Mailchimp pricing: Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium from 500 to 50,000 contacts

Mailchimp’s price at 500, 2,500, 10,000 and 50,000 contacts

Mailchimp prices each plan by a contact tier you choose. Essentials stops at 50,000 contacts and Standard at 100,000. Premium runs to 200,000 (pricing data).

Standard costs more than Essentials at every step, and the gap grows from $7 a month at 500 contacts to $65 at 50,000.

A list past 50,000 contacts needs Standard or Premium. Above 200,000 contacts the price is a quote from sales.

What the Mailchimp free plan allows

Mailchimp Free holds 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, with no more than 250 a day. You get 1 seat and 1 audience (a separate contact list).

Every email carries Mailchimp branding. Free leaves out scheduling and the generative AI features, and email support lasts for your first 30 days only (plan grid).

Go past either limit and Mailchimp pauses sending until the next monthly cycle. Nothing is billed.

Unsubscribed contacts count towards the 250, so a free list that loses readers fills up as fast as one that gains them. Archive them to free the space.

What the 50 per cent introductory offer covers

New paid plans show a discount of half the price for 12 months. The offer terms read “50% off the monthly base price of Mailchimp Premium, Standard or Essentials for the first 12 (twelve) months”, then the list price.

On that offer, Essentials at 500 contacts costs $6.50 a month for the first year. The terms name the base price only, and say nothing about overages or SMS.

The page and the terms differ on plan changes. The banner says the discount holds “even if you change to a Premium or Essentials plan”. The offer terms say an upgrade or downgrade moves you “to the then current list price”. Check which applies before you switch plans in year one.

A 1-month free trial of Premium is available “for qualified new customers”, says the pricing page.

What moves you up a Mailchimp tier

Mailchimp bills on contacts you hold, opted out or not. Subscribed, non-subscribed and unsubscribed contacts all count; archived, cleaned and deleted ones do not (help centre).

Types of contacts

Subscribed Counts toward monthly contact limit?: Yes

Unsubscribed An unsubscribed contact is someone who previously received your marketing content but has opted out. Counts toward monthly contact limit?: Yes

Non-subscribed A non-subscribed contact is someone who’s interacted with you but hasn’t opted in to receive marketing content. Counts toward monthly contact limit?: Yes

Cleaned Hard bounces and repeated soft bounces become cleaned contacts. Counts toward monthly contact limit?: No

Archived An archived contact is someone who’s been removed from your audience. Counts toward monthly contact limit?: No

The count that matters is the month’s highest. Mailchimp bills on “the peak contact total during your billing period”, so a clean-up late in the month changes next month’s bill only (additional charges).

Paid plans never stop sending at the limit. Overages go on the next bill in blocks.

Block size and price depend on your plan and tier. The help article’s Standard example is a block of 1,000 contacts with 12,000 sends (additional charges). The article gives no block price, and the account shows it once you set a contact limit.

Sends have their own ceiling: 10 times your contact tier on Essentials, 12 times on Standard and 15 times on Premium. On the 2,500 tier, Essentials allows 25,000 emails a month. A weekly newsletter uses about 10,800 (2,500 x 52 / 12), so $45 works out at about $4.15 per 1,000 newsletter emails. At the full allowance it is $1.80 per 1,000.

Is there an annual Mailchimp plan?

Only for big lists. A pricing page footnote reads “For Premium and Standard 10,000+ contact plans, annual plans are available”. No annual price is published, so the saving is a quote from sales.

Mailchimp add-ons and their prices

SMS is the add-on with published prices. It is sold on paid plans in select countries, and unused credits “expire and do not roll over” (pricing page footnote).

The pricing data behind the page lists SMS packs from $20 for 1,000 credits to $2,500 for 450,000. The page itself says SMS pricing varies, so read the figure for your country at checkout.

Pay As You Go sells email credits instead of a monthly plan, aimed at infrequent senders. The pricing page names it without a price.

Seats come with the plan: 1 on Free, 3 on Essentials, 5 on Standard and unlimited on Premium. No price for an extra seat is published. Extra contacts arrive as overage blocks. The pricing page lists no dedicated IP (a sending address only your mail uses).

Which Mailchimp plan has the AI features

Standard. The pricing grid lists generative AI as a “No additional cost add-on” on Standard and Premium and “Not included” on Essentials and Free.

So the AI costs you the Standard price. At 10,000 contacts that is $135 a month, $25 above Essentials. Predictive segments are available on Standard or Premium, says a pricing page footnote.

The AI comes with terms section 30, which lets Mailchimp use your AI inputs and outputs, Customer Data included, for machine learning. The Mailchimp profile quotes the clause and what reviewers report.

Mailchimp against other email tools on price

At 500 contacts Brevo Starter at $9 and MailerLite Comfort at $12 cost less than Essentials. The table below shows Brevo Free at that size, since it covers 500 contacts. From 2,500 contacts up, Brevo, GetResponse and MailerLite each cost less than Essentials.

Brevo bills by emails sent, and its figures assume about 4 sends per contact a month. MailerLite counts only active subscribers, so unsubscribed addresses cost nothing there. Mailchimp vs MailerLite sets the two side by side, and the email price table prices all 15 tools at your own list size. The AI email marketing hub maps the whole section.

Questions buyers ask about Mailchimp pricing

How much does Mailchimp cost a month?

Free up to 250 contacts. Essentials costs $13 a month and Standard $20 a month at 500 contacts, rising with each tier. Prices checked 6 November 2026.

Is Mailchimp free?

Yes, for up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, with branding and no scheduling or AI.

What does the Mailchimp Essentials plan include?

3 seats, 3 audiences, A/B testing, scheduling and 24/7 email and chat support, with sends at 10 times your contacts. It has no generative AI.

Does Mailchimp charge for unsubscribed contacts?

Yes. Unsubscribed contacts count towards your contact limit until you archive them.

How much does Mailchimp SMS cost?

The pricing data lists packs from $20 for 1,000 credits to $2,500 for 450,000, on paid plans in select countries. Unused credits expire and do not roll over.

Compare this price with 14 other email tools in the AI email marketing hub →