Single list size

What Mailchimp costs at 1,000 contacts

One thousand contacts is not a published Mailchimp slider stop. The public table steps from 500 straight to 1,500, so a 1,000 contact list pays the 1,500 tier price, and Essentials and Standard here are derived from that tier rather than read at 1,000. Premium stays on its flat floor through 10,000 contacts, so that cell is derived from the verified entry sticker.

Snapshot 3, checked 14 September 2026. Child of Mailchimp pricing. Sibling of Mailchimp cost at 2,500 contacts. Vendor pricing page.

The three answers

Essentials: $26.50; 15,000 monthly sends. Derived: a 1,000 contact list pays the 1,500 tier and gets its send limit.
Standard: $45; 18,000 monthly sends. Derived: a 1,000 contact list pays the 1,500 tier and gets its send limit.
Premium: $350; Same flat floor through 10,000 contacts, with that base's 150,000 monthly sends. Derived from the verified entry sticker.

All three plans at exactly 1,000 contacts

Monthly billing. Mailchimp publishes no standing annual rate, so there is no yearly figure to compare against.

Prices are compiled from public vendor pages and can lag behind a change. Cells marked Der are calculated from published rules and cells marked Est are rough figures. Neither is an invoice or a quote, so confirm with the vendor before you spend.

Plan	Monthly	Confidence	Note
Essentials	$26.50	Derived	15,000 monthly sends included, the limit of the 501-1,500 band a 1,000 contact list is billed in, so derived like the price. Entry paid plan. Scheduling, basic testing, 3 audiences, 10 times contacts in monthly sends. Confidence on this stop is derived.
Standard	$45	Derived	18,000 monthly sends included, the limit of the 501-1,500 band a 1,000 contact list is billed in, so derived like the price. The plan most Mailchimp buyers land on. Multi step journeys, send time optimisation, 5 audiences, 12 times contacts in monthly sends. Confidence on this stop is derived.
Premium	$350	Derived	150,000 monthly sends included, the limit of Premium's 350 dollar base, which covers up to 10,000 contacts, so derived. Flat and expensive at the bottom, tiered above 10,000 contacts. Unlimited audiences and users, 15 times contacts in monthly sends. Confidence on this stop is derived.

Mailchimp at 1,000 contacts, month to month billing, checked 25 September 2026. Essentials and Standard are derived from the 1,500 tier. Premium is derived flat.

Why this stop is derived from the 1,500 tier

The public Mailchimp table steps from 500 contacts straight to 1,500. Essentials at $26.50 and Standard at $45 here are the 1,500 tier prices, which is what a 1,000 contact list pays, so confidence is derived rather than verified. The pricing page printed both for the 501 to 1,500 contact band on 25 September 2026. The verified Essentials entry at 500 is $13; the next verified Essentials stop is $45 at 2,500.

Standard moves from the verified $20 entry at 500 to this derived 1,500 tier price, then to the verified $60 stop at 2,500. Premium stays $350 until the verified 10,000 floor.

$26.50 a month is $318 a year on Essentials, and Mailchimp has no flat annual prepay price to reduce it. Discounts arrive as promotions instead, and the most recent one recorded here, 15 percent off for 12 months, only opens up above 10,000 contacts. So a 1,000 contact list pays the sticker price.

What the number does and does not include

The contact count that sets the tier is not the number of people who can receive a campaign. Unsubscribed and non subscribed contacts count until they are archived. A list showing 1,000 contacts in the dashboard can hold well under 1,000 mailable addresses. What each vendor counts is recorded here.

Going over 1,000 contacts does not stop the account. Mailchimp adds a charge for the overage to the bill for that month, so an invoice can sit above the tier price in the table while the pricing page still reads the same.

What everyone else charges at 1,000

Cheapest paid plan each tracked vendor sells at the same list size. Plan names differ, so features differ.

Vendor	Plan	Monthly	Confidence	Note
Mailchimp	Essentials	$26.50	Derived	Essentials. Mailchimp's table steps from 500 to 1,500 contacts, so a 1,000 contact list pays the 1,500 tier price. The pricing page prints 26.50 dollars a month for the 501 to 1,500 contact band, read on 25 September 2026.
MailerLite	Comfort	$19	Verified	Comfort. Published stop on the MailerLite pricing slider, read on 4 October 2026. The yearly price per month is printed on the slider.
Kit	Creator	$39	Verified	Creator. Read off the Kit pricing slider at 1,000 subscribers. Yearly is 390 dollars.
Brevo	Standard	$35	Derived	Standard. Derived from the 10,000 send band, forced by the 1,500 contact cap rather than by send volume. The calculator prints 35 dollars for the band, or 31.50 a month paid yearly.
beehiiv	Scale	$49	Verified	Scale. Entry stop. Annual works out at 517 dollars a year.
ActiveCampaign	Starter	$19	Verified	Starter. Entry stop. Annual billing is 15 a month, monthly billing is 19.

Cheapest paid plan per vendor at 1,000 contacts, month to month billing, snapshot 3. Brevo is priced on 4 sends per contact per month rather than list size.

The lowest published price at this size is MailerLite and ActiveCampaign. That is a price comparison and not a recommendation: the plans in this table are not feature matched, Kit and beehiiv still cover 1,000 subscribers on free tiers, and the Brevo row rests on a send assumption rather than a list size.

Mailchimp Essentials at $26.50 sits among the paid options here, and it is the Mailchimp plan with the smallest send allowance. The reason to pay it is the rest of the product, not the price of the tier.