Constant Contact Pricing for Small Businesses: What You'll Actually Pay at 500 to 5,000 Contacts

The short answer: Constant Contact has no free plan. With up to 500 contacts, it costs $12, $35, or $80 a month for the Lite, Standard, or Premium plan, billed monthly. At 2,501 to 5,000 contacts, those become $80, $110, and $200 a month. Most local businesses should start on Lite and move to Standard only if they need scheduled sends, A/B tests, or more than one automation. If your budget is under about $30 a month and you have more than 1,000 contacts, a cheaper tool such as Kit's free plan or Brevo will probably fit better.

Prices here are as of October 2026. Constant Contact changes them, so confirm your exact tier on the official pricing page before you pay. We haven't used Constant Contact ourselves. This guide is based on its pricing page, plan pages, and help-community answers from its staff, plus a few third-party price trackers where the official numbers weren't available to us. Figures marked "est:" come from those trackers, not from Constant Contact.

Why the price is hard to pin down

Small-business owners ask this all the time. On Constant Contact's own community forum, people ask what 4,000 contacts would cost, how to lower their monthly bill, and what the 30-day trial actually includes. Some Capterra reviewers say it gets expensive as the list grows.

The confusion comes from three things:

1. Two numbers set the price: the plan (Lite, Standard, or Premium) and your contact tier.
2. The headline prices are for 500 contacts. Most small businesses have more than that.
3. The pricing page shows annual-prepay prices in some places and monthly prices in others. For example, the pricing page has shown Lite at $10.20/month billed annually, while Constant Contact's blog and FAQ list it at $12/month. Both are correct. One is the monthly price, and the other is the price with the up-to-15% prepay discount.

What Constant Contact costs at common list sizes

All prices below are per month on monthly billing.

We couldn't open Constant Contact's pricing page directly, and we found no official source for prices between 501 and 2,500 contacts. The trackers don't agree with each other, so treat the est: rows as rough ranges and check the tier dropdown on the pricing page for your real number.

What that means over a year: A shop with 1,800 contacts on Lite would pay roughly $50 a month on monthly billing (est:, third-party figure), and up to 15% less if it prepays 12 months. A nonprofit with 4,000 contacts on Standard would pay $110 a month, or $1,320 a year before any discount.

How contacts are counted

Two billing rules can change which tier you land in:

• Unsubscribed contacts don't count. Constant Contact staff say they bill only for "active" contacts. Unsubscribed contacts are inactive and aren't billed. Bounced contacts still count until you remove them. This is the opposite of Mailchimp, which bills newer accounts for unsubscribed contacts.
• You pay for the highest tier you hit. If you move into a higher contact tier during a billing period, you're billed at that tier, and the billing team can't lower it by hand afterward. If you're about to import an old list, remove bounced and long-inactive addresses first.

Send limits and overage

Each plan lets you send a multiple of your contact count each month: 10 times on Lite, 12 times on Standard, and 24 times on Premium. With 2,000 contacts on Lite, that's 20,000 sends a month, which is plenty for a weekly newsletter. If you go over, your emails still go out, and the extra sends are billed at $0.002 each ($2 per 1,000) on the next bill. Most small businesses won't hit these limits.

The free trial: what you can and can't do

• Length: 30 days. The trial page says no credit card is required.
• Sends: Capped at 100 email sends in total, according to Constant Contact's community team. Each email to each contact counts as one send. Upload your list, build a few campaigns, and test them, but you can't send a real newsletter to 2,000 people during the trial.
• After it ends: The same community answer says your contacts, test emails, and reports are kept, so you can upgrade without starting over.

Use the trial to check the editor, signup forms, and how your list imports. Don't expect to learn how your emails perform.

Lite, Standard, or Premium: what each plan adds

Feature lists below are from the pricing page and plan pages.

Lite covers the basics: the email editor, signup forms, contact management, one user, one automation template, one custom segment, and basic reporting. The Lite plan page lists live chat and phone support.

Standard adds the features most growing businesses miss on Lite:

• Email scheduling
• Subject-line A/B testing
• Automatic resend to people who didn't open
• Three automation templates and 10 custom segments
• AI campaign building
• Up to three users

Premium adds unlimited users, unlimited custom automations and segments, dynamic content, SEO recommendations, a Google Ads tool, revenue reporting, and 500 SMS messages a month. The Premium page also lists a priority support team. On Lite and Standard, SMS is a paid add-on.

