Two completely different units of billing. One charges for the list you keep; the other charges for the emails you actually send. The math flips depending on which kind of sender you are.
Most “Mailchimp vs X” comparisons end up being a features argument. This one is simpler and more useful than that: Mailchimp and Brevo literally bill you for different things, and figuring out which unit matches your sending pattern tells you almost everything you need to know before touching the feature list.
Mailchimp bills by contact count, with Essentials from $13/month at 500 contacts. Brevo bills by email volume sent, with a free plan allowing unlimited contacts up to 100,000, and Starter from $9/month for 5,000 emails.
| Feature | Mailchimp | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Contacts stored | Emails sent |
| Free plan contact limit | 250 | 100,000 |
| Free plan daily send cap | ~16/day (500/mo) | 300/day |
| Entry paid tier | $13/mo (500 contacts) | $9/mo (5,000 emails) |
| Cost scales with list size alone | ✓ | ✗ (scales with sends instead) |
| Cost stays flat for large, quiet lists | ✗ | ✓ |
The billing unit that decides everything else
Why this single fact matters more than any feature comparison.
Bottom line: Mailchimp's price is a function of how many contacts you store, full stop; Essentials runs $13/month and Standard $20/month at a 500-contact tier, and that price holds whether you email those contacts once a month or every day. Brevo's price is a function of how many emails you actually send; its free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts at zero cost, with sending capped at 300/day, and Starter runs from $9/month for 5,000 emails regardless of whether your list is 500 contacts or 50,000. Neither model is a trick; they're genuinely different ways to price the same underlying service, and the "cheaper" platform depends entirely on your contacts-to-sends ratio.
Don't pick based on which platform's headline price looks lower in isolation. Calculate your actual monthly send volume against your contact count first; that ratio determines which billing model wins for you.
Free plan comparison: 250 contacts vs 100,000
An order-of-magnitude gap on the storage side.
Bottom line: Mailchimp's free plan caps contacts at 250; Brevo's allows up to 100,000, a difference of several orders of magnitude. The catch is Brevo's free plan also caps daily sends at 300, meaning a brand with 50,000 contacts can store them all for free but can't email a meaningful fraction of that list in a single day without upgrading. For a brand building a large list before it starts sending in earnest (a pre-launch waitlist, for example), Brevo's free plan lets you accumulate contacts at no cost in a way Mailchimp's 250-contact ceiling never allows.
Which sender profile each model actually favors
Working through the two realistic scenarios.
Bottom line: A brand with a large list that sends rarely, like a publisher with a once-weekly digest to 40,000 subscribers, pays for 40,000 contacts every month on Mailchimp regardless of send frequency, while paying only for the roughly 160,000 emails actually sent (4 sends x 40,000) on Brevo. A brand with a smaller, highly-engaged list that emails daily, like a transactional e-commerce flow to 2,000 customers, can rack up well over 60,000 sends a month on Brevo's volume-based model while Mailchimp's contact-based price stays flat at the 2,000-contact tier. Match the billing model to your actual sending pattern, not to list size alone.
Divide your monthly email sends by your contact count. A low ratio (rarely emailing a big list) favors Brevo. A high ratio (frequently emailing a smaller list) favors Mailchimp.
Should I choose Mailchimp or Brevo?
Bottom line: Brevo suits large lists emailed infrequently; Mailchimp suits smaller lists emailed frequently, where contact-based pricing stays predictable.
- Your list is relatively small but you send daily or near-daily
- You'd rather have predictable cost tied to list size, not send volume
- You run transactional or high-frequency automated flows
- You want the roundup's higher-rated platform at 4.6/5
- Your contacts-to-sends ratio is high
- Your list is large but you email it infrequently
- You want to store a large list for free while it grows
- You'd rather pay for actual usage than stored contacts
- You're building a pre-launch list before sending begins
- Your contacts-to-sends ratio is low
Neither platform is cheaper in every scenario, the deciding factor is your contacts-to-sends ratio, not the headline price or the roundup score.
For a large list sent to rarely, Brevo's volume-based model wins decisively. For a smaller list sent to frequently, Mailchimp's contact-based model holds up better, with the added benefit of a broader general feature set.
Before signing up for either, estimate your actual monthly send volume against your contact count and run both pricing calculators with real numbers rather than assuming either platform is the default cheaper option.
The most common questions teams ask when choosing between Mailchimp and Brevo Mailchimp bills on how many contacts you store, regardless of how often you email them. Brevo bills on how many emails you actually send, and lets you store up to 100,000 contacts for free regardless of how many you email. A large, infrequently-emailed list costs far more on Mailchimp than on Brevo. Yes, up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan, with sending capped at 300 emails per day. Mailchimp's free plan caps contacts at 250, a difference of several orders of magnitude on the storage side, though Brevo's daily send cap means high-volume senders still need a paid plan. For a large list with moderate send frequency, usually yes. Brevo's Starter plan runs from $9/month for 5,000 emails regardless of how many contacts you store, while Mailchimp's price rises with contact count even if you send infrequently. For a list that sends very high email volume relative to its size, the gap narrows or can reverse. Neither is universally better; it depends on the ratio of your contact count to your actual send frequency. A large list that's emailed rarely favors Brevo's volume-based model. A smaller list that's emailed very frequently can favor Mailchimp's contact-based model, since Brevo's cost rises with every send regardless of list size. Both platforms maintain established sending infrastructure and publish their own deliverability guidance, but this comparison focuses on pricing model and plan structure rather than inbox-placement testing. Check our full Best Email Marketing Software roundup for deliverability benchmarking across the category.Frequently asked questions: Mailchimp vs Brevo
What's the real difference between Mailchimp and Brevo pricing?
Does Brevo's free plan really allow unlimited contacts?
Is Brevo cheaper than Mailchimp for a large contact list?
Which pricing model is better, contact-based or email-volume-based?
Does Mailchimp or Brevo have better deliverability?
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