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Mintlify has become a popular choice for developer documentation, particularly among startups building API-first products. But their pricing model has some quirks that aren’t immediately obvious.
If you’re evaluating Mintlify for your documentation needs, here’s what you need to know about their plans, what each tier actually includes, and where the hidden costs lurk.
Mintlify Pricing at a Glance
| Plan | Price | Target | AI Messages | Editor Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | Free | Individuals | None | 1 |
| Pro | $300/month | Startups | 250/month | Limited |
| Custom | Contact sales | Enterprise | Custom | Custom |
Annual billing saves up to 15%.
Hobby Plan (Free)
Mintlify’s free tier is generous for solo developers or personal projects. Here’s what you get:
What’s included:
- Full platform access
- Custom domain support
- Web-based editor
- API playground for interactive documentation
- Basic insights and analytics
- MCP server integration
What’s missing:
- No AI Assistant (the key feature for writing docs faster)
- No writing agent for automated content generation
- No preview deployments
- No password protection for docs
- No team collaboration—you’re limited to a single user
Reality check: The Hobby plan works if you’re a solo founder documenting a side project. The moment you need a teammate or want AI assistance, you’re looking at a significant jump to $300/month.
Pro Plan ($300/month)
The Pro plan is where most growing startups land. It’s marketed as the “Popular” choice, but the pricing can escalate quickly.
What’s included:
- Everything in Hobby
- Team member invitations
- AI Assistant for generating and improving docs
- Writing agent for automated content
- Preview deployments for testing changes
- Password protection for private documentation
- Styling checks to maintain consistency
What’s missing:
- Custom authentication (SSO)
- 99.999% uptime SLA
- Granular user permissions
- Priority support SLA
The hidden costs:
This is where Mintlify’s pricing gets complicated:
AI message overage: The Pro plan includes 250 AI Assistant messages per month. After that, you pay tiered overage rates:
- $0.15 per message for the first tier
- $0.13 per message at higher volumes
Extra editor seats: Additional team members beyond your plan quota cost $20/month per seat.
Cost example for a 5-person team:
Let’s say you have 5 writers using Mintlify and your team uses about 500 AI messages per month:
- Base Pro plan: $300/month
- 4 extra editor seats: $80/month
- 250 extra AI messages at $0.15: $37.50/month
- Total: $417.50/month (~$5,000/year)
Custom Plan (Enterprise)
For larger organizations, Mintlify offers custom pricing. You’ll need to talk to sales, but here’s what you can expect:
What’s included:
- Everything in Pro
- Custom authentication/SSO
- 99.999% uptime SLA
- Granular user permissions
- Dedicated support SLA
Typical enterprise pricing: Based on industry reports, enterprise contracts typically start around $15,000-$25,000 annually, scaling with team size and usage requirements.
What Mintlify Does Well
Developer-focused design: Mintlify is built specifically for API documentation. The MDX-based workflow feels natural for engineering teams, and the API playground is genuinely useful.
Git-based workflow: Your docs live in your repo, which means version control, PRs for changes, and integration with your existing development workflow.
Fast, modern UI: The output looks polished. Mintlify sites load quickly and the design is clean.
Mintlify Agent (Autopilot): Mintlify now offers an AI agent that can monitor your codebase, detect changes, and propose documentation updates. It can create PRs with suggested changes, revise outdated code examples, and draft changelog summaries from pull requests. The agent integrates with Slack and GitHub for a seamless workflow.
What Mintlify Doesn’t Do
AI Agent requires Pro plan: The Mintlify Agent is only available on Pro ($300/month) and Custom plans. Smaller teams on the free Hobby plan don’t get access to automated documentation updates.
No support ticket analysis: Mintlify focuses on codebase changes, but it can’t analyze your customer support conversations to identify documentation gaps or frequently asked questions.
No built-in customer self-service features: There’s no AI-powered search for customers, no embedded help widgets, and no analytics on what customers are searching for. It’s purely a documentation publishing platform.
Limited to developer docs: Mintlify is optimized for API and technical documentation. It’s not designed for general customer support knowledge bases or help centers.
When Mintlify Makes Sense
Mintlify is a solid choice if:
- You’re building developer-facing products with APIs
- Your team is comfortable with Git and MDX
- You have dedicated technical writers who can maintain docs manually
- You want polished, modern documentation output
- Budget isn’t a primary concern
When to Consider Alternatives
You might want to look elsewhere if:
- You need documentation that updates automatically as your product changes
- Your team doesn’t want to manage Git repos for docs
- You need a general-purpose help center, not just developer docs
- You’re a smaller team and $300/month feels steep for documentation
- You want AI that proactively maintains your knowledge base
For a detailed feature comparison, see our Mintlify alternatives guide. You might also want to compare GitBook pricing or HelpDocs pricing if you’re evaluating multiple options.
How Ferndesk Compares
| Feature | Mintlify | Ferndesk |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $300/month | $39/month |
| AI agent for updates | Pro plan only | All plans |
| AI article publishing | 250 messages, then $0.15/ea | 10/month (Startup), unlimited (Scale) |
| Support ticket analysis | No | Up to 5,000 tickets/month |
| Customer self-service | No | AI-powered search, widgets, analytics |
| Team members | $20/seat extra | 2-5 included |
| One-click migration | No | Yes (Intercom, Zendesk, Help Scout) |
Both Mintlify and Ferndesk now offer AI agents for documentation updates—but the accessibility is very different.
Pricing that works for smaller teams: Mintlify’s AI agent requires the $300/month Pro plan. Ferndesk starts at $39/month with AI-powered article writing included. For a startup watching costs, that’s $261/month in savings—over $3,000/year.
Built for customer self-service: Mintlify is a documentation publishing platform. Ferndesk is a complete help center with AI-powered search, embedded help widgets, customer analytics, and feedback collection. Your customers can actually find answers themselves.
Support ticket intelligence: Ferndesk analyzes up to 5,000 support tickets per month to identify what customers are asking about. It drafts FAQs based on real conversations—not just codebase changes. Mintlify doesn’t touch your support data.
More generous AI usage: Mintlify’s 250 AI messages burn fast, then you’re paying $0.15 per message. Ferndesk’s Scale plan ($99/month) includes unlimited AI article publishing with no overage fees.
Bottom Line
Mintlify is a polished tool for developer documentation, and the new Autopilot agent is genuinely useful—if you can afford the $300/month Pro plan. Add team seats and AI overages, and you’re easily at $400-500/month.
If you need a customer-facing help center (not just developer docs), want AI features at a startup-friendly price, and need self-service tools for your customers, Ferndesk delivers more for less. Try it free and see how much time you save.
