is only on a higher tier | The cheapest paid plan cannot do the core job without an upgrade or a paid add-on |
| Where the caps bite | No hard cap a one-person business would hit in a year | A cap exists but sits above ordinary solo use | A cap sits inside ordinary solo use |
| Cost of getting paid | Processing rates published, and a bank transfer path under 1.5% or capped | Rates published, but card only or the bank path is 1.5% or higher | Rates not published anywhere public |
| Add-on load | Nothing routine is sold separately; add-ons are genuinely optional | One routine need is priced as an add-on | Two or more routine needs are add-ons, or a required add-on costs half the plan again |
| Price transparency | Every plan price and the renewal price is printed, and promotions state what they renew at | Plan prices printed, but a material cost needs a call, a login or a quote | The entry price only exists as a promotion, or key prices are not public |
8 points available across the 4 criteria that apply to this product, halved for a score out of five. The one left out is named in the table above with the reason. A high score means the pricing is honest and the plan you buy is the plan you keep. It does not mean the product is the best one for you.
The Score
| Criterion | Score | Why, from the printed facts |
|---|---|---|
| What the entry plan includes | 2 / 2 | The plan that does the job this review is about, bookkeeping plus a filed return, is Standard at $199 a year, and it includes federal and up to two state returns with a tax pro reviewing and signing. Nothing a filer needs every month is gated above it. What sits on Premium at $399 is the pricing page’s "Schedule estimated payments", returns in three or more states, and rentals and K-1s. |
| Where the caps bite | 1 / 2 | Nothing caps transactions or accounts: every plan connects unlimited accounts. The walls are elsewhere. Standard covers up to two state returns, and rentals, K-1s and three-or-more-state returns start at Premium, which a landlord side hustle hits even though most one-person service businesses do not. |
| Cost of getting paid | n/a | Does not apply: The product does not process payments for the customer, so there is no rate to publish |
| Add-on load | 2 / 2 | Nothing routine is sold as a separate add-on. Books, filing, the pro review and the e-file are bundled into the plan, and the higher tiers sell more coverage rather than metering one feature. |
| Price transparency | 2 / 2 | All four plans print their price, the monthly equivalent of the yearly plans, and what each tier adds. The monthly bookkeeping plan states plainly that tax filing is not included, and the 14 day trial is printed on every plan. |
| Keeper Tax | 7 / 8 | 4.4 out of 5 |
Seven out of eight, or 4.4 out of 5. Keeper prints everything: four prices, the monthly equivalent of each yearly plan, what each tier adds, and the fact that the monthly plan cannot file. It also keeps its add-ons inside the tiers rather than metering features, which is rarer than it should be.
The point it gives up is the wall at Standard. Rentals and K-1s start at Premium, which a landlord side hustle meets even though most one-person service businesses never do, and returns in three or more states do the same. Quarterly estimated payments also live on that tier, though they are a four-times-a-year habit rather than a monthly need.
What the score cannot capture is whether the AI categorizes your transactions the way you would. That is what the 14 day trial is for, and it costs nothing to find out.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Keeper Tax cost in 2026?
Four plans, all printed on Keeper’s pricing page: Bookkeeping Only at $20 a month billed monthly, Standard at $199 a year, Premium at $399 a year, and Business at $1,199 a year for S-corporations and partnerships. The yearly plans include a federal return and up to two state returns.
Is there a monthly Keeper plan?
Yes. The monthly plan is bookkeeping only: Keeper’s own pricing page says "Tax filing not included" beside it. It costs $240 over a year, while Standard, which does include filing plus a pro review, costs $199 a year. The monthly plan is the more expensive way to buy less.
Does Keeper file state returns?
Standard, Premium and Business each include a federal return and up to two state returns. Returns in three or more states are listed as a Premium feature, and that tier also covers rentals, K-1s and investor filings.
Can Keeper handle an S-corporation?
That is the Business plan at $1,199 a year, which adds S-corporation and partnership filing, quarterly estimated tax payments, and a year-end book review and close. Below that, the plans are built around Schedule C.
Can I try Keeper before paying?
Yes. Keeper prints a 14 day free trial on every plan, described as risk free and cancellable, which is the cheapest way to find out whether the AI categorization matches how you spend.
Is Keeper a replacement for a CPA?
For a straightforward Schedule C, Keeper is software plus a tax professional who reviews and signs the return, which covers what most freelancers need. For a sale of a business, a partnership, equity compensation, or anything where the answer depends on facts a form does not capture, that is CPA territory and the subscription should be part of the budget rather than the whole of it.
Why does this page have no score for the payment criterion?
The scorecard asks what a product charges to get you paid. Keeper prepares and files returns; it does not process customer payments, so there is no rate to publish. This site marks a criterion not applicable before scoring instead of inventing a number for it, so this review is scored out of the four criteria that apply.
Sources
Prices, plan contents and quoted wording were checked against these pages on September 27, 2026.
- Keeper pricing, for all four plan prices, the monthly equivalents, the per-plan feature lists, the "Tax filing not included" line on the monthly plan, and the 14 day trial on every plan
- Keeper homepage, for how the product describes the bookkeeping and filing combination
For the accounting side of the same year, see the accounting software roundup. For what the deductions on that Schedule C actually are, start at the deductions checklist.
