For almost every family the answer is no. Essential covers two people, and everyone after that is a seat you add. A Circle of six or eight is perfectly ordinary.
Seats cost $10 a month each for the first three, then $5 a month for anyone after that, so a bigger Circle is a question of what you want to pay rather than what we allow.
The one number
There is a ceiling of twelve people. It is deliberately set far above any real household, because it is not a product limit. It is there to catch something going wrong.
If an account is generating invitations faster than a person could answer them, that is not a family gathering. It is a mistake, or somebody who should not have access. The ceiling stops it before it turns into a stack of emails to people who never asked for one, and a bill nobody checked.
If you genuinely reach it
Some families really are that big, and we would rather hear from you than have you stuck. Use the chat bubble and we will raise it for your Circle deliberately.
Professional caregivers do not count towards it. Their seats are separate, so adding a caregiver never uses up room for your family.
Being in more than one Circle
The twelve is a limit on how many people are in your Circle. It is not a limit on how many Circles you can belong to.
If you are supporting more than one person, two parents, or a parent and an aunt, you can be part of each of their Circles and switch between them. There is no cap on that, and the article on helping more than one loved one walks through how switching works.