Mailchimp’s free plan stops being enough at the first of three things: a list past 250 contacts, more sending than it allows (500 emails a month, and 250 emails a day), or a feature it doesn’t have: scheduled sends, automation flows, A/B testing, your own branding, or a second person.
The first paid step is Essentials, priced by your list size: $13 a month up to 500 contacts and $26.50 a month up to 1,500. If it was the sends or the contact cap that stopped you, another free plan may carry you further at no cost.
Which limit will you hit first?
Check all four against last month. On a small list, the sending limit can end the plan before the contact cap does.
Monthly sends. The free plan allows 500 emails a month, and each email to each person counts as one; test emails count too. A full list of 250 contacts gets two newsletters a month. Send weekly, and the free plan fits only while your list is half that size.
The contact cap. The free plan holds 250 contacts, and Mailchimp counts everyone in your audience: subscribed, unsubscribed, and people who never subscribed. Go over and Mailchimp puts a hold on sending, test emails included, until you upgrade or bring the count down. You can keep editing and collecting sign-ups while it’s on hold, but nothing goes out. Archiving takes contacts out of the count without losing their records, and someone who unsubscribed stays unsubscribed, so archive the people who left before you decide you’ve outgrown the plan.
The daily limit. The free plan sends at most 250 emails a day, the same as its contact cap, so one email to a full list fits in a day. This one only bites if you send twice in a day.
The features. The free plan has no scheduled sends (you press send when you want it out), no automation flows, no A/B testing, Mailchimp’s branding on every email, 1 user, and email support for the first 30 days only. If you want a welcome series built as an automation flow, or a newsletter written on Sunday to go out on Tuesday, the free plan can’t do it, whatever your numbers say. Mailchimp’s signup forms also have an optional final welcome email, separate from automation flows and off by default. The Mailchimp pages we read don’t say whether the free plan can send it, so check your signup form settings before you pay for a single welcome email.
What Essentials costs, and what it gets you
Essentials is priced by your contact band, billed monthly: $13 a month up to 500 contacts, $26.50 a month up to 1,500, and $45 a month up to 2,500. One contact over a band’s top puts you in the next one.
What the money buys: room for your list and your sending (10 times the contact limit), scheduled sends, A/B testing, Mailchimp’s branding removed, automation flows (up to 4 steps per flow, enough for a welcome email or a short series), 3 users, and support around the clock. On a paid plan, going over your band during the month doesn’t stop your sending; Mailchimp adds a charge to the bill instead.
Can you try it first? Mailchimp offers a free trial of Essentials and Standard. If you cancel during it, you aren’t charged; when it ends, you pay for the plan you picked. One more thing to know before you pay: Mailchimp lets you downgrade from a paid plan back to the Free plan only once over the life of your account.
Say you run a small coffee roastery with about 230 people on your list, from the website and the bags you sell at the farmers’ market. You send a roast-day email every week. That’s up to 1,150 sends in a month with five roast days, more than double the free plan’s 500 emails a month, while your list is still under the 250 contacts cap.
The free plan has ended on sends, not on contacts. Staying on Mailchimp means Essentials at $13 a month, and you’d get scheduling, so the roast-day email can go out at 7 a.m. without you. Leaving means a free plan with more sending: MailerLite’s allows 2,500 emails a month, but its cap of 250 contacts is close to your list; AWeber’s allows 3,000 emails a month up to 500 contacts, and Kit’s lists unlimited broadcasts up to 10,000 contacts. With a list that’s growing, those two give you room for a long while.
What Standard adds
Standard is for automation that does more of the selling: flows with up to 200 steps per flow and up to 3 triggers per flow, plus sending at each subscriber’s best time and custom reports. It’s $20 a month up to 500 contacts and $45 a month up to 1,500. If you can’t name a flow you’d build that needs more steps than Essentials allows, Essentials is enough. Mailchimp pricing and plan limits covers every plan and band.
When moving beats upgrading
Which way is cheaper depends on which limit ended the free plan.
- Sends ended it. AWeber’s free plan allows 3,000 emails a month up to 500 contacts, MailerLite’s 2,500 emails a month up to 250 contacts, and Kit’s unlimited broadcasts up to 10,000 contacts. A weekly email to a list your size may fit any of them at no cost.
