Mailchimp Pricing (2026): Every Plan and What It Actually Costs

Mailchimp costs $0/mo on the free plan (500 contacts, 1,000 sends/mo), $13/mo on Essentials (500 contacts, 5,000 sends/mo), $20/mo on Standard (500 contacts, 6,000 sends/mo with automation), and $350/mo on Premium (10,000 contacts, advanced features). All paid plans scale up significantly in price as your contact list grows beyond the base tier.

Mailchimp's free plan is usable but significantly limited: 500 contacts, 1,000 sends/mo, and no automation, A/B testing, or custom templates. You're also limited to one audience (contact list) and Mailchimp branding appears in your emails. For a business with under 500 contacts doing occasional sending, it works. For anything growth-oriented, the limits are hit quickly.

Mailchimp Standard ($20/mo vs $13/mo at 500 contacts) adds customer journey automation, send-time optimization, dynamic content, A/B testing, and behavioral targeting. Standard is the minimum plan for businesses that need any meaningful marketing automation beyond simple welcome sequences. Essentials covers basic scheduling and templates without behavioral triggers.

At 5,000 contacts, Mailchimp's Standard plan costs approximately $75/mo, Essentials around $55/mo, and Premium $350/mo. Mailchimp publishes a pricing calculator on its site where you can enter your contact count for exact current pricing. Note that Mailchimp counts all contacts in your audience — including unsubscribed contacts — toward your billing threshold unless you archive them.

By default, Mailchimp counts all contacts in your audience toward your billing limit — including unsubscribed and cleaned (bounced) contacts. You must manually archive non-subscribed contacts to remove them from your billable count. This is a significant hidden cost driver for businesses with high churn or frequent list cleaning, and a common reason contact counts exceed expectations.

Mailchimp Premium at $350/mo (for 10,000 contacts) is worth it for marketing teams needing advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, phone support, and unlimited audiences. For most small businesses and creators, Standard ($20/mo base) handles 80% of the same functionality. Premium is designed for mid-market teams with multiple audiences, large contact bases, and complex campaign needs — not typical small business email marketing.

Mailchimp is cheaper than Kit at the lowest contact tiers ($13/mo Essentials vs Kit's $25/mo Creator at 1,000 subscribers), but costs converge and often invert at larger list sizes. Mailchimp counts all audience contacts including inactive ones, which inflates billable counts. Kit's pricing is based on active subscribers only, which can make it more predictable for actively managed lists.

Mailchimp doesn't offer a standard free trial on paid plans — instead, the free plan serves as the trial experience. You can access paid features through a one-month free period when you first add a payment method, depending on current promotions. The free plan lets you evaluate Mailchimp's interface and basic functionality before committing to a paid tier.