Mailchimp pricing: what the plans cost and what makes the bill grow

Budget $20 a month for Standard or $13 for Essentials. Those figures buy the smallest list only. A Contacts selector sets what you really pay.

Four plans sit on the card as of 2026-11-05. Small hobby lists fit Free. Teams look at Premium, at $350 for a 12-month first term.

Your bill has three parts. You pay a start price, a contact tier and any usage past your limits. Only the start price is easy to read.

Two terms shape your first pick. Monthly plans get no refund, so a wrong pick costs you a month. Mailchimp can also change prices without notice. Check the figure again before you pay.

If you run a small list and send a few campaigns, expect the start price. If your list grows, expect the bill to grow with it. If you send daily, watch your email allowance first.

Compare the wider field on email marketing. Run your own numbers in the true cost tool.

A 400-subscriber list pays the start price, and growth adds the rest

Picture a newsletter with 400 subscribers and a few campaigns a month. You fit the first contact tier on Standard. That tier sends up to 6,000 emails each month. You pay the start price and meet no overage.

Essentials is the cheaper card for the same tier. It sends 10X your contacts each month, against 12X on Standard. Its flows stop at 4 steps.

Stay under 250 contacts and Free costs nothing. Mailchimp pauses sending when you pass the contact or email limit. A pause spares you a surprise charge. It also stops your campaigns until you upgrade or trim the list.

Contacts push the bill first. The selector runs from 0 to 500 up past 1,000,000 contacts. Mailchimp prints a price for the first tier only. Your plan name stays put while the price moves with your list.

Usage comes second. Every paid card warns of overages past your contact or email send limit. On monthly plans, Mailchimp bills you extra for the prior monthly cycle. You learn about that charge after the month ends.

Your allowance scales with your list. Premium sends 15X your contacts a month. Mail a small list daily and you can pass that allowance fast.

Premium is the odd card. It lists unlimited contacts and still carries the overage footnote. Mailchimp gives no figure for which limit that means. The 15X send allowance is the only Premium limit it shows.

Big lists get a break. Annual Standard and Premium plans start at 10,000+ contacts, through sales. Mailchimp shows no figure for them.

Add-ons sit outside the plan price

Several costs never appear in the card price.

• SMS. It is an add-on to paid plans in select countries, and prices vary. Credits expire monthly and do not roll over.
• Pay As You Go credits. Mailchimp sells email credits instead of a monthly plan, aimed at infrequent senders. Its page shows no price for them.
• Transactional email and Website plans. The free trial does not cover these. SMS and Google ads sit on that list too.
• Premium Migration Services. If you buy Premium, you contact sales for it. Standard and Essentials do not include it.

One of the newest ten Trustpilot reviews, dated 2026-10-26, reports an SMS package charge. The reviewer says they never signed up for it or used it. Add-on fees sit outside your 14 free days.

Seats work as caps, not meters. Essentials gives 3 seats, Standard 5 and Premium unlimited users. Mailchimp shows no per-seat price. If your team outgrows a cap, you move up a plan.

Terms: monthly plans get no refund, and prices can change without notice

Refunds depend on the billing period. Annual buyers get 60 days to ask for their money back. On monthly plans you “won’t be entitled to a refund or credit from us under any circumstance”.

That matters on a small list. At your size Mailchimp sells Standard and Essentials monthly. You pay monthly and get no refund.

Billing renews on its own. By signing up you “agree to monthly or annually recurring billing, starting on the date you sign up”. After the trial you pay the then-current rate. That runs until you cancel, change plan or drop to Free.

Cancelling an annual plan goes through sales. In Mailchimp’s words, “you can close your account by contacting sales”. On monthly plans, Mailchimp may pause your billing and close your account “permanently at any time”.

Prices can change. Mailchimp’s pricing page calls “pricing, special features, and service and support options” “subject to change without notice”.

Compare two rivals. Brevo gives at least 30 days’ notice of new prices. At MailerLite you get at least 14 calendar days. Mailchimp’s page names no notice period.

Each plan suits the limit you hit first

Pick by the limit you will hit first, not by the feature list.

• Free, under 250 contacts. It suits a club, a hobby list or a first newsletter. You keep core features and accept that sending pauses at the limit.
• Essentials, from $13. It suits a small business that wants testing and scheduling. You get 2 roles. You can create custom-coded templates, but sending them needs an upgrade. Custom reports, branded templates and dynamic content are not included.
• Standard, from $20. Mailchimp marks it best value. It allows up to 200 flows, 4 roles, custom reports, dynamic content and branded templates. You get 1 personalized onboarding session.
• Premium, $350 a month for 12 months. It suits a team. You get unlimited users, phone and priority support, and Enterprise SSO. Onboarding runs 4 sessions with a dedicated specialist. A Request a demo button points to a sales call.

Only send email campaigns? Skip Premium. Its price buys team and support features you may never touch.

Generative AI features are a no-additional-cost add-on on Standard and Premium. Essentials does not include them.

Nonprofits and charities get a discount. Sign up for a free account. Then send Mailchimp’s billing team your username and your organization’s website.

Rivals win on price and overage rates, while Brevo’s contract is the catch

At the smallest tier, several rivals undercut Mailchimp.

Brevo Starter costs $9 a month for 500 contacts and 5,000 emails. Annual billing brings it to $8.08. Mailchimp Essentials costs more for the same first tier.

Brevo’s trade-off is a firmer contract. Its terms bar cancelling before your subscription ends. It refunds no prepaid or unused fees. Mailchimp’s monthly plans refund nothing either.

MailerLite Comfort costs $12 a month for 500 subscribers, 5,000 emails and 3 seats. Its Free plan gives 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails. You can cancel any time on the Plan and Billing page. Pass your quota and MailerLite upgrades you to the matching tier.

Constant Contact Lite lists at $10.20 a month billed annually, with a 30 day refund. It prints its overage rate: $0.002 for every send over the allowance. That is $2 per 1,000 sends. Mailchimp gives no such number.

Need what Standard includes? Then the gap to Brevo Starter is the price of that feature set. Standard carries up to 200 flows, custom reports and dynamic content. Mailchimp’s page cannot tell you whether a rival matches them.

Send a plain newsletter and the cheaper plan wins. Find more options on the alternatives page. Read the Mailchimp review for the product itself.

Trustpilot shows billing and support complaints more than plan price

Mailchimp’s Trustpilot page held 1,560 reviews at a 2.5 rating on 2026-11-05. Of those, 1,032 are one star and 312 are five star.

Six of the newest ten name support or compliance flags. Three of the ten give five stars. One of those says a sending issue was resolved. Six give one star and one gives two.

Two of the newest reviews bear on your bill. One, dated 2026-11-04, says archived contacts push the bill up. Half an hour with support did not fix it. The other reports the SMS package charge.

Other reviewers describe imports or emails flagged by compliance, with sending blocked. Import a list once a year and that review step may hit you.

Start on the cheapest card that fits your list

If your list is small, begin on Free or Essentials and watch your contact count. Read the refund clause before you pay, since monthly plans get no refund.