Mailchimp Pricing 2026: Free, Essentials, Standard and Premium Costs at 500, 2,500 and 10,000 Contacts

Mailchimp pricing, as of November 2026, starts at $0 for the Free plan (up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month), then $13 a month for Essentials, $20 for Standard and $350 for Premium at the smallest paid tier of 0 to 500 contacts, all at list price. On the day I read the page, new customers saw 50% off for the first 12 months, which put those three plans at $6.50, $10 and $175 a month. The bill climbs with your contact count: at 2,500 contacts Standard lists at $60 a month, and at 10,000 contacts it lists at $135. I run Ecommerce Paradise, I teach high-ticket dropshipping, and I wrote this guide so a store owner can pick a plan and a contact tier without clicking through a slider.

Disclosure: some links below are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what Mailchimp’s pricing page says. Prices change, so check the provider before you buy. This is general information, not tax, legal or financial advice.

Mailchimp’s pricing page is built around a contact slider, so most of the numbers only appear after you pick a tier. I opened the page in my own browser on November 3, 2026, selected the 0 to 500, 1,501 to 2,500 and 5,001 to 10,000 contact tiers, and wrote down what each plan card showed. I also read Mailchimp’s offer terms and its overage help article. Anything those pages did not show, I mark “not shown.”

Mailchimp Pricing at a Glance (November 2026)

Sources: Mailchimp’s marketing pricing page for the plan cards. The promotional offer terms cover the 50% discount. The “first 12 months” figures are the introductory offer, and the “list” figures are what the card showed as the price that follows. Offers can differ by country and can end without notice, so confirm on the live slider.

How Mailchimp’s Contact-Based Pricing Works

Mailchimp charges by the size of your audience. The slider offers these contact tiers: 0-500, 501-1,500, 1,501-2,500, 2,501-5,000, 5,001-10,000, 10,001-15,000, 15,001-20,000, 20,001-25,000, 25,001-30,000, 30,001-40,000, 40,001-50,000, 50,001-75,000, 75,001-100,000, 100,001-130,000, 130,001-150,000, 150,001-200,000, 200,001-250,000, 250,001-500,000, 500,001-1,000,000 and 1,000,000+. Your price is the price of the tier your contact count falls into, not a per-contact rate.

That tier structure creates cliffs. A list of 2,500 contacts sits at the top of the 1,501 to 2,500 tier, so one more contact moves you into the 2,501 to 5,000 tier. I did not read the prices for that tier, so I will not guess at the jump. The same applies at 10,000, where the next tier is 10,001 to 15,000.

Mailchimp’s overage article adds a few counting rules. Your bill is based on the peak number of contacts during the billing period, even if the total drops later. Archived contacts and cleaned contacts do not count toward your limit, which is why pruning dead addresses can lower your tier.

Mailchimp Free Plan: Limits That Matter

The Free plan card says “Under 250 contacts? It’s free.” On the plan details, Free allows 250 contacts, a maximum of 500 emails a month and 250 a day, one seat and one audience. A line lower on the same page says “fewer than 500 contacts” for Free, so the page contradicts itself. I would trust the specific limit on the plan details, which is 250.

The key rule for Free is what happens at the limit. The page says sending will be paused if the contact or email send limit is exceeded. Paid plans work differently, as I explain in the overage section below.

Free also leaves out several things a store owner may expect. Mailchimp lists pre-built templates as limited, and says scheduling, branding removal, branded templates, custom reports, dynamic content and automation flows are not included. Custom-coded templates can be created but must be upgraded to send. Support is email only for the first 30 days.

Here is a worked example with a stated assumption. Suppose you have 250 contacts and send each one 2 campaigns a month: 250 x 2 = 500 sends, exactly the monthly cap. A third campaign would be 250 x 3 = 750 sends, which is 250 over the cap, and sending would pause. The 250 a day limit also means one send to your whole list uses a full day’s allowance.

Mailchimp Essentials Pricing

Essentials is the cheapest paid plan. At 0 to 500 contacts the card showed $6.50 a month for the first 12 months and $13 after that. At 1,501 to 2,500 contacts it showed $22.50 and then $45. At 5,001 to 10,000 contacts it showed $55 and then $110.

