Mailchimp Pricing 2026: The 50% Offer and the Year-2 Price

Some links on this page may earn us a commission. It never changes the numbers or the verdict. How we make money.

Mailchimp pricing in 2026 has a headline and a real price. The headline is 50% off for 12 months. The real price is what you pay from month 13: $45 a month for Standard at up to 1,500 contacts, or $26.50 for Essentials. Every paid plan doubles after the first year, so that is the number to budget.

I checked Mailchimp’s pricing page on 6 November 2026 at five contact sizes. Here is every plan, what each one really includes, and how Mailchimp compares with cheaper email tools.

Mailchimp plans and prices in 2026

Mailchimp sells three paid plans plus a free plan. Prices rise with your contact count. Here is the regular monthly price at each size we checked:

Regular price per month, US dollars. Source: mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing, checked 6 Nov 2026. New customers were offered 50% off paid plans for the first 12 months.

What each plan includes

The line that matters most is automation. Essentials allows only short flows of up to 4 steps. If you want a real welcome series or abandoned-cart emails, you need Standard.

The first-year discount, and the year-2 price

When we checked, every paid plan showed “Save 50%” for 12 months. That is a real saving, but it ends. Here is what it means at up to 1,500 contacts:

Our arithmetic from the regular prices, assuming your list stays in the same tier. Offer terms can change; check them before you buy.

Budget for the year-2 number. If a tool only fits your budget at half price, it does not fit your budget.

The free plan

Mailchimp’s page says “Under 250 contacts? It’s free.” Another line on the same page mentions the free plan for businesses with fewer than 500 contacts, so check the limit when you sign up. Either way, it is a small plan. If you go over a limit on Free, Mailchimp pauses sending. On paid plans, going over means overage charges.

How Mailchimp compares on price

Mailchimp’s tier runs to 1,500 contacts, so the comparison is not perfectly even. Even so, at a similar list size Mailchimp Standard costs more than twice MailerLite Comfort once the first-year offer ends. See MailerLite pricing and Kit pricing.

What Mailchimp really costs: three real setups

1. A shop newsletter with 400 contacts

Essentials at 0–500 contacts: $13 a month, $6.50 during the first year. Fine for a monthly newsletter, but the 4-step flow limit means no real automation.

2. An online store with 1,200 contacts and abandoned-cart emails

Standard at 501–1,500: $45 a month, or $540 a year after the offer. You get up to 200 flows, 5 users and about 18,000 sends a month at 1,500 contacts.

3. A growing brand with 8,000 contacts

Standard at 5,001–10,000: $135 a month, or $1,620 a year. Mailchimp says yearly plans are available for Standard and Premium from 10,000 contacts through its sales team.

Essentials or Standard?

At up to 1,500 contacts, Standard costs $18.50 a month more than Essentials at the regular price, or $222 a year. Here is what that buys:

• Real automation. Up to 200 flows instead of flows capped at 4 steps.
• More people and lists. 5 users and 5 audiences instead of 3 and 3.
• Generative AI, custom reports and dynamic content. None of these are on Essentials.
• More sends. 12 times your contacts each month instead of 10.

If you only send a newsletter and a short welcome email, Essentials is enough. If you run a store with abandoned-cart and post-purchase emails, Standard is the real starting plan.

Is Premium ever worth it for a small business?

Premium starts at $350 a month at every size we checked up to 10,000 contacts. It adds unlimited users and audiences, phone and priority support, 15 times your contacts in sends, and onboarding sessions. For a solo business or small team, that is rarely worth $4,200 a year. It makes sense for larger teams with many people and lists in one account.

How to pay less for Mailchimp

• Diary the offer’s end date. Decide before month 13 whether to stay.
• Clean your audience. You pay by contacts. Archive people who never open.
• Use one audience if you can. Essentials allows 3 and Standard 5. Duplicate contacts across audiences can push you up a tier.
• Ask about the nonprofit discount. Mailchimp offers 15% to nonprofits and charities.
• Infrequent sender? Mailchimp sells pay-as-you-go email credits instead of a monthly plan.

Questions to ask before you buy

1. What will I pay in month 13? Use the regular price, not the offer.
2. Do I need automations with more than 4 steps? If yes, Essentials will not do.
3. How many audiences will I keep? Separate audiences can count the same person twice.
4. Will I pass a contact tier soon? Prices step up at 500, 1,500, 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 contacts.

Is Mailchimp worth it?

Mailchimp is worth it if you value its brand, its many integrations and its ecommerce tools, and you will use Standard’s automations. It is a mature, well-known product, and support on paid plans runs 24/7 by email and chat.

It is rarely the cheapest choice. Once the first-year offer ends, Standard costs $45 a month at up to 1,500 contacts. MailerLite Comfort does the core job for $19 at 1,000 subscribers, and Kit’s free plan covers 10,000 subscribers with one automation. Essentials looks cheap, but its 4-step flow limit makes it a newsletter plan, not an automation plan.

My advice: price Mailchimp at its year-2 cost, then compare. If its integrations save you real work, it can be worth the premium. If you mainly send newsletters and a few automations, a cheaper tool will do the same job.

How we checked these prices

I checked mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing on 6 November 2026 in US dollars and recorded the regular monthly price for each plan at five contact tiers, from 0–500 to 5,001–10,000. The plan features, send limits, users and audiences come from the same page. The first-year offer was shown on every paid plan that day. Found a price that changed? Tell us.

Mailchimp pricing FAQs