MailerLite Pricing Explained: What You Actually Pay as Your List Grows
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The problem: "starts at $12" tells you almost nothing
Every email tool advertises a friendly starting price, and every email tool quietly charges more as your subscriber list grows. So the number on the homepage — MailerLite's is $12 a month — answers the wrong question. The question that matters is: what will this cost when my list is 1,000 people? 5,000? What happens the month I cross a limit?
This page works through MailerLite's actual numbers, tier by tier, in plain language: what the free plan really covers, what the paid Comfort plan costs at common list sizes, how the sending limit works, and the billing rules that surprise people. If you want the broader verdict on the tool itself, it is in the full MailerLite review. This page is just about the money.
The free plan: real, but deliberately small
MailerLite's free plan costs $0 and covers up to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails per month. It is not a stripped-down demo: it includes campaigns, up to 3 automations, one website and one landing page, and signup forms. For a brand-new list, that is enough to learn the tool and send a real newsletter.
Two things to know. First, the limit is a hard wall, not a soft one: if your active subscribers pass 250 on the free plan, sending locks until you upgrade or remove subscribers. Second, free is a starting point, not a home. A list that is growing at all will reach 250 people, and at that moment you move to a paid plan. That is by design, and it is fine — as long as you know what the first paid steps cost. They are below.
Comfort: the plan most small lists will actually buy
Comfort is MailerLite's main paid plan for solopreneurs and small teams. MailerLite prices by usage rather than features, which means Comfort includes the full toolset — automations, landing pages, the AI writing assistant, logo removal — and the price rises with your subscriber count:
| Subscribers (up to) | Comfort, monthly billing | Comfort, billed yearly (per month) | Emails included per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $12 | $10.80 | 5,000 |
| 1,000 | $19 | $17.10 | 10,000 |
| 2,500 | $33 | $29.70 | 25,000 |
| 5,000 | $49 | $44.10 | 50,000 |
| 10,000 | $89 | $80.10 | 100,000 |
Read the table the way your list will actually move through it. The first step off free is gentle: $12 a month for up to 500 subscribers. At 1,000 subscribers you are paying $19 — still less than most people expect. The steps get bigger as the list grows ($33, then $49, then $89), but they grow roughly in step with the audience that is supposed to be paying for the tool through sales, bookings, or subscriptions. Yearly billing takes 10% off every tier, shown in the middle column.
The sending rule: 10 times your tier
Comfort's monthly email allowance is 10 times the top of your subscriber tier. On the 1,000-subscriber tier you get 10,000 emails a month, whether you have 200 subscribers or 900. One email to one subscriber counts as one send, so a weekly newsletter to a list of 900 uses about 3,600 sends a month — comfortably inside the allowance. In practice, the 10x rule covers roughly two sends a week to your whole list. If you send much more often than that — daily deals, multiple funnels — the Power plan removes the cap with unlimited monthly emails (from $25 a month at 500 subscribers, $39 at 1,000), and adds unlimited automations and seats.
How billing actually works (the parts people miss)
- You are billed on active subscribers, counted cumulatively. Anyone who was active at any point in the billing cycle counts toward your limit, even if you delete them before the cycle ends. Cleaning your list still helps — it just takes effect at the next cycle reset.
- Paid plans upgrade automatically. If your list grows past your tier on a paid plan, MailerLite moves you to the next tier and charges the difference, with a notification in your account. Your sending is never interrupted — but your bill does rise without you clicking "buy," so it is worth knowing your tier.
- Unsubscribes and bounces do not count. Only active subscribers are billed.
- There is a 14-day premium trial. Every new account can test the paid features for 14 days before paying anything.
- Nonprofits get 30% off paid plans, which is unusually generous and worth claiming if it applies to you.
The honest conclusion
MailerLite's pricing is built for the way small lists actually grow: free until 250 subscribers, a $12 first step, and increases that track your audience instead of jumping to enterprise levels. The things to watch are the automatic tier upgrades and the 10x sending rule on Comfort — neither is unfair, but both reward checking your numbers once in a while. If those terms fit how you send, the full review covers whether the tool itself fits how you work, and the MailerLite vs Kit comparison shows how these prices stack up against the main creator-focused alternative.