Mailchimp Pricing 2025: Stop! Read This Before You Pay

Last Updated: 06 Dec 2025

At first look, Mailchimp seems like a friendly tool. They show you the free plan, the easy editor, and all the templates, and you feel like, “Wow, this is simple.”
But stay with me — because once you go a little deeper, the pricing starts to get confusing.

Mailchimp has changed a lot of things in the past few years, and many of those changes are not great for small or growing businesses. The biggest issue is how they count your contacts. And honestly, this one thing can make your bill much higher than you expect.

Mailchimp Pricing in a Nutshell (Quick Overview)

The Free plan gives you 500 contacts and 1,000 emails/month (with ads).
The Essentials plan starts at $13/month for 500 contacts and 5,000 emails.
The Standard plan starts at $20/month and adds better automations.
The Premium plan starts at $350/month and gives you all the top features.

But here’s the tricky part:
Mailchimp doesn’t only charge based on the number of contacts you have.
Each plan also has a monthly email sending limit, which many beginners don’t notice.

Mailchimp also gives a “try before you buy” free trial for the Essentials and Standard plans. You must enter your card details, but you can switch plans or cancel anytime in the first month.

Now the biggest change — and the most confusing part — is how Mailchimp counts contacts.
New users get charged for every contact in their audience:

• People who subscribed

• People who unsubscribed

• People who never confirmed their email

Yes, Mailchimp counts all of them.
And if you have a messy list, this can make your cost go up fast.
Not the nicest move from the chimps.

Mailchimp also has a pay-as-you-go plan, where you only pay for the emails you send. It includes most of the same features as the monthly plans.

Okay, now let’s go deeper into the pricing and see where Mailchimp gives good value — and where it quietly becomes expensive.

The Mailchimp “Contact Tax” — The Biggest Pricing Trap

Most beginners don’t know this, but Mailchimp counts all your contacts — not just the people who subscribed.
They charge you for subscribed + unsubscribed + unconfirmed contacts. And this surprises a lot of users.

How This Increases Your Bill

Here’s a simple example:
If you have 5,000 active subscribers and 2,000 unsubscribed people, Mailchimp will still bill you for 7,000 contacts.
You pay for people you can’t even email.

MAILCHIMP PLANS

Advanced Features

Mailchimp Cost

So, Which Mailchimp Plan Should You Actually Choose?

Before picking a plan, you need to decide one thing:
Do you want to pay monthly, or only pay when you send emails?

Mailchimp gives you two choices:

• Pay-as-you-go: You buy email credits and use them whenever you want.

• Monthly plans: You pay every month based on how many contacts you have.

In most cases, if you send emails regularly — like weekly or even a few times a month — a monthly plan makes more sense. It’s easier, predictable, and cheaper for frequent sending.

But if you’re someone who sends emails once in a while, or you don’t want to commit to a monthly bill right away, then the pay-as-you-go option is the better pick. You only pay when you need it, and there’s no pressure to send emails every month.

Mailchimp Free Plan

Mailchimp’s Free plan is a simple way to start email marketing without spending money. It’s not as generous as it used to be, but it still gives beginners enough tools to test things out.

You get basic CRM features, simple reports, a landing page builder, and pop-up forms — so you can collect leads and send your first few emails without stress.

But the free plan also comes with some big limits. You only get a small set of templates, you can have just one audience, and the support ends after your first 30 days.

You also can’t schedule emails or run automated workflows, which most other email tools offer for free. So if you want to set up a welcome series or even send tomorrow’s newsletter automatically… you can’t do that here.

The biggest cap is your list size:
You can only store 500 contacts and send 1,000 emails per month, with a daily limit of 500. Go past any of these, and you’ll need to upgrade to a monthly plan or buy email credits.

Also, keep in mind:
Your newsletters will show Mailchimp’s branding at the bottom until you move to a paid plan. If you want clean, professional emails with your own branding, you’ll have to upgrade.

The Free plan is fine for testing, but if you want better limits or real automations, other tools give you more room. For example, MailerLite’s free plan allows up to 500 subscribers, 12,000 emails a month, no daily caps, and full scheduling — a much better deal for beginners and small businesses.

Mailchimp Essentials Plan

The Essentials plan is usually the first real step up from Mailchimp’s Free plan. Most people move to this plan when they outgrow the basic limits — maybe they have more than 500 contacts, want to send more than 1,000 emails a month, or need features like scheduling and A/B testing.

With the Essentials plan, you unlock a few helpful upgrades.
Your emails no longer show Mailchimp’s branding, you get access to all email templates, and you can finally run A/B tests to find better subject lines. You also get email and chat support, which is something the free plan doesn’t offer after the first month.

But this plan still has limits you should keep in mind. You can store up to 50,000 contacts, create 3 audiences, and send up to 500,000 emails per month. And even though it’s a paid plan, you still don’t get multi-step automations — which feels a bit disappointing since many competitors include that earlier.

If you think you’ll need stronger automation, advanced reports, or more room to grow, then you’ll probably be happier with the Standard or Premium plans.

Starting Price

• Starts at $13/month for 500 contacts (increases as your list grows)

Competitor Comparison:

• MailerLite Premium: $7.50/month for 500 subscribers, unlimited emails, great for email newsletters.

• Moosend Pro: $9/month for 500 subscribers, unlimited emails, and all advanced features included.

So, if cost is a concern or you want more features for less, it’s worth checking MailerLite or Moosend before committing to Mailchimp Essentials.

Mailchimp Standard Plan

If you need advanced features like multi-step automations, the Standard plan is the one to go for. It includes everything from the Essentials plan, plus a lot more tools to help your campaigns perform better:

• Delivery by Time Zone & Send Time Optimization — make sure your subscribers get emails at the best time for them, even if they live in different countries.

• Advanced segmentation & CRM features — target users based on predicted demographics, customer lifetime value, and other insights.

• Import your own HTML templates — full control over email design.

• Sophisticated automation workflows — multi-email campaigns, onboarding series, and more.

• Retargeting ads — reach your audience on Facebook, Google, and Instagram.

With the Standard plan, you are limited to 100,000 contacts and 1.2 million emails per month. You also get a maximum of 5 users. If you need more than this, you’ll have to upgrade to the Premium plan — which, in our opinion, is quite expensive.

Starting Price: $20/month for 500 contacts (increases as your list grows).

Competitor Comparison:

• MailerLite Premium: $15/month for 1,000 subscribers, unlimited emails, automation included

• Moosend Pro: $19/month for 1,000 subscribers, all features included

The Standard plan is perfect if you want advanced automation and better targeting, but keep an eye on your contact count — otherwise, costs can rise quickly.

Mailchimp Premium Plan

If you need the ultimate features, unlimited users, and advanced testing, the Premium plan is the one to choose. It includes everything from the Standard plan, plus extra tools for large teams and high-volume senders:

• Extra sending speed — get your campaigns out quickly, even for huge lists.

• Unlimited users & role-based access — perfect if multiple team members need access.

• Multivariate testing — test multiple email variations for best results.

• Advanced segmentation — target your audience with precision using customer insights.

• Phone support — in addition to email and chat support.

• Premium migration services — move your lists and campaigns from another platform with ease.

With the Premium plan, you are limited only by pricing (starts at $350/month), and you get all features unlocked.

Competitor Comparison:

• ActiveCampaign: Offers similar advanced features and automation at a lower cost.

• GetResponse: Powerful marketing tools and automation for less money than Mailchimp Premium.

The Premium plan is perfect for agencies, large enterprises, and high-volume senders. But for most businesses, the cost is very high, and competitors often provide better value for money.

Mailchimp Websites & Commerce Plans

If you want to build a website or run an online store with Mailchimp, you’ll need one of their Website & Commerce plans.

All Website & Commerce plans include the basic email marketing features, so you don’t miss out on landing pages, pop-ups, or basic CRM tools.

The Free plan is perfect for testing or small personal projects, while the Core plan is better if you want to run a small online store with lower transaction fees and more professional features.

Mailchimp Transactional Email

If you need to send large volumes of emails like order confirmations, password resets, or receipts, Mailchimp’s Transactional Email service is what you need.

Pricing by Email Blocks

Normally, Transactional Email is offered only as a paid add-on for Standard or higher plans. But if you’re new, Mailchimp gives you up to 500 free email sends to try it out.

This service is ideal for mass email sending, but make sure to check your plan and email volume before purchasing.

