Mailchimp was once famous for being the free, easy way to get started with email marketing. For a long time, that reputation was well-earned. These days, it tells a rather different story.
Since being acquired by Intuit in 2021, Mailchimp has raised prices and restricted its free plan so many times that users who signed up years ago would barely recognise the deal they're on today. And with further changes just landed, the pattern shows no sign of stopping.
This post tracks every significant pricing change Mailchimp has made since 2019 - so you can see exactly what's changed, when it changed, and what it means for your bill.
Why does Mailchimp change pricing so much?
Mailchimp launched in 2001 under the leadership of Ben Chestnut, Dan Kurzius, and Mark Armstrong.
With relatively little competition in the early 2000s and a genuinely generous free plan, it quickly became the default choice for small businesses starting out with email marketing. It had all the essentials - segmentation, automation, sign-up forms - and a free tier that was almost uniquely valuable.
For many years, that affordability was Mailchimp's defining feature. Then, in November 2021, Intuit - the company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks - acquired Mailchimp for $12 billion. Since that acquisition, pricing has risen. A lot.
The Mailchimp pricing timeline
January 2019 - the golden era
At the start of 2019, Mailchimp's free plan allowed you to send 12,000 emails per month to up to 2,000 subscribers. Paid plans started from just $10/month. This was a genuinely competitive offering, and it's why so many small businesses made Mailchimp their first email marketing platform.
Mid-2019 - the first restructure
Later in 2019, Mailchimp revamped its plan structure, adding an additional paid tier and repositioning itself as more than an email marketing tool. Prices increased across the board. This was the first signal that the era of cheap Mailchimp was beginning to wind down.
2022 - the Intuit effect begins
The most significant early change post-acquisition came in 2022. Mailchimp raised the prices of its Essentials and Standard plans - Essentials went from $9.99 to $13/month, Standard from $14.99 to $20/month - and made a dramatic cut to the free plan, reducing the contact limit from 2,000 to 500. That was a 75% reduction in what you could store for free. Email scheduling was also quietly removed from the free tier at this point.
February/March 2023 - the free plan gets squeezed further
Less than 12 months later, the free plan was restricted again. The monthly send limit was cut from 2,500 to just 1,000 emails - enough for only the smallest and least frequent senders. For anyone with a modestly active list, upgrading to a paid plan had effectively become unavoidable.
April 2024 - billing changes for all contacts
From April 2024, Mailchimp changed how it counts contacts for billing purposes. Previously, only subscribed contacts counted toward your plan limit. Now, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count too - unless you manually archive them.
This effectively increased the cost for many users without any change to their plan price. A business with 5,000 total contacts, of which 1,200 had unsubscribed, would suddenly find itself billed for all 5,000 rather than the 3,800 it could actually email.
June 2025 - the Classic Automation Builder is retired
In June 2025, Mailchimp discontinued its Classic Automation Builder. The replacement - the Customer Journey Builder - was available only on Standard plan and above (from $20/month). Anyone who had been using multi-step automations on the Essentials plan or below found those workflows suddenly inaccessible without upgrading.
January 2026 - the free plan is cut again
In January 2026, Mailchimp reduced the free plan's contact limit from 500 to just 250, and cut the monthly send allowance from 1,000 to 500 emails. The free plan now also has a daily sending cap of 250 emails. With no scheduling, no multi-step automation, and Mailchimp branding on every email, the free plan is now largely unusable for any business running regular campaigns.
To put this in perspective: in 2019, the free plan offered 2,000 contacts and 12,000 monthly sends. In 2026, it offers 250 contacts and 500 sends. That is an 87.5% reduction in contacts and a 95.8% reduction in email sends.
April 2026 - legacy users face another increase
In April 2026, Mailchimp introduced yet another price increase, this time targeting users on legacy plans - those who created their accounts before May 2019 and had never migrated to a current pricing tier. These users are seeing an average 11–13% price rise, effective from their first billing cycle after 13 April 2026.
This is the second pricing change in 2026 alone, following January's free plan cuts. For long-standing Mailchimp customers who joined during the platform's most affordable years, it represents a significant shift in the value they're receiving.
The hidden cost of staying on Mailchimp
Beyond the headline price increases, there are several less-visible ways Mailchimp has become more expensive over time.
- You pay for contacts you can't email. Since April 2024, all contacts - including those who have unsubscribed - count toward your plan limit unless you manually archive them. Most users don't realise this until they receive a higher bill.
- Contacts counted across multiple lists. If the same email address appears in two different Mailchimp audiences, it counts twice toward your billing total.
- No automation without Standard. Multi-step automation workflows now require the Standard plan ($20/month minimum). On Essentials, you're limited to single-step autoresponders.
- SMS and transactional email are paid add-ons. These are charged separately on top of your plan price.
Is it still worth staying with Mailchimp?
That depends on your situation. Mailchimp remains a capable, full-featured marketing platform with a wide range of tools - and if you're on a current paid plan, actively using its features, and happy with the value you're getting, there's no urgent reason to switch.
But if any of the following describes you, it's worth exploring your options:
- You're on the free plan and finding its limits increasingly restrictive
- You're a legacy plan user facing the April 2026 price rise
- You're paying for contacts you can't email due to Mailchimp's counting rules
- You need multi-step automation but don't want to pay for Standard
- You're looking at your monthly bill and wondering if you're getting good value
Why EmailOctopus is a good alternative
EmailOctopus was built on the principle that email marketing doesn't need to be expensive or complicated. While Mailchimp has moved steadily upmarket since its Intuit acquisition, EmailOctopus has stayed focused on doing the essentials well - at a price that doesn't penalise growth.
You can see exactly how much you'd save by switching using our savings calculator.
Don’t get stung by unexpected price increases
Mailchimp's pricing history tells a clear and consistent story. Since the Intuit acquisition in 2021, the free plan has been progressively stripped back, paid plan prices have risen by over 30% in some tiers, and new billing rules have made the real cost higher than the headline price suggests.
The April 2026 increase is simply the latest chapter. Whether you decide to stay or explore alternatives, it's worth understanding exactly what you're paying - and what you're getting for it.
