ActiveCampaign Pricing 2026: Starter, Plus, Pro and What Each Leaves Out

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ActiveCampaign pricing starts at $15 a month for the Starter plan, billed yearly at 1,000 contacts. That is cheap for a tool known for automation. But Starter leaves out landing pages, generative AI and cross-channel marketing. Most growing businesses end up on Plus at $49 or Pro at $79.

I checked ActiveCampaign’s pricing page on 6 November 2026 at four list sizes. Here is every plan, what it includes, and the point where each one makes sense.

ActiveCampaign plans and prices in 2026

Every plan is priced by contacts. These are the yearly-billing prices per month at each size we checked:

Per month, billed yearly, US dollars. Source: activecampaign.com/pricing, checked 6 Nov 2026. The page showed yearly billing only, so we do not print monthly-billing prices.

What each plan includes

Every plan includes 500 Active Intelligence (AI) credits, according to the plan comparison.

Starter, Plus or Pro?

• Starter ($15 at 1,000) is for email automation only. You get real multi-step automations and 250+ templates, but no landing pages and one user.
• Plus ($49) adds landing pages, site messages, generative AI and cross-channel marketing. It costs $34 a month more at 1,000 contacts, or $408 a year.
• Pro ($79) adds predictive sending, conditional content, advanced segmentation, attribution and 3 users.

If you already have landing pages in another tool, such as your course platform or website, Starter may be all you need. That is the cheapest way to get ActiveCampaign’s automation.

Watch the price at bigger lists

ActiveCampaign gets expensive as you grow. Look at Pro: $79 a month at 1,000 contacts, $205 at 5,000 and $375 at 10,000. That is $4,500 a year at 10,000 contacts on Pro, billed yearly.

The page also shows an odd step. At 10,000 contacts, Starter costs $149 and Plus $189, only $40 apart. At 1,000 contacts the gap is $34. If you are near 10,000 contacts, Plus is much better value relative to Starter than it looks at small sizes.

Who counts as a contact depends on when you signed up

ActiveCampaign prices by contacts, and since late 2025 the definition depends on your account’s age. Its help centre is explicit:

• Accounts created on or after 3 November 2025: all contacts count toward your limit, whatever their status. Unsubscribed, unconfirmed and bounced contacts are all billed.
• Accounts created on or before 2 November 2025: only active contacts count.

For a new account this changes the maths. Say you import 2,700 contacts and 300 of them are old unsubscribes or bounces. On a new account all 2,700 count, which puts Starter on the 5,000-contact tier at $79 a month. If only the 2,400 active contacts counted, you would sit on the 2,500 tier at $39. That is $480 a year for 300 people you cannot email.

So clean before you import. Remove unsubscribed and bounced addresses from your file first, and delete stale contacts on a schedule afterwards. ActiveCampaign lets admins archive contacts; archived data is kept for a year and can be restored after 30 days. Ask ActiveCampaign whether archived contacts count on your plan before relying on archiving to lower your bill.

How ActiveCampaign compares on price

At 1,000 contacts, ActiveCampaign Starter is the cheapest of the three on yearly billing. The catch: Starter has one user and no landing pages, while MailerLite Comfort includes landing pages and 3 users. At 5,000 contacts, Starter costs $79 a month and MailerLite Comfort $44.10. See MailerLite pricing and Kit pricing.

ActiveCampaign vs Kit at 10,000 contacts

At bigger lists, compare carefully. Billed yearly at 10,000 contacts, ActiveCampaign Starter is $149 a month and Plus $189. Kit Creator at 10,000 subscribers is $92.50. Kit includes unlimited automations on Creator; ActiveCampaign Starter includes multi-step automation but no landing pages.

That is about $680 a year more for ActiveCampaign Starter, and $1,160 more for Plus. ActiveCampaign’s segmentation, goals and CRM add-ons can justify it for businesses that use them. For a creator’s newsletter and funnels, Kit is the cheaper fit. See Kit pricing.

What ActiveCampaign really costs: three real setups

1. A consultant with 1,000 contacts and a nurture sequence

Starter: $180 a year billed yearly. Landing pages live on the consultant’s website. One user is enough.

2. A course creator with 2,500 contacts who needs landing pages

Plus: $95 a month, or $1,140 a year. Landing pages, site messages and generative AI included.

3. A team of three with 5,000 contacts and advanced segmentation

Pro: $205 a month, or $2,460 a year. Three users, predictive sending and attribution tracking.

What ActiveCampaign costs per contact

Like most email tools, ActiveCampaign gets cheaper per contact as you grow, but more slowly on its higher plans:

Our arithmetic from yearly prices on 6 Nov 2026.

Starter is ten times the price at ten times the list, so it barely gets cheaper per contact. Plus gets much cheaper as you grow. If you expect to pass 5,000 contacts within a year, price Plus, not Starter, as your long-term plan.

The guarantee and the trial

ActiveCampaign’s pricing page offers a free trial and a 30-day guarantee: if you do not see results in 30 days, it promises your money back. The page did not state the trial length when we checked. Read the guarantee’s terms before relying on it, and set up your key automation in the first week so you can judge it fairly.

How to pay less for ActiveCampaign

• Start on Starter if your pages live elsewhere. Plus is mainly for landing pages and AI.
• Clean your list before each tier. Prices step up at 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 contacts.
• Use the guarantee window. ActiveCampaign promises a refund if you are not satisfied after 30 days. Build your main automations inside that time.
• Do not buy Pro for one seat. If you only need a second user, compare the cost with a tool that includes more seats.

Questions to ask before you buy

1. Where will my landing pages live? On your own site, Starter may be enough. Inside ActiveCampaign, you need Plus.
2. How many people need a login? Starter and Plus include one user; Pro includes 3.
3. How big will my list be in a year? At 5,000 and 10,000 contacts the price climbs fast, especially on Pro.
4. Do I need a sales CRM? The Enhanced CRM add-on is available on Plus and above, at extra cost.

Answer these first and the right plan is usually obvious. Most solo businesses land on Starter or Plus.

Is ActiveCampaign worth it?

ActiveCampaign is worth it if automation is how you sell. Its multi-step automations are available even on Starter, which costs only $15 a month at 1,000 contacts billed yearly. For a consultant or small business that keeps landing pages on its own website, that is excellent value.

The value fades as your needs grow. Landing pages and AI need Plus at $49. Predictive sending and a small team need Pro at $79. And the price climbs fast with your list: Pro is $375 a month at 10,000 contacts. At that size, compare carefully with MailerLite and Kit.

My advice is to start small. Take Starter, connect your existing pages, and move up only when a specific missing feature costs you sales.

How we checked these prices

I checked activecampaign.com/pricing on 6 November 2026 in US dollars, switching the contact selector between 1,000, 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000. All prices shown were billed yearly; the page did not offer a monthly-billing view that day, so we do not print monthly prices. Feature rows come from the plan comparison on the same page. Found a change? Tell us. The contact-counting rule comes from ActiveCampaign’s help article on unsubscribed, unconfirmed and bounced contacts, read on 8 November 2026.

ActiveCampaign pricing FAQs