What are the Mailchimp free plan limits in 2026?

The Mailchimp free plan in 2026 is limited to 500 contacts, 1,000 email sends per month, 1 audience, basic templates, and Mailchimp branding on every email. Automation, A/B testing, and scheduling are not included.

How much does Mailchimp cost for 10,000 contacts?

At 10,000 contacts, Mailchimp Standard costs around $100 per month and Mailchimp Premium starts at $350 per month. Essentials is also available at higher tiers, but pricing scales steeply as your list grows.

Are there cheaper alternatives to Mailchimp in 2026?

Yes. MailerLite is free up to 1,000 subscribers, Brevo offers unlimited contacts on its free plan (billed by email volume), and beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers for newsletters. All three are significantly cheaper than Mailchimp at scale.

Mailchimp Pricing 2026: Every Plan Explained (And Why I Switched)

Q: Is Mailchimp free in 2026?

Mailchimp still has a free plan in 2026, but it now caps you at just 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month with a single audience and no automation. It's far more limited than it used to be, when the free tier supported 2,000 contacts.

Q: What is the cheapest paid Mailchimp plan?

The cheapest paid Mailchimp plan is Essentials, starting at $13 per month for 500 contacts. However, if you need automation you'll have to move up to Standard, which starts at $20 per month.

I’ve used Mailchimp on and off since 2014, and I run emailsoftwarereview.com, so I’ve watched its pricing creep up year after year. Let me save you the trouble of digging through their pricing page: as of 2026, Mailchimp is no longer the best value option for most people. It’s still a polished, well-known platform, but you’re paying a premium for the brand name more than the features.

The short version? The free plan has been gutted down to 500 contacts, automation is locked behind the $20/month Standard tier, and the price scales aggressively as your list grows. If you’re already on Mailchimp and happy, fine. But if you’re choosing a tool today, there are cheaper options that do the same job. I’ll show you the full breakdown, then tell you exactly what I use instead.

Mailchimp Pricing Plans 2026 (Full Breakdown)

Here’s the thing most pricing articles get wrong: Mailchimp’s listed prices are starting prices. The real cost depends on how many contacts you have. Below I’ve mapped out all four plans at the contact tiers people actually use.

Plan	500 contacts	1,000 contacts	5,000 contacts	10,000 contacts
Free	$0 (1,000 emails/mo cap)	Not available	Not available	Not available
Essentials	From $13/mo	~$20/mo	~$45/mo	~$75/mo
Standard	From $20/mo	~$26/mo	~$60/mo	~$100/mo
Premium	Not offered at this tier	Not offered at this tier	Not offered at this tier	From $350/mo

A quick note on what each tier actually gives you:

Free — 500 contacts, 1,000 emails per month, 1 audience, basic templates. No automation, no A/B testing, no scheduling. Mailchimp branding on everything.
Essentials — Starts at $13/mo for 500 contacts. Adds up to 3 audiences, A/B testing, email scheduling, and 24/7 support. Still no real customer journey automation.
Standard — Starts at $20/mo for 500 contacts. This is the tier most small businesses actually need because it unlocks automation, retargeting ads, and advanced analytics.
Premium — Starts at $350/mo for 10,000 contacts. Advanced segmentation, phone support, unlimited audiences, and multivariate testing. This is built for larger teams and agencies.

The number that jumps out at me every time is that $350/month Premium starting price. That’s $4,200 a year before you’ve added a single contact above 10,000. For a small business, that’s a serious line item.

How Mailchimp’s Pricing Has Changed (They Gutted the Free Plan)

This is the part that frustrates long-time users like me. When I started recommending Mailchimp, the free plan was genuinely generous. Here’s how it’s been chipped away:

Pre-2019: The free plan supported up to 2,000 subscribers with a monthly send limit. For a hobbyist or a small newsletter, that was plenty. You could grow a real audience without paying a cent.
2019: Mailchimp restructured into the Free / Essentials / Standard / Premium tiers we know today. The free plan stayed at 2,000 contacts but lost some features as they pushed people toward paid plans.
2022: The free contact limit was cut from 2,000 to 1,000. Overnight, anyone with a list between 1,000 and 2,000 was nudged onto a paid plan.
2023 onward: The free limit dropped again to 500 contacts and the monthly send cap tightened to 1,000 emails. That’s where it sits in 2026.

So in roughly five years, the free plan went from 2,000 contacts to 500 — a 75% reduction. Meanwhile, automation, which used to be available in some form on lower tiers, is now firmly locked behind Standard at $20/month and up.

