Email Marketing

How much does Mailchimp cost in 2026?

Published 2026-11-09 · Researched and price-checked on official sources

Mailchimp pricing in November 2026 starts at $13/month for Essentials and $20/month for Standard with up to 500 contacts, rising to $110 and $135/month at 5,001 to 10,000 contacts. The bill tracks contact count, not features or email volume, so the band you land in decides what you pay.

Key facts

What matters

Essentials costs $13/month at 0-500 contacts and $110/month at 5,001-10,000; Standard runs $20 to $135/month over the same range.
Email allowances scale with contacts: Essentials allows 10x your contact count per month, Standard 12x, Premium 15x.
The advertised 15% annual saving needs 10,000+ contacts. Mailchimp's own terms limit annual plans to Premium and Standard plans at that size.
At 500 contacts, Brevo Starter is $9/month and MailerLite Comfort is $10.80/month billed yearly, both below Mailchimp Essentials at $13.
The free plan stops at 250 contacts, and Mailchimp pauses sending when you exceed the contact or send limit.

What Mailchimp charges at each contact tier

Mailchimp quotes a monthly price per contact band. The number on the pricing page is the floor of that band, so a list of 1,400 contacts and a list of 1,501 contacts sit in different bands and pay different amounts. I moved the contact selector on Mailchimp's pricing page through five bands on 9 November 2026 and recorded what the plan cards displayed for the two tiers most small businesses compare.

Two things stand out. The gap between Essentials and Standard widens as the list grows, from $7/month at 500 contacts to $35/month at 5,001 to 10,000. And the steps are lumpy rather than linear, which matters more than the entry price most reviews quote.

Free, Essentials, Standard, Premium: what actually changes

Free covers up to 250 contacts. Mailchimp describes it as core features for early growth and pauses sending when you hit the contact or send limit instead of billing an overage.

Essentials starts at $13/month and adds testing and scheduling, three audiences, three seats and up to four automation flow steps. Generative AI features are not included, and custom-coded templates can be created but not sent.

Standard starts at $20/month and is the first tier most ecommerce stores need. It allows up to 200 automation flows, five audiences and five seats, lets you send custom-coded templates, includes generative AI features at no extra cost, and raises monthly sends from 10x to 12x your contact count.

Premium lists at $350/month with unlimited audiences and seats, 15x sends, phone and priority support, and a dedicated onboarding specialist. Mailchimp is currently selling it at $297.50/month for the first 12 months, a $630 saving over the year.

Two costs sit outside the plan price. SMS is an add-on whose credits are issued monthly and expire rather than roll over. Onboarding is time-limited: one session on Standard and four on Premium, available in the first 90 days after you create or upgrade the account.

Why crossing a band hurts more than adding contacts

Band boundaries are where budgets break. Moving from 2,500 to 2,501 contacts lifts Essentials from $45 to $75/month and Standard from $60 to $100/month. Your list grew by one contact and the bill grew by $30 or $40 a month, which is $360 to $480 a year.

The same jump at the low end is milder: 500 to 501 contacts costs an extra $13.50/month on Essentials and $25/month on Standard. Because the bands are not proportional to list size, the cheapest moment to remove duplicates is right before a boundary, not after the invoice arrives.

Put a year of it on the table. At 1,500 contacts, Essentials comes to $318 for twelve months at $26.50/month. Standard comes to $540 at $45/month. The $222 difference buys automation flows, two more seats and 3,000 extra sends a month.

Send volume is rarely what triggers a tier change at these list sizes. At 1,500 contacts Essentials allows 15,000 sends a month, more than double the 6,500 a weekly campaign to the full list would use. The stored contact count is the number to watch.

Essentials or Standard at 1,500 contacts

Essentials gives you 15,000 sends, three seats, three audiences and four automation flow steps for $26.50/month. Standard gives you 18,000 sends, five seats, five audiences, up to 200 flows, custom-coded sending and generative AI features for $45/month. The $18.50 difference buys the automation engine, not the list size. If you send one campaign a week and nothing else, Essentials covers it. If a welcome series, an abandoned-cart flow and a post-purchase sequence are on the roadmap, Standard is the right tier and starting on Essentials means paying twice.

Mailchimp vs MailerLite, Brevo and Klaviyo at 500 contacts

Entry prices cluster tightly, which is why the decision usually turns on automation and integrations rather than the monthly number. Every price below was read on the vendor's own pricing page on 9 November 2026.

Brevo is the cheapest paid entry at $9/month for 5,000 emails, or $8.08/month billed yearly. MailerLite Comfort is $10.80/month billed yearly and $12 month to month, with 5,000 emails and 50 automations. Mailchimp Essentials is $13. Klaviyo's Email plan is $20 for 500 active profiles and 5,000 emails, and its free plan is the tightest of the four at 500 emails a month.

MailerLite's Power plan is the outlier worth knowing: $22.50/month billed yearly at 500 subscribers with unlimited monthly emails. For a weekly newsletter to a small list that removes the send ceiling entirely, which neither Mailchimp tier does. MailerLite's free plan is also more generous than Mailchimp's, with 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month rather than a contact-only cap.

Mailchimp still wins on automation depth at Standard and on the breadth of its ecommerce integrations, and its built-in SMS option keeps campaigns and texts in one bill. None of that shows up in a price table, which is why the cheapest entry price rarely decides the purchase.

The 15% annual discount has a 10,000-contact entry fee

Every Mailchimp plan card carries a "Save 15% on 10,000+ contacts" line. That qualifier is doing real work. Mailchimp's disclaimer on the same page states that annual plans are available for Premium plans and Standard plans at 10,000+ contacts, arranged through sales.

For a 1,500-contact list, the discount does not exist. You pay the monthly figure on the card, which is the number to budget with. The page also lists a 15% discount for registered nonprofits and charities, requested through the billing team after signup.

This is the most common mismatch between what a buyer expects and what Mailchimp charges. The banner makes the annual option look universal, but it is not offered at small list sizes.

Five ways to cut a Mailchimp bill

Prune before a band boundary. The band is set by the number of contacts in the account, so removing duplicates and role addresses before you cross 500, 2,500 or 5,000 keeps you at the lower price for another cycle.
Do not buy Standard for the discount alone. Essentials is $26.50/month at 501-1,500 contacts and Standard is $45. If you do not need automation flows beyond four steps or custom-coded sending, the cheaper tier is enough.
Use Pay As You Go for rare sends. Mailchimp sells email credits for infrequent senders, which beats a recurring plan for a list you mail quarterly.
Claim the nonprofit rate. The 15% charity discount applies once billing verifies your organisation.
Consolidate audiences. Essentials allows three audiences and Standard five. Splitting one list across several audiences can push you into a higher band for no marketing benefit.

Who should pay for Mailchimp, and who should not

Pay for Standard if you run an ecommerce store that needs multi-step flows, product blocks and SMS in one place. The $20 entry price is not where you will live, but the automation depth is real: Mailchimp lists 300+ integrations, against 150+ on Brevo and 100+ on MailerLite.

Choose MailerLite for a plain newsletter under 2,500 subscribers, where unlimited sends on Power at $22.50/month beats Mailchimp's 10x allowance. Choose Brevo if price is the dominant factor and you want email, SMS and a shared contact database from one vendor. Choose Klaviyo if Shopify or BigCommerce data drives your segmentation, since its pricing assumes you will use profiles for revenue attribution rather than just campaigns.

Mailchimp is the wrong tool for transactional mail such as receipts and password resets. That job belongs to an email API priced per thousand messages, and paying marketing rates for it inflates the bill fast.

At a glance

Contacts	Essentials	Standard
0-500	$13/mo	$20/mo
501-1,500	$26.50/mo	$45/mo
1,501-2,500	$45/mo	$60/mo
2,501-5,000	$75/mo	$100/mo
5,001-10,000	$110/mo	$135/mo

Mailchimp monthly prices by contact band, verified on the official pricing page on 9 November 2026

FAQ

Is Mailchimp still free in 2026?

Yes, but only up to 250 contacts. The free plan covers core campaign features, and Mailchimp pauses sending when the contact or send limit is reached rather than charging an overage.

Is Mailchimp cheaper if you pay annually?

Only at scale. The 15% annual saving advertised on every plan card applies to Premium plans and Standard plans with 10,000+ contacts, arranged through sales. Below that, the monthly price on the card is what you pay.

How many emails can I send on Mailchimp Essentials?

Essentials allows 10x your contact count each month, so a 1,500-contact list gets 15,000 sends. Standard allows 12x and Premium 15x. Exceeding either the contact or send limit pauses sending on free plans and triggers overages on paid plans.