Mailchimp costs $13 a month for the Essentials plan and $20 a month for Standard at 500 contacts, and Premium starts at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts, according to Mailchimp’s pricing page, checked on 9 November 2026 with US dollars selected. The Free plan covers up to 250 contacts. Prices exclude tax.
The headline price is only the first step on a ladder. Mailchimp charges by the size of your contact list, counts unsubscribed contacts, and bills extra when you go over your tier. This guide lists the price at every contact tier, explains what each plan leaves out, and works out a year of Mailchimp for a typical B2B SaaS list. For how email fits a B2B marketing plan, read our B2B SaaS email marketing guide.
How much does each Mailchimp plan cost?
| Plan | Starting price (per month) | Contacts at that price | Monthly email sends | Seats and audiences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Up to 250 | 500 (max 250 a day) | 1 seat, 1 audience |
| Essentials | $13 | 500 (up to 50,000) | 10 x your contact limit | 3 seats, 3 audiences |
| Standard | $20 | 500 (up to 100,000) | 12 x your contact limit | 5 seats, 5 audiences |
| Premium | $350 | 10,000 (up to 200,000) | 15 x your contact limit | Unlimited seats and audiences |
Sources: Mailchimp pricing page, plan cards and contact selector, read on 9 November 2026; contact maximums and send multiples from Mailchimp’s help article About Mailchimp pricing plans. Larger lists need a custom plan through sales.
Which plan a B2B team needs. Usually Standard. Essentials caps automation flows at 4 steps, which is too short for a real nurture sequence, and leaves out custom reports, dynamic content and branded templates. Premium adds phone support, predictive segmentation, multivariate testing, unlimited seats and onboarding sessions; it is priced for teams with large lists and several marketers.
What does Mailchimp cost at each contact tier?
Mailchimp’s price depends on the contact tier you choose. These are the monthly prices the pricing page showed for each tier on 9 November 2026, in US dollars, before any offer:
| Contacts | Essentials | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $13 | $20 | from $350 (10,000 contacts) |
| 1,500 | $26.50 | $45 | $350 |
| 2,500 | $45 | $60 | $350 |
| 5,000 | $75 | $100 | $350 |
| 10,000 | $110 | $135 | $350 |
| 15,000 | $180 | $230 | $465 |
| 20,000 | $230 | $285 | $535 |
| 25,000 | $270 | $310 | $620 |
| 30,000 | $300 | $340 | $685 |
| 40,000 | $340 | $410 | $750 |
| 50,000 | $385 | $450 | $815 |
| 75,000 | not offered | $630 | $900 |
| 100,000 | not offered | $800 | $1,025 |
| 130,000 | not offered | not offered | $1,150 |
| 150,000 | not offered | not offered | $1,325 |
| 200,000 | not offered | not offered | $1,600 |
Source: Mailchimp pricing page, contact selector set to each tier in turn, 9 November 2026. Each row is the top of the tier (the 1,500 row covers 501 to 1,500 contacts). Mailchimp shows prices in 16 currencies; other currencies are not straight conversions, so check yours.
Two things stand out. First, the jump from 10,000 to 15,000 contacts is steep: Standard goes from $135 to $230 a month, a 70% rise for 50% more contacts. Second, Premium costs the same $350 for any list up to 10,000 contacts, so it only starts to make sense on price at larger lists.
What offers does Mailchimp run?
When we checked, the pricing page offered:
- A 14-day free trial of Essentials or Standard for new customers (or Free plan accounts created in the last 90 days) in select countries, with a payment method required.
- 15% off for 12 months on Essentials, Standard and Premium for lists of 10,000 contacts or more. On the 15,000 tier that brings Standard from $230 to $195.50 a month for the first year.
- 15% off for nonprofits, applied by Mailchimp’s billing team on request.
- Annual plans for Standard and Premium at 10,000 contacts and above, through sales.
Offers change often and are not renewal prices. After the first 12 months, you pay the list price in the tier table.
How does Mailchimp count contacts?
This is where most Mailchimp bills go up. Per Mailchimp’s pricing plans help article:
- Counted: subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts.
- Not counted: archived, cleaned and deleted contacts.
- Sends: every email to one contact is one send, and test and transactional emails count toward the monthly limit.
A B2B list collects unsubscribes and dead addresses quickly. If 3,000 of your 12,000 contacts have unsubscribed and you archive them, you drop from the 15,000 tier to the 10,000 tier: on Standard, that is $230 down to $135 a month at list price. Archiving keeps the contact’s history; deleting does not.
What happens when you go over your limit?
Mailchimp’s additional charges article says that when your contact count passes your tier’s limit, Mailchimp bills an add-on block of contacts and does not interrupt sending. The send limit rises with it: on Standard, a block of 1,000 extra contacts includes 12,000 extra sends. The bill uses your peak contact total in the billing period, so a one-day spike from a list import costs you the whole month. The article does not list a price per block; it depends on your plan and tier and is shown inside the account.
On the Free plan there is no overage. Mailchimp pauses sending once you pass 250 contacts or 500 sends.
What does each plan leave out?
| Feature | Free | Essentials | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automation flows | Not included | Up to 4 steps | Up to 200 flows | Up to 200 flows |
| Email scheduling | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Remove Mailchimp branding | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| A/B testing | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, plus multivariate |
| Custom reports, dynamic content, branded templates | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Generative AI features | No | No | No-cost add-on | No-cost add-on |
| SMS | No | Add-on | Add-on (with MMS) | Add-on (with MMS) |
| Support | Email, first 30 days | 24/7 email and chat | 24/7 email and chat | Phone and priority |
| Onboarding | No | No | 1 session | 4 sessions and a specialist |
| Enterprise SSO | No | No | No | Yes |
Source: Mailchimp pricing page comparison table and pricing plans help article, 9 November 2026.
