Klaviyo pricing in 2026: plans and real cost

Short answer. Klaviyo's base marketing cost depends on active profiles and email volume, while mobile messaging and several additional products have their own consumption or profile-based pricing. The free plan currently supports up to 250 active profiles and 500 monthly email sends. Use the live calculator for an exact quote, then add implementation, creative, data, and operating costs before comparing platforms.

Klaviyo pricing looks simple until profiles grow, campaign frequency changes, SMS enters the plan, and optional products are added. The right budget is not the number shown for one contact tier. It is the cost of the capacity the brand needs across a full commercial calendar, plus the people and systems required to use it well.

This guide was reviewed on July 16, 2026 against Klaviyo's official pricing page, billing documentation, and active profile management guide. Prices and product packaging change, so use the official calculator before any purchase decision.

What determines the Klaviyo bill?

For the base Profiles and Email plan, Klaviyo currently uses two main dimensions:

1. the number of active profiles in the account;
2. the number of emails sent during the billing cycle.

The plan must cover the active profile count. It also includes a defined email-send allowance. The account can distribute those sends unevenly, such as sending more often to a high-value segment and less often to colder profiles.

Mobile Messaging is separate. Klaviyo's billing documentation describes a prepaid monthly spend used across supported mobile channels and regions, with message cost varying by channel and destination. Unused mobile messaging dollars do not currently roll over to the next month. Short codes, where used, are billed separately.

Other products can add independent pricing logic. Reviews, Customer Hub, Helpdesk, Customer Agent, Marketing Analytics, Advanced Klaviyo Data Platform, and emerging platform products should be scoped separately. Do not assume a feature shown in the interface is included in the base marketing plan.

What is an active profile?

Klaviyo defines an active profile as a profile that can be emailed through the platform, regardless of whether the person has explicitly subscribed to recurring marketing. This can include subscribers and profiles created through general engagement, such as entering an email during checkout.

That distinction matters:

• an active profile can affect the plan tier even if the person should not receive a promotional campaign;
• marketing eligibility still depends on consent and applicable rules;
• a store integration can add active profiles through purchases or abandoned checkouts;
• importing a large database can change the required tier before campaigns start.

Active does not mean subscribed, engaged, or profitable. It is a platform and billing state. Keep consent, deliverability engagement, customer value, and billing eligibility as separate concepts.

Suppressed profiles are ineligible for marketing email and, according to Klaviyo's current documentation, do not count toward the base billing plan's active profile total. Suppression should still follow a defensible lifecycle policy. It is not a shortcut for deleting valuable customers or overriding consent records.

Current free plan limits

As of the review date, Klaviyo's US pricing page lists the free plan with:

• up to 250 active profiles;
• 500 email sends per month;
• $5 of mobile messages per month;
• built-in reporting;
• limited support conditions described on the pricing page.

The free tier is useful for validating an integration, event data, template system, and initial flows at very small scale. It is not a realistic production budget for a growing store with more than 250 active profiles or a normal campaign cadence.

Never copy an old tier table into a procurement document without checking the live currency, market selector, profile count, and product bundle. Taxes and commercial terms also depend on the buyer.

What happens when profiles or sends exceed the plan?

Klaviyo currently treats profile and send limits differently.

When the active profile limit is exceeded, the platform says it will notify the account and move it to a profile-compliant plan for the next billing cycle. Reducing the active count at least 24 hours before the next billing cycle is required to avoid that profile-based change. Free accounts over the profile limit cannot continue email sending or set flow emails live until they are back within the limit.

When message volume reaches its allowance, the documented options can include:

• stop sending until the next cycle;
• manually or automatically upgrade;
• use flexible overages where eligible.

Flexible sending adds capