Mailchimp pricing: Plans and cost breakdown for 2025

Mailchimp pricing in 2025 starts at $0/month for small accounts and scales based on the number of contacts. There are four main pricing tiers (Free, Essentials, Standard, and Premium) plus a pay-as-you-go option for occasional senders.

Quick Mailchimp overview: Features and pricing

Mailchimp pricing varies depending on whether you pay monthly or annually and how many contacts you manage. Below is a quick summary of all available Mailchimp pricing tiers.

* Mailchimp tiers its pricing based on contact volume. The listed prices are for entry-level tiers. Actual monthly cost increases as your list size grows.

Mailchimp pricing breakdown

Mailchimp pricing comparison chart showing Premium, Standard, Essentials, and Free plans by feature access, support level, email volume, users, audiences, and marketing tools.

Mailchimp pricing plans include Free, Essentials, Standard, and Premium tiers. Each one offers different features and sending limits depending on how many contacts you manage and how advanced your marketing needs are. Here’s a closer look at Mailchimp features pricing.

Mailchimp Free plan

The Free plan costs $0 per month. It includes up to 500 contacts and a maximum of 1,000 email sends each month (with a daily cap of 500). There’s no annual billing option, and no usage-based variation.

What’s included:

• 1 audience and 1 user only
  
• Access to standard email templates
  
• Basic performance reports
  
• Signup forms and limited landing pages
  
• Email support for the first 30 days

What’s missing:

• No automation or scheduled sends
  
• No segmentation or customer journeys
  
• No A/B testing or comparative reports
  
• All campaigns include Mailchimp branding

Who is this plan best for?

The Free plan works for creators or small projects testing out email marketing. If you're experimenting or working with a very small list, you’ll get the basics. 

But once you want to grow or improve Mailchimp open rates, you'll need to upgrade. The lack of automation and analytics makes it hard to scale.

Mailchimp Essentials plan

The Essentials plan starts at $13 per month for 500 contacts. Pricing increases as your contact list grows, expect to pay about $45/month for 2,500 contacts. 

Mailchimp offers annual discounts and a 15% reduction for nonprofits under the Mailchimp pricing nonprofit program. The plan includes a 10× email send cap.

What’s included:

• Email scheduling and A/B testing
  
• All templates, including custom HTML
  
• Basic automations (up to 4 steps per journey)
  
• 3 audiences and 3 users
  
• Branding removal
  
• Live chat and 24/7 email support
  
• Access to Mailchimp SMS pricing add-on via pay-per-credit

What’s missing:

• No advanced segmentation or dynamic content
  
• No multivariate testing or comparative reporting
  
• The automation logic supports only single-track journeys

Who is this plan best for?

Small businesses or startups ready to run structured campaigns. If you're sending emails regularly and want to test subject lines or schedule emails ahead of time, Essentials is a good fit. It's also an affordable entry point for those considering Mailchimp SMS pricing or starting to build customer journeys. You get reliable tools without overcommitting.

Mailchimp Standard plan

The Standard plan starts at $20 per month for 500 contacts. As your audience grows, pricing increases, about $60/month for 2,500 contacts, and up to ~$800/month for the 100,000-contact limit. You’ll get a 12× send volume cap, annual billing discounts, and Mailchimp pricing nonprofit rates apply here too. 

What’s included:

• Advanced automation with multi-step customer journeys
  
• Dynamic content personalization
  
• Predictive segmentation and behavioral targeting
  
• Multivariate testing (beyond A/B)
  
• Comparative reports to benchmark campaign performance
  
• 5 audiences and 5 user roles
  
• Onboarding support from Mailchimp’s customer success team
  
• Integration with pay-per-use SMS campaigns via Mailchimp SMS pricing

What’s missing:

• No phone support
  
• Contact cap at 100,000 (Premium required for more)

Who is this plan best for?

Mailchimp Standard is ideal for businesses that want to move past basic campaigns. If your focus is on better targeting, automated flows, and serious list segmentation, this is the plan that delivers. 

You’ll also get deeper insight into Mailchimp open rates with advanced analytics tools. It’s a great choice for marketers looking to grow and improve performance over time.

Mailchimp Premium plan

Premium starts at $350 per month for 10,000 contacts. Pricing rises with volume, around $1,300/month for 200,000 contacts and includes a 15× send cap. If your list exceeds 200,000, Mailchimp will provide custom pricing through sales.

What’s included:

• Unlimited audiences and unlimited users
  
• Advanced permissions and role-based access
  
• Maximum automation depth (200 journey points)
  
• Full reporting suite with comparative insights
  
• Priority customer support, including phone access
  
• Dedicated onboarding and account help

What’s missing:

• High cost may outweigh the value for smaller teams
  
• Feature set overlaps with Standard for many use cases

Who is this plan best for?

Enterprises or large e-commerce businesses with complex campaign needs. Premium gives you high-volume sending, full reporting, and human support when something breaks. It’s overkill for most marketers, but if your team needs scale and priority help, the price makes sense.

Which plan should you pick?

If you’re testing the waters or working with fewer than 500 contacts, Free is fine. But expect to upgrade quickly if you want automation or insights.

Essentials is a strong choice for small teams and consistent senders. You’ll get useful tools like A/B testing and automation, plus the option to explore Mailchimp SMS pricing as your marketing mix expands.

Standard is the best pick for most growing businesses. It offers the full set of Mailchimp pricing features needed for serious email marketing: personalization, automation, advanced testing, and more. If you want to improve your Mailchimp open rates, this is where to start.

Premium is only worth it if your contact list is massive or your team needs enterprise-level support. For everyone else, Mailchimp Standard usually hits the sweet spot.

If your campaigns are seasonal or infrequent, you might prefer Mailchimp pay-as-you-go pricing. This way, you can buy email credits and use them on your schedule. Just remember: Credits expire in 12 months, so don’t overbuy.

A closer look at Mailchimp’s usage-based pricing

Mailchimp bases its pricing on your contact count and monthly email volume. But for some users, Mailchimp also offers usage-based billing through two paths: overage charges on monthly plans and a pay-as-you-go credit system.

Pay-as-you-go credits

If you don’t want a monthly subscription, Mailchimp lets you buy email credits instead. One credit equals one email sent to one recipient. Mailchimp uses tiered pricing, so buying more credits lowers your cost per send.

For example, 5,000 credits might cost around $150, while 50,000 credits can drop closer to $900.

This model is useful for seasonal or irregular senders. You can keep your account active and send emails only when needed. However, credits expire 12 months after purchase, which can lead to wasted budget if you're not tracking usage.

Impact on overall cost

Both usage-based options can raise your Mailchimp pricing quickly if you're not careful. The pay-as-you-go model works for occasional senders but becomes expensive for frequent campaigns. 

On monthly plans, not archiving old or unsubscribed contacts can push you into a higher billing tier without sending more emails. To control costs, it’s smart to:

• Regularly archive unsubscribed or inactive contacts
  
• Use Mailchimp’s pricing calculator to preview tier jumps
  
• Monitor email frequency against monthly caps

Hidden costs, usage limits, and gotchas

Mailchimp is transparent in many ways, but there are still some pricing quirks that can catch users off guard. Here’s what to watch for.

Overage charges

Mailchimp charges based on your peak contact count each month. Even if you clean your list mid-cycle, you’ll still pay for the highest number of contacts you reached. 

Email send overages also incur automatic charges through contact-based “blocks,” which can stack up if you don’t monitor usage. These aren’t easy to spot until the invoice arrives.

Missing features in Free plan

The Free plan may seem generous, but several basic tools are missing. You can’t schedule campaigns, automate email flows, or access customer journey builders. There’s no A/B testing, and support disappears after the first 30 days. 

You also can’t remove Mailchimp branding from your messages. If you're planning any serious marketing, expect to upgrade quickly.

Contact counting surprises

Mailchimp counts all non-archived contacts toward your billing total, even those who unsubscribed. That means your bill can include contacts you’re no longer emailing. Many users assume removing someone from a list is enough. It’s not. 

You must archive them to stop paying for them. Mailchimp counts duplicate contacts in separate audiences more than once.

Limitations in Premium tier

Premium is built for large-scale marketing, but the feature set overlaps heavily with the Standard plan. Aside from phone support, unlimited audiences, and higher limits, many users find few day-to-day differences. 

If your contact count is under 100,000, you may not see enough extra value to justify the much higher cost.

What would you actually pay?

Suppose you're on Standard with 20,000 contacts. Base pricing might be ~$150/month. But if you import 5,000 extra contacts for a one-time campaign, Mailchimp might still charge you ~$50, even if you delete the extra contacts the next day.

If you also send more than 240,000 emails (12× your base limit), expect more overage charges. These small fees can quietly increase your monthly cost by 20% to 30%.

Mailchimp pricing compared to alternatives

When comparing Mailchimp pricing to competitors like Klaviyo and Constant Contact, the main trade-offs come down to features, contact-based billing, and how pricing scales. Mailchimp offers a solid free plan, tiered pricing, and usage-based options like pay-as-you-go credits. 

But you’ll pay more as your list grows, especially if you don’t actively manage inactive contacts or unsubscribes.

Klaviyo vs. Mailchimp pricing shows clear differences. Klaviyo includes nearly all features in every plan, even the free tier, but charges more per contact. Mailchimp, on the other hand, gates features by tier. It can be more affordable for small lists, but scaling gets expensive fast.

