Per-contact pricing

Definition

Per-contact pricing is a billing model where an email marketing platform charges based on the number of contacts stored in your account — not on how many emails you actually send. The bill is calculated from your subscriber count at the start of each billing period.

Platforms using per-contact pricing: Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ConvertKit (Kit), ActiveCampaign, AWeber, Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub.

Concrete example

A 5,000-contact Mailchimp Standard plan costs $75/month in 2026 whether you send 1 email/month or 30 emails/month. The bill is the same regardless of send activity.

Contrast this with per-send pricing (Brevo): a 5,000-contact list at Brevo costs £0/mo if you send under 9,000 emails/month (free tier), or £9/mo for up to 20,000 sends/month — regardless of how many contacts are stored.

Why it matters for your decision

Per-contact pricing is cheaper when:

  • You send frequently (daily or multiple times per week) to a small list
  • Your contact list is small (under 1,000) and your email tool has a low per-contact price at that tier

Per-contact pricing is more expensive when:

  • You have a large list but send infrequently (monthly, quarterly)
  • You’re a nonprofit or local business with thousands of contacts who send 1–4 campaigns/year
  • Your list grows faster than your send frequency — the bill scales with list size even if engagement stays flat

The 2026 catch: active-contact vs total-contact billing

Most per-contact platforms now distinguish between “total contacts” and “active contacts”:

  • Mailchimp: Bills on “active” contacts (those who received at least one email in the last 30 days and haven’t unsubscribed). Contacts who haven’t been emailed recently still contribute to the tier count.
  • Klaviyo: Active profile billing (introduced February 2025) — any contact emailed in the past 365 days counts, regardless of engagement. This means a subscriber who last engaged 364 days ago still affects your bill.

The practical implication: list hygiene is mandatory for per-contact platforms. Letting dormant subscribers accumulate directly costs money.

Break-even vs per-send pricing

The break-even calculation:

Per-contact is cheaper when:
(list size Ã- per-contact rate) < (sends per month Ã- per-send rate)

Example at 5K contacts:
- Mailchimp Standard: $75/mo (fixed)
- Brevo: £9/mo (20K sends/mo)

If you send 10K emails/month (2 per contact): Brevo wins ($9 < $75)
If you send 200K emails/month (40 per contact): Brevo $49/mo vs Mailchimp $75/mo — Brevo still wins

In practice: per-send pricing (Brevo) wins for almost all small business use cases in 2026.

→ Use the decision wizard to see which pricing model is cheaper for your list size and send frequency.

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