Mailchimp also sells a Pay As You Go option: you buy email credits instead of a monthly plan and get the Essentials feature set. The help article does not list credit prices, so check the pricing page before you choose it. It suits a company that sends a few announcements a year, not a nurture program.
What does Mailchimp cost a B2B SaaS company in a year?
Illustrative. Brightquay, a fictional B2B SaaS company, has 12,000 contacts: newsletter subscribers, webinar sign-ups and trial users. It sends a monthly newsletter, a five-email onboarding sequence and one product announcement a month, so it needs Standard for the longer automation flows. List prices from mailchimp.com/pricing on 9 November 2026, before tax.
| Scenario | Tier | Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard, list not cleaned | 15,000 contacts | $195.50 x 12 = $2,346 (with the 15% offer) | $230 x 12 = $2,760 |
| Standard, 3,000 unsubscribed contacts archived | 10,000 contacts | $114.75 x 12 = $1,377 (with the 15% offer) | $135 x 12 = $1,620 |
| Essentials, cleaned (flows capped at 4 steps) | 10,000 contacts | $93.50 x 12 = $1,122 (with the 15% offer) | $110 x 12 = $1,320 |
| Premium, cleaned | 10,000 contacts | $297.50 x 12 = $3,570 (with the 15% offer) | $350 x 12 = $4,200 |
Cleaning the list saves Brightquay $1,140 in year two on Standard, close to the cost of a full year of Essentials at that size. Send volume is not a constraint here: Standard at 10,000 contacts allows 120,000 sends a month, and Brightquay sends about 20,000.
The software is still the smaller cost. Writing the emails, building the segments and keeping the data in sync with the CRM take more time than any plan costs. That sync is the weak point for B2B: Mailchimp is built for audiences, not for accounts and deals, so lead status and sales activity need an integration to reach it.
How do you keep Mailchimp costs down?
- Archive unsubscribed and bounced contacts every month. They count toward your tier. Archiving keeps their history.
- Watch the tier edges. Moving from 10,001 to 15,000 contacts costs more per contact than any other step on Standard. Before a big list import, check which tier it pushes you into.
- Avoid one-day spikes. The bill uses the peak contact count in the period. Import, clean and archive in the same day.
- Pick the plan for the automation you need. If your nurture needs more than 4 steps, Essentials is a false saving.
- Take the 12-month offer only with a plan for month 13. The 15% offer ends; budget for the list price.
- Send to engaged segments. Fewer, better-targeted sends also protect deliverability. Our email segmentation and email deliverability entries explain how, and our guide to the best time to send email covers timing.
Is Mailchimp right for a B2B company?
Mailchimp works well for a newsletter, product announcements and simple onboarding, at a price that is low for small lists. It is weaker where B2B email needs the most: scoring leads, routing them to sellers, and reporting on pipeline by campaign. If your marketing and sales teams already share HubSpot, its email tools usually cost more but connect to deals out of the box; our HubSpot vs Marketo comparison and list of HubSpot alternatives cover the B2B platforms. For a definition of what these platforms automate, see marketing automation.
Where Growigami fits
Our nurture and newsletter service writes and sends the newsletter and nurture sequences to your own list, in Mailchimp, HubSpot or the tool you already pay for. We clean the list on a schedule so you do not pay for contacts who will never open, and we report replies and meetings, not only opens.
Frequently asked
How much does Mailchimp cost per month?
On mailchimp.com/pricing, checked on 9 November 2026 in US dollars, the starting prices for 500 contacts are $13 a month for Essentials and $20 a month for Standard. Premium starts at $350 a month for 10,000 contacts. The price rises with your contact count: at 10,000 contacts Essentials is $110, Standard $135 and Premium $350 a month. The Free plan costs $0 for up to 250 contacts.
Is Mailchimp free?
There is a free plan with tight limits: up to 250 contacts, 500 email sends a month with a daily cap of 250, one seat and one audience, Mailchimp branding on your emails and email support for the first 30 days only. If you go over 250 contacts, Mailchimp pauses sending until you upgrade or remove contacts.
Does Mailchimp charge for unsubscribed contacts?
Yes. Mailchimp's help center says subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count toward your contact total. Archived, cleaned and deleted contacts do not. Archiving unsubscribed and inactive contacts is the quickest way to drop to a cheaper tier.
What happens if I go over my Mailchimp contact limit?
On a paid plan, sending is not interrupted. Mailchimp adds an additional charge for a block of extra contacts, and your bill is based on the peak contact total in the billing period, even if the list shrinks later. If you stay above the limit, moving to the next tier is usually cheaper. On the Free plan, sending is paused instead.
Why are people leaving Mailchimp?
Common reasons are cost as the list grows, paying for unsubscribed contacts, and automation and CRM features that are thinner than in tools built for B2B. Mailchimp's own feature table limits Essentials to flows of 4 steps, and custom reports, dynamic content and branded templates start on Standard.
What is a cheaper alternative to Mailchimp?
It depends on what you send. For a newsletter to a few thousand contacts, Mailchimp Essentials is already among the cheaper options. For B2B nurture tied to your CRM, compare the cost of HubSpot Marketing Hub against Mailchimp Standard plus your CRM, since the CRM connection is where Mailchimp is weakest. Our list of HubSpot alternatives covers tools in between.
