Kit email marketing: what the free plan, the AI tools and your list size cost

What Kit is

Kit is an email platform for people who sell what they make: newsletters, courses, digital products. It used to be called ConvertKit. You collect subscribers with forms and landing pages, then send them broadcasts (one-off emails) or sequences (a series that goes out on a schedule).

The free plan is the headline. It holds up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, forms and landing pages (Kit help centre). Free leaves out visual automations, sequences, RSS campaigns and the AI Connectors.

The Kit Free plan

Price The Free plan costs $0 per month for as long as you stay under 10,000 subscribers.

Not on Free Visual automations and the automation template library, email sequences, rules and RSS campaigns, AI Connectors, and paid apps in the Kit App Store.

So a writer who sends one newsletter a week, with no automations, can stay on Free until the list passes 10,000. A course seller who needs a welcome series cannot.

The AI email marketing hub sets Kit beside the other 14 email tools we track.

What Kit costs at your list size

Kit bills by confirmed subscribers and ignores how many emails you send. The table gives the monthly price at four list sizes.

Free carries a list of 10,000 at no cost. Past that line, the help centre says you need a paid plan “to keep sending”. Creator then costs $139 a month at the 10,000 step.

Two billing rules matter more than the sticker price. Pass a tier’s limit and Kit moves you up automatically. Prune your list and the lower price waits: you request “Switch to a lower tier” and it starts on your next billing date (billing help article).

Kit’s billing and pricing pages do not say whether unsubscribed or bounced contacts count. Clean the list before you pass a tier edge. The Kit pricing page walks through every step, the yearly rate and the add-ons.

Which Kit plan has the AI features

Kit offers AI in three places, and plan rules apply to two of them.

The first is AI Connectors, Kit’s MCP server. MCP is a standard that lets an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT read your account and act on it. Kit lists 65+ tools for it (AI Connectors article, 1 October 2026).

That matters for your budget. On Free the assistant connects, but every tool call returns an upgrade prompt. Each connection is capped at 120 requests a minute.

The second is the subject line generator inside the broadcast editor. The Kit AI page describes it and names no plan or usage limit.

The third is the Kit App Store, where third-party writing apps such as Lex and Wordsmith plug in. Free apps work on any plan, and paid apps need Creator or Pro.

Here is the catch for a free user. The email costs nothing up to 10,000 subscribers, but AI Connectors cost the Creator price for your list size. At 10,000 subscribers that is $139 a month.

Does Kit train AI on your list

Kit says no. Its help centre states: “Kit itself does not train any AI/LLM on Kit data.” The statement sits in the Security and data FAQ of the AI Connectors article, dated 1 October 2026.

AI Connectors, security and data FAQ

Kit itself does not train any AI/LLM on Kit data. Please note, however, once a creator connects AI Connectors to a third-party AI client (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.), that provider’s own data-handling settings govern whether prompts/data get used for model training.

Two limits sit around that answer. The terms (5 September 2025) do not mention AI. Clause 8.2 gives Kit a licence to use your content “to develop, maintain and improve the Services and any other products, software, and services of Kit and/or its affiliates”.

And once you connect ChatGPT, Claude or another client, that provider’s own data settings decide whether your prompts and data train its models. The AI-training guide sets Kit’s answer beside the other 14 tools.

The terms also say nothing on who owns text Kit’s AI writes. Clause 9 keeps your rights in your own content and does not say whether AI output counts as it.

Deliverability and the Pro plan

Deliverability is whether your email lands in the inbox or in spam. Kit puts its deliverability reporting on Pro, at $79 a month for 1,000 subscribers, alongside engagement scoring and the newsletter referral system (plan comparison).

Creator allows 2 team members and 2 subject line variants per test. Pro lifts both and adds content A/B tests.

Two public reviews raise problems here. One nonprofit saw poor inbox placement on Free. A reply in the same thread blamed missing SPF and DKIM records on its own domain (Reddit). A Trustpilot reviewer found custom tracking domains sit on the dearer plan (Trustpilot).

Kit splits its reviewers on support and price

Kit’s 19 public reviews from 8 May to 29 October 2026 (17 on Trustpilot, 2 Reddit threads) split sharply. Its Trustpilot page displayed 165 reviews and a TrustScore of 3.9 on 1 November 2026, with 22 per cent at one star.

Ease of use leads the praise (6 of 19 sources: Trustpilot, Trustpilot). One reviewer calls it “very user-friendly, intuitive and easy to navigate”.

Support leads the complaints (5 of 19 sources: Trustpilot, Trustpilot). Price rises as the list grows come next (4 of 19 sources: Trustpilot, Trustpilot).

Two reviewers say Kit closed their account at short notice (Trustpilot, Trustpilot). Almost none of the 19 mention the AI features.

Kit pros and cons

How Kit compares

Kit vs MailerLite sets the two free-plan creator tools side by side at each list size. Beehiiv vs Kit covers the newsletter-first rival. Kit vs Mailchimp covers Mailchimp, which counts unsubscribed contacts in its bill.

Newsletter platforms ranks the tools built for writers. The email price table prices all 15 tools at your own list size.

Questions buyers ask about Kit

Is ConvertKit the same as Kit?

Yes. ConvertKit now trades as Kit, at kit.com.

Is Kit free?

Yes, up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited broadcasts. Automations, sequences and the AI Connectors need Creator or Pro.

Does Kit have AI?

Yes. AI Connectors let an assistant such as Claude run 65+ account tools from Creator up, and the broadcast editor generates subject lines. Kit’s AI page names no plan for the generator.

Does Kit use my subscribers to train AI?

Its help centre says Kit itself trains no AI or LLM on Kit data. A third-party assistant you connect follows its own settings.

What happens when I pass 10,000 subscribers on Free?

The help centre says you need to upgrade to a paid plan to keep sending. Kit pricing lists the Creator price at each step.

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