Yes, if you came for the story. Free accounts in Star Wars: The Old Republic get all eight class stories, plus the Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan expansions, up to level 60. That is easily a hundred hours of fully voiced Star Wars before the game asks for money. When you do want the later expansions, one month at $14.99 unlocks them, and Broadsword says you keep the story you unlocked after the subscription lapses. Skip the free tier if you want raids, ranked PvP or easy trading with other players. Those stay behind the subscription.
What the free tier actually gives you
The best summary on record comes from Broadsword itself. Its account tiers post from September 2025 lists the eleven biggest differences, and update 7.7.1 had just loosened several free-player limits a month earlier. Here are the ones a new player will notice:
| Free-to-play | Subscriber | |
|---|---|---|
| Story | Class stories, Rise of the Hutt Cartel, Shadow of Revan | Every expansion |
| Level cap | 60 | 80 |
| Character slots | 4 per server | 24 per server |
| Credit cap | 1 million | 4.2 billion |
| Species without unlocks | Human, Zabrak, Cyborg | Six more, including Twi'lek and Chiss |
| Combat styles per character | 1 | 2 |
| Experience | Base rate | 20% more |
| Monthly Cartel Coins | None | 500 to 600 |
The eight class stories run from level 1 to 50 on every account type, per the official comparison page. EA's free-to-play FAQ adds that free players get unlimited medical probes and Quick Travel.
The 7.7.1 patch notes removed the old irritants that used to make free play miserable. Every account type now has every quickbar, which used to be the most-quoted complaint. Free players earn rest XP, get their first cargo bay for free, can customize companions, use legacy titles, and hide their helmet. Any gear below level 80 no longer needs the Artifact Authorization unlock, so purple drops are usable the whole way through the free content.
The limits that still bite
Free accounts are a single-player experience with company around you. The comparison page lists what you give up:
- Chat and trade. Free players can whisper only in restricted ways and use General chat only on the starting planets, can receive in-game mail but not send it, cannot use secure trading, and get two listings on the Galactic Trade Network.
- Group content. Operations, the game's raids, need a weekly pass. The page lists five warzones a week, full rewards from three flashpoints a week, and three space missions, unless you buy a pass. Ranked warzones are subscriber-only.
- Guilds. EA's FAQ says free players can join a guild but can't create one, and sums up the rest as restricted chat and trading.
Treat those weekly numbers with care. The same comparison page still shows two character slots, a 200,000 credit cap and two quickbars for free players, and Broadsword's own 2025 post and 7.7.1 notes have since replaced all three. The weekly caps may be just as stale. We could not find a newer official number either way, so check your activity window in game before planning a flashpoint week around them.
Preferred status: the $4.99 middle tier
Spend any $4.99 on the game, the price of the smallest Cartel Coin pack, and your account becomes Preferred for good. Broadsword's post lists what that adds: 12 character slots per server instead of 4, trading with other players from level 10, and in-game mail with one item attached. The coins you buy still land in your account, so the upgrade costs you nothing you would not have spent on a mount or an outfit.
For someone playing the class stories alone, Preferred changes little. If you plan to play alongside a friend, or want more than four alts on one server, it is the cheapest worthwhile purchase in the game.
When $14.99 for one month is worth it
The prices on the official store page as of October 8:
| Plan | Price | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days, recurring | $14.99 | $14.99 |
| 90 days, recurring | $41.97 | $13.99 |
| 180 days, recurring | $77.94 | $12.99 |
| 60 days, one payment | $29.98 | $14.99 |
The one-month trick still holds. Broadsword's 2025 post says that when a subscription lapses, the account drops to Preferred and, depending on when it lapsed, keeps access to the story it unlocked and the level cap of that expansion cycle. Its own example: a player whose subscription ran out during Onslaught could still level to 75 and play every story through Onslaught. EA's FAQ confirms the drop to Preferred and says you pick which characters stay active within Preferred's slot limit.
So one paid month today, lapsed today, leaves you with story through Legacy of the Sith, the current expansion, and a level 80 cap. That covers Knights of the Fallen Empire, Knights of the Eternal Throne, Onslaught and the Legacy of the Sith arc that Update 7.9 wrapped up in June. You don't need to finish them inside the month.
