Bark Phone: plans, controls, and what it really costs
Samsung A16 with Bark's AI monitoring built in: scans texts, email and apps for risky content and alerts parents.
At a glance
Drawn from two things we check ourselves: the parental control matrix below, and which prices Bark is willing to publish before you start a checkout. Nothing here is a hands-on impression — we say so rather than dress up a spec sheet as a test.
In its favour
- Device price and plan price are both published upfront
- No activation fee
- No contract required
- Parents can see the child’s messages remotely
Against it
- Social media is blocked by configuration, not by design
- Web browser access depends on the plan or configuration
Pricing
Verified 2026-07-27
| Device price | $240 |
|---|---|
| Cheapest plan / month | $29 |
| Activation fee | $0 |
| Total cost, 1 year | $588 |
| Total cost, 2 years | $936 |
| Total cost, 3 years | $1,284 |
Totals use the cheapest plan. “—” means the vendor doesn't publish this number on a static page; we don't guess.
All plans
| Plan | Monthly | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29 | talk & text only, no internet/apps |
| Advanced (Wi-Fi only) | $39 | no mobile data |
| Advanced 4GB | $49 | |
| Advanced 8GB | $59 | |
| Advanced Unlimited | $79 | throttled after 35GB |
Device is $10/mo × 24 mo = $240 (Bark Phone Pro, Samsung A36: $25/mo × 24 = $600). Includes a Bark Premium subscription for the whole family ($14/mo value). Canceling more than 60 days after purchase means paying off the remaining device balance.
What you can control and monitor
| Text monitoring | Yes |
|---|---|
| Read texts remotely | alerts + monitoring (not full transcript) |
| Web browser | configurable (Advanced) |
| Social media | configurable (Advanced) |
| App store | configurable (Advanced) |
| GPS location | Yes |
| Contact approval | Yes |
| Screen time limits | Yes |
Compare
- Bark vs Gabb: see the Gabb Phone 4 data page
- Bark vs Troomi: see the Troomi (Samsung Galaxy A17 5G) data page
- Bark vs Pinwheel: see the Pinwheel Phone data page
- Bark vs MMGuardian: see the MMGuardian Phone data page
- Bark Phone vs the Bark app on a phone you already own: the two-year totals
- Gabb vs Bark: both two-year totals, and what each one is for
- Calculate your total cost for any combination
- See how this stacks up in the full monitoring matrix
- Contracts and hidden fees, phone by phone