Brevo in 2026 prices email by monthly send volume: from $9/month (Starter, 5,000 emails) to $18/month (Standard), plus a new $499/month Professional tier. Paid plans allow generous contact storage and the free plan offers 300 emails/day. This review breaks down the plans, the caps, and who the model serves.
In this review
- Brevo pricing in 2026
- How send-based billing works (and the contact caps)
- The free plan: generous, with strings
- Starter vs Standard vs Professional
- Automation, templates, and Aura AI
- CRM, SMS, and WhatsApp
- Add-ons and the real monthly cost
- Who Brevo is actually for
- Key takeaways
- Brevo FAQs
Brevo pricing in 2026
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue, rebranded in 2023) has four paid marketing plans plus a free tier. Two 2026 changes reshaped the lineup: the mid-tier formerly called Business is now named Standard (same $18 base price), and a new Professional tier starts at $499/month. All prices below are US monthly-billing figures as of Sept 2026, from a 2026 Brevo pricing guide verified against Brevo’s official pricing page — check the vendor’s current pricing page before buying.
| Plan | Entry price | Monthly email volume | Contact storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 300/day (~9,000/mo) | Up to 100,000 |
| Starter | $9/mo | 5,000/mo, up to 100,000 | 500 up to 500,000 (tiered) |
| Standard | $18/mo | 5,000/mo, up to 500,000 | 500 up to 500,000 (tiered) |
| Professional | $499/mo | 150,000/mo, up to 10,000,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Unlimited |
Starter and Standard scale with volume (https://www.omnisend.com/blog/brevo-pricing/):
| Monthly emails | Starter | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | $9/mo | $18/mo |
| 10,000 | $17/mo | $35/mo |
| 20,000 | $32/mo | $69/mo |
| 50,000 | $56/mo | $97/mo |
| 100,000 | $82/mo | $139/mo |
Annual billing runs about 10% cheaper ($8.08/mo equivalent for Starter, $16.17/mo for Standard). If you want the head-to-head math against the biggest contact-based rival, see our Mailchimp vs Brevo comparison — the winner flips depending on how often you email.
How send-based billing works (and the contact caps)
Brevo’s pricing is a send-volume decision, not a contact-count decision. You pick a monthly email volume, and the price follows. This is the entire appeal: a business with 100,000 contacts that sends one monthly newsletter pays for ~100,000 sends, not 100,000 contacts.
But there are contact caps attached to each send tier on Starter and Standard: at 5,000 emails/month you can store 500 contacts; at 10,000 emails, 1,500; at 15,000 emails, 2,500. The caps jump to 500,000 contacts once you reach the 20,000-emails/month tier. This means the cheapest tiers are designed for senders whose list roughly matches their volume — the “unlimited contacts” advantage really kicks in at higher volumes.
Also note that transactional and marketing messages both count toward your sends. If you run order confirmations through Brevo, they eat into the same quota.
Prepaid email credits (5,000 to 1,000,000, from $32 one-time for 5,000) are available on top of plans for occasional overages — they’re non-refundable but never expire, which can keep monthly costs down for spiky senders.
For a deeper explanation of how contact-based, send-based, and subscriber-based pricing compare across the industry, see our guide to email marketing pricing explained.
The free plan: generous, with strings
Brevo’s free plan is one of the more generous entry points in email marketing: 300 emails per day, up to 100,000 stored contacts, transactional email included, drag-and-drop editor, sign-up forms, and even abandoned-cart recovery and basic automation. For a new store with a growing list, it’s genuinely usable — which is rare.
The strings attached:
- Automation capped at 2,000 contacts/month on the free (and Starter) plan — anyone new doesn’t enter your automations once you pass the cap. For a store relying on welcome and cart flows, this is the ceiling that forces an upgrade.
- Daily sending ceiling of 300 emails — fine for drips, unusable for a big launch blast.
- Brevo branding on emails (removable on Standard+; a $12/month add-on on Starter).
- Single user on free and Starter; email support only below Professional.