Two things the trick does not cover. First, the 2025 post says artifact gear stays usable after a lapse only while you keep it equipped. Second, it unlocks the cycle you paid in. Expansion 8.0, "Masters of the Force," is a new cycle, and the September producer letter says it still has no release date. Holiday 2026 is the last target Broadsword gave, at the summer livestream. By the rule as Broadsword wrote it, a month bought after 8.0 launches should unlock 8.0 and everything before it. That is our reading of the policy; Broadsword has not said how 8.0 access will work.
That timing settles it for most new players. Reaching level 60 on the free content is a long road for anyone playing a few evenings a week. Start free now, and spend your $14.99 the month 8.0 arrives, when one payment covers the most. Pay sooner only if you reach Shadow of Revan's ending before then and want to keep going.
A subscription month earns its price faster if you want any of these: the subscriber track in Galactic Seasons, ranked PvP, operations without weekly passes, or the 20% experience boost on a stack of alts. Subscribers can also patch the public test server and play 8.0 content, including the first two bosses of the new operation, before it goes live.
Who should skip it
- Players who want an MMO for raiding. Operations sit behind a weekly pass or a subscription, so the free tier is a demo of the endgame. Budget for a subscription from the start, or play something else.
- Console players. There is no console version, and the Steam version is Windows only.
- Anyone who wants a short game. A single class story is a long campaign on its own. If you want the Old Republic era in a tighter package, the KOTOR games are where it started; our Star Wars games in order shows where each fits.
Steam or swtor.com?
Same game, same account rules, same servers. The Steam version is free, needs 75 GB, and adds Steam achievements and trading cards. Its store page says you must link your SWTOR and Steam accounts to play, so an existing SWTOR account carries over rather than starting fresh. Subscriptions and Cartel Coins work the same whichever launcher you use.
Is anyone still playing?
Yes. Our tracker reads Steam player counts every two hours, though we have no readings for October 1 to 3 and only one each on October 4 and 5. In the week to the morning of October 8:
| Day | Highest reading |
|---|---|
| Sun Oct 4 | 4,890 (one reading, 3:35pm CT) |
| Mon Oct 5 | 3,387 (one reading, 5:05pm CT) |
| Tue Oct 6 | 4,415 (2:17pm CT) |
| Wed Oct 7 | 3,508 (readings from 4:24pm CT only) |
That is a little quieter than early September, when daily peaks ran from 4,800 to 6,100. October 6 was also Galactic Racer's launch day. Across October 2 to 8, SWTOR averaged 3,408 players per reading, second in the Star Wars catalog behind only Galactic Racer in its launch week (12,119) and ahead of Zero Company (2,791). These are Steam-only numbers, a floor rather than a total; the SWTOR player count page explains why many players never moved to Steam.
There is also a reason to start this month. The Feast of Prosperity event runs October 6 to November 3, from 7am Central on both ends, per the October events calendar. It asks for level 20 and lists no subscription requirement, and each week unlocks a new story mission about two rival Hutts throwing a charity banquet for profit. Get a character to 20 in the first couple of weeks and you can play the whole thing free.
The details
- Read dates: we read every official page cited here on October 9, 2026. The account tiers post (September 29, 2025), the 7.7.1 patch notes (August 19, 2025), the October events calendar (September 29, 2026) and the producer letter (September 30, 2026) are all dated before October 8. The store prices, the comparison page and EA's FAQ (which reported its last update about five months earlier) are live pages that could in principle have changed between October 8 and our read; we saw no sign that they had.
- Conflicting official pages: where swtor.com's comparison page disagrees with the newer 2025 post or 7.7.1 notes, we went with the newer source and said so. EA's FAQ says free players get "an extra Quickbar" and Preferred gets five; the 7.7.1 notes say every account type has all of them.
- Leveling past 60 free: the 2025 post says free accounts can pass level 60 only with a Master's Datacron from the Cartel Market. That raises your level, not your story access.
- Free coins for anyone: the same post says accounts of any status with a security key attached get recurring Cartel Coin grants, and logging in more than 29 days after your last grant triggers the next one.
- New to the setting? The SWTOR hub has the basics, and Revan explained covers the character Shadow of Revan, the second free expansion, is built around.
