Mailchimp Pricing: How Much Does It Cost?

In the crowded email marketing landscape, Mailchimp manages to stand out by nailing that sweet spot between affordability and genuine functionality. Their free plan is surprisingly generous – you can manage up to 1,000 subscribers and send 12,000 emails monthly without paying a dime. Perfect for newcomers or small teams watching their budget.

But here’s what people often miss about Mailchimp: even their lower-tier plans pack some seriously practical features. They’ve integrated AI tools like subject line assistants and content generators across all plans – even free ones – so you don’t need to shell out for separate tools to boost your campaign performance.

For just $9 monthly, you’re also getting round-the-clock email support, the ability to add multiple users to your account, and those handy approval workflows that most competitors reserve for their premium tiers. When you really break it down, Mailchimp offers a compelling package for marketers looking to grow intelligently without breaking the bank.

Mailchimp Pricing Overview

Free Plan: $0, 500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month, 1 user, basic templates and automation.

Essentials Plan: From $13/month, 500+ contacts, 5,000–50,000 emails/month, 3 users, A/B testing, 24/7 email & chat support.

Standard Plan: From $20/month, 500+ contacts, 6,000–1.2M emails/month, 5 users, advanced automation, custom templates, behavioral targeting.

Premium Plan: From $350/month, 10,000+ contacts, 150,000–3M+ emails/month, unlimited users, multivariate testing, advanced segmentation, phone support.

Mailchimp Monthly Pricing (Based on Contacts)

Key Takeaways

Plan Availability: If you’ve got up to 100,000 contacts, you can choose between Essentials and Standard plans. For anything larger, you’ll need to go with Premium.

Feature Considerations: Sure, price matters – but don’t forget to look at what each plan actually gives you. Higher tiers come with advanced automation capabilities, deeper analytics, and better support options that can make a real difference if you’re scaling up.

Discount Opportunities: Mailchimp offers a 15% discount on monthly prices for Premium, Standard, or Essentials plans with 10,000+ contacts during your first year. Not too shabby!

Overage Charges: Keep an eye on your contact list size and email limits – exceeding them can lead to extra charges. It’s worth regularly cleaning up your list to manage costs effectively.

When picking your plan, try to balance your current needs with where you think you’ll be in 6-12 months. That way, you’ll have the right tools and capacity for your marketing campaigns without overpaying.

Mailchimp Monthly Plans (Features Comparison)

Breaking Down Each Plan

Free Plan

Mailchimp’s Free Plan works really well for freelancers, creators, and businesses just getting off the ground. You can manage up to 500 contacts and send 1,000 emails each month – enough for basic newsletters or updates to your audience. You’ll get access to single-step automations (think welcome emails), basic email templates, and a drag-and-drop builder that makes creating emails pretty painless.

The plan lets you do some basic segmentation with one audience, which is manageable when your list is small. It’s perfect for getting a feel for Mailchimp’s interface, checking out their basic analytics, and experimenting with your first campaigns before committing any money.

There are some limitations, though:

• You only get email support for the first month
• No A/B testing or multivariate testing options
• Automation is limited to single-step only
• Just one audience allowed
• No access to the fancier segmentation or predictive tools

While the Free Plan gives you good tools to start with, you’ll probably outgrow it once your contact list expands, your workflows get more complex, or you want to personalize your campaigns more deeply.

Growing Business Plan (Essentials & Standard)

The Growing Business tier covers both Essentials and Standard plans, and it’s aimed at small to mid-sized businesses ready to take their email strategy up a notch.

The Essentials plan starts at $13 monthly and gives you A/B testing capabilities, multi-step automations, and 24/7 support via email and chat. The Standard plan kicks off at $20 monthly and adds more advanced features like send-time optimization (sending emails when your contacts are most likely to open them), behavioral targeting, and predictive analytics.

Both plans support larger contact lists (up to 100,000+) and allow for more email sends and multiple audiences – crucial if you want to segment campaigns across different customer types. These are solid options if you want more control, efficiency, and data-driven optimization without paying enterprise-level prices.

Keep in mind a few limitations:

• Email send limits still apply (10-12x your contact count)
• Some of the more advanced analytics and testing features are locked to Premium
• Fewer users compared to Premium (3 for Essentials, 5 for Standard)
• SMS marketing isn’t included – you’ll need to buy it as an add-on
• No phone support or priority customer service

While these plans hit a nice balance between cost and capability, businesses with aggressive growth plans, complex enterprise needs, or heavy automation requirements may eventually outgrow them.