The plan sends up to 10 times your contact limit each month, so the cards showed 5,000, 25,000 and 100,000 sends at those three tiers. It includes 3 seats, 3 audiences, 2 roles, email scheduling and removal of Mailchimp branding. Automation flows are limited to up to 4 flow steps, and custom-coded templates can be created but must be upgraded to send. Branded templates, custom reports and dynamic content are not included. Support is 24/7 by email and chat, and the pricing text I fetched lists a 14-day free trial for Essentials and Standard.

Mailchimp Standard Pricing

Standard is the plan Mailchimp labels “Best value.” At 0 to 500 contacts the card showed $10 a month for 12 months, then $20. At 1,501 to 2,500 contacts it showed $30, then $60. At 5,001 to 10,000 contacts it showed $67.50, then $135.

Standard sends up to 12 times your contact limit, which gave 6,000, 30,000 and 120,000 sends at the three tiers. It adds 5 seats, 5 audiences, 4 roles, up to 200 automation flows, branded templates, custom reports, dynamic content and the ability to create and send custom-coded templates. It also lists generative AI features as a no-additional-cost add-on and one onboarding session. Support is 24/7 email and chat.

For a small ecommerce store, the practical gap between Essentials and Standard is automation. Essentials caps flows at 4 steps, while Standard allows up to 200 flows. A welcome series, an abandoned-cart sequence and a post-purchase flow can run past 4 steps quickly, so a store that leans on flows will usually land on Standard.

Mailchimp Premium Pricing

Premium showed $175 a month for the first 12 months and $350 after that, and that figure did not change across the three tiers I checked. The comparison table lists monthly sends at 15 times your contacts, which works out to 7,500, 37,500 and 150,000 at the three tiers by my arithmetic. I did not see a flat send number on the Premium card in my browser, so check the live slider. It also lists unlimited seats and audiences, 5 roles, phone and priority support, 4 onboarding sessions plus a dedicated onboarding specialist, and enterprise SSO.

Mailchimp’s footnotes say a 1-month Premium trial is available to qualified new customers through sales. They also say Premium migration services are for certain new accounts that contact sales, available for the first 30 days, and that users with more than 250,000 contacts get custom Premium plans through sales. The pricing FAQ separately says high-volume plans start above 200,000 contacts, so the two thresholds do not match exactly. Ask sales which applies to you.

Premium at $350 a month list is $4,200 a year ($350 x 12). For a store with 2,500 contacts, that is 5.8 times the $720 a year for Standard at $60 a month ($4,200 divided by $720 is about 5.83). I would only look at Premium if you need phone support, unlimited seats or SSO.

Mailchimp Pricing at 500, 2,500 and 10,000 Contacts

These are the plan card prices I read for each tier. Each row is an example, not a quote, and it assumes one monthly plan, no add-ons, no tax and no overages. The first-12-month column is the introductory offer, and the list column is what the card showed as the price that follows.

Now the arithmetic over 12 months, with each figure checked. At 500 contacts, Essentials costs $6.50 x 12 = $78 in the introductory year and $13 x 12 = $156 at list. Standard costs $10 x 12 = $120, then $20 x 12 = $240. Premium costs $175 x 12 = $2,100, then $350 x 12 = $4,200.

At 2,500 contacts, Essentials costs $22.50 x 12 = $270 in the introductory year and $45 x 12 = $540 at list. Standard costs $30 x 12 = $360, then $60 x 12 = $720. Premium is the same $2,100 and $4,200 as before.

At 10,000 contacts, Essentials costs $55 x 12 = $660 in the introductory year and $110 x 12 = $1,320 at list. Standard costs $67.50 x 12 = $810, then $135 x 12 = $1,620. Premium is again $2,100 and $4,200. At this size Standard costs $135 – $110 = $25 a month more than Essentials, and Premium costs $350 – $135 = $215 a month more than Standard, which is $215 x 12 = $2,580 a year.

The list price per contact falls as you grow, if you measure it at the top of each tier. For Standard it is $20 / 500 = $0.04 at 500 contacts, $60 / 2,500 = $0.024 at 2,500, and $135 / 10,000 = $0.0135 at 10,000. That is my arithmetic, and it only holds if your list is actually full to the top of the tier. A list of 1,600 contacts pays the $60 tier price, which is $60 / 1,600 = $0.0375 per contact.

Send Limits and Overage Rules

Paid plans have two limits: contacts and monthly sends. Essentials allows 10 times your contact limit in sends, Standard allows 12 times, and Premium allows 15 times. Using those multiples, 2,500 contacts gives 25,000 sends on Essentials, 30,000 on Standard and 37,500 on Premium.

