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★★★★★ 4.5 CE
Mailchimp Pricing: Plans & Features 2026
Essentials at $13/mo suits growing senders, while 3 other plans scale to $350/mo. A generous free tier is available for up to 500 contacts.
Mailchimp plans and pricing
High· Verified July 2, 2026
30-day free trial · Standard plan
Free
FreeBest for: <250 contacts; manage early growth
- ✓500 contacts limit
- ✓1,000 monthly email sends
- ✓1 audience
- ✓Basic email templates
- ✓Email support for the first 30 days
View on vendor site
Essentials
$13/moBest for: Right content at right time; testing & scheduling
- ✓5,000 monthly email sends
- ✓3 audiences
- ✓24/7 email and chat support
- ✓A/B testing
- ✓Basic automated customer journeys
View on vendor site
MOST POPULARStandard
$20/moBest for: Sell more: automations, personalization, optimization
- ✓6,000 monthly email sends
- ✓5 audiences
- ✓Advanced customer journeys and branching points
- ✓Send-time optimization
- ✓Predictive demographics
View on vendor site
Premium
$350/moBest for: Most advanced tools, unlimited contacts, priority support; teams
- ✓150,000 monthly email sends
- ✓Unlimited audiences
- ✓Phone and priority support
- ✓Multivariate testing
- ✓Advanced segmentation
View on vendor site
Mailchimp pricing: the quick answer
Mailchimp costs $0 to $350 per month as of July 2, 2026, across four plans, with a free tier. Plans: Free (free, up to 500 contacts), Essentials at $13/mo, Standard at $20/mo, and Premium at $350/mo, all quoted at the 0 to 500 contact band. A common promo halves the first 12 months, so a Standard band shown at $10/mo reverts to $20/mo when it ends. Your list size, not your team size, is what moves this bill. SMS costs extra on top.
Use the interactive Mailchimp pricing calculator to estimate your exact monthly cost at your team size, with annual-billing savings and the hidden costs counted in.
Free tier
Yes
Billing model
Freemium
Cheapest paid
$13/mo
Annual discount
Not offered
At $13/mo to start, Mailchimp sits 13% below the $15/mo median across 18 email marketing tools we track.
What Mailchimp really costs
What sits on top of the plan fee
The sticker price is the entry contact band at full rate. Two things move the real bill: your list size, which climbs through 20 contact bands, and the promo that halves the first year before doubling back.
Contact-band scaling
Every plan is priced per contact band, and both the price and the send limit step up as your list grows. Standard, for example, runs a promo band at $10/mo near 500 contacts but reaches $315/mo around 75,000 contacts.
Promo price expiry
The advertised 50 percent-off rate applies for 12 months, then the price returns to the standard number. Budget for the real rate, not the teaser: the 'then starts at' figure is what you actually pay in year two.
SMS add-on
SMS marketing is a separate paid add-on in select countries. Credits expire monthly with no rollover, MMS burns credits faster than plain SMS, and Mailchimp does not print the per-credit rate on the pricing page.
List-inflation billing
Unsubscribed and inactive contacts still count toward your band unless you archive them. A list that quietly grows past 500 moves you off the $20 entry band, and every band above it costs more for the same features.
Pricing Expert Take
Independent analysis · Mailchimp
Verified Pricing Data
Value Analysis
$13/mo13% below median
Category median: $15/moBased on 18 products in this category
Mailchimp lists Essentials at $13/mo and Standard at $20/mo, both below the category median of $30/mo. Those rates apply to the smallest 0 to 500 contact band, so the entry price is a floor, not a forecast. Price scales through 20 contact bands as your list grows, and Standard climbs from $20/mo near 500 contacts to roughly $315/mo around 75,000 contacts. Premium starts at $350/mo. For growing lists the value degrades as you pay rising rates for what remain basic email features.
Hidden Costs
- Promo pricing: the advertised 50 percent-off rate lasts 12 months, then the price returns to the standard number, so the Standard band shown at $10/mo reverts to $20/mo.
- List-inflation billing: Mailchimp counts unsubscribed, inactive, or duplicate contacts toward your paid band limit unless you prune them.
- SMS is a separate paid add-on in select countries, with credits that expire monthly and no rollover.
Red Flags
Users report frequent, unannounced price hikes, sometimes tied to features they never adopted. The most cited complaint is the billing model counting unsubscribed contacts toward the paid band.
"Mailchimp was charging me for 4,000 unsubscribed contacts."
"Mailchimp keeps jacking up pricing even if you're not using all the new tools."
Based on analysis of recent Reddit and G2 discussions.
Green Wins
The Essentials plan at $13/mo pairs a generous free tier with a strong editor.
- Free plan covers up to 500 contacts and 1,000 sends per month
- Solid email editor with pre-built templates and a creative assistant
- Strong brand recognition and a gentle learning curve for beginners
User Voices
"It's becoming too expensive at $70/mo for roughly 4000 subscribers."
"We're currently paying over $400 a month... starting to feel like value is wavering"
Verdict
The Free plan works for hobbyists under 100 contacts, and Essentials at $13/mo fits small businesses with static lists. If your list grows fast and you want to stop paying for unsubscribed contacts, look at ActiveCampaign at $29/mo for stronger automation and fairer list-size scaling.
ComparEdge EditorialUpdated: July 2, 2026
Mailchimp price history
Expert verified·Updated July 2, 2026
Price & Data Intelligence SyncLast verified: July 2, 2026 · CE-EMAIL-2026W23-EECC76 · No changes detected
Up to date
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Frequently asked questions
How does Mailchimp pricing compare?
See how Mailchimp's 4 pricing plans stack up against similar Email Marketing tools.
Research Reports
Sources & Data Trail · Mailchimp
- 1.Official Pricing Page·Source of verified tiers(Checked: 2026-07-02)
- 2.Official Website·Official vendor website
- 3.G2·G2 verified user reviews · 4.4/5 · 12,920 reviews
- 4.Capterra·Capterra verified user reviews · 4.5/5
- 5.TrustRadius·TrustRadius verified reviews
- 6.PeerSpot·PeerSpot enterprise peer reviews
- 7.StackShare·StackShare developer community