Mailchimp Cut Its Free Plan (Again): What to Do Now

If you signed up for Mailchimp’s free plan to avoid paying for email marketing, you may have already hit a wall. In January 2026, Mailchimp cut its free plan from 500 contacts to 250 — and removed email automation entirely. For most organizations, 250 contacts is not a business-grade tool. It is barely enough for a school PTA or a small community group.

This article explains exactly what changed, who is affected, and how to migrate to a free or affordable alternative that actually lets you grow.

What Mailchimp Changed

The January 2026 change was not Mailchimp’s first free plan cut. The platform has steadily tightened free access over several years:

• 2019: Free plan covered 2,000 contacts and 10,000 sends per month
• 2024: Contacts reduced to 500, sends reduced to 1,000 per month
• January 2026: Contacts cut again to 250, sends cut to 500 per month, and automation workflows removed from the free plan entirely

That last change is the one that stings most. Automation — welcome sequences, drip campaigns, birthday emails — is not an advanced feature for power users. It is a basic expectation for any email tool in 2026. Removing it from the free plan means that even if 250 contacts is enough for now, you cannot use the tool properly without paying.

The pattern here matters: Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit in 2021, and since then it has been repositioned as part of a broader small business suite. The free plan was always a customer acquisition funnel, and Intuit is making that funnel narrower. This is not likely to reverse.

Who This Affects Most

Small nonprofits and community organizations are the hardest hit. A local food bank, a church, a neighborhood association — these groups often have 300 to 1,500 contacts but no budget for a paid tool. The old 500-contact limit was marginal for them. The new 250-contact limit is functionally unusable.

Freelancers and early-stage businesses using the free plan to stay in touch with clients and prospects will also feel this. 250 contacts is roughly the size of a medium LinkedIn network. Most people hit this ceiling within a year of starting to build a list.

Anyone still on the free plan who signed up before 2024 may now be over the contact limit without realizing it. Mailchimp’s handling of users who exceed the new limit is to restrict sending until you upgrade or delete contacts. You will not lose your data, but your account will be paused.

Option 1: Stay on Mailchimp and Pay

If you are deeply integrated with Mailchimp — years of campaign history, automations, templates, and third-party integrations — migrating has a real cost. Switching tools takes time, and there is always a risk of broken workflows or data loss in the process.

Mailchimp’s Essentials plan starts at around $13/month for 500 contacts. At 1,500 contacts, you are looking at roughly $26.50/month. These prices increase steeply as your list grows. At 10,000 contacts, Mailchimp’s Standard plan costs well over $100/month — a price point where most competitors offer more features for less.

Check Mailchimp’s current pricing page for the latest numbers, since they adjust them regularly.

Staying on Mailchimp makes sense if:

• You have complex automations you cannot replicate easily elsewhere
• Your team is trained on Mailchimp and retraining would be costly
• You rely on Mailchimp’s native Shopify or WooCommerce integrations and e-commerce reporting

It does not make sense if:

• You are a nonprofit or community organization on a tight budget
• You are just starting out and have not built deep integrations yet
• You are paying primarily to stay above 250 contacts with no other pressing feature need

Option 2: Switch to a Free Alternative

Several tools offer genuinely useful free plans in 2026 — with automation included, higher contact limits, and better long-term pricing trajectories. Here are the best options.

MailerLite

MailerLite’s free plan covers 500 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month, includes automation, a landing page builder, and basic reporting. It is the most direct like-for-like replacement for most Mailchimp free users.

The interface is clean and takes most people an hour or less to learn. MailerLite has a direct Mailchimp import tool that brings your contacts over in one step, which makes migration straightforward.

One honest downside: MailerLite reduced its own free plan from 1,000 to 500 subscribers in September 2025. It is worth knowing that they have also tightened their free tier before, though 500 contacts is still double what Mailchimp offers today. Paid plans start at $10/month for 500 subscribers.

Brevo

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) takes a different pricing approach: it charges by emails sent, not by contacts stored. The free plan allows unlimited contacts and 300 emails per day (roughly 9,000 per month).

If you have a large contact list but email infrequently — a monthly newsletter to 2,000 people, for example — Brevo is almost certainly cheaper than Mailchimp at every level. You are not paying for contacts you never email.

