PRICING BREAKDOWN · 2026

Mailchimp pricing

Every Mailchimp plan priced at real list sizes: what the per-contact meter actually charges in 2026, including the contacts you forgot you were paying for.

Pricing verified June 2026. Every number on this page comes from our full Mailchimp review, which also covers deliverability, support and where the 6.8 Lab Score comes from.

The short answer

Mailchimp costs $13 per month for the Essentials plan at 500 contacts, $20 for Standard, and $350 per month for Premium, the only tier with phone support. Pricing is per contact, so the bill scales with your list: at a realistic 5,000-contact list, Standard, the tier Mailchimp markets hardest, is $100 a month, about $1,200 a year, and at 25,000 contacts it is $310. There is no standard annual prepay discount on the marketing plans, so the monthly sticker is the price you live with; the only built-in break is 15 percent off for verified nonprofits.

The number to actually budget is higher than the sticker, because Mailchimp bills every contact stored in your audience, including people who unsubscribed and people who never subscribed in the first place. That contact bloat, plus a paid SMS add-on and feature gates that push growing senders from Essentials to Standard, is why Mailchimp is the polished-but-pricey option in our best email marketing software ranking. The rest of this page prices all of it, line by line.

Plans and limits in 2026

Mailchimp sells four plans: Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium. Every paid tier is priced by your total contact count. Essentials caps automations at four steps, which is the single biggest reason growing senders end up on Standard, where automations expand to around 200 steps. Premium starts at 10,000 contacts and stays flat at $350 a month up to that ceiling.

Plan	500 contacts	5,000	10,000	25,000	Max contacts
Free	$0	n/a	n/a	n/a	250
Essentials	$13/mo	$75/mo	$110/mo	$270/mo	50,000
Standard	$20/mo	$100/mo	$135/mo	$310/mo	100,000
Premium	n/a	n/a	$350/mo	$620/mo	200,000+

Those are monthly prices, and they are also the annual prices divided by twelve: unlike most subscription tools, Mailchimp offers no discounted annual prepay on the marketing plans. The Free plan, already trimmed once, was cut again in February 2026 to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, which we cover below.

The hidden costs: contact bloat, SMS and the support wall

Mailchimp’s real bill is set less by the plan grid than by how contacts are counted. You are billed for every contact stored in your audience, not just the people who can actually receive your email:

Line item	Cost	Notes
Unsubscribed & non-subscribed contacts	Billed at full rate	Only contacts you manually archive or delete stop counting
Same person in two audiences	Billed twice	Audiences are not deduplicated for billing
SMS	from ~$20/mo	Separate paid add-on; no native push notifications
Phone support	$350/mo	Premium only; Essentials and Standard get 24/7 email and chat
Annual prepay discount	None	Only a 15% nonprofit discount, verified with documentation

The practical effect: a list that looks like 5,000 active subscribers in your head can easily be 6,000 or 7,000 billable contacts in your account, which quietly pushes you up a price band. “My Mailchimp bill went up and I am not sure why” is the single most common complaint about the product, and this table is why.

What you will really pay: three realistic setups

The 500-contact starter: $13 to $20 a month

Essentials at 500 contacts is $13 a month, $156 a year (12 × $13). Standard is $20, or $240 a year. The free plan now caps at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, too thin to rely on, so most people at this size pay. At this end of the meter the easy editor is worth the modest cost, and the bill is not yet a problem.

The 5,000-contact small business: $100 to $120 a month

This is the scenario that defines Mailchimp. Standard at 5,000 contacts is $100 a month, about $1,200 a year. Essentials is $75 ($900 a year), but its four-step automation cap pushes most growing senders up a tier. Add the SMS add-on at around $20 and you are near $120 a month, roughly $1,440 a year, before any contact bloat nudges you into the next band. This is where many users start pricing out alternatives.

