Mailchimp cut its free plan hard in January 2026, from 500 contacts and 1,000 sends a month down to just 250 contacts and 500 sends. If you're running a newsletter on Mailchimp and your list has crossed 2,500 contacts, this is the moment to actually run the numbers instead of renewing on autopilot.

Mailchimp prices by contact count, not by send volume. Here's what the Standard plan, the tier most newsletter creators land on since it's where multi-step automation unlocks, actually costs in 2026 at official published pricing, in US dollars, monthly billing. At 1,501 to 2,500 contacts, it's $40.07 a month. At 2,501 to 5,000 contacts, it's $60.36 a month. At 5,001 to 10,000 contacts, it's $79.10 a month.

That's roughly $724 a year at 2,500 contacts, climbing past $949 a year at 10,000 contacts, and that's before Mailchimp's least-discussed cost kicks in.

A note on Mailchimp's pricing page: it often defaults to a different currency and displays a prominent "50 percent off first 12 months" promotional banner. The numbers above are the standard, full-price monthly rate after any introductory discount ends, the number that actually matters for planning your ongoing cost, not the eye-catching intro rate.

Mailchimp bills you for unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts sitting in your account. Unless you manually archive them, dead contacts keep counting toward your plan limit, and your bill. If your list has any churn at all, you could be paying full price every month for people who can no longer receive your emails.

Beehiiv charges one price per subscriber tier, with no per-contact creep and no charge for unsubscribed contacts sitting dormant in your account. At 1,000 subscribers, Scale is $49 a month. At 2,500 subscribers, it's $61 a month. At 5,000 subscribers, it's $78 a month. At 10,000 subscribers, it's $96 a month.

Run the same tiers through both platforms directly. At 2,500 contacts or subscribers, Mailchimp Standard runs $40.07 a month against Beehiiv's $61 a month, meaning Mailchimp is roughly $251 a year cheaper at this tier. At 5,000, Mailchimp runs $60.36 a month against Beehiiv's $78, roughly $211 a year cheaper for Mailchimp. At 10,000, Mailchimp runs $79.10 a month against Beehiiv's $96, roughly $203 a year cheaper for Mailchimp.

Being honest about this comparison: at these specific contact tiers, Mailchimp's Standard plan is actually the cheaper raw monthly number in most cases. The gap isn't the dramatic "Beehiiv is always cheaper" story some migration content tells. The real case for switching isn't the sticker price. It's what you get for that price, and what Mailchimp bills you for that Beehiiv doesn't.

Where the true cost gap opens up: Mailchimp charges for every contact sitting in your account, including unsubscribed and inactive ones, unless you actively archive them, a maintenance task most creators skip. A newsletter with typical churn easily carries 10 to 20 percent dead weight in its contact count, meaning the effective cost-per-active-subscriber on Mailchimp is often higher than the sticker price suggests. Beehiiv only counts active subscribers against your tier.

The direct monthly cost isn't the main reason creators migrate from Mailchimp to Beehiiv, the monetization and growth infrastructure is.

Beehiiv includes a built-in ad network and a referral or Boosts system for paid subscriber growth, neither of which Mailchimp offers natively, since Mailchimp is built as a general email-marketing tool for businesses, not specifically for newsletter monetization. If you're trying to turn a list into an income stream rather than just maintain a mailing tool, that distinction compounds over time in a way the monthly bill alone doesn't capture.

Beehiiv also gives every post a real, indexable web page with full per-post SEO controls, meaning meta title, description, and slug, turning your newsletter archive into a compounding organic-traffic asset. Mailchimp's newsletter-as-webpage functionality is far more limited.

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Start by exporting your audience. In Mailchimp, go to Audience, then All Contacts, then Export Audience. This pulls a CSV with names, emails, tags, and subscription status — keep this as your backup regardless of what happens next.

Clean the list before importing. Archive unsubscribed and bounced contacts in Mailchimp first. There's no reason to migrate dead weight, and a cleaner list protects your sender reputation on Beehiiv from day one.

Import into Beehiiv. Beehiiv accepts a direct CSV import and automatically tags contacts as imported subscribers rather than organic signups, important for keeping your engagement metrics accurate going forward.

Rebuild your automations manually. Mailchimp's customer journeys don't transfer. Budget an afternoon to recreate your welcome sequence and any drip campaigns directly in Beehiiv's automation builder.

Point your domain and update your forms. Update signup forms, embed codes, and any link-in-bio tools to point to your new Beehiiv-hosted pages before fully cutting over.

Send a test issue before cancelling Mailchimp. Confirm formatting, links, and deliverability look right, then cancel your Mailchimp subscription once you're confident the migration held.

Most creators with lists under 10,000 contacts complete this in a single afternoon.

If you're earlier in the decision and weighing automation depth against a simpler flat-fee platform more broadly, the Kit-to-Beehiiv breakdown covers the same cost-math approach for creators coming from a different platform, worth a read if you're comparing more than one option before committing.

Not always, on raw sticker price at matching contact tiers — Mailchimp Standard is often slightly cheaper per month. The real gap comes from Mailchimp billing you for dead or unsubscribed contacts and from Beehiiv's built-in monetization tools, like the ad network, Boosts, and referral program, that Mailchimp doesn't offer natively.

If your goal is running email marketing for an existing business, Mailchimp may remain the right tool. If your goal is building a newsletter as its own revenue-generating business, through sponsorships, an ad network, or subscriber-referral growth, Beehiiv's infrastructure is purpose-built for that in a way Mailchimp isn't.

Yes, unless you manually archive them, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts count toward your plan's contact limit and your bill. This is one of the most common surprises for creators reviewing their Mailchimp invoice.

For most lists under 10,000 contacts, a single afternoon for the technical steps: export, clean, import, and domain updates. Rebuilding automations from scratch is the most time-consuming part.

No — Mailchimp's customer journeys and automations need to be manually rebuilt inside Beehiiv's automation builder. Prioritize rebuilding your welcome sequence first, since it has the highest impact per hour invested.

Mailchimp isn't necessarily the more expensive platform at every contact tier, but it bills you for dead contacts, and it wasn't built with newsletter-specific monetization in mind the way Beehiiv is. If sponsorships, an ad network, or subscriber-driven growth are part of your plan, that infrastructure gap matters more over time than a few dollars of monthly difference either way.

Migrating from Mailchimp? Grab the free Newsletter Migration Checklist — the exact steps to move without losing a subscriber or a dollar. Get the Checklist →

Start your free Beehiiv account here and compare the real numbers against your current Mailchimp invoice.

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