Advanced Plan (Premium)

Mailchimp’s Premium Plan is built for serious email marketers sending high volumes and managing enterprise-level campaigns. Starting at $350 monthly, it supports up to 3 million emails per month and includes unlimited audiences, advanced segmentation tools, multivariate testing (not just A/B), and comparative reporting across campaigns.

It’s the only plan offering phone support and personalized onboarding – which can be incredibly valuable for teams handling complex customer journeys. Features like role-based access controls, unlimited users, and predictive analytics tools make it ideal for large teams handling sensitive campaigns across multiple departments.

This tier is designed for businesses that treat email as a strategic channel and need powerful customization options, granular control, and deep insights into performance.

Some drawbacks to consider:

• The high monthly cost might be tough to swallow for smaller teams
• There’s a learning curve to master all the advanced features
• Unused email credits don’t roll over
• SMS still requires a separate add-on purchase
• It’s probably overkill if your campaigns are relatively simple

Despite its impressive capabilities, the Premium Plan makes the most sense for large-scale operations. Smaller teams or businesses with straightforward email needs might find they’re paying for features they rarely use.

Mailchimp Pay-As-You-Go Plan (Cost per Email)

Understanding Mailchimp’s PAYG Credits:

• Usage: Each email you send to an individual contact costs one credit. So if you send a campaign to 100 people, that’s 100 credits used.
• Expiration: Your credits will expire 12 months after purchase, so plan your campaigns accordingly to get the most value.
• Included Features: The PAYG plan comes with the same features as Mailchimp’s Essentials plan – you’ll get access to email themes and layouts, pre-built segments, and basic reporting tools.
• Plan Eligibility: If you buy credits while on the Free plan, you’ll automatically upgrade to PAYG. If you’re already on a paid plan and purchase credits, you’ll switch to PAYG and your monthly billing will stop.

Mailchimp Transactional Emails Pricing 

Understanding Mailchimp’s Transactional Email Pricing

What is a Block? Think of a block as a prepaid package that lets you send 25,000 transactional emails. You can buy as many blocks as you need based on how many emails you expect to send each month.

How Volume Affects Pricing: The more you send, the less you pay per email. Prices start at $20 per block but can drop to as low as $10 per block if you’re sending massive volumes (typically 160+ blocks per month).

Dedicated IP Pricing: If you’re sending lots of transactional emails, Mailchimp recommends getting a dedicated IP address, which costs $29.95 monthly per IP. This helps maintain your sender reputation and improves deliverability.

Plan Requirements: You can only add transactional email to Standard or higher Mailchimp plans. It’s not available for Free or Essentials users.

No Rollover Policy: Any unused transactional email credits don’t carry over to the next month, so try to assess your monthly volume accurately before purchasing.

Mailchimp SMS Pricing

Mailchimp offers SMS marketing as an add-on to their paid plans in certain countries, giving businesses another channel to reach customers. Here’s the breakdown of their SMS pricing structure:

SMS and MMS Credit Costs by Country:

​Note: MMS is currently only available for Standard and Premium plans sending to contacts in the US and Canada.

Monthly Credit Subscriptions

Subscription Structure: You purchase SMS credits in blocks as an add-on to your paid monthly marketing plan. These credit blocks automatically renew each month on your billing date.

Credit Calculation: To figure out how many credits you’ll need, consider factors like: which country you’re sending to, how many recipients you have, whether you’re sending SMS or MMS, how long your messages are, and if you’re using special characters or emojis. Longer messages or those with special characters often use more credits.

Policies on Unused Credits

Expiration: Any SMS credits you don’t use expire at the end of your billing cycle – they don’t roll over to the next month. It’s best to carefully plan your messaging needs to get the most from your credits.

Plan Eligibility

Availability: SMS marketing is only available as an add-on for Mailchimp’s paid plans. You’ll need to apply and agree to their terms before purchasing credits.

MMS Eligibility: MMS messaging (sending images, etc.) is only available for Standard and Premium plans sending to contacts in the US and Canada.

Regional Availability

Country Restrictions: You can only deliver messages to contacts in the country you selected during your SMS program setup. For example, Australian messaging only works for contacts with the +61 country code.

Mailchimp’s SMS add-on gives businesses another versatile channel to connect with their audience. Just be sure to consider the varying credit costs, regional availability, and plan requirements before incorporating SMS into your marketing strategy.

About author

Emily Austin

Author

Sender

Emily is a content manager who has dipped her toes in almost all fields of marketing, including email marketing, PR, social media, and ecommerce. She loves perfecting digital content, ensuring everything is polished and ready to go live.