Brevo Pricing 2026: Free vs Starter vs Standard vs Professional, the Contact Cliff, and API Limits
Brevo costs $9 a month on Starter, $18 on Standard and $499 on Professional billed monthly, about 10% less yearly, as of October 20, 2026. But Starter and Standard include only 5,000 emails and 500 contacts: past 2,500 contacts you must buy the 20,000-email tier, $32 on Starter or $69 on Standard. Here is what a 3-person office with 3,000 contacts really pays, and the API limits that break automations.
How much does Brevo cost? The short answer
As of October 20, 2026, Brevo has a Free plan, then Starter at $9 a month, Standard at $18 and Professional at $499, billed monthly, with about 10% off on yearly billing ($8.08, $16.17 and $449.08 a month). Enterprise starts at $2,499 a month. Those Starter and Standard prices buy only 5,000 emails and 500 contacts. Your contact count, not your sends, usually sets the real price: past 2,500 contacts you jump to the 20,000-email tier, which is $32 a month on Starter and $69 on Standard.
We read brevo.com/pricing, its plan comparison page, the machine-readable pricing file Brevo publishes for its pricing API, and Brevo's API rate-limit documentation on October 20, 2026. The cost examples below are our arithmetic on those numbers. SuperDupr builds email and SMS automations for service businesses; we do not resell Brevo.
Brevo plans compared
| Free | Starter | Standard | Professional | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price a month, billed monthly | $0 | $9 | $18 | $499 |
| Price a year, billed yearly | $0 | $97 | $194 | $5,389 |
| Emails included | 300 a day | 5,000 a month | 5,000 a month | 150,000 a month |
| Contacts at the entry tier | Up to 100,000 | 500 | 500 | Up to 2,000,000 |
| Users | 1 | 1 | Up to 3 ($12 a month per extra seat) | 10 included |
| Marketing automation | Up to 2,000 contacts | Up to 2,000 contacts | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| "Sent with Brevo" footer removed | No | $12 a month add-on | Included | Included |
| Inbound webhooks | No | No | No | Yes |
Professional's $499 is a $350 base plus $149 for its 150,000 included emails, which is how Brevo's pricing file splits it. Every plan includes transactional email by API and SMTP, outbound webhooks, the Zapier connector and Brevo's MCP server for ChatGPT and Claude. SMS and WhatsApp are prepaid credits priced by country, and we did not price them here.
The contact cliff: why 2,501 contacts costs more than 20,000 emails
This is the part Brevo's headline price hides. On Starter and Standard, each email tier carries a contact cap: 5,000 emails a month allows 500 contacts, 10,000 allows 1,500, 15,000 allows 2,500, and every tier from 20,000 emails up allows 500,000. So the tier you buy is set by whichever runs out first, your list or your sends.
| Email tier | Contact cap | Starter, monthly | Standard, monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | 500 | $9 | $18 |
| 10,000 | 1,500 | $17 | $35 |
| 15,000 | 2,500 | $25 | $49 |
| 20,000 | 500,000 | $32 | $69 |
| 50,000 | 500,000 | $56 | $97 |
| 100,000 | 500,000 | $82 | $139 |
A business with 2,600 contacts that sends 4,000 emails a month still has to buy the 20,000 tier. On Standard that is $69 instead of $49, a 41% jump for 100 extra contacts. Once you are past 2,500 contacts, though, the next 497,000 cost nothing extra until your sends grow, so a growing list stops changing the bill.
The Free plan works the other way round. It stores up to 100,000 contacts but sends 300 emails a day. A 3,000-person newsletter takes 10 days to go out, which is fine for storage and a test, and not for a business that wants one send on a Tuesday morning.
Two add-ons that cost more than the upgrade
- Logo removal on Starter. It is $12 a month. Starter plus logo removal is $21 a month, and Standard, which includes it, is $18. On yearly billing it is $226.60 against $194. If the footer matters, buy Standard.
- Extra seats. Starter is one user only. Standard takes up to three at $12 a month for each extra seat, so a three-person office pays $24 a month in seats on top of the email tier. Professional includes 10.
Brevo's CRM is a separate package: Sales Free with one seat, or Sales Essentials at $31 a month for one seat ($27.92 a month on yearly billing). If you are choosing a CRM first and email second, our HubSpot vs Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM comparison prices the usual shortlist by seat.
A worked bill: a 3-person office with 3,000 contacts
Take a service business with 3,000 contacts and three staff who log in. It sends a newsletter twice a month (6,000 emails), runs a welcome and follow-up automation (about 1,500 emails), and sends booking confirmations and reminders through Brevo's transactional API (about 2,000). That is roughly 9,500 emails a month. These volumes are illustrative, not Brevo's numbers.
| Line | Why | Monthly billing | Yearly billing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard plan | Automation for more than 2,000 contacts | $18 | $194 |
| 20,000-email tier | 3,000 contacts is past the 2,500 cap | $51 | $551 |
| 2 extra seats | Three users | $24 | $259.20 |
| Total | $93 a month | $1,004.20 a year ($83.68 a month) |
The business uses fewer than half of its 20,000 emails; the contact count chose the tier. Starter would be $32 a month for the same tier, but it caps automation at 2,000 contacts and one user, so 1,000 contacts would never get the follow-up sequence. Brevo counts campaign and transactional emails against the same monthly volume, so the booking reminders a scheduling system sends through Brevo spend the same allowance as the newsletter.