Pay-As-You-Go Credits

If you don’t send emails regularly, a Mailchimp Pay-As-You-Go plan might be a better fit than a monthly subscription. This plan is perfect for seasonal campaigns, event-based emails, or occasional product launches.

With Pay-As-You-Go, you only pay for the emails you send, which means no monthly subscription fees. You can buy credits in advance and use them whenever you want.

However, there are a few important limitations:

• Credits expire after 12 months, so you need to plan your campaigns carefully.

• Not ideal for regular email marketing — if you send weekly or monthly campaigns, a standard monthly plan is usually cheaper.

Overall, Pay-As-You-Go is great for once-a-year campaigns, re-engagement campaigns, or big product launches, but not for ongoing email marketing.

How does Mailchimp’s pricing compare to other email service providers?

While Mailchimp markets itself as a small-to-medium business tool, its pricing unfortunately doesn’t reflect that.
Let’s first look at how much Mailchimp charges for 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers on its cheapest plan (Essentials):

Mailchimp Pricing

Now, let’s compare that to four popular alternatives — each strong in its own category and often much cheaper than Mailchimp:

Mailchimp vs Alternatives (Focused Comparison)

As you can see, Mailchimp is noticeably more expensive than most of these tools — especially when your list starts growing.
For many users, MailerLite or Moosend offer similar capabilities at a much lower monthly cost, while ActiveCampaign and Omnisend outperform Mailchimp in automation and ecommerce features respectively. you can also check My honest Mailchimp Alternatives list that I test personally

Mailchimp vs MailerLite

MailerLite is one of the best beginner-friendly email marketing tools — clean interface, simple automation, and far more affordable pricing than Mailchimp. Its free plan includes single-step automations, landing pages, pop-ups, surveys, and even email A/B testing, along with unlimited lists.

Paid plans unlock unlimited email sends and advanced features without forcing you into higher pricing tiers. MailerLite’s list management is also simpler and much easier to maintain compared to Mailchimp’s complicated audience structure.

In contrast, Mailchimp’s free plan has become much weaker over time — it no longer includes automations, has strict sending limits, and lacks email scheduling. To unlock even basic growth features, users must upgrade quickly, making it far less cost-effective than MailerLite.

Learn more in our MailerLite vs Mailchimp comparison.

Mailchimp vs Moosend

Moosend is one of the most affordable all-in-one email marketing platforms, offering automation, segmentation, landing pages, and analytics at a very accessible price. Even on the lowest plan, you get powerful automation workflows, unlimited emails, and an easy-to-use campaign builder.

Compared to Mailchimp, Moosend’s pricing is significantly more reasonable — especially as your list grows. Mailchimp starts charging heavy increases once you cross subscriber tiers, and features like multistep automation and better segmentation require moving up to more expensive plans.

Moosend offers excellent value, giving users almost all essential marketing features without the steep Mailchimp pricing.

Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is the top choice if you need advanced automation. It outperforms Mailchimp in every area related to workflows, personalization, CRM, tagging, and behavioral targeting.

Even ActiveCampaign’s entry-level plan includes multi-step automation, advanced segmentation, conditional content, and powerful triggers based on user behavior — features that Mailchimp locks behind its expensive Standard or Premium plans. For CRM and sales automation, ActiveCampaign is miles ahead.

Mailchimp positions itself as beginner-friendly, but falls short for users who need deeper automation logic. And when you compare pricing, ActiveCampaign often ends up being the better long-term investment for growth-focused businesses.

Learn more in our Mailchimp vs ActiveCampaign comparison.

Mailchimp vs Omnisend

Omnisend is a top pick for ecommerce store owners. It’s designed specifically for Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and DTC brands — and includes ecommerce-ready features like product pickers, dynamic product recommendations, scratch cards, gift boxes, and powerful cart recovery workflows.

All users — even on Omnisend’s free plan — get access to the full automation suite, including triggers like product viewed, order placed, page visited, added to segment, and many more. This is a major advantage over Mailchimp, where advanced ecommerce automations require expensive upgrades.

Even though Mailchimp and Omnisend seem similar in price, Omnisend generally offers more value for ecommerce brands, with deeper automation and better integrations tailored for online stores.

Learn more in our Mailchimp vs Omnisend comparison.