The trade-off: Brevo’s interface is more complex than MailerLite’s, and the free plan places Brevo branding on your emails. The automation builder is functional but less polished than competitors. See the Brevo vs Mailchimp comparison for a full feature breakdown.

EmailOctopus

EmailOctopus is the simplest option on this list. The free plan covers 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month — a generous limit that most small businesses will not outgrow for years.

The interface is minimal. Advanced segmentation is limited. There is no CRM, no SMS, and the automation builder handles basic sequences but little more. If you want to send a clean newsletter to a few hundred people without paying, EmailOctopus delivers that without complication.

Benchmark Email

Benchmark Email’s free plan covers 500 contacts and 3,500 sends per month — more generous than Mailchimp’s current limits on both counts. Automation is included, and the drag-and-drop email builder is one of the more intuitive options available.

It is a less prominent name than MailerLite or Brevo, but worth considering if their interfaces do not fit your workflow. Benchmark Email’s free plan has remained stable while others have been cutting theirs, which is a point in its favor.

How to Migrate Away from Mailchimp

Switching platforms sounds painful but is usually straightforward. Most migrations take two to four hours for a typical small-business setup.

Step 1: Export your subscriber list. In Mailchimp, go to Audience → Export Audience. Download the CSV file. This is the foundation of your migration — keep it somewhere safe.

Step 2: Document your automations. Open each automation in Mailchimp and take notes: the trigger, every email in the sequence, the send delays, and any conditions. Most automation logic is simple enough to recreate in 20–30 minutes per workflow.

Step 3: Import into your new tool. Most platforms have a direct CSV import flow. When importing, be honest about consent status — only bring in contacts who actively opted in to receive emails from you. Importing old or purchased contacts will damage your deliverability on the new platform.

Step 4: Rebuild your automations. With your notes from Step 2, recreate each automation in the new platform. Start with your most important sequence — usually a welcome series — and work down. Most basic automations take 15–30 minutes to rebuild.

Step 5: Update your signup forms. Replace any Mailchimp form embed codes on your website with the new platform’s equivalent. If you use a popup or inline form, this is usually a copy-paste. Mailchimp-hosted landing pages will need to be recreated in your new tool.

Step 6: Run both platforms briefly. Send one campaign through the new tool and verify that everything works before cancelling your Mailchimp account. This gives you a safety net if something was not set up correctly.

Which Alternative Is Right for You?

You have under 500 contacts and want automation: MailerLite. It is the most direct Mailchimp replacement with a polished interface and a free plan that covers what the old Mailchimp free plan used to cover.

You have a large list but send infrequently: Brevo. Contact-based pricing at most competitors means you pay for every contact whether you email them or not. Brevo only charges for sends, which makes it significantly cheaper for monthly newsletters to large lists.

You just need something simple and free with room to grow: EmailOctopus. High contact limits, no frills, no cost. Works well for straightforward newsletters.

You are a nonprofit: MailerLite offers a 30% nonprofit discount, making it the most affordable paid option when you outgrow the free tier. Check MailerLite’s nonprofit pricing page for details. Brevo also works well for nonprofits with large, infrequently-emailed lists. For a broader look at free options, see our best free email marketing tools guide.

You are on e-commerce: If you are running a Shopify store, Klaviyo or Omnisend are worth evaluating. Both have free plans and native e-commerce integrations that Mailchimp’s replacements do not match. Our best email marketing for e-commerce guide has the full breakdown.

For a detailed cost comparison across platforms at different list sizes, the email marketing pricing comparison goes into more depth.

The Bottom Line

Mailchimp’s free plan is no longer a viable starting point for most organizations. At 250 contacts with no automation, it is less useful than a spreadsheet and a Gmail account for anyone who actually needs to communicate at scale.

The good news is that the alternatives have never been better. MailerLite, Brevo, and EmailOctopus each offer free plans that surpass what Mailchimp offered two years ago. Migrating takes a few hours, and most people find the switch easier than they expected.

If you are currently over 250 contacts on Mailchimp’s free plan and your sending is paused, the fastest path forward is to export your list today and start a free MailerLite account. You can be sending again before end of day.