Mailchimp pricing, explained
What Mailchimp really costs in 2026.
Every Mailchimp plan at five list sizes, which contacts count toward your bill, and where the extra charges come from. Checked against Mailchimp’s own pricing pages on October 16, 2026.
- All four plans, with what each one leaves out
- Which contacts Mailchimp bills you for
- Sourced and dated: October 16, 2026
Mailchimp at a glance
Monthly list prices
- FreeUp to 250 contacts$0/mo
- EssentialsFrom 500 contacts$13/mo
- StandardFrom 500 contacts$20/mo
- PremiumFrom 10,000 contacts$350/mo
At 2,500 contacts, Standard is $60 a month, or $720 a year.
US list prices, monthly billing, as of October 16, 2026. Before taxes and promotions.
The plans
Four plans, and what each one leaves out.
The headline price is the smallest list size. Here’s what you get at each level, and the limits that push most people up a plan.
Free
$0/mo
up to 250 contacts
- Emails
- 500 emails a month, at most 250 a day
- Team
- 1 seat
- Limit:Up to 250 contacts; sending stops above that
- Limit:No scheduled sends
- Limit:Coded templates can be built but not sent
- Limit:Email support for the first 30 days
Essentials
from$13/mo
at 500 contacts
- Emails
- 10× your contact limit each month
- Team
- 3 seats
- Limit:Automation flows of up to 4 steps
- Limit:Basic segments only
- Limit:Coded templates can be built but not sent
- Included:A/B tests, scheduling and no Mailchimp branding
Standard
from$20/mo
at 500 contacts
- Emails
- 12× your contact limit each month
- Team
- 5 seats
- Included:Up to 200 automation flows with branches
- Included:Advanced and predictive segments
- Included:Send your own coded templates
- Included:Delivery by time zone and send-time optimization
Premium
from$350/mo
at 10,000 contacts
- Emails
- 15× your contact limit each month
- Team
- Unlimited seats
- Included:Everything in Standard
- Included:Phone and priority support
- Limit:Starts at 10,000 contacts
Mailchimp also sells Pay As You Go email credits for occasional senders, which aren’t priced here. Seats are the number of people who can log in.
Price by list size
Mailchimp prices at five list sizes.
Monthly US list prices on monthly billing as of October 16, 2026, before taxes, add-ons and promotions. A list between two sizes pays the bigger one.
| Plan | 500 | 1,500 | 2,500 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $13/mo | $26.50/mo | $45/mo | $75/mo | $110/mo |
| Standard | $20/mo | $45/mo | $60/mo | $100/mo | $135/mo |
| Premium | Starts at 10k | Starts at 10k | Starts at 10k | Starts at 10k | $350/mo |
The Free plan isn’t in the table: it stops at 250 contacts.
The fine print
What the bill actually counts.
The list price is half the story. These rules decide what you pay once your list starts moving.
Unsubscribed contacts count
Your contact count includes unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts, not just the people you can email. Cleaned, pending and archived contacts don’t count.
You pay for your peak
Mailchimp bills the highest contact count you reach in the billing period, so a busy week can set the price for the whole month.
Going over costs extra, automatically
Pass your plan’s contact or email limit and Mailchimp adds charges for the extra on its own. Nobody asks first.
Emails are capped by plan
Each plan includes a multiple of your contact limit in sends: 10× on Essentials, 12× on Standard and 15× on Premium.
Coded templates need Standard
Free and Essentials can build a custom-coded template, but you have to upgrade to Standard or Premium to send it.
The free plan is small
250 contacts and 500 emails a month (250 a day) with no scheduling. Go over 250 contacts and sending stops until you upgrade.
Pay less
Four ways to shrink a Mailchimp bill.
Archive the contacts you can’t email
Archived contacts don’t count toward your plan. Unsubscribed and non-subscribed ones do, so archiving them is the quickest way to a smaller bill.
Pick the plan for what you actually use
If you don’t need branching automations, advanced segments or your own coded templates, Essentials covers newsletters for less than Standard.
Ask about discounts
Mailchimp lists a discount for nonprofits and a trial on paid plans. Promotions change often, so check its pricing page before you buy.
Or move to a tool that counts only subscribers
Mailmanny bills subscribed contacts only and never charges automatically. At 2,500 contacts, Standard is $36 a month against Mailchimp Standard’s $60.
Side by side
The same list, 40% less at 2,500.
Mailchimp’s plans next to the Mailmanny plan with the same features: branching automations, segments and custom HTML on both paid plans.
| Contacts | Mailchimp Standard | Mailmanny Standard |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $20/mo | $14/mo30% less |
| 1,500 | $45/mo | $26/mo42% less |
| 2,500 | $60/mo | $36/mo40% less |
| 5,000 | $100/mo | $59/mo41% less |
| 10,000 | $135/mo | $89/mo34% less |
| Contacts | Mailchimp Essentials | Mailmanny Essentials |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $13/mo | $9/mo31% less |
| 1,500 | $26.50/mo | $17/mo36% less |
| 2,500 | $45/mo | $25/mo44% less |
| 5,000 | $75/mo | $42/mo44% less |
| 10,000 | $110/mo | $69/mo37% less |
Mailmanny only counts subscribed contacts, so the same list often lands in a smaller tier with us. Mailmanny Standard at 2,500 contacts is $36 a month.
Questions
Mailchimp pricing, plainly answered.
Questions people ask before they pick a Mailchimp plan, or leave one.
Essentials starts at $13 a month and Standard at $20 a month for 500 contacts. At 2,500 contacts they’re $45 and $60. Premium starts at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts. These are US list prices on monthly billing as of October 16, 2026.
Yes. Unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count toward your plan’s contact limit; archived, cleaned and pending contacts don’t. Mailmanny counts subscribed contacts only.
Mailchimp bills your peak contact count in the billing period, and going over your contact or email limit adds charges automatically. In Mailmanny nothing is charged automatically: we email you at 90% and 100% of your limit and you decide when to move up.
Essentials covers newsletters, basic segments and automations of up to four steps. You need Standard for branching automations, advanced segments and sending your own coded templates, and Premium mostly for big teams (unlimited seats) and phone support.
Not as of October 2026. Essentials can build a custom-coded template, but sending one takes Standard or Premium. Mailmanny sends custom HTML and React Email templates on every paid plan, from Essentials.
Mailmanny costs less at every list size we compared. At 2,500 contacts, Mailmanny Standard is $36 a month against $60 for Mailchimp Standard, and Essentials is $25 against $45. Your Mailchimp CSV maps itself and *|FNAME|* merge tags keep working.
Sources and notes · checked October 16, 2026
- Mailchimp: marketing plans and prices
- Mailchimp: compare plans (feature by plan)
- Mailchimp: about pricing plans
- Mailchimp: about your contacts (which ones count)
- Mailchimp: about additional charges
- Mailchimp: view or export contacts
- Mailchimp: merge tags cheat sheet
Prices are Mailchimp’s published US list prices on monthly billing as of October 16, 2026, before taxes, add-ons and promotions. Plan limits and features are read from Mailchimp’s pricing, compare-plans and help pages and may change; check the sources for today’s details.
Mailchimp is a registered trademark of The Rocket Science Group LLC, an Intuit company. Mailmanny isn’t affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Mailchimp or its owner.
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