What Mailchimp's Free Plan Actually Gives You in 2026
How this review was built. Pricing, tiers and limits come from the vendor's own pricing page and documentation as of the date above — and where a figure is the vendor's claim, we say so rather than repeat it as fact. Some links on this page are affiliate links: we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, which is why the drawbacks are printed in full on this page rather than left for you to find later. About the rating. It is our own editorial judgement on a 1–5 scale — not the output of a formula, and not the result of hands-on testing. Treat it as one publication's opinion and read the drawbacks, which are the useful part. See our full methodology & disclosure →
Starting at $13/month
Verdict: The free plan is 250 contacts and 500 emails a month — the most restrictive of any major email tool. Mailchimp is still the default recommendation in a hundred blog posts written when that number was 2,000, and those posts have not been updated.
Pros
- ✓The most familiar interface in email marketing — genuinely easy to start
- ✓Essentials at $13/month is a low entry price for a paid tier
- ✓Large template library and the widest integration ecosystem of any email tool
- ✓Brand recognition means every other tool builds a Mailchimp importer
Cons
- ✗The free plan is 250 contacts and 500 monthly sends — 500 sends is one email to half your list
- ✗Overage charges apply when you exceed either the contact or the send limit
- ✗Premium jumps to $350/month, a gap of $330 over Standard
- ✗You are paying for brand familiarity; cheaper tools give more at the same tier
The number most people are working from is out of date
Ask anyone to recommend a free email tool and Mailchimp comes up first. That recommendation is usually inherited from an article written when Mailchimp's free plan carried 2,000 contacts.
It does not any more. From Mailchimp's own pricing page, checked August 2026:
| Free plan | |
|---|---|
| Contacts | 250 |
| Monthly sends | 500 |
| Price | $0 |
Five hundred sends a month is one email to 250 people, twice. If you email weekly, you are over the limit in the third week of every month.
That is not a criticism of Mailchimp for changing its pricing — every company does. It is a criticism of the advice ecosystem that still points beginners there on the strength of a number that no longer exists.
What the paid tiers cost
| Plan | Price | Contacts | Monthly sends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 250 | 500 |
| Essentials | $13/mo | 500 | 5,000 |
| Standard | $20/mo | 500 | 6,000 |
| Premium | $350/mo | 10,000 | 150,000 |
Two things in that table are worth pausing on.
Essentials to Standard is $7 for 1,000 extra sends. The contact limit does not move. You are buying features, not headroom.
Standard to Premium is a $330 jump. There is no tier between $20 and $350. If you outgrow Standard's limits before you need Premium's feature set, you pay for the feature set anyway or you go up the contact tiers within Standard and watch the price climb.
The overage clause is the part to read
Mailchimp's pricing page states plainly that overages apply if you exceed the contact or the email send limit.
That matters more than it sounds. Most email tools handle a limit by refusing to send or prompting an upgrade — a hard stop you notice. An overage is a soft stop you discover on the invoice.
Before you commit, find your actual monthly send volume, not your list size. Contacts × emails per month is the number that decides whether you are on the right plan, and it is the number the pricing page does not calculate for you.
Where Mailchimp is still the right answer
If you have never sent a marketing email before, Mailchimp's interface is the gentlest on-ramp available and that has real value. Fewer people abandon it in week one than abandon more capable tools.
If your stack is already built around it, the integration library is the widest in the category and switching costs are real.
If you need one specific integration that only Mailchimp supports, that decides it and no price comparison matters.
Where it is not
If you are choosing on the free tier, Mailchimp is now the most restrictive of the major options. [Kit's free plan carries 10,000 subscribers](/reviews/convertkit-review) and [MailerLite's sends 2,500 emails a month at the same 250 subscribers](/reviews/mailerlite-review) — five times Mailchimp's allowance for the same audience size.
If you want funnels and courses as well as email, this is the wrong category of tool entirely. [Systeme.io's free plan runs 2,000 contacts with unlimited emails](/reviews/systeme-io-free-plan-limits) and adds sales funnels and a course platform, because it is an all-in-one rather than a dedicated email sender. It is worse at email design than Mailchimp and better at everything around it.
The honest summary
Mailchimp is a competent email platform with an outdated reputation for generosity. At $13 and above it is fine and unremarkable. On the free tier it is now the weakest option in its own category, and the only reason it is still recommended there is that the internet has not caught up.
Work out your monthly send volume first. If it is over 500, the free plan was never a real option and the comparison starts at $13 — where several tools give you more.
All figures from Mailchimp's own pricing page, checked August 2026. Plans and limits change; verify before you buy.
A different approach: Bonfire Terminal
Mailchimp runs in the vendor's cloud — your data is processed on their servers, and you pay every month for as long as you use it. Bonfire Terminal is a different kind of tool: an AI agent that runs as a desktop app on your own machine. No cloud, no API credits, and nothing you type leaves your computer.
To be straight with you: it is not a drop-in replacement for Mailchimp, and we are not going to pretend it is — they do different jobs. It is worth a look if the cloud-subscription model itself is what you want out of, or if you want an AI agent that works privately and offline. If Mailchimp is doing its job for you, keep it.
| Feature | Mailchimp | Bonfire Terminal |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Cloud email-marketing SaaS | Local AI desktop agent (Rust), bundled with affiliate-marketing training |
| Where it runs | Vendor’s cloud — your data is processed on their servers | On your own machine — no cloud, no API credits, no data leaves your computer |
| What you pay | From $13/month | $27 entry (AI Marketers Club) — includes 21-day Bonfire Terminal access |
| Guarantee | See the vendor’s own terms | 60-day money-back guarantee |
The way in is the AI Marketers Club — $27 one-time, which includes 21 days of Bonfire Terminal access. Keeping it after that is a separate purchase, and the vendor's FAQ states Bonfire Terminal starts at $5,000. We earn a commission if you join, at no extra cost to you — which is exactly why our criticisms of Mailchimp are printed in full above, why we have told you what this is not, and why the $5,000 is in this sentence rather than left for you to discover later.
More Email Marketing Platforms reviews:
- Benchmark Email's Send Limit Is a Formula, Not a Number — 10× Your Contact Count →
- Omnisend's Standard Plan Gives You 500 Contacts — Twice the Free Tier, For $11.20 →
- AWeber's Monthly Billing Costs Up to 50% More Than Annual →
- Kit's Free Plan Goes to 10,000 Subscribers. What's the Catch? →
- GetResponse Has No Free Plan — But No Send Limits Either →
- MailerLite vs Mailchimp Free →