The limits that break automations
- API rate limits are hourly, and some are low. Below Professional, Brevo allows 1,000 transactional sends a second, 10 contact requests a second (36,000 an hour) and 10 event posts a second. Endpoints Brevo's table does not list separately fall under "all other endpoints" at 100 requests an hour, and 200 on Professional. Backfilling 2,000 records through one of those endpoints at one call each takes 20 hours on Standard.
- Inbound webhooks are Professional only. On Free, Starter and Standard, an outside system (your booking tool, your CRM, a form) cannot push an event into Brevo by webhook to start an automation. The workaround is to send it to Brevo's events API, which is on every plan, from your own code or an automation platform.
- A 429 means wait. Over a limit, Brevo returns 429 Too Many Requests and rate-limit headers that say when to retry. A workflow that does not read them drops contacts silently during an import.
- Automation is capped by contacts, not runs. Free and Starter run multi-step automations for up to 2,000 contacts; Standard and above are unlimited. There is no per-run meter on Brevo's own workflows, which is the opposite of how automation platforms bill.
How Brevo fits into AI and workflow automations
Brevo is usually the last step of a workflow, not the brain of it: a form or a booking creates the contact, an automation platform or custom code decides what happens next, and Brevo sends the email or text. Moving data in through Zapier, Make or n8n adds that platform's own meter on top of Brevo's plan; our automation platform pricing guide prices one lead workflow on each, and how much Zapier costs covers the task math if Zapier is the one you already pay for. If the same workflow also texts customers, those messages are Brevo SMS credits or a carrier bill such as the per-segment rates in our Twilio pricing breakdown. Brevo's MCP server, included on every plan, lets an assistant like Claude read and edit campaigns and contacts directly, which is useful for a person, but it does not replace an automation that runs on its own.
Is Brevo worth it?
For a small business under 2,500 contacts that wants newsletters, a few automations and transactional email in one account, Standard at $18 to $49 a month is hard to beat, because transactional email and unlimited automations are included rather than metered. Check two numbers before you commit: your contact count against the tier caps above, and whether you need inbound webhooks, which push you to Professional at $499. That jump from $69 to $499 is where a team should price a custom build alongside it.
Who can build email and SMS automation on Brevo for my business?
If you need a newsletter and a welcome sequence, set it up yourself on Starter or Standard. Bring in a builder when the emails depend on live data from other systems: a reminder that knows the job was rescheduled, a follow-up that changes with what the customer bought, an AI step that writes the message from your own records. SuperDupr, Justin McKelvey's company, builds that as an AI email and SMS marketing project published at $8,000 to $15,000, with $200 to $2,000 a month ongoing depending on volume, and most AI systems go live in 2 to 4 weeks. We build on Brevo when it fits and on other senders when it does not, and the first step is a free 30-minute strategy session.
Sources
- Brevo pricing page (brevo.com/pricing), read October 20, 2026: Starter $9, Standard $18 and Professional $499 a month on monthly billing, $8.08, $16.17 and $449.08 on yearly billing; Enterprise from $2,499; logo removal; Sales Essentials; the FAQ on the Free plan's 300 emails a day and on commitment periods.
- Brevo plan comparison (brevo.com/pricing/see-all-features), read October 20, 2026: users per plan, automation limited to 2,000 contacts on Free and Starter, contact limits, inbound and outbound webhooks, Zapier connector, MCP.
- Brevo machine-readable pricing (brevo.com/pricing.md, generated from Brevo's pricing API) and the pricing API itself (pricing-backend.brevo.com), read October 20, 2026: yearly totals, email-tier add-on prices, contact limits by tier, seat prices, the Professional base and email-credit split.
- Brevo API rate limits (developers.brevo.com/docs/api-limits), read October 20, 2026: general and advanced limits by endpoint, 429 handling.
- Worked example: SuperDupr's arithmetic on the published prices above for an assumed 3-user office with 3,000 contacts and about 9,500 emails a month.
Frequently Asked Questions
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As of October 20, 2026, Brevo Starter is $9 a month, Standard is $18 and Professional is $499 on monthly billing, or $8.08, $16.17 and $449.08 a month on yearly billing. Enterprise starts at $2,499 a month. Starter and Standard prices include 5,000 emails and 500 contacts; more of either costs more.
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Yes, Brevo has a free-forever plan with no card required. It stores up to 100,000 contacts but sends at most 300 emails a day, runs multi-step automations for up to 2,000 contacts, allows one user and keeps the Brevo footer on emails.
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It depends on the email tier you buy: 500 contacts at 5,000 emails a month, 1,500 at 10,000, 2,500 at 15,000, and 500,000 at 20,000 emails and above. A list of 2,501 or more contacts means the 20,000-email tier, which is $32 a month on Starter and $69 on Standard.
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Yes. Brevo's plan volume covers campaigns and transactional emails together, so booking confirmations or receipts sent through Brevo's API or SMTP spend the same monthly allowance as newsletters. Transactional email itself is included on every plan.
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On every plan below Professional, Brevo allows 1,000 transactional email sends a second, 10 requests a second (36,000 an hour) to the contacts endpoints, 10 a second for events, and 100 requests an hour for endpoints not listed separately. Professional and Enterprise get higher limits, for example 200 an hour on those other endpoints.
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SuperDupr, Justin McKelvey's company, builds AI email and SMS marketing systems that send from tools like Brevo using live data from your booking, CRM and job software, published at $8,000 to $15,000 with $200 to $2,000 a month ongoing. Most AI systems go live in 2 to 4 weeks. SuperDupr does not resell Brevo.