Still, for validating a business or running a small list, the free plan delivers more than most competitors’ free tiers. If budget is the deciding factor, also see our roundup of the cheapest email marketing software.
Starter vs Standard vs Professional
Starter ($9/mo for 5,000 emails) is the cheapest entry point among major platforms. You get advanced segmentation, forms, basic reporting, and email support. The catches: the 2,000-contact automation cap, branding removal costs $12/month extra, and you get one user seat. At $9 + $12 for branding removal = $21/month, Standard at $18/month (which removes branding by default) is arguably the better buy for anyone who needs a clean brand presentation.
Standard ($18/mo for 5,000 emails) is where Brevo becomes a complete marketing tool: unlimited automation quota (the 2,000-contact cap lifts), A/B testing, AI send-time optimization, click heatmaps, advanced email reporting, marketing automation with real-time event triggers and multiple entry points, and up to three users. For most small businesses, Standard is the sensible tier — the automation unlock alone justifies the extra $9.
Professional ($499/mo from 150,000 emails) is the 2026 newcomer and a steep jump. It adds the ecommerce features many stores need — AI segmentation, back-in-stock alerts, dynamic coupons, contact scoring, pop-ups, multi-branch automation testing, AI product recommendations — plus 10 seats and phone support. The problem: there’s a $499 wall between Standard ($139/mo at 100,000 sends) and the ecommerce toolset. One pricing analysis notes that rival ecommerce-focused tools undercut Brevo Professional for lists under ~30,000 contacts (https://www.omnisend.com/blog/brevo-pricing/). If you need those ecommerce features at moderate scale, price the competitors before committing.
Enterprise is custom-quoted with unlimited contacts, dedicated IP options, SSO, multi-account management, and a customer success manager.
Automation, templates, and Aura AI
Brevo’s automation is available on every plan, which is a genuine differentiator — welcome series and abandoned-cart flows exist even on free. Standard lifts the automation quota to unlimited, and all plans support real-time event triggers and multiple workflow entry points. Aura AI (Brevo’s AI suite) can build automations from a prompt, and 15 pre-built automation templates cover welcome through follow-up flows.
On templates: Brevo’s library is modest — around 50 email templates in paid plans (five basic ones on free) versus several hundred at Mailchimp. The drag-and-drop editor has 13 blocks including a product block that pulls items from a connected store. If visual variety is your priority, this is a step down from the template-heavy platforms.
AI features include Aura AI agents (three available on all plans), AI send-time optimization on Standard+, and MCP integration. Practical rather than flashy — the automation builder and send-time optimization are the two that save real time.
CRM, SMS, and WhatsApp
Brevo is a multichannel platform, not just an email tool — a meaningful distinction from Mailchimp:
- Sales CRM is included free on all plans (Sales Free: 50 open deals, one pipeline, automated meeting scheduling, revenue reports). Paid upgrades — Sales Essentials at $31/month per seat and Sales Advanced at $65/month per seat — add multi-user access, sales automation, and VoIP. For B2B sellers and service businesses, the free CRM is a real bonus.
- SMS is available on all plans with credits sold in bundles of 100 (from $1.09 for 100 credits to US destinations), and credits never expire. You don’t need a paid email plan to buy SMS credits. Brevo supports SMS in 180+ countries.
- WhatsApp is exclusive to Professional and Enterprise plans.
- Web push and mobile push are available on select plans.
If SMS is part of your strategy, Brevo’s low-volume SMS pricing (100-credit bundles, no expiry) is friendlier than platforms that start at 1,000-credit monthly bundles. For the full comparison, our Mailchimp vs Brevo piece includes an SMS pricing table.
Add-ons and the real monthly cost
Brevo’s headline prices are honest, but budget for these:
- Branding removal: $12/month on Starter (included from Standard up).
- Extra seats: $12/month per seat on Standard (3 included); 10 included on Professional.
- Sales packages: $31–$65/month per seat for Essentials/Advanced.
- Dedicated IP: $251/year on Professional (included in Enterprise).
- SAML SSO: $324/month on Professional.
