What it costs to run a sports pool: free tiers, per-head pricing and one-time fees
Most pool hosts are free for a small group and start charging somewhere between 5 and 25 players. After that there are only three pricing shapes in the whole category: a per-player price, a one-time fee for the pool, or a per-season subscription. They cost about the same for a group of ten and wildly different amounts for a group of sixty.
First, the thing worth saying out loud: this is what the organizer pays a platform to host the thing. It is not a buy-in. Nobody here is collecting money from players, and a pool that runs on bragging rights does not need to involve any.
The three pricing models
Per player (per head, per entry). You pay for each person who joins, usually per season. Cheap to start, and it scales with exactly the thing you want more of. Every person you invite makes the invite more expensive, which is a strange incentive for something whose whole point is getting the group in.
One-time per pool. You pay once for that pool, at a size band, and adding players inside the band costs nothing. Predictable, and the price stops when you stop.
Subscription. A monthly or seasonal fee for an account, whatever you run inside it. Fine if you run pools all year. Expensive if you run one bracket each March and forget the renewal until the card is charged again.
The trap is not which model is cheapest - it is that the per-head one looks cheapest at the size you are today and gets quoted at the size you were when you signed up.
The same 25 people, three ways
Twenty-five is the number most office pools land on, so here is what that group costs.
| What you pay for 25 players | |
|---|---|
| Per player at $2 each for the season | $50 |
| A flat seasonal fee for up to 25 entries | $19 |
| One-time for the pool, here | $15 once |
The $2-per-member and $19-flat figures are real: they were read off FootballPools' and Sunday Survivor's own pages in August 2026, and both are survivor-focused hosts, so treat the row as a price comparison and not a feature one. Our own number comes straight from the pricing ladder.
Now double the group to 50. The per-head price doubles to $100. The flat seasonal fee has run out of room. The one-time price moves one rung.
What free tiers actually include
"Free" in this category almost always means free up to a player cap, and the caps are small. The ones that have been checked at source:
| Trofeo.live | Sunday Survivor | FootballPools | OfficePoolStop | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free up to | 10 players | 10 entries | 5 members | No published cap |
| After that | One-time $10 up to 15, $15 up to 25 | $19 for up to 25 entries, one flat fee for the season | $2 per member for the season | Premium adds branding and removes ads |
Figures read from each provider's own pricing page in August 2026. These are survivor-focused tools, which is the tier people are usually comparing when they search for a free way to run a pool.
The big free contests - ESPN, Yahoo, CBS - are genuinely free and have no cap at all, which is the honest answer to "what is the cheapest option". What you give up is control: your group plays inside a public contest, every player needs an account with that provider, the scoring is whatever the contest says it is, and the pool is only ever about the sports they run. That trade is covered in best pick'em pool sites in 2026.
Our ladder, in full
| Players | One-time price |
|---|---|
| Up to 10 | Free |
| Up to 15 | $10 |
| Up to 25 | $15 |
| Up to 50 | $25 |
| Up to 100 | $50 |
| Up to 1,000 | $100 |
| Up to 5,000 | $250 |
| Up to 10,000 | $500 |
Free for a group of 10. Above that it is a one-time payment for that pool - $10 up to 15, $15 up to 25, $25 up to 50 - and that is the end of it. No subscription, no renewal, no per-player math, and players pay nothing ever. Paid pools also drop our badge and take your own logo.
Five questions to ask before you pay for anything
- Does the price move when the group grows? If it is per head, work out what it costs at the size the pool will actually reach, not the size it is in September.
- Does it renew? A seasonal fee that auto-renews is a subscription with better marketing.
- Do players need an account? Every login between the group chat and the picks costs you players. The ones who never sign up are the ones you most wanted in.
- Do players need an app? Same problem, bigger.
- What happens when someone joins late? Some hosts charge for the seat, some lock the pool entirely. Ask before you promise your colleague they can still get in.
So what should you actually use?
- A group of ten or fewer, no money, no fuss: any free tier works, including ours. Do not pay for this.
- A public contest you do not mind your group signing into: ESPN or Yahoo, free and uncapped.
- A group that outgrows a free cap and does not want a subscription: a one-time per-pool price is the model that stops charging you.
- A brand or a client running something branded: that is a different conversation - see pricing.
If you want ours: create a pool, share one link, and it is free until you hit 10 players. Nobody gets asked for a card to make a pick. Compare it against the named alternatives on best pick'em pool app or the RunYourPool alternative page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to run a pick'em pool?
Free for small groups on most platforms. Above the free cap you are paying either per player (typically a couple of dollars each per season), a flat seasonal fee, or a one-time fee for the pool. Here it is free up to 10 players and then $10 up to 15, $15 up to 25, paid once.
Is there a genuinely free way to run a pool?
Yes. ESPN and Yahoo run free public contests with no player cap, and most dedicated hosts have a free tier with a small cap - ours is 10 players. The cost only starts when you want a bigger group or your own branding.
Do players pay to join a pool?
Not here - players never pay anything and never need an account or an app. Some platforms are built around paid entries instead. If you are looking at one of those, you are looking at a different kind of product.
Is a one-time fee cheaper than per-player pricing?
It depends entirely on group size. Per-player pricing wins for very small groups and loses quickly as the group grows, because it scales with headcount while a one-time price is banded. For 25 players that is $15 once against $50 at $2 per head.
Does the price renew every season?
Not on a one-time model - you pay for that pool and nothing recurs. Check this carefully elsewhere: a "one flat fee for the season" is a fee you pay again next season.