Mailchimp Cost for 10,000 Contacts
Detailed 10k-contact breakdown including Mailchimp overage blocks and side-by-side savings on Brevo & MailerLite.
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Brevo
Starter / Business (Send-Volume)
$55 /mo
$660/yr bill
MailerLite
Growing Business Plan
$73 /mo
$876/yr bill
beehiiv
Launch (Free) & Scale Plan
$79 /mo
$948/yr bill
Mailchimp
Standard Plan
$135 /mo
$1,620/yr bill
tier_takeaway.note
Mailchimp Standard charges $135/mo ($1,620/yr) for 10,000 contacts—including unsubscribed contacts if you forget to archive them.
Subscriber tier price curve (1,000 to 100,000 contacts)
Monthly base subscription rates as your email list grows—check steep bracket jumps before migrating.
| Platform | 1,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 25,000 | 50,000 | 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | $45/mo | $100/mo | $135/mo | $270/mo | $410/mo | $800/mo |
| Brevo | $9/mo | $29/mo | $55/mo | $119/mo | $229/mo | $449/mo |
| MailerLite | $0/mo | $39/mo | $73/mo | $159/mo | $289/mo | $550/mo |
| beehiiv | $0/mo | $49/mo | $79/mo | $119/mo | $199/mo | $299/mo |
Mailchimp billing details
Best for: Legacy marketing teams already integrated with Mailchimp templates
Mailchimp bills you for unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts stored in your audience unless you manually archive them.
Brevo billing details
Best for: Businesses with large contact lists that send 1–4 newsletters per month
Free tier allows unlimited contacts but caps sending at 300 emails/day; paid tiers charge strictly by monthly email volume.
MailerLite billing details
Best for: Small businesses and bloggers wanting clean automations at roughly half of Mailchimp rates
Free 1,000-subscriber tier caps monthly sends at 12,000 emails; Growing Business unlocks unlimited monthly emails.
beehiiv billing details
Best for: Media brands and paid newsletters scaling via ad network, boosts, and 0% subscription cuts
0% cut on paid memberships (only standard Stripe fees apply), making it thousands cheaper than Substack once paid subs grow.
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Common questions
What is the cheapest email platform here at 10,000 subscribers?
At 10,000 contacts, Brevo costs $55.00/month compared to $135.00/month on Mailchimp—saving $960/year.
Why do some email tools bill for unsubscribed contacts?
Audience-based tools like Mailchimp and Klaviyo count active or unarchived profiles toward your tier bracket, whereas send-volume tools like Brevo store contacts free and bill only for monthly emails sent.
When does Substack 10% become more expensive than beehiiv or Ghost?
Once gross paid subscription revenue crosses ~$490/month (49 subscribers paying $10/mo), Substack's 10% platform fee exceeds a flat $49/month beehiiv Scale subscription—and the gap widens with every new paid reader.
