Best offer on record: Free (Starter) plan — $0/mo perpetual tier. 5 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Free (Starter) plan — $0/mo perpetual tier high confidence
$0/month, no expiry. Includes: mobile push + in-app messaging + Live Activities — unlimited sends but only for organizations with fewer than 1,000 MAU; email 10,000 sends/month; web push — unlimited subscribers, max 10,000 subscribers per send; SMS/RCS available (free trial, see SMS trial finding). 3 active Journeys (unlimited steps), 6 audience segments, 6 data tags, A/B testing up to 2 variants, unlimited API send access, OneSignal AI + basic lifecycle automation, basic analytics (30-day reporting history, 7-day session event retention), 1 active Event Stream up to 1,000 events/month, shared email IPs only. Excluded: Intelligent Delivery, Time Delayed Sends, retargeting, frequency capping, custom events, premium integrations, dedicated IP, SLAs, prioritized support. Over 1,000 MAU: mobile push and in-app sending pauses (24h grace to upgrade); web push, email, SMS keep working under plan limits. Deleting active mobile subscriptions can re-enable sending 30 days later if MAU stays under 1,000.
Eligibility
Open to anyone — no .edu email, no startup-age/funding cap, no application. CC requirement for the Free plan is not stated on any official page I could read; the plan is self-serve signup (the SMS trial is not documented as CC-required). No region limits documented.
How to claim
Sign up free at onesignal.com (create account, 'Get started now' from pricing page); new orgs start on the Free plan automatically, no coupon or application. No credit card step is documented for the Free plan itself.
Expiry
No expiry; perpetual $0 tier, renews monthly at $0. MAU cap enforcement is continuous (notifications at 75%/90%/100% of 1,000 MAU).
Gotchas
MATERIAL 2026 CHANGE: the free tier's mobile push / in-app channel was capped at <1,000 MAU per org — in effect for new customers 2026-09-01 and existing customers 2026-10-01 (already in force as of 2026-10-22). The previously-known '10,000 MAU, unlimited app messages' figure is now stale for mobile push/in-app. Web push (10k/send) and email (10k/mo) limits are unchanged. Shared IP only on Free; webhooks steps not available (annual plans only).
Free SMS/RCS trial (on Free and Growth plans) medium confidence
SMS and RCS are listed as 'Available' on the $0 Free plan and Growth; OneSignal's official pricing blog (updated 2026-09-01) states SMS is 'available for free during a free trial' on both plans, and the Free plan can 'take advantage of our ongoing free trial for SMS'. No official page discloses the trial's duration, free message allotment, or post-trial per-message price, so it behaves like an ongoing promotional trial rather than a fixed-amount credit.
Eligibility
Anyone on the Free plan (or Growth). No .edu, startup, or region restriction documented. No documented CC requirement; not documented to have limits.
How to claim
No separate claim step documented — SMS/RCS appears as an available channel in the dashboard once you have a Free (or Growth) account; trial applies automatically.
Expiry
Undisclosed — described as 'ongoing'/'current' free trial with no published sunset date. Treat details as low-stability; post-trial usage is billed (per-message, not publicly priced on pages I read).
Gotchas
Trial-vs-free trap: SMS is NOT confirmed as a permanent free feature; only the trial is documented. Exact trial length/amount and per-SMS price after trial are not published on the official pages — confirm in the dashboard/billing portal before relying on it. SMS billing is usage-based and independent of subscription deletion.
Shipaton x RevenueCat 2026 — 3 months of the Growth plan free (trial-credit for app startups) high confidence
For registered participants in RevenueCat's Shipaton hackathon (2026 edition): 100% off the OneSignal Growth plan platform fee plus up to $600/month in usage costs (equivalent of 50,000 MAUs) for up to 3 months — free Journeys/automations/omnichannel features. CC explicitly required: redemption page instructs 'Enter your credit card details and click confirm to activate your free Growth plan.' New Growth subscriptions only; existing Growth customers not eligible. Prizes for award entrants up to $25,000 + App Growth annual invite (separate from the free-plan offer).
