Drip Contact-Slider Billing & Actual Monthly Cost: 2026 Guide

Drip has a single plan whose price rides a list-size slider. It starts at $39 a month for up to 2,500 contacts, then steps up as your list grows. Published points run about $59 near 3,500 contacts, $249 around 17,500, and $1,299 near 110,000, with custom pricing above. Email sends are unlimited at every point on the slider, so the only thing that moves your bill is how many contacts you store. There are no separate feature tiers, and no monthly-versus-annual choice, since Drip bills month to month.

No permanent free plan, and no standing free tier. Drip's entry point is the $39 a month band for up to 2,500 contacts, and the price climbs from there on the list-size slider. What Drip does give away is migration: moving your lists, flows, and templates over from another tool is free and hands-on. So the way to test Drip without cost is usually its free migration and onboarding, not a free account. If a genuinely free plan matters to you, cheaper rivals like Omnisend and Brevo keep one at smaller list sizes.

Because your contact count crossed a point on the slider. Drip prices its single plan purely by how many contacts you store, so the bill rises as the list grows, even if your sending stays the same. Unsubscribed and inactive contacts count too, unless you archive them, so a list quietly filling with dead weight re-prices upward by itself. Sends are unlimited, so volume is never the cause. The remedy is pruning the list ahead of each billing date, which can pull you back onto a cheaper slider band.

Three sit outside the headline $39. First, the slider itself, which climbs to $249 near 17,500 contacts and $1,299 near 110,000, so the entry price is only a floor. Second, support: live chat is reserved for the $99 tier and above, leaving smaller accounts on email-only help. Third, the monthly-only billing, which forgoes the annual discounts most rivals offer, so there is no way to prepay for a lower effective rate. The free migration offsets the switching cost, but none of these three shows on the plan card up front.

Not on every band. Email support comes with the plan at any contact level, but live chat is gated to the $99 a month tier and higher. So a small store on the $39 entry band is on email-only help. Reaching the faster channel means growing your list, and your bill, until you cross the $99 threshold. It is worth factoring in if responsive support matters to you. On Drip, that support level is tied to spend, not sold as a standalone add-on you can switch on.

No. Drip bills strictly month to month at whatever your slider band costs, with no yearly plan and nothing to prepay for a lower rate. That has an upside: there is no contract and no lock-in, so you can cancel or switch whenever a rival makes more sense. The downside is that you cannot buy a lower effective rate by committing for a year, the way you can on most competitors. Combined with no free tier, it means Drip's slider price is simply what you pay, and the only route down is a leaner contact list or a custom deal.

For a store that uses its ecommerce automation, yes, since $39 buys unlimited sends to 2,500 contacts plus free migration. For a light sender, it is a high floor with no cheaper option beneath it. The number to watch is not $39 but where your list lands on the slider, because the price climbs steeply as you grow. If you mostly send simple newsletters, a tool like MailerLite at $12 or Brevo at $9 will cost far less. Drip earns its rate when you lean on its deeper workflows.

It can be, if the store runs real automation and stays under a few thousand contacts. At 2,500 contacts the $39 plan gives unlimited sends and Drip's ecommerce flows, which is fair for an active store. The trouble is the lack of a free tier or annual discount, and support that only reaches live chat at $99. A very small or budget-conscious store often does better on a cheaper rival with a free plan. Map your contact count and how much you use automation before deciding Drip is the right floor.

Work the two levers Drip actually gives you. First, prune the contact list. Archive unsubscribed and dormant contacts before your billing date, since the slider counts them and pushes you into a higher band for no real reach. Second, if your list runs past 110,000 contacts and reaches custom pricing, negotiate rather than accepting the first quote, ideally with an Omnisend or Brevo number in hand. Below custom, the slider price is fixed, so a lean list is the main way to keep the monthly figure down.