What does Mailchimp cost in 2026? Pricing tiers and plans explained

Mailchimp offers a free plan for up to 500 contacts with 1,000 sends per month. Paid plans start at $13/month (Essentials), $20/month (Standard), and $350/month (Premium). Pricing scales with contact count, reaching $605/month for 100,000 contacts on Standard as of March 2026.

Mailchimp Pricing 2026: Plans, Costs & Limits

Pricing Overview

Mailchimp, owned by Intuit since its 2021 acquisition for approximately $12 billion, is one of the most widely used email marketing platforms. Pricing is based on the number of contacts in the audience, with four tiers ranging from a free plan to premium enterprise features. Mailchimp has shifted toward a marketing platform positioning, adding customer journeys, social posting, and website building alongside its core email capabilities.

Mailchimp Pricing Tiers (as of March 2026)

Tier	Price (500 contacts)	Key Features
Free	$0 (500 contacts, 1,000 sends/mo)	1 audience, basic templates, limited reporting
Essentials	From $13/month	3 audiences, email scheduling, A/B testing, 24/7 support
Standard	From $20/month	Customer journeys, send time optimization, behavioral targeting
Premium	From $350/month	Advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, phone support

What Each Plan Includes

Free

The free plan supports up to 500 contacts and 1,000 email sends per month (reduced from the previous 2,500 limit). It includes 1 audience list, basic email templates, a landing page builder, and limited reporting. Mailchimp branding appears on all emails. The free tier is substantially less generous than it was prior to the Intuit acquisition, making it suitable only for very small lists.

Essentials

The Essentials plan starts at $13 per month for 500 contacts and includes 3 audience lists, email scheduling, A/B testing for subject lines and content, and 24/7 email and chat support. Mailchimp branding can be removed. The plan allows 10x the contact count in monthly sends (5,000 sends for 500 contacts). Pricing scales with contact count: 2,500 contacts costs approximately $45/month, 10,000 contacts approximately $100/month.

Standard

The Standard plan starts at $20 per month and adds customer journey automation, send time optimization, behavioral targeting, and predictive demographics. This tier is where Mailchimp's marketing automation capabilities become available. For 10,000 contacts, Standard costs approximately $135/month.

Premium

The Premium plan starts at $350 per month and includes advanced segmentation with unlimited conditions, multivariate testing (test up to 8 content variations), comparative reporting, and phone support. This tier targets larger organizations with complex segmentation needs and high-volume sending requirements.

Hidden Costs and Considerations

Contact-based pricing escalation: Mailchimp's costs rise steeply with contact count. A list of 50,000 contacts costs approximately $385/month on Standard and $815/month on Premium. At 100,000 contacts, Standard costs approximately $605/month.
Unsubscribed contacts count: Mailchimp counts unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts toward the total. Regularly archiving these contacts is necessary to control costs.
Free plan limitations: The free plan was significantly reduced in recent years. The 500-contact limit and 1,000-send cap make it impractical for most business use cases.
Add-on costs: Dedicated IP address ($29.95/month), transactional email via Mandrill (starts at $20/block of 25,000 emails), and SMS marketing (pricing varies by country and volume) are additional costs.

How Mailchimp Pricing Compares

Mailchimp's pricing is competitive at lower contact counts but becomes expensive at scale. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) charges based on email volume rather than contacts — its Business plan at $65/month for 20,000 emails includes unlimited contacts, which is significantly cheaper for large lists with moderate sending frequency. Klaviyo, which targets e-commerce, starts at $20/month for 500 contacts (comparable to Mailchimp) but provides more advanced e-commerce-specific features. ActiveCampaign starts at $29/month for 1,000 contacts with stronger automation capabilities. For budget-conscious users, Brevo typically offers the best value for large contact lists.

Editor's Note: We managed Mailchimp Standard for a D2C e-commerce brand with 45,000 contacts. Monthly cost: $350. When the list grew to 65,000 contacts (including 8,000 unsubscribed contacts that were still being counted), the cost jumped to $485/month. After archiving unsubscribed contacts and cleaning inactive subscribers, the list dropped to 48,000, bringing the cost back to $365/month. For comparison, we quoted Brevo for the same client — Brevo Business at $65/month for 20,000 emails would cover their 16 monthly campaigns, saving $300/month. The client stayed with Mailchimp due to their investment in 35 customer journey automations that would require significant effort to migrate.