- The contact cap ended it. AWeber’s free plan holds 500 contacts, Kit’s 10,000 contacts, and Brevo’s stores 100,000 contacts but sends at most 300 emails a day. When a free email marketing plan is enough compares every free plan cap by cap.
- A feature ended it. Check whether the free plan you’d move to has it. Scheduling and automation are where free plans differ most, and branding stays on every free plan. If you’d end up paying anyway, paying Mailchimp is simpler than moving.
- You’d rather pay than move. If you pay, the lowest paid bill in this guide at 500 contacts and one email a week is Brevo (Starter) at $9 a month. What email marketing costs at 500, 1,000, 2,500, and 5,000 contacts lays out every tool.
Before you move, count what you’d rebuild: your sign-up forms, templates, and any automation. On a small list the import is usually the easy part; the sign-up forms on your website are the part to plan for.
Plans and prices
| Plan (US name) | Monthly | Yearly, per month | Promotional price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | From $13 | Not listed | $93.50 for the first 12 months (monthly) |
| Standard | From $20 | Not listed | $114.75 for the first 12 months (monthly) |
| Premium | From $350 | Not listed | $297.50 for the first 12 months (monthly) |
Essentials: Save 15% on 10,000+ contacts for the first 12 months; the price shown is the 5,001-10,000 band. Lower bands have no discount.
Standard: Save 15% on 10,000+ contacts for the first 12 months; the price shown is the 5,001-10,000 band. Lower bands have no discount.
Premium: Save 15% on 10,000+ contacts for the first 12 months.
| Up to | Monthly | Yearly, per month |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $13 | Not listed |
| 1,500 | $26.50 | Not listed |
| 2,500 | $45 | Not listed |
| 5,000 | $75 | Not listed |
| 10,000 | $110 | Not listed |
| Up to | Monthly | Yearly, per month |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $20 | Not listed |
| 1,500 | $45 | Not listed |
| 2,500 | $60 | Not listed |
| 5,000 | $100 | Not listed |
| 10,000 | $135 | Not listed |
| Up to | Monthly | Yearly, per month |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $350 | Not listed |
What each plan includes
- Essentials
Limits: Users: 3. Contacts: 50,000. Monthly email sends: 10 times the contact limit. Audiences: 3. Automation flow steps: Up to 4 steps per flow.
Adds: Scheduling, A/B testing, Custom branding, 24/7 email and chat support, 3 seats, 3 audiences.
- Automation flow steps: also from mailchimp.com/help/about-customer-journeys/, checked
- Standard
Limits: Users: 5. Contacts: 100,000. Monthly email sends: 12 times the contact limit. Audiences: 5. Automation flow steps: Up to 200 steps per flow. Automation flow triggers: Up to 3 triggers per flow.
Adds: Automations, Personalization and optimization tools, 5 seats, 5 audiences, 4 roles.
- Automation flow steps, Automation flow triggers: also from mailchimp.com/help/about-customer-journeys/, checked
- Premium
Limits: Users: Unlimited. Monthly email sends: 15 times the contact limit. Audiences: Unlimited. Minimum band: 10,000 contacts.
Adds: Phone and priority support, Unlimited seats, Unlimited audiences, 5 roles, Premium migration services.
Every figure is the whole monthly bill for the contact band, not a price per contact. Mailchimp publishes monthly prices only for these bands.
Our view
Mailchimp’s free plan suits a small list that gets an email once or twice a month. On a small list, sends can end it before contacts do: a weekly email to everyone fits only while your list is half the cap or smaller, so check last month’s total sends, not just your list. If you want Mailchimp’s features, especially scheduling, take Essentials on monthly billing at your band, archive the people who left so the band stays honest, and stay there until a flow needs more steps than Essentials allows. If the sends were all you needed, a free plan elsewhere carries a weekly email further, and a small list is usually simple to move once you’ve counted the forms and templates you’d rebuild. What paying gives up is the bill; what moving gives up is the time it takes and whatever you’ve built in Mailchimp.
Your next step
Run one check this week. Open Mailchimp and look at last month: the sends you used against 500 emails a month, your contact count against 250 contacts (archive the people who unsubscribed first), and whether you wished you could schedule a send or automate a welcome. If all three are fine, stay free. If a feature is the reason and you’re staying, start the Essentials trial at the band your cleaned list falls in. If sends or contacts are the reason, read when a free email marketing plan is enough before you pay.