ActiveCampaign Annual-Only Billing & Actual Monthly Cost: 2026 Guide

More than the sticker, because the price rides your contact list. The four published rates are Starter $15, Plus $49, Pro $79, and Enterprise $145 a month, all billed annually and all quoted for 1,000 contacts. Add contacts and the plan re-prices through bands that run past 200,000. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and no monthly rate on the page. A real sales CRM is a separate add-on. Budget from the band your list actually sits in, not the entry figure.

Yes, a 14-day trial, but no permanent free plan. The trial lets you test the automation and the editor before you commit, but it expires, so the real entry point is Starter at $15 a month billed annually. That price covers up to 1,000 contacts and rises as your list grows. If a genuinely free tier matters to you, ActiveCampaign is not it, and rivals like Brevo, MailerLite, and Omnisend keep free plans that run indefinitely at smaller list sizes.

Because the published prices assume a yearly commitment. The $15 to $145 figures are annual rates, and ActiveCampaign does not show a month-to-month price on its pricing page. Where monthly billing is offered at checkout, it costs more than the annual-equivalent rate. That means the headline looks cheaper than the flexible option actually is, and a Pro plan at $79 a month is really about $948 committed up front. Ask for the monthly figure before you sign, so you can weigh the lock-in with real numbers.

Three sit outside the plan price. First, contact-band scaling: the $15 to $145 rates are the 1,000-contact floor and climb through bands past 200,000. Second, the annual-only framing, which hides a higher month-to-month rate and commits you a year up front. Third, the sales CRM: the pipeline and engagement tooling that make ActiveCampaign a CRM is a separate add-on on every tier. Its rate is not printed on the grid, so a buyer who came for the CRM pays for it on top of the email plan.

Not in the base price. ActiveCampaign markets itself as a marketing and sales platform, but the sales CRM, with its pipeline, deal tracking, and engagement scoring, is a separate add-on available on every plan. Its rate is not published on the pricing grid, so a team that assumes the CRM is bundled finds it billed as an extra line. If the CRM is why you are buying, ask for its price up front. Negotiate it into the contract rather than adding it after you have committed to the email tier.

There is no nonprofit or student rate published on the ActiveCampaign pricing page as of July 2026, and no self-serve promo code. That does not mean a nonprofit cannot ask. The top tiers are quote-based, so any discount flows through a sales conversation rather than a coupon field. An eligible organization should raise it directly with a rep. Below the Enterprise tier, the four listed prices are fixed, and the only saving in your own control is keeping your contact count lean enough to hold a lower band.

It can be, depending on what you need. At 1,000 contacts, Starter's $15 sits just above the category median and is fair for the automation you get. The problem is that ActiveCampaign locks you into an annual commitment with no free tier, and the price rises quickly as the list grows. For a small sender who mostly wants clean campaigns, a free-plan rival such as Brevo or MailerLite costs nothing at the same size. ActiveCampaign earns its rate when you actually use the deeper automation and the CRM.

Focus on the levers that move. The four listed tiers are fixed, so real negotiation happens at Pro and Enterprise, where pricing is quote-based. Ask for the month-to-month figure so you can value the annual lock-in, and negotiate the CRM add-on into the base rather than paying it separately. Bring a contact-based rival like Brevo as an anchor, since it bills by sends instead of contacts and undercuts at scale. Time an Enterprise quote to the last two weeks of a quarter, and expect 10 to 20 percent off the first custom figure.