How to choose:

• Lite if you send a monthly or weekly update, work alone, and need at most one automation, such as a welcome email.
• Standard if you want to schedule campaigns ahead, test subject lines, resend to non-openers, or share the account with up to two colleagues. For most small businesses that outgrow Lite, this is the next step.
• Premium if you need several custom automations, SMS, revenue tracking for an online store, or more than three users. At 2,501 to 5,000 contacts, Premium costs $90 a month more than Standard, so be sure you'll use those features.

Discounts that can lower the bill

• Prepay: The pricing page says prepaying 12 months saves up to 15%. That's how Lite drops from $12 to $10.20 a month at 500 contacts.
• Nonprofits: Constant Contact offers a nonprofit discount on prepaid plans. The size is unverified (est: 20% for 6 months prepaid, 30% for 12 months). Those numbers come from a version of the pricing page that is about three years old, and TechRadar also reports 30%. Confirm the current discount, and which plans it covers, with Constant Contact before you prepay. Prepayments are non-refundable, and the discount isn't applied retroactively, so get your nonprofit status approved first.

Constant Contact: who it fits

Who should not choose Constant Contact: solo creators who only send a newsletter (Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers), businesses with big lists that email only occasionally (Brevo charges by sends), and anyone whose main reason for paying is multi-step automation (ActiveCampaign is built for that).

Start a Constant Contact trial

Cheaper options at 500 to 5,000 contacts

We cover these in more depth in our Mailchimp alternatives guide. Here's how they compare with Constant Contact for the same reader.

Kit: free if you mainly send a newsletter

Kit's pricing page lists a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers. You get forms, landing pages, broadcasts, and tagging. Automated sequences need the Creator plan, which is $39/month for up to 1,000 subscribers on monthly billing. Kit is built for creators, so a shop or service business may find it less suited to promotional emails. See our Kit vs. ActiveCampaign comparison for how it handles automation.

Not for you if: you want phone support, or you run promotions and events rather than a newsletter.

Try Kit's free plan

Brevo: priced by emails sent, not contacts

Brevo's free plan allows 300 emails a day, and Starter is from $9/month for 5,000 emails a month. With 4,000 contacts and one email a month, Starter covers you. Constant Contact Lite would cost $80 a month at that size. If you email the whole list every week, you'll need a bigger Brevo tier, so price it on Brevo's slider. Our Brevo free plan guide explains the daily cap.

Not for you if: you email your whole list several times a week.

See Brevo's plans

ActiveCampaign: if automation is the reason you're paying

ActiveCampaign has no free plan. Starter is $15/month for 1,000 contacts, billed annually. We couldn't confirm its prices at 2,500 or 5,000 contacts, so check the slider. Choose it over Constant Contact Premium only if automation is the main reason you're paying.

Not for you if: you just send a newsletter and want a gentle learning curve.

Compare ActiveCampaign plans

Quick decision guide

• You have under 500 contacts and want support you can call: Constant Contact Lite at $12 a month is reasonable.
• You have 1,000 to 5,000 contacts and email once or twice a month: Price Brevo first. It will likely cost much less than Constant Contact Lite at that size (est: $30 to $50 in the middle tiers, $80 at 2,501 to 5,000).
• You send a weekly newsletter and nothing else: Start on Kit's free plan.
• You need scheduling, A/B tests, and a couple of automations, and want phone help: Constant Contact Standard. Budget roughly $55 to $110 a month in this range (est:, the middle tiers come from third-party trackers).
• You're a nonprofit: Ask Constant Contact to confirm the current nonprofit prepay discount before signing up. It isn't applied after you pay.

FAQ

Does Constant Contact have a free plan?

No. It has a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, capped at 100 email sends. After that, the cheapest plan is Lite at $12 a month for up to 500 contacts.

What happens if my list grows mid-month?

You're billed at the highest contact tier you reach in that billing period. To stay in a lower tier, remove bounced and inactive contacts before importing new ones.

Do unsubscribed contacts count toward my bill?

No. Constant Contact staff say unsubscribed contacts are inactive and not billed. Bounced contacts still count until you remove them.

Is SMS included?

Only on Premium, which includes 500 SMS messages a month. On Lite and Standard, SMS is a paid add-on. Check the current add-on price on the pricing page.

What if I go over my monthly send limit?

Your emails still go out, and the overage is billed at $0.002 per email ($2 per 1,000) on your next bill.

Bottom line

For a small business with 500 to 5,000 contacts, Constant Contact costs between $12 and $200 a month, depending on plan and list size. Lite works if you want a simple tool with phone support. Standard is where most businesses end up once they want scheduling and testing. If those features or the support don't matter to you, a free or send-based tool will usually cost less. Use the 30-day trial to test the editor and import, and enter your exact contact count on Constant Contact's site before you choose.