Corporate travel and expense is a category people tolerate rather than love, full of clunky booking tools and expense reports nobody wants to file. Navan, formerly TripActions, rebuilt the experience to feel more like a consumer app while giving finance the controls it needs, and it made the travel booking itself free by funding it through travel providers' commissions.
That pricing model is unusual and worth understanding, because it changes the math. Here is how Navan works and who it suits.
Bottom line: A polished travel and expense platform where the travel side is effectively free, making it an easy win for companies that book real travel and want expenses controlled in the same place.
Best for: Companies that want employee travel booking and expense management in one platform with policy controls built in.
Price: Travel booking is free (commission-funded); Expense about $15 per user per month, free for the first five users.
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What Navan does
Navan combines two things companies usually buy separately: travel booking and expense management. Employees book flights, hotels, and cars inside policy, with the guardrails set by finance so out-of-policy choices are caught before they happen rather than argued about after. On the expense side, corporate cards, receipt capture, and automated reporting cut the manual filing that everyone hates, and the two sides share one system so a trip and its expenses live together.
The experience is the selling point. Adoption is the quiet killer of travel and expense tools, and Navan is designed to be pleasant enough that employees actually use it, which is where the policy compliance and data quality come from.
Pricing
The travel side is free because Navan earns commissions from travel providers, so companies get the booking platform without a subscription for it, which is genuinely rare. Expense management runs about $15 per user per month and is free for the first five expensing users, with custom enterprise pricing for large, global deployments. There can be implementation and add-on costs at scale, so confirm the full picture for a big rollout.
For a company that books real travel, the free travel tier plus modest expense pricing makes the total cost easy to justify against the time saved and the policy control gained.
Where it fits
Navan fits companies whose employees travel and who want booking and expense in one controlled system, and the free travel tier is especially attractive for smaller companies under a few hundred employees. It matters less for a fully remote company with almost no travel, where a standalone expense tool is enough. Where travel is real, the bundle is a strong value.
Pros
- Travel booking is free, funded by provider commissions
- Travel and expense share one system
- Policy controls catch out-of-policy spend upfront
- Consumer-grade experience drives real adoption
- Expense free for the first five users
Cons
- Expense pricing per user adds up at scale
- Implementation and add-on costs at large deployments
- Less relevant for companies with little travel
- Free travel model ties you to its inventory
- Enterprise pricing is quote-based
Is Navan worth it?
For a company whose people actually travel, Navan is an easy yes, because the travel platform is effectively free and the expense side is modestly priced while sharing one system with real policy controls. The experience is good enough that employees use it, which is where the compliance and clean data come from. Confirm implementation costs for a large rollout, but the base math is favorable.
For a company with almost no travel, a standalone expense tool covers the need without the travel bundle.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Navan?
Navan, formerly TripActions, is a corporate travel and expense platform. Employees book flights, hotels, and cars within company policy, while finance gets automated expense management, corporate cards, receipt capture, and reporting, all in one shared system.
How much does Navan cost?
Navan's travel booking is free because it is funded by travel providers' commissions. Expense management costs about $15 per user per month and is free for the first five expensing users, with custom enterprise pricing for large deployments.
Why is Navan travel free?
Navan earns commissions from travel providers when employees book through the platform, so it does not need to charge companies a subscription for travel booking itself. Companies pay for the expense management side and any enterprise add-ons.
Who is Navan for?
It is for companies whose employees travel and who want booking and expense management in one controlled platform. The free travel tier is especially attractive for companies under a few hundred employees. It is less necessary for fully remote companies with little travel.