What is Mailchimp?
A web-based email and marketing platform for building and sending email campaigns, automations, landing pages and forms, with optional SMS and generative AI add-ons. It runs in the browser and lists 300+ integrations on all plans.
Who it's for
Small businesses and growing teams that want to manage contacts and send email from one place; the pricing page offers a Free plan for very small lists, mid-tier plans for automation and testing, and a Premium plan with sales-assisted onboarding and SSO. Very large lists are handled through custom high-volume pricing.
Pros & cons
Strengths
- The pricing page lists a Free plan with up to 250 contacts, 500 sends a month (250 a day), 1 seat and 1 audience, and no trial needed.
- The pricing page lists 300+ integrations and popup forms on all plans.
- The comparison page lists A/B testing from Essentials up, and multivariate testing, send-time optimization, delivery by time zone and advanced segmentation on Standard and Premium.
- The comparison page lists automation with multiple starting points and branching, up to 200 flows, on Standard and Premium, and up to 4 flow steps on Essentials.
- The pricing page lists a generative AI add-on at no extra cost on Standard and Premium, and an SMS add-on on paid plans in select countries (SMS and MMS on Standard and Premium).
- The pricing page lists a 14-day free trial for Essentials and Standard (payment details required) and lets Premium be trialed for 1 month through sales for qualified new customers.
Limitations
- Plans are metered by contact tier and monthly sends: 10x contacts on Essentials, 12x on Standard, 15x on Premium. The help page says going over your contact limit on a paid plan adds a charge, and on Free it places a hold on live and test sends.
- Free has no scheduling, no removal of Mailchimp branding, no automation (free preview only), no A/B testing and email support for only the first 30 days, per the pricing and comparison pages.
- Custom-coded templates can be created on Free and Essentials but only sent on Standard and Premium; enterprise SSO is Premium only; role-based access is 2 roles (Essentials), 4 (Standard) and 5 (Premium).
- The pricing page lists paid plans as billed monthly, with annual plans only for Standard and Premium at 10,000+ contacts through sales. Its Essentials, Standard and Premium prices are promotional for 12 months, with the later price not readable. The refund help page says Mailchimp does not issue refunds unless a system malfunction caused a problem.
- The vendor's pages disagree on contact ceilings: the pricing page shows contact tiers up to 1,000,000+, while the help and comparison pages give maximums of 50,000 (Essentials), 100,000 (Standard) and 200,000 (Premium), and the high-volume threshold appears as both 200,000 and 250,000. The pages read do not say whether customer content is used to train AI models; they only say Write with AI is a beta in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
Plans and pricing
- Free: $0. Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends a month (250 a day), 1 seat, 1 audience, basic reporting, limited templates; no automation, scheduling or branding removal.
- Essentials: $13 a month for the first 12 months, billed monthly. Starting tier; 10x contacts in monthly sends, 3 seats, 3 audiences, A/B testing, scheduling, up to 4 automation flow steps, 24/7 email and chat support. 14-day trial.
- Standard: $20 a month for the first 12 months, billed monthly. Starting tier; 12x contacts in monthly sends, 5 seats, 5 audiences, up to 200 automation flows, send-time optimization, advanced segmentation, generative AI add-on. 14-day trial.
- Premium: $350 a month for the first 12 months. 15x contacts in monthly sends, unlimited seats and audiences, SSO, phone and priority support, 4 onboarding sessions. 1-month trial through sales.
- Pay As You Go: Credit-based, price not listed. Email credits bought as needed with no recurring charge; the help page says it includes the same features as Essentials.
Prices were read from the official marketing pricing page, shown in USD (other currencies selectable), and cross-checked against the comparison and help pages. The page lists Essentials, Standard and Premium prices for the first 12 months and 15% off at 10,000+ contacts, but the price afterward and the Pay As You Go prices were not readable, and higher contact tiers vary (the comparison page cites $385 a month for the top Essentials tier and $800 for Standard). Confirm on the live pricing page.
Details checked October 2026 against the vendor's own pages. Prices and limits change, so confirm before you buy. Official pricing page ↗
Sources
This profile was compiled from these public pages. We have not run hands-on tests.
- mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing
- mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/compare-plans
- mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans
- mailchimp.com/help/about-the-forever-free-plan
- mailchimp.com/help/about-mailchimps-refund-policy
- mailchimp.com/help/use-inline-content-generation
- mailchimp.com/newsroom/introducing-intuit-assist
- mailchimp.com/resources/ai-transparency
Mailchimp — at a glance
A web-based email and marketing platform for building and sending email campaigns, automations, landing pages and forms, with optional SMS and generative AI add-ons. It runs in the browser and lists 300+ integrations on all plans.
Try Mailchimp →