Eligibility
Exclusive to registered Shipaton 2026 participants (mobile app devs of any nationality; no .edu or startup-funding cap stated). CC required (unlike the plain Free plan). No existing Growth customers.
How to claim
1) Create a OneSignal account. 2) While logged in, go to onesignal.com/shipaton and click 'Start your free Growth plan' — discount applies only when clicked while logged in. 3) Enter card on the billing page and confirm. Submissions opened through 2026-09-30.
Expiry
EXPIRED as of 2026-10-22: coupon had to be redeemed by 2026-09-30 and 'the code will expire for all users on October 22, 2026' — i.e., today is the final/expiration date; assume unusable. (Offer published 2025-07-30.)
Gotchas
CC IS required here (card on file for 3 months) — unlike the Free plan. Trial (3 months) vs free (perpetual) distinction matters: after 3 months it converts to paying Growth ($19/mo + $0.012/MAU push + $0.004/web-subscriber + email beyond 20k at $1.50–2/1,000). Missed the logged-in-link gotcha and the discount silently fails to apply.
Startup program (e.g., onesignal.com/startups) — NOT offered high confidence
No startup program, startup discount, or trial-credit program exists. onesignal.com/startups returns 404 (verified today), the pricing page and billing FAQ contain no startup offer, and third-party trackers confirm 'no startup program' (checked 2026-10-19). The Free plan is OneSignal's de-facto startup offer.
Eligibility
n/a — offer does not exist. No application, no CC, no funding-cap; nothing to claim.
How to claim
Nothing to claim. Closest equivalents: the Free plan (perpetual, no CC documented) or the Shipaton participant offer (expired).
Expiry
n/a
Gotchas
Don't waste time hunting for a /startups page; it has been 404 at least since 2026-10. OneSignal positions the $19/mo Growth plan (not a startup tier) for early-stage companies.
Education / student license — NOT offered high confidence
No education license, .edu pricing, or student program found. onesignal.com/education returns 404 (verified today); no mention of education/student offers on the official pricing page, pricing blog, or billing FAQ. Students can use the regular Free plan with no special eligibility (a free account, not an education license).
Eligibility
n/a — offer does not exist. Students: .edu email NOT required and NOT used; the plain Free plan is available to them under normal signup.
How to claim
Nothing to claim; students simply sign up for the Free plan.
Expiry
n/a
Gotchas
No school/institution licensing model (no classroom seats, no bulk campus pricing) that I found; treat any third-party 'OneSignal education discount' claim as unverified.
1) MATERIAL CHANGE 2026-09/10: the Free plan's mobile push and in-app channels got a hard <1,000 MAU per-organization cap — in effect for new customers 2026-09-01 and existing customers 2026-10-01, so fully in force as of 2026-10-22. The previously-recorded 'Free (Starter): up to 10,000 MAU, unlimited app messages' is now stale for mobile push/in-app (over the cap, mobile push/in-app pauses after a 24h upgrade grace; web push, email, SMS keep working). Web push and email limits (10,000 email sends/mo; max 10,000 web subscribers/send) were NOT changed by this revision. 2) SUNSET 2026-10-22: the Shipaton x RevenueCat coupon (3 months free Growth, ~$600/mo usage covered, CC required) had to be redeemed by 2026-09-30 and its code expired for all users on 2026-10-22 — effectively dead today. 3) No startup program or education license has ever been publicly offered by OneSignal; the Free plan is their startup/early-stage offer. 4) Method note: official pages (pricing, billing FAQ, /startups, /education 404s, Shipaton page via search-result content of the official page, pricing blog) were read 2026-10-22; the session's WebSearch budget was exhausted partway, so claims lean on the fetched/searched content above rather than additional live searches.