Let me turn that into store scenarios. Say you email your full list 8 times a month, about twice a week. That is 500 x 8 = 4,000 sends at 500 contacts, 2,500 x 8 = 20,000 at 2,500, and 10,000 x 8 = 80,000 at 10,000. Each is under the Essentials limit at that tier (5,000, 25,000 and 100,000), so a store sending twice a week stays inside the cheapest paid plan on volume.

Now say you email the full list 20 times a month. That is 10,000 sends at 500 contacts, 50,000 at 2,500 and 200,000 at 10,000. Against Standard’s limits of 6,000, 30,000 and 120,000, you would be over by 4,000, 20,000 and 80,000. At 10,000 contacts you would also be 50,000 over Premium’s 150,000.

When you go over, paid plans do not stop. Mailchimp’s FAQ says that after the free trial it bills overage charges automatically, and your campaigns are not stopped if you pay them on time. The overage help article says overages are billed in add-on contact blocks that are smaller than your base tier, and that more than one block can be charged. Send limits scale with blocks: on Standard, a 1,000-contact block adds 12,000 sends, because 1,000 x 12 = 12,000. The block price is not shown in the article and depends on your plan and tier, so check it in your account before you plan around it.

The 50% Introductory Offer: What It Covers

The offer terms say the 50% discount lasts 12 months from enrollment and applies to Premium, Standard and Essentials monthly plans bought through the Buy Now button. You qualify as a new customer or as a Free customer whose account was created in the last 90 days, only in select countries, and only one offer can be used per account.

The discount covers the plan and any add-on contact blocks you buy. It does not cover transaction-based or one-time fees, including transactional email, SMS marketing, pay-as-you-go credits and Google Ads. After the 12 months you pay the then-current list price for your contacts and sends.

Two traps are worth knowing. Canceling your account during or before the end of the promotion loses the offer, and pausing does not stop the 12-month clock. If you switch plans, the new plan bills at its list price but you keep the discount for the rest of the original 12 months. Budget for the list column, not the introductory column, when you plan year two.

Add-Ons and Other Costs

Several costs sit outside the plan price. Mailchimp’s page lists the following:

• SMS and MMS: an add-on to paid plans in select countries. Credits are sold monthly and unused credits expire. MMS is for Standard and Premium, to US and Canada contacts only.
• Transactional email: a separate “Transactional” pricing tab. Its prices are not on the marketing page.
• Pay As You Go: you buy email credits instead of a recurring plan, which Mailchimp describes as best for infrequent senders. Prices are not shown on the marketing page.
• Generative AI features: a no-additional-cost add-on on Standard and Premium, not included on Essentials or Free.
• Annual plans: available for Standard and Premium plans with 10,000+ contacts, through sales, with pricing not shown.
• Nonprofits and charities: a 15% discount on request through the billing team.

Payments are accepted by major credit card and PayPal, with direct debit in select countries. Plan upgrades apply immediately, while downgrades take effect at the end of the monthly billing period, and charges already billed are not refunded.

What I Could Not Confirm

A few details were not on the pages I loaded. The prices for tiers above 10,000 contacts, the dollar cost of an overage block, the price of SMS credits, Pay As You Go credits and transactional email, annual-plan pricing, and a flat monthly send number on the Premium card are all not shown here. The first-year discount is also time-limited and country-limited, so your slider may show different numbers than mine. The slider on the live page, which you can open through Mailchimp, is the final word, and a quick check takes about a minute per tier.

Which Mailchimp Plan Fits Which Store?

This section is opinion, based on the plan limits above. If you are testing a new store with fewer than 250 subscribers, Free is enough to send a few campaigns, as long as you can live without scheduling and automations. Once you want a welcome series or abandoned-cart flow, you outgrow Free fast.

Essentials fits a store that sends simple newsletters and has a small list. Standard fits a store that wants more than 4 flow steps, custom reports or dynamic content. Premium fits a team that needs phone support, many seats or SSO, and I would not start there.

Email costs matter most when margins are thin. If you are still choosing products, my list of high-ticket niches shows categories where an order can carry a monthly email bill without hurting margin. My walkthrough on how to find high-ticket dropshipping suppliers covers the margin side of the same decision.

Here is a store-level check, using an assumed $250 of gross profit per order. Standard at list price for 2,500 contacts is $60 a month, so $60 / $250 = 0.24 orders. If the list generates one extra order a month that it would not have produced otherwise, the plan has paid for itself four times over. That attribution is the hard part, so treat it as an example, not a promise.