A realistic small-business stack — Standard at $18/month with no add-ons — genuinely costs $18/month. That’s the appeal: Brevo’s base price is close to its real price, unlike platforms where SMS and transactional email stack on top.
Who Brevo is actually for
Brevo is a good fit for:
- Businesses with large lists emailed infrequently. The send-based model is purpose-built for this: 100,000 contacts emailed monthly costs a fraction of what contact-based platforms charge.
- Budget-conscious beginners. A $9/month entry point and a genuinely usable free plan make Brevo one of the cheapest on-ramps in email marketing.
- Multichannel senders. Email + SMS + CRM in one account, with SMS credits that never expire — strong for service businesses and B2B.
- High-volume senders at moderate scale. $82/month (Starter) or $139/month (Standard) for 100,000 monthly emails is competitive.
Brevo is a poor fit for:
- Ecommerce stores needing advanced ecommerce features at moderate scale. The $499/month Professional wall for AI segmentation, back-in-stock alerts, and dynamic coupons is hard to justify under ~30,000 contacts.
- Template-driven marketers. ~50 templates versus 380+ elsewhere; the editor is capable but the library is thin.
- Frequent senders to small lists. If you email a 2,000-contact list daily (60,000 sends), you’re paying $65–$104/month where a contact-based tool might charge $20–$45.
For automation-heavy marketers weighing the other end of the market, our ActiveCampaign vs Brevo comparison pits Brevo’s value against the deepest automation builder in the category.
- Brevo prices by monthly email volume: Starter from $9/mo, Standard from $18/mo, Professional from $499/mo, with annual billing ~10% cheaper.
- Paid plans allow generous contact storage (up to 500,000 at higher send tiers), making Brevo cheap for large, rarely-emailed lists.
- Free plan: 300 emails/day, up to 100,000 contacts, transactional email included — but automations capped at 2,000 contacts/month.
- Standard ($18/mo) lifts the automation cap, removes branding, and adds A/B testing and AI send-time optimization — the sensible tier for most businesses.
- The 2026 Professional tier ($499/mo) gates key ecommerce features behind a steep jump; price competitors before committing.
- SMS credits start at 100-message bundles and never expire; a free sales CRM is included on all plans.
- All pricing as of Sept 2026; check Brevo’s current pricing page before purchasing.
Brevo FAQs
How much does Brevo cost in 2026?
Starter starts at $9/month for 5,000 emails, Standard at $18/month for 5,000 emails, and the new Professional tier starts at $499/month for 150,000 emails. The free plan covers 300 emails/day. Prices scale with monthly email volume, and annual billing is about 10% cheaper. All figures as of Sept 2026 — check Brevo’s current pricing page.
Is Brevo really cheaper than Mailchimp?
For large lists emailed infrequently, yes — Brevo’s send-based pricing with generous contact storage undercuts Mailchimp’s contact-based pricing significantly. For small lists emailed frequently, Mailchimp’s contact-based model can work out cheaper. It depends entirely on your list size and sending frequency.
Does Brevo have a free plan?
Yes — 300 emails per day, up to 100,000 stored contacts, transactional email, forms, and basic automation (capped at 2,000 contacts/month for automations). It’s one of the more usable free tiers available.
What changed in Brevo’s pricing in 2026?
The Business tier was renamed to Standard (same $18 base price), and a new Professional tier launched at $499/month for high-volume senders, adding advanced ecommerce features, 10 seats, and phone support.
Conclusion
Brevo in 2026 is the value pick for anyone whose list is bigger than their sending volume. The $9/month entry point, a genuinely usable free plan, send-based pricing, and an included CRM make it one of the most honestly priced platforms in email marketing. Standard at $18/month is the sweet spot for most small businesses.
The caveats are real but bounded: thin template library, the 2,000-contact automation cap on cheaper tiers, and the $499 Professional wall for serious ecommerce features. If your use case fits Brevo’s model — moderate sending, growing list, multichannel ambitions — few platforms deliver more per dollar. If you need deep ecommerce automation at moderate scale, compare carefully before the Professional tier locks you in.