Brevo email marketing: billed by emails sent, with Aura AI from Starter

What Brevo is

Brevo is the email platform formerly called Sendinblue. It sends newsletters and automated emails, plus SMS, WhatsApp messages and transactional email (receipts, password resets) through an API.

The plans are Free, Starter, Standard, Professional and Enterprise. Every paid plan prices by the number of emails you send each month. Your list size matters only through a contact cap tied to that email tier.

That makes Brevo an odd one out. The other email tools on our AI email marketing hub mostly charge by contacts, so a quiet list costs the same as a busy one.

What Brevo costs at your list size

Brevo’s bill follows your sending habit. Our price table assumes about 4 sends per contact a month, the rhythm of a weekly newsletter.

Send less and the figure drops sharply. A 50,000-contact list mailed once a month needs 50,000 emails, which Starter sells for $56 a month. Mail the same list weekly and you pass Starter’s 100,000-email ceiling, so Standard’s $249 tier applies (pricing API).

Small lists meet the contact cap first. Starter’s 5,000-email tier stores 500 contacts, and 2,500 contacts need the 15,000-email tier even if you send far fewer. The Brevo pricing page works through every step and the yearly discount.

Which Brevo plan has the AI features

Brevo’s AI goes by the name Aura. Its content generator, which drafts subject lines and email copy and adjusts tone, starts on Starter.

Starter also lists an MCP connector. MCP is a standard that connects an assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude to your account, so it can manage campaigns and contacts for you.

Send time optimisation picks the hour each contact is most likely to open. It needs Standard. AI segmentation and the AI Data Analyst, which answers plain-language questions about your data, sit on Professional at $499 a month (pricing page).

Brevo’s AI agents page shows four AI agent cards, from marketing to data.

The Free card on the pricing page lists no features, so it does not say whether Free gets the content generator. Brevo’s terms page lists Open AI, Google Gemini, Anthropic and Langfuse as its AI providers. The AI features guide shows where rival tools place the same jobs.

Does Brevo train AI on your content

Yes, within a stated purpose. Clause 6.7 of the terms says Brevo “may use Content and Usage Data to enrich and train its AI Features for the sole purpose of improving the performance of the Services provided to You”.

Terms of use, 6.7

Brevo may use Content and Usage Data to enrich and train its AI Features for the sole purpose of improving the performance of the Services provided to You, in particular to prevent fraud, phishing and unsolicited electronic communications, and to secure the Services.

The same clause names the purpose as “in particular to prevent fraud, phishing and unsolicited electronic communications”. Outside providers “only process your data to provide the AI Features”.

Two controls matter to you. The clause says the AI Features “do not process Your data unless You actually and actively use” them. A “Control Center” in the app manages them, but “embedded fraud/spam detection systems” cannot be disabled, and the terms do not say whether switching features off stops training.

On ownership, clause 6.4 says you own the Output “to the extent permitted by applicable law”. The AI-training guide sets this clause beside the other 14 tools.

The 300-a-day cap, contact limits and deliverability

Free sends 300 emails a day. Any list above 300 contacts needs more than a day to get one newsletter out on Free, however few sends you make a month.

The contact cap is the second trap. Starter and Standard hold 500 contacts at 5,000 emails, 1,500 at 10,000 and 2,500 at 15,000 (pricing.md). From the 20,000-email tier the cap jumps to 500,000. Brevo does not publish whether unsubscribed contacts count towards the cap.

Brevo’s Mailchimp comparison says Free includes automation for up to 2,000 contacts. Starter’s card lists no marketing automation, and Standard’s lists unlimited multi-step workflows, so a welcome series for a bigger list means Standard.

A dedicated IP, an address only your mail leaves from, sits on the Enterprise card of the pricing page. Starter and Standard show no price for one. Professional adds 3 hours a year with a deliverability specialist.

Brevo reviews: the free tier praised, unsubscribes questioned

We read five Reddit items dated 3 June to 9 October 2026. Three have the post body removed, so they count as titles only.

The one clear praise is the free tier for small senders (1 of 5 sources: Reddit). That commenter calls 300 free emails “good for a small scale company”.

The most detailed complaint concerns consent. One poster says “Brevo considers all emails sent through an automation to be transactional emails”, so the unsubscribe link in them blocks only transactional mail (1 of 5 sources: Reddit). Another title reports two dedicated IPs flagged red in Microsoft’s SNDS reputation tool before a first send (1 of 5 sources: Reddit).

Brevo pros and cons

How Brevo compares

Brevo vs MailerLite pits billing by sends against billing by subscribers, the choice most small senders face here. Brevo also appears on the ecommerce email list, where its Professional plan adds AI product recommendations.

The email price table lets you enter your own list size and send count for all 15 tools. Leaving Mailchimp? The Mailchimp alternatives page prices Brevo against the rest.

Questions buyers ask about Brevo

Is Brevo the same as Sendinblue?

Yes. Brevo is the company formerly called Sendinblue, and its plans now carry the Brevo name.

Is Brevo free?

Yes. Free stores up to 100,000 contacts and sends 300 emails a day, with the Brevo logo on each email.

Does Brevo charge per contact?

No. Paid plans charge by emails sent a month, and each email tier caps how many contacts you can store.

Does Brevo have AI?

Yes. Aura drafts copy and subject lines from Starter, send time optimisation needs Standard, and AI segmentation needs Professional.

Does Brevo use my emails to train AI?

Its terms (clause 6.7) allow it, to improve the services you receive. The terms also say its “embedded fraud/spam detection systems” cannot be disabled.

Every email tool, with its price at your list size, is in the AI email marketing hub →