Yes. Slido has a permanently free plan called Basic, it does not expire, and for a session that is mostly questions it is more generous than people expect: the Q&A is unlimited. The limits that bite are polls, participants and moderation, and they bite in predictable places. Here is what Basic includes as of September 2026, where it stops, and what to do when it does.
If the wall you are about to hit is moderation, it is free at askone.org — along with every other feature.
AskOne is made by The Product Compass. Slido belongs to Cisco, every other tool here belongs to someone else, and their free-tier figures come from each vendor's own pricing and help pages, read in September 2026.
Last updated: September 18, 2026. Free plans move quietly; every figure below carries the date it was checked.
What the Basic Plan Includes
Unlimited audience Q&A. Questions and upvotes are not metered. For most sessions this is the feature, and it is free.
Three polls per slido. Slido's community answer confirms three, and notes that some regions get five.
One quiz per event — but up to thirty questions inside that one quiz, which is more room than "one quiz" suggests.
Up to 100 participants per event. Per event, not per poll.
No card, no clock. Basic does not expire and does not ask for payment details.
The shape of it: Slido gives away the questions and meters everything around them. If you are running a Q&A after a talk, you may never touch a paid feature. If your session is built out of polls, or needs someone to approve questions first, you will meet the wall while you are still preparing it.
Where It Stops
The fourth poll
The limit people actually meet, usually the evening before a workshop. Three polls and one quiz per event is a small budget for anything structured around interaction rather than questions.
The 101st participant
The cap is per event, so a webinar that grows past a hundred people does not degrade — it stops admitting them. If your worst case is 150, the free plan is not a plan.
Moderation
Holding a question until someone approves it is a paid feature, and so are the moderators who do it — both sit behind the upgrade on Slido's own plan comparison. This is the wall that matters most for all-hands meetings: on Basic, an anonymous question is on the screen behind whoever is speaking the moment it is typed. For a conference Q&A that is usually fine. For an internal town hall it is the reason the free plan is not a plan.
What Slido Charges When You Outgrow It
Third-party pricing trackers put the cheapest paid tier, Engage, at around $17.50 a month billed annually, with the higher tiers quoted rather than listed. Slido does not publish every number in a place you can read without a sales conversation, so treat that as an order of magnitude and check the pricing page for today's version. The question that matters more than the headline rate is whether you are buying one host or forty.
What To Do When You Hit a Wall
Split the session. Slido's own community suggests creating an event per presentation, which resets the poll budget. It is free, and it means juggling several join codes in one room. It does nothing for moderation.
Pay. If the company already has Webex or Teams and somebody else signs the invoice, this is the path of least resistance.
Use a tool that does not meter features. Which is the next section, and the rest of the shortlist is on the alternatives page.
The Free Tier Without the Moderation Wall
askone.org moves the meter. Every feature is in the free tier — live Q&A, surveys, the projector view, moderation and the moderators who do it — and only capacity is paid. The audience joins with a link or a QR code and no account, questions are ranked by the room, and when the room closes the host gets the Q&A and the survey totals and can export them as CSV.
Free is one open room and up to 100 participants — no credit card, no trial clock. Premium raises that to ten open rooms and 1,000 participants per room, at $20 a month or $10 a month billed annually. The features are identical on both.
What is not there yet: single sign-on, a Teams or Zoom app, and PowerPoint integration. If your organisation buys software through a security review, that is the gap to know about.
Questions People Ask
Is Slido free forever, or just a trial?
Basic is a permanently free plan, not a trial. There is a separate trial of the paid features, which is why some accounts appear to lose functionality after a month — that is the trial ending, not the free plan changing.
How many polls can I run on Slido's free plan?
Three per event — Slido calls each event a slido — plus one quiz. Slido's community answer notes that some regions get five. Creating a separate event per presentation resets the budget.
How many people can join a free slido?
Up to 100 per event.
Does the free plan include Q&A moderation?
No. Moderation, and the moderators who do it, are on the paid plans. If your session depends on approving questions before the room sees them, budget for the upgrade — or use askone.org, where it is free.
What is the best free alternative if the limits do not fit?
askone.org for a Q&A session, because nothing is metered except room size. The full comparison, including the tools built for classrooms and quizzes, is on the alternatives page.
Start free at askone.org: one open room, 100 participants, every feature including moderation, no credit card.