Mailchimp Alternatives With Published Plans

If the contact tiers are the part you dislike, compare at least one alternative before you commit. I link two below, and my own comparison pages go deeper than this section can. For a full list of options, see my Mailchimp alternatives guide.

Klaviyo is built around ecommerce data. Klaviyo’s pricing page lists a Free plan with up to 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month, and it did not show paid email prices in the text I could load.

You can start at Klaviyo to see the live numbers. My Klaviyo pricing breakdown covers the paid tiers.

Omnisend is the other ecommerce-first option I compare most often. Omnisend’s pricing page lists a Free plan with up to 500 emails a month and up to 250 contacts, and it bills by contacts. Its paid prices showed promotional discounts when I read the page.

For that reason I send you to my Omnisend pricing guide. You can check the live numbers at Omnisend.

For a head-to-head on the ecommerce angle, read my comparison of Klaviyo vs Mailchimp. For a view across the whole category, my best email marketing for ecommerce page covers more tools.

If you want to know which automations are worth paying for, I wrote about the email flows every high-ticket store needs.

Keep Your List Clean and Legal

Because contacts drive your price, list quality is a cost lever. Archive people who never open, and remember that archived and cleaned contacts do not count toward your limit. Legal compliance matters too. The FTC’s CAN-SPAM compliance guide says each separate email in violation can carry penalties of up to $53,088, and it lists requirements such as a valid postal address, a clear opt-out and honoring opt-outs within 10 business days.

If your email program is part of a business with a legal entity and a bank account, set that structure up first. My guide to business formation for high-ticket dropshipping explains why. My primer on what high-ticket dropshipping is shows where email fits in the model.

My Take on Mailchimp Pricing

My view, labeled as opinion: Mailchimp is easy to start with and hard to forecast. The introductory 50% halves the first year, but the list prices are what you live with, and the tier cliffs can add a surprise every time the list grows. The cheapest way to use it is to keep the list clean, stay under the tier cliff and read the overage line before you send a large campaign.

My practical advice has three steps. Pick the plan by the features you need, not the one with the biggest discount. Calculate your cost at list price for your current tier and the next one up. Then compare it against one alternative with a free plan before you enter a card.

Mailchimp Pricing FAQ

How much does Mailchimp cost per month?
As of November 2026, the Free plan costs $0. At the 0 to 500 contact tier the cards listed Essentials at $13, Standard at $20 and Premium at $350 a month, with a 50% introductory offer for the first 12 months for eligible new customers. Prices rise with the contact tier.

Is Mailchimp still free?
Yes, there is a Free plan, but it is small: up to 250 contacts, 500 emails a month and 250 a day, with one seat and one audience. Sending pauses if you pass a limit, and scheduling and automation flows are not included.

What happens if I go over my Mailchimp contact or send limit?
On paid plans, Mailchimp bills overage charges automatically after the free trial, and your campaigns are not stopped if you pay on time. On the Free plan, sending is paused. The overage block price depends on your plan and tier, so check it in your account.

How much is Mailchimp for 10,000 contacts?
At the 5,001 to 10,000 tier I read $110 a month for Essentials and $135 for Standard at list price, or $55 and $67.50 during the 50% introductory year. Premium showed $350 at list. A list of 10,001 contacts moves to the next tier, which I did not read, so check the slider.

Does Mailchimp charge for archived contacts?
Mailchimp’s overage article says archived and cleaned contacts do not count toward your contact limit. Billing is based on your peak contact total during the billing period, so archive before the period ends, not after.

Related Articles

These guides cover the email platforms and costs around Mailchimp:

• Mailchimp Alternatives 2026: 7 Email Platforms Compared by Price, Free Plan and Fit
• Mailchimp Review 2026: The World’s Most Popular Email Platform
• Klaviyo Pricing in 2026: What It Really Costs for Your Ecommerce Store
• Omnisend Pricing in 2026: Complete Plan Breakdown
• Klaviyo vs Mailchimp in 2026: Ecommerce-Native vs General Email

Trevor Fenner

Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and world traveler from Seattle, Washington, and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.

He maintains homes in Seattle and Bali, spends most of the year overseas, and usually returns to Seattle for about a month each summer.

80

SHARES

Share on Facebook

Post on X

Save

Share