Mailchimp vs. Constant Contact pricing highlights another contrast. Constant Contact offers flat-rate pricing up to certain limits and includes tools like event registration, which Mailchimp lacks. However, Mailchimp wins on automation, analytics, and usage-based flexibility.

Here's a direct pricing feature comparison.

Takeaway: Mailchimp sits in the middle in terms of cost and power. It's easier to start with than Klaviyo and more advanced than Constant Contact. But for marketers managing list growth and automation at scale, pricing can climb quickly, especially without good audience cleanup habits.

If you're planning to build a pricing system like this for your own product, Orb is worth checking out. Orb is a billing platform that helps SaaS and GenAI companies implement any type of pricing model, including contact-based tiers, credit bundles, and usage-driven pricing, without engineering.

Is Mailchimp pricing fair?

Mailchimp pricing is mostly fair, especially if you’re on the Free, Essentials, or Standard plans. The cost structure is clear, and the platform offers a wide range of tools that justify the price at each tier. 

You know what you’re paying for, and Mailchimp provides a pricing calculator to preview costs as your list grows. That said, some pricing decisions do create friction. Mailchimp bills you based on your peak contact count, which means temporary list increases can bump your monthly cost. 

Unsubscribed and inactive contacts also count unless you archive them, so poor list hygiene leads to unnecessary charges. These issues aren’t always obvious at first, and users often discover them after their bill increases.

The pay-as-you-go model gives flexibility, but credit expiration after 12 months limits its value. For some senders, that makes monthly plans more reliable, even if they don’t send often.

Overall, Mailchimp pricing delivers good value for small and mid-sized teams. Features are strong at the Standard level, and support quality improves as you move up.

FAQs 

How much does Mailchimp cost?

Mailchimp pricing ranges from $0 per month to over $350 per month, depending on your plan and contact count.

The Free plan costs $0, Essentials starts at $13/month, Standard starts at $20/month, and Premium begins at $350/month for 10,000 contacts. Pricing rises as your list grows, and add-ons like SMS or pay-as-you-go credits can increase your total cost.

How does Mailchimp's send time optimization work?

Mailchimp’s send time optimization uses machine learning to determine when each contact is most likely to open an email. It analyzes past engagement data to choose the optimal delivery time per recipient. This feature is available on Standard and Premium plans.

Is Mailchimp free?

Yes, Mailchimp has a Free plan for up to 500 contacts and 1,000 email sends per month.

It includes basic templates, a single audience, and limited support for the first 30 days. However, automation, scheduling, and advanced tools are only available on paid tiers.

How much is Mailchimp a month?

Mailchimp starts at $13/month for the Essentials plan and scales based on contact volume. The Standard plan begins at $20/month, and Premium starts at $350/month for 10,000 contacts. Actual costs vary depending on usage and plan level.

How many emails can I send a month with Mailchimp?

You can send between 1,000 and 15× your contact count, depending on your plan.

For example, Essentials includes 10× your contact total, Standard includes 12×, and Premium allows 15×. The Free plan limits you to 1,000 emails per month, with a daily cap of 500.

Orb helps you build pricing like Mailchimp fast and easily

Mailchimp’s pricing structure combines multiple tiers, feature gating, send limits, and usage-based overages. Managing that kind of model at scale isn’t possible when your pricing logic is hardcoded into your product. 

Orb is the done-for-you billing platform that allows this level of complexity, without the technical pains.

Whether you’re building a tiered structure like Mailchimp’s, a metered model like OpenAI’s, or credit-based billing like Perplexity’s, Orb helps you launch and scale with confidence. Here’s how Orb gives you the foundation for flexible pricing that evolves with your business:

• Manage and version plans without breaking workflows: Need to introduce a new tier or revise feature access across existing customers? With plan versioning, you can deploy updates progressively, segment customer groups, and roll out pricing changes over time, all without touching production code.

• Transparent billing that matches real usage: Orb makes it easy to provide line item-level invoicing that reflects exactly how a customer used your product, critical for trust and retention. Usage data and pricing rules stay perfectly in sync.
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• Simulate before you ship: With Orb Simulations, you can test new pricing strategies against historical data to understand the impact on revenue and usage. Model different outcomes, then pick the one that aligns best with your growth strategy. 

• Define your pricing without coding: With tools like the Orb SQL Editor and a visual editor, teams can easily build and refine pricing logic and billable metrics. Instead of waiting on engineering to make pricing changes, you finally have the freedom to rapidly iterate on pricing.

• Built to scale with modern SaaS teams: Orb integrates directly into your financial stack and becomes your billing system of record. It supports all major pricing models, ingests all raw usage data, and offers a scalable API that supports high-volume data ingestion.

If you want to launch pricing models like Mailchimp, Orb helps you do it, without complex engineering, rigid systems, or brittle code dependencies. 

Check out Orb’s flexible pricing tiers and start building pricing that fits your product, your data, and your future.