Per-send pricing
Definition
Per-send pricing is a billing model where an email marketing platform charges based on the volume of emails sent per billing period, not on the number of contacts stored in the account. List size is either unlimited or has a very high ceiling. The bill scales with activity, not with list growth.
The main platform using per-send pricing in 2026: Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). MailerSend, Postmark, and SendGrid use per-send models for transactional email, but Brevo is the primary marketing email platform with this model.
Concrete example
Brevo’s Starter plan (May 2026):
- List size: Unlimited contacts stored
- Send limit: 20,000 emails/month
- Cost: £9/month (£108/year)
A 5,000-contact nonprofit sending one monthly newsletter (5,000 sends) costs £9/month on Brevo. The same list on Mailchimp Standard costs $75/month. Annual difference: £792 vs £108. Brevo saves £684/year.
When per-send pricing wins
Per-send pricing is cheaper when:
- Your list is large but you send infrequently (monthly or quarterly)
- You have many contacts but a low active send rate (common for nonprofits, local businesses, real-estate agents)
- You want to grow your list aggressively without worrying about per-contact billing tier jumps
The optimal per-send profile: A nonprofit with 3,000 donors sending a monthly newsletter + two appeals per year. Total sends: 3,000 Ã- 14 = 42,000 sends/year. Brevo Starter (£108/year) vs Mailchimp Standard (£540/year at 3K contacts). Brevo wins by £432/year.
When per-send pricing loses
Per-send pricing is more expensive when:
- You send daily or multiple times per week to a large list
- Your send volume exceeds the platform’s tier caps regularly
Example: A 10K-contact ecommerce store sending daily abandoned-cart, post-purchase, and promotional emails (10K Ã- 20 sends/month = 200K sends). Brevo Business (£107/mo for 500K sends) vs Mailchimp Standard ($100/mo for 10K contacts). Close at this scale — Klaviyo’s ecommerce features become the deciding factor, not price.
The break-even formula
Per-send wins when:
sends per month < (list size Ã- break-even multiplier)
For Brevo £9/mo vs Mailchimp $75/mo at 5K contacts:
Brevo wins as long as you send < 20K emails/month (i.e., under 4 emails/contact/month)
Most small businesses send 1–4 emails per contact per month. Per-send pricing wins for almost all of them.
Free tier comparison
The free-tier difference is where per-send pricing shows its structural advantage most clearly:
| Platform | Free contacts | Free sends | Free automation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | Unlimited | 300/day (9K/mo) | Basic |
| Mailchimp | 250 | 500/month | None |
| MailerLite | 1,000 | 12,000/month | Yes |
Brevo’s unlimited contacts on the free tier means a nonprofit with 2,000 donors can start sending immediately without cost — 300 emails/day is 9,000/month, which covers a monthly newsletter to 2K contacts with 350% headroom.
Related concepts
- Per-contact pricing — the alternative billing model
- List hygiene — less critical with per-send pricing, but still good practice
- Free tier vs free trial — understanding what “free” actually means
→ Read the full breakdown: Per-contact vs per-send pricing — which billing model is cheaper for you?