The 25,000-contact scaling team: $310 to $620 a month

Standard at 25,000 contacts is $310 a month, or $3,720 a year (12 × $310). If you need phone support, Premium is $620 at this size, $7,440 a year. The per-contact model means the next growth milestone costs more again, which is exactly why teams at this size switch to volume-based pricing to stop paying for contacts who never open an email.

The free plan after the February 2026 cut

Mailchimp’s free tier, already trimmed once, was cut again on February 17, 2026: it now allows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a 250-per-day send cap and email support for the first 30 days only. It is fine for testing the editor, but a real newsletter will hit the 250-contact ceiling almost immediately, so budget for a paid plan from day one. If a genuinely usable free tier is the priority, MailerLite’s is more generous; we price it on our MailerLite pricing page.

Is it worth it? Mailchimp vs the alternatives on price

Tool	Pricing model	Best at	Trade-off vs Mailchimp
Mailchimp	Per total contact	Ease of use, integrations	Costs more as you grow
ActiveCampaign	Per contact	Automation depth, deliverability	Steeper learning curve
Brevo	Per send volume	Cheaper at scale, includes SMS	Fewer templates and integrations
MailerLite	Per subscriber	Price, clean UI, free tier	Fewer advanced features

The price question cannot be separated from performance: independent 2026 testing puts Mailchimp’s deliverability at about 89.5 percent, seventh of fifteen tools, so the premium buys polish, not inbox placement. If you want to stop paying for stored contacts entirely, Brevo bills by send volume instead (see Brevo pricing). If you want most of what Mailchimp does for less, the head-to-head people reach for most often is MailerLite vs Mailchimp, and the wider field is in our Mailchimp alternatives guide.

How to pay less for Mailchimp

• Archive or delete dead contacts: unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts are billed at full rate, and only archiving or deleting removes them from the meter. Prune before every renewal.
• Keep one audience: the same person stored in two audiences is billed twice. Consolidate into a single audience with tags.
• Stay on Essentials if four automation steps are enough: at 5,000 contacts that is $75 instead of $100, a $300-a-year difference.
• Claim the nonprofit discount: verified nonprofits get 15 percent off with documentation, the only standing discount Mailchimp offers.
• Skip SMS until you need it: it is a separate add-on from about $20 a month, not part of any plan.
• Do not buy Premium for support alone: phone support is the headline difference at $350 a month; Standard already includes 24/7 email and chat plus a free onboarding specialist for the first 90 days.

FAQ

How much does Mailchimp cost in 2026?

From $13 a month for Essentials at 500 contacts, or $20 for Standard. At 5,000 contacts those tiers are $75 and $100; at 25,000 they are $270 and $310. Premium, the only plan with phone support, starts at $350 a month from 10,000 contacts. All plans are priced per stored contact.

Does Mailchimp have a free plan?

Yes, but a thin one. As of February 17, 2026 the free plan allows 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with a 250-per-day send cap and email support only for the first 30 days. It is fine for testing; most real senders outgrow it quickly.

What is the cheapest Mailchimp plan?

Essentials at $13 a month for 500 contacts. It caps automations at four steps and tops out at 50,000 contacts, which is why the $20-and-up Standard tier is the one Mailchimp markets hardest.

Does Mailchimp offer an annual discount?

No. There is no standard annual prepay discount on the marketing plans, so you cannot lock in a lower rate by paying for a year up front. The only built-in price break is 15 percent off for verified nonprofits, with documentation.

Why is my Mailchimp bill higher than the plan price?

Because pricing is based on your total stored contacts, not active subscribers. Unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts are billed, and the same person in two audiences is billed twice. Only contacts you manually archive or delete are excluded.

How much does Mailchimp cost for 5,000 contacts?

$75 a month on Essentials (about $900 a year) or $100 a month on Standard (about $1,200 a year). Contact bloat from unsubscribed and duplicate records often pushes the real figure higher.

How much does Mailchimp SMS cost?

SMS is a separate paid add-on starting around $20 a month on top of your plan. There are no native push notifications on any tier.

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