I don’t blame Mailchimp for wanting to make money. But the pattern is clear: the free tier exists to get you in the door, and the moment you build anything resembling a real list, you’re paying. For comparison, several competitors have been moving in the opposite direction, expanding their free plans while Mailchimp shrinks theirs.

Is Mailchimp Worth the Price?

Let me be honest, because that’s the whole point of this site. Mailchimp does a lot right. The interface is clean, the deliverability is solid, the brand is trusted, and if a freelancer or contractor has ever touched your marketing, they probably already know Mailchimp inside out. That familiarity has real value.

But “worth the price” is a comparison question, not an absolute one. And when I line Mailchimp up against what else is on the market in 2026, the value proposition falls apart for most users.

Here’s my honest take by user type:

Brand-new beginner with under 500 contacts: The free plan works, but you can’t automate anything, which is a problem the moment you want a welcome email. You’ll outgrow it fast.
Small business that needs automation: You’re on Standard at $20+/month minimum, and it climbs to ~$100/month at 10,000 contacts. You can get the same automation cheaper elsewhere.
Growing list (5,000–10,000+): This is where Mailchimp gets genuinely expensive and the case for switching is strongest.
Large team or agency: Premium at $350/month has features you might actually use, but even here I’d benchmark against alternatives before committing.

The core problem is that you’re paying Mailchimp prices for features that are now standard across the industry. Automation, segmentation, A/B testing — these aren’t premium differentiators anymore. They’re table stakes. And several tools deliver them for free or for a fraction of Mailchimp’s cost.

Cheaper Mailchimp Alternatives (What I Use Instead)

I migrated my own list off Mailchimp a couple of years ago, and I haven’t looked back. Here’s what I recommend depending on what you’re doing.

MailerLite — my pick for most small businesses

MailerLite is what I point most people to first. The free plan covers up to 1,000 subscribers — double Mailchimp’s 500 — and crucially, it includes automation, which Mailchimp’s free plan does not. The paid plans are noticeably cheaper than Standard at every contact tier, and the editor is genuinely pleasant to use. For a small business that needs welcome sequences, landing pages, and clean templates, it’s a better deal across the board.

Try MailerLite free (up to 1,000 subscribers) →

Brevo — best if you have a huge list but low send volume

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) flips the pricing model on its head. Instead of charging by contacts, it charges by emails sent. The free plan gives you unlimited contacts and 300 emails per day. If you’ve got a list of 20,000 people but only email them once a week, Brevo can be dramatically cheaper than Mailchimp, where that list size alone would put you on an expensive plan. It also bundles in SMS and transactional email.

Try Brevo (unlimited contacts free) →

beehiiv — best for newsletter creators

If what you’re really running is a newsletter rather than business marketing emails, beehiiv is purpose-built for it. The free plan goes up to 2,500 subscribers — five times Mailchimp’s free limit — and includes growth and monetization tools that Mailchimp simply doesn’t offer. For creators trying to build and eventually earn from an audience, it’s a far better fit.

Try beehiiv free (up to 2,500 subscribers) →

For a side-by-side look at all of these and a few others, I keep a full comparison updated here: the best Mailchimp alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mailchimp free in 2026?

Yes, Mailchimp still offers a free plan, but it’s limited to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month with a single audience and no automation. It’s much more restrictive than it used to be.

What are the Mailchimp free plan limits?

The free plan caps you at 500 contacts, 1,000 monthly email sends, 1 audience, and basic templates. There’s no automation, no A/B testing, and Mailchimp branding appears on every email you send.

What is the cheapest paid Mailchimp plan?

Essentials is the cheapest paid plan at $13/month for 500 contacts. But if you need automation, you’ll have to jump to Standard at $20/month, so the practical entry point for most people is $20.

How much is Mailchimp for 10,000 contacts?

At 10,000 contacts, Standard runs around $100/month and Premium starts at $350/month. Prices scale up further as your list grows beyond that.

What’s the best cheap alternative to Mailchimp?

For most small businesses, MailerLite is my top pick — it’s free to 1,000 subscribers and includes automation. Brevo is best for large lists with low send volume, and beehiiv is best for newsletter creators.

Affiliate disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you sign up through them — at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I’ve actually used and would suggest to a friend. My opinions on Mailchimp’s pricing are my own, and I switched away from it before any affiliate relationship existed.