The journal was established in 2018, when the editorial board of the Springer Science+Business Media Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics resigned to protest the publisher's high prices and limited accessibility.

[2][3] The board criticized Springer for "double-dipping", that is, charging large subscription fees to libraries in addition to high fees for authors who wished to make their publications open access.

[4] Algebraic Combinatorics operates on a diamond open access model, in which publication costs are underwritten by voluntary contributions from universities, foundations, and other organizations.

Authors do not pay submission fees or article processing charges.

[6] The journal is abstracted and indexed in the Web of Science, Directory of Open Access Journals, Scopus, Mathematical Reviews, and zbMath.