What Email Marketing Costs at 5k, 25k and 100k Contacts

Email marketing costs between $31.50 and $63 a month at 5,000 contacts, between $94.50 and $210 at 25,000, and between $345 and $624 at 100,000, on the entry paid plans of the seven platforms we priced, billed monthly. EmailOctopus had the lowest monthly figure at all three sizes; the most expensive changed with list size.

Every price here was read on the vendor's own pricing page on 22 September 2026, in US dollars before tax. Where the price sits behind a slider or a drop-down, we moved the control to each list size and recorded what it showed. Prices change often; check the vendor's page before you buy.

The price table

The table shows each platform's entry paid plan — its cheapest paid plan — at three list sizes, first on monthly billing and then on annual billing expressed per month.

AWeber publishes its annual prices as yearly totals — $600, $2,100 and $6,000 — which we divided by 12. Sender's annual list price equals twelve monthly payments; the lower figure is a 30% discount for first-time users that applies to the first year only.

How to read the table

Each row is the cheapest paid plan on that platform, and the plans are not identical. GetResponse Starter sends without a monthly cap and includes three users; AWeber Lite allows one email list and three automations; EmailOctopus Pro includes unlimited users. The table tells you the entry price; the reviews and the ranked list of the best email marketing software tell you what the price buys.

We chose 5,000, 25,000 and 100,000 because they bracket the small and mid-sized lists this site is written for, and because most vendors publish a price at or very near each size. MailerLite is included because buyers ask how it compares; we do not review or link it.

At 5,000 contacts

At 5,000 contacts the monthly bill ran from $31.50 for EmailOctopus Pro to $63 for Benchmark Pro — exactly double. Sender Standard ($39), Moosend Pro ($48), MailerLite Comfort ($49), GetResponse Starter ($54) and AWeber Lite ($60) sat in between.

At this size the differences are small in absolute terms — about $380 a year between the cheapest and the dearest — and features should decide. A team that needs several logins would find Benchmark's $15-a-month charge for each extra user outweighing its price gap, while a solo owner can take the cheapest plan that runs their automations.

At 25,000 contacts

At 25,000 contacts the spread widens: $94.50 a month for EmailOctopus Pro against $210 for AWeber Lite, a gap of $115.50 a month or $1,386 a year. The middle of the field bunched between $149 (Sender) and $179 (MailerLite and Benchmark).

This is the size where annual billing starts to matter. GetResponse Starter drops from $174 to $142.68 a month on annual billing and Moosend Pro from $160 to $128 — savings of about $376 and $384 over a year.

At 100,000 contacts

At 100,000 contacts the ranking shifts again. EmailOctopus Pro stays lowest at $345 a month on monthly billing, Sender Standard follows at $367, and Moosend Pro — mid-table at the smaller sizes — becomes the most expensive at $624.

Per contact, prices fall as lists grow. EmailOctopus works out to $6.30 per 1,000 contacts at 5,000 and $3.45 per 1,000 at 100,000; GetResponse from $10.80 to $5.39. Above 100,000, two of them stop publishing prices: Benchmark and AWeber both ask larger senders to contact sales.

Where annual billing changes the order

On annual billing the cheapest option changes at two of the three sizes, but only for a year. Sender's first-year discount brings Standard to $27.30 a month at 5,000 contacts and $256.90 at 100,000 — below EmailOctopus's annual $28 and $310 — and then the discount ends and Sender returns to $39 and $367.

Averaged over two years, the picture flips back: at 5,000 contacts Sender costs $27.30 a month in year one and $39 in year two, an average of $33.15, against EmailOctopus's steady $28 on annual billing. Compare two-year totals, not first-year headlines. The Sender review sets out the first-year and second-year bills side by side.

Why the prices differ so much

The spread in the table comes from what each vendor bundles into its entry plan, not from the cost of sending an email. Three differences account for most of it.

First, what the plan includes. GetResponse Starter lists unlimited sends and three users; AWeber Lite caps you at one list and three automations; EmailOctopus Pro focuses on sending and forms. A plan that bundles more usually costs more at the same size.

Second, how the vendor steps its tiers. Some rise smoothly with the list; Moosend's Pro climbs steeply at the top, from $160 at 25,000 to $624 at 100,000, nearly four times the price for four times the list. EmailOctopus goes from $94.50 to $345 over the same step.

Third, the billing model. Annual discounts ranged from none on Sender's list price to about 20% on Moosend, and one vendor's discount lasts only a year. Always compare the same billing term across vendors.

Brevo and Mailchimp, priced differently

Two well-known platforms do not fit the table. Brevo prices by the emails you send each month, not by contacts: Starter is listed at $9 a month from 5,000 emails, and its price at higher volumes sits in a calculator we could not read reliably, so we do not estimate it. For a large list emailed rarely, it can undercut every row above; model your own volume on its page.

Mailchimp pays us nothing, but it is the price most people know. After its current 50%-off offer ends, Standard costs $100 a month at 2,501–5,000 contacts, $310 at 20,001–25,000 and $800 at 75,001–100,000 — above every row in the table at each size.

Costs outside the headline price

The headline price is rarely the whole bill. Four extras catch businesses out:

• Seats. Benchmark Pro includes one user; each extra is $15 a month.
• The automation tier. GetResponse Starter includes one custom automation workflow; unlimited workflows start on Marketer, $59 a month at 1,000 contacts against Starter's $19.
• Send caps. List-priced plans cap monthly sends at a multiple of the list — AWeber Lite 10×, Sender Standard 12× — so a daily sender may need the next plan.
• Selling fees. AWeber charges a transaction fee on sales made through its ecommerce tools: 1.0% on Lite and 0.6% on Plus.

Working out your own number

Use the table as a starting point and do the sum for your own list, with each vendor's pricing page open:

1. Take your list size today and your realistic size in twelve months.
2. Multiply the list size by the number of campaigns you send a month, and check the plan's send cap.
3. Price the plan at the twelve-month size, on monthly and on annual billing.
4. Add extra seats, the automation tier if you need it, and any selling fees.
5. For a discounted first year, add the second-year price and compare two-year totals.

If your total comes out near zero, a free plan may do — see the free email marketing software guide.