Is Life360 free? What the free plan actually includes in 2026
Yes, Life360 has a genuinely free plan, and it’s not a time-limited trial. But it’s narrower than a lot of people expect: you get 2 Places with geofence alerts and only 2 days of location history. Everything beyond that sits behind a paid tier that runs from $7.99 to $24.99 a month, depending on how much history and how many Places you want.
If you’re trying to decide whether the free plan will actually cover your family, or whether you’ll end up upgrading within a week, here’s exactly what’s in each tier and where the free plan tends to fall short.
What the free plan includes
Life360’s free tier covers more ground than most competitors’ free tiers do. The whole family can join a circle at no cost, including grandparents, a co-parent, or a babysitter. Everyone sees everyone’s live location on the map in real time.
Beyond live location, the free plan includes 2 Places (think Home and School) with arrival and departure alerts, so you know when someone gets somewhere or leaves. It also includes SOS alerts for emergencies, automatic crash detection using your phone’s sensors, and a driving summary that logs trips after the fact.
The catch is the 2-day history window. If you want to check where someone was last Tuesday, the free plan simply won’t show it, the data’s already aged out. That’s the single biggest reason people end up paying.
Life360 paid plans compared
Life360’s three paid tiers add more Places, longer history, and progressively more safety features, and they range from $7.99 to $24.99 a month. Silver is the cheapest step up; Platinum adds roadside assistance, towing, and financial protection on top of everything Silver and Gold offer.
Here’s how the tiers stack up:
| Plan | Price | History | Places | Extra features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2 days | 2 | SOS, crash detection, driving summary |
| Silver | $7.99/mo ($79.99/yr) | 7 days | 5 | Everything in Free |
| Gold | $14.99/mo ($149.99/yr) | 30 days | Unlimited | Roadside assistance, individual driver reports (speed, phone usage, braking) |
| Platinum | $24.99/mo ($249.99/yr) | 30 days | Unlimited | Adds towing, $1M stolen funds reimbursement, travel and medical support |
One thing worth flagging clearly: every one of these prices covers the whole circle, not one person. A Gold plan at $14.99 a month gives every member of that circle 30 days of history and unlimited Places. You’re not paying per family member, which makes the math friendlier for larger households than it first looks.
Is the free plan enough?
For a basic “did the kids get home from school” use case, the free plan is honestly enough for most families. Two Places (say, Home and School) with arrival alerts covers the most common reason people install Life360 in the first place, and you don’t pay anything for it.
Where it starts to feel tight is once your life has more than two locations worth tracking. A grandparent’s house, a part-time job, a sports practice, a friend’s place you want an alert for, that’s already four Places and you’re capped at two on the free tier. You’ll also feel the 2-day history limit the first time you want to check “where was he at 4pm yesterday” and the answer is already gone.
We’ve found that people who upgrade usually do it for one of two reasons: they need a third or fourth Place, or they want driving reports on a new teen driver. If neither applies to you yet, there’s no rush to pay. For a closer look at how precise Life360’s location pings actually are day to day, see our breakdown of Life360’s accuracy.
Free alternatives if you don’t want to pay
If Life360’s free tier doesn’t fit and you’d rather not pay $7.99 to $24.99 a month, there are several genuinely free options worth knowing about, though each comes with its own tradeoffs around platform support and features.
Apple Find My is free and built into iOS and macOS. It handles arrival and departure alerts well, but it’s Apple-only: people-sharing only works between Apple devices, and there’s no Find My app for Android. If your whole family carries iPhones, this is a solid no-cost option. If even one person has an Android phone, it won’t work for that person.
Google Maps location sharing is also free and works across both iOS and Android, which makes it the more flexible pick for mixed households. It supports arrival and departure notifications for shared contacts, but it doesn’t offer the geofence customization Life360 does, and it lives inside a navigation app rather than a dedicated family safety app.
Full disclosure: North is our app, so weigh this one with that in mind. North is a family location app built around the idea that constant tracking creates anxiety rather than reassurance, so it deliberately skips driving reports, speed scoreboards, and a live map as the default home screen. It also has no crash detection or SOS alerts; if those matter to you, Life360 keeps the edge there. The free tier covers up to 4 circle members and 3 Smart Places (more Places than Life360’s free tier), with arrival and departure notifications and transit status. Premium is $4.99/mo or $39/yr, which undercuts Life360’s cheapest paid tier, and adds up to 10 members, unlimited Smart Places, Routine Alerts, and Low Battery Pings. It’s rolling out on iOS and Android now; you can check current availability at north-circle.app. If you’re weighing it against a specific alternative, our Life360 vs. Find My comparison walks through the tradeoffs in more detail.
Frequently asked questions
Is Life360 free?
Yes. Life360’s free plan is permanent, not a trial, and includes live location sharing for your whole circle, 2 Places with geofence alerts, 2 days of location history, SOS alerts, crash detection, and a driving summary. You only pay if you want more Places or a longer history window.
How much does Life360 cost per month?
Life360 has three paid tiers: Silver at $7.99/mo ($79.99/yr), Gold at $14.99/mo ($149.99/yr), and Platinum at $24.99/mo ($249.99/yr). Each tier’s price covers the whole circle, not each individual member, so the cost doesn’t multiply per person.
What’s the difference between Life360 free and paid?
The free plan caps you at 2 Places and 2 days of history. Paid plans raise both limits: Silver gives 5 Places and 7 days, Gold gives unlimited Places and 30 days plus driver reports and roadside assistance, and Platinum adds towing and stolen funds reimbursement.
Does the free version of Life360 show location history?
Yes, but only for the past 2 days. If someone was somewhere three days ago, the free plan won’t show it anymore. Upgrading to Silver extends history to 7 days and Gold to 30 days, so both paid tiers keep a longer paper trail than the free plan does.
Do Life360’s paid features apply to one person or the whole family circle?
Life360 plans cover the entire circle, not individual members. If you pay for Gold at $14.99/mo, everyone in that circle gets the 30-day history and unlimited Places, not just the person whose phone is on the plan.
The bottom line
Life360’s free plan is real and permanent, not a bait-and-switch trial, but it’s built around 2 Places and 2 days of history. That’s enough for a lot of families, and not enough once you need more geofences or a longer memory of where people have been. If you outgrow it, you’re choosing between Life360’s $7.99 to $24.99 tiers, free single-platform options like Apple Find My, or a calmer alternative like North.