Mailchimp Pricing in 2026: What Each Plan Really Costs

Mailchimp is the email tool most people have heard of, which is exactly why its pricing deserves a close look. The sticker prices on the plan cards are low. The real bill is driven by something else: how many contacts you have. Here's what each plan costs, where the costs creep, and when it makes sense to look elsewhere.

Prices below come from what we track on our Mailchimp product page and our price-change log. Mailchimp changes plan limits and prices fairly often, so confirm everything on the official pricing page before you buy.

The Plans at a Glance

Free ($0). Our listing shows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month with a 250-per-day cap, basic templates and limited automations. Our price-change log notes the free tier has been trimmed over the years (it was 2,000 contacts back in 2023), and the contact cap has been reported at different numbers depending on when you check. Treat the free plan as a trial with a ceiling, not a permanent home.

Essentials ($13 per month, starting price). Around 5,000 emails a month, A/B testing, 24/7 support and removal of Mailchimp branding. This is the entry point if you want to look professional and test subject lines.

Standard ($20 per month, starting price). Advanced automations, retargeting ads and custom templates, with roughly 6,000 emails a month at the base level. Worth knowing: our price-change log records Standard's base price rising from $20 to $25 in February 2026, the third increase in two years since the Intuit acquisition, along with higher overage charges. Our product listing still shows the older $20 figure, so budget for $25 and be pleasantly surprised if it's less.

Premium ($350 per month, starting price). 150,000+ emails a month, phone support and advanced segmentation. This is built for large lists and bigger teams, and the price jump from Standard is steep.

The Catch: You Pay for Contacts, Not Sends

Every paid plan is priced by the size of your audience. The "starting at" number is the price for a small list. As your list grows, the monthly price climbs in steps, even if you send the exact same number of emails.

Our product notes put it plainly: at 10,000 contacts, Standard runs $100 or more per month. That is a five-fold jump from the headline price, and nothing about your usage necessarily changed. You just collected more subscribers, which is supposed to be the goal.

Two details make this sting more:

▸Unsubscribed and inactive contacts can still count. Depending on how you manage your audience, people who stopped engaging may still be counted toward your tier. Regular list cleaning matters here, and it's a chore competitors with send-based pricing don't make you do.
▸Duplicates across audiences. If the same person sits in more than one audience, you can be charged for them more than once. Keeping everything in a single audience with tags avoids this.

What Different List Sizes Really Pay

These are rough, directional numbers built from our tracked base prices and the 10,000-contact figure in our notes. Mailchimp's exact tiers shift, so use them to sense scale rather than to budget to the dollar.

▸Under 500 contacts. Free or Essentials at around $13. Cheap, fine.
▸A few thousand contacts. Essentials or Standard in the low double digits up to roughly $50 to $75, depending on the exact tier.
▸10,000 contacts. Standard at $100 or more per month.
▸50,000+ contacts. You're in Premium territory at $350 and up, and the contact-based scaling keeps going from there.

If your list is growing, the right question isn't "what does the plan cost today?" It's "what will it cost in a year when I have three times the subscribers?"

What You Actually Get for the Money

Price is only half the story, so here's what each step buys you in practice.

Essentials covers the basics well: a drag-and-drop email builder that's honestly one of the more approachable ones, a decent template library, A/B testing, and round-the-clock support. The weak spot is automation. You can set up simple welcome flows, but anything with branching logic is reserved for higher tiers.

Standard is where Mailchimp becomes a real marketing tool. Advanced automations (multi-step, behavior-triggered), retargeting ads and custom templates all show up here. If you're building customer journeys, this is the realistic starting tier, which means the realistic starting price is $20 to $25 rather than $13.

Premium adds phone support and deeper segmentation. Unless you're managing a big list with multiple people working in the account, it's hard to justify at $350.

Pros and Cons

What Mailchimp does well

▸It's the easiest first email platform. If you've never sent a campaign, you can have one out the door in an afternoon.
▸The brand is recognized and trusted, and there are integrations for almost everything.
▸The free tier lets you try the editor and send a few campaigns before you commit.
▸Landing pages, forms and email in one place is convenient for small businesses that don't want five tools.
▸Support is available around the clock on paid plans.

Where it falls short

▸Contact-based pricing punishes growth. It's the single biggest complaint in the communities we track.
▸Advanced automation sits behind Standard and Premium, so the cheapest plans feel limited.
▸Price increases have been frequent since the Intuit acquisition, and the free tier keeps shrinking.
▸Users on Reddit and similar forums often say the product hasn't visibly improved to match the price increases. That's anecdotal, but it's a common sentiment.
▸For specialized needs it's outclassed: creators tend to prefer ConvertKit, and e-commerce stores tend to prefer Klaviyo.

How It Compares to the Alternatives

We've tracked list prices for a few common alternatives. These are starting prices, and every one of them also scales with something, so compare at your own list size.

▸Brevo. Free tier, then Starter at $25 and Business at $65 per month. Brevo's pitch is that it prices by emails sent rather than contacts, which suits larger, less frequently mailed lists. See our Brevo pricing breakdown.
▸ActiveCampaign. Starter at $15, Plus at $49, Pro at $79 and Enterprise at $145 per month. It's the automation heavyweight, and the advanced features cost less than Mailchimp's equivalent tiers, but it's also a steeper learning curve.
▸ConvertKit. A free Newsletter plan, then Creator at $33 and Creator Pro at $59 per month. Built for creators who sell courses, newsletters and digital products.

For a direct feature-by-feature look, see our ActiveCampaign vs Mailchimp vs ConvertKit comparison and the ConvertKit vs Mailchimp creator guide.

The pattern is consistent: Mailchimp is cheaper on day one and more expensive on day 400. Alternatives are often slightly pricier to start and noticeably cheaper as your list grows.

Who Should Pay for Mailchimp

It makes sense if:

▸You're a first-timer who values a gentle learning curve over the lowest possible price.
▸Your list is small (a couple of thousand contacts or fewer) and likely to stay that way.
▸You're a nonprofit, local business or solo operator who wants one familiar tool with landing pages and forms included.
▸You need support availability and a recognizable platform your team or clients already know.

Look elsewhere if:

▸Your list is already past 5,000 contacts or growing quickly. The contact-based math gets uncompetitive fast.
▸You run an online store. Klaviyo is purpose-built for e-commerce and goes much further on product and purchase triggers.
▸You need serious automation without paying for Standard or Premium.
▸You send infrequently to a large list, which is exactly where send-based pricing wins.

Tips to Keep Your Bill Down

Keep a single audience and use tags and segments rather than multiple audiences, so nobody is counted twice.
Clean the list every quarter. Remove bounced addresses and long-term non-openers. Fewer contacts means a lower tier, and better deliverability as a bonus.
Check the price at your next tier before you grow into it. Know the cost of 5,000 and 10,000 contacts ahead of time so a good growth month doesn't become a surprise invoice.
Skip Standard until you need automation. If all you send is a monthly newsletter, Essentials does the job.
Review your plan every renewal. Prices and limits have moved several times; a thirty-minute annual check can save real money.

Bottom Line

Mailchimp is a good place to start and a questionable place to stay. The free and Essentials plans are fair for a small list, but the combination of contact-based pricing, gated automation and a history of price increases means the cost per useful feature rises as you grow. Run the numbers at your projected list size, price out at least one alternative, and treat Mailchimp's headline price as the floor rather than the bill.

Disclosure: prices reflect the data we track and may lag Mailchimp's live pricing, particularly for the Standard base price noted above. Always verify on the vendor's site. Some links on this site may be affiliate links, which never influence our ratings.