Mailchimp Pricing in 2026: What Contact-Based Billing Actually Costs
Mailchimp advertises paid plans starting at $13/month, but that number is close to meaningless on its own. The real question is how many contacts you store, because every Mailchimp plan except the free one is priced on your contact count, not on features or emails sent. Store more people and the same plan costs more automatically. As of 2026 the free plan is down to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, Essentials starts at $13/month for 500 contacts, Standard at $20/month, and Premium at $350/month. All prices below are monthly and in US dollars; Mailchimp changes its pricing regularly and runs promotional first-year rates, so confirm current numbers on the official pricing page before you commit.
Mailchimp plans at a glance
Here is what each plan costs at 500 contacts, which is the smallest paid band. The critical thing to understand: these are starting prices. The exact same plan costs more as your list grows (see the next section).
| Plan | Price at 500 contacts (monthly) | Monthly send limit | Contacts included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500 sends (250/day cap) | Up to 250 |
| Essentials | $13 | 10x your contact count | Up to 50,000 |
| Standard | $20 | 12x your contact count | Up to 100,000 |
| Premium | Starts at $350 | 15x your contact count | Unlimited |
Premium isn’t really sold at the 500-contact band; its $350 starting price assumes a larger list (commonly quoted at 10,000 contacts), so most small senders choose between Essentials and Standard.
Free plan
The free plan gives you 250 contacts, 500 email sends per month, and a hard cap of 250 sends per day. It carries Mailchimp branding in the footer, limits you to one audience and one seat, and drops most support after the first 30 days. This is the tier Mailchimp has cut most aggressively (more on that below), so treat it as a trial, not a home.
Essentials
Essentials starts at $13/month for up to 500 contacts and scales up from there. It unlocks 3 audiences, 3 seats, A/B testing, email scheduling, and popup forms, and lets you send up to 10 times your contact limit each month. The plan tops out at 50,000 contacts.
Standard
Standard starts at $20/month for 500 contacts. This is the tier Mailchimp pushes hardest because it adds the generative AI features, custom-coded templates, up to 200 automation flows, and multivariate testing. Send limit is 12x your contacts, and the plan holds up to 100,000 contacts.
Premium
Premium starts at $350/month and is aimed at large lists and teams that need phone support, predictive segmentation, unlimited seats, and a dedicated onboarding specialist. Send limit is 15x contacts. Unless you have tens of thousands of contacts or a specific need for predictive tools, this tier is overkill.
How contact-based billing actually works
Mailchimp doesn’t charge one flat price per plan. It charges by contact band, and you move up a band every time your list crosses a threshold. The plan name stays the same; the price climbs.
Here is roughly what Essentials and Standard cost as your list grows (monthly, US):
| Contacts | Essentials | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $13 | $20 |
| 2,500 | ~$45 | ~$60 |
| 5,000 | ~$75 | ~$100 |
| 10,000 | ~$110 | ~$135 |
| 50,000 | ~$385 | higher tier |
So a business that grows from 500 to 10,000 contacts on Essentials sees its bill go from $13 to roughly $110 a month without changing plans or features. Exact band prices shift with region and promotions, so use Mailchimp’s own calculator for your number.
The unsubscribed-contact gotcha
This is the single most-complained-about part of Mailchimp billing. Since April 2024, Mailchimp counts subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts toward your plan limit. In plain terms: when someone unsubscribes from your emails, you keep paying to store them until you manually archive or delete them. Only archived, cleaned, and deleted contacts drop off your billable total. If you never clean your list, unsubscribers quietly push you into higher contact bands and a bigger bill. Set a recurring reminder to archive unsubscribed and bounced contacts.
Overages
If your list temporarily crosses your band limit mid-cycle, Mailchimp doesn’t pause your account (on paid plans). Instead it adds an overage charge to your bill for the extra contacts. If the increase is permanent, you’re expected to upgrade to the next band. If it was a one-time spike, drop your audience back below the limit for a full billing cycle to clear the surcharge. On the free plan, exceeding 250 contacts instead places a hold on sending until you upgrade or trim the list.
Hidden costs that aren’t on the pricing page
The headline plan price is rarely the whole bill. Watch for these add-ons and rules:
- Unsubscribers you forgot to archive. As above, dead contacts inflate your band until you remove them. This is the most common reason a Mailchimp bill runs higher than expected.
- SMS marketing. Available as a paid add-on in select countries and only after an application is approved. Credits are bought in blocks that auto-repurchase each month, and unused credits expire monthly with no rollover.
- Transactional email. Sending receipts, password resets, and other one-to-one app email runs through Mailchimp’s separate transactional product, billed on its own, not included in your marketing plan.
- Promotional first-year rates. Some advertised prices are introductory (“$X/month for 12 months”), after which regular pricing applies. A 15% discount exists for lists over 10,000 contacts in the first year.
- Overage surcharges. Temporary contact spikes add charges rather than warnings, so a busy signup month can bill higher than your plan’s listed price.
Is Mailchimp free?
Yes, there’s a genuinely free plan, but it’s much smaller than it used to be. As of the 2026 change (effective February 17, 2026), the free tier holds 250 contacts and sends 500 emails per month with a 250-per-day cap, carries Mailchimp branding, and gives you one audience and one seat. That’s enough to test the product or run a tiny personal list, but most real newsletters or stores outgrow it in weeks. The free plan is best understood as a trial, not a long-term option.
When Mailchimp isn’t worth it
Mailchimp’s price stops making sense in a few common situations. If a large chunk of your list is unsubscribed or inactive, you’re paying to store people who will never open an email again. If you send infrequently, a monthly subscription priced on stored contacts is a bad fit (Mailchimp’s own pay-as-you-go email credits, which carry Essentials-level features, are cheaper for occasional senders). And if you’re an e-commerce or high-volume sender, contact-based billing tends to run more expensive than competitors that bill on active subscribers or on emails actually sent.
If any of that describes you, it’s worth comparing options before your next band upgrade. See our Mailchimp alternatives roundup for tools that bill on active subscribers instead of unsubscribers, or the head-to-heads on Mailchimp vs Constant Contact and Mailchimp vs Klaviyo if you already have a specific rival in mind.
FAQ
How much does Mailchimp cost per month? Paid plans start at $13/month (Essentials) and $20/month (Standard) for up to 500 contacts, billed monthly. Premium starts at $350/month for larger lists. Every plan’s price rises as your contact count grows.
Does Mailchimp charge for unsubscribed contacts? Yes. Since April 2024, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count toward your plan limit and price until you manually archive, clean, or delete them.
Is the Mailchimp free plan still available in 2026? Yes, but it was cut to 250 contacts and 500 monthly sends (down from 500 contacts and 1,000 sends previously), with a 250/day cap and Mailchimp branding.
Why did my Mailchimp bill go up without changing plans? Almost always because your contact count crossed into a higher billing band, or unsubscribed contacts you never archived pushed your total up. Overage charges from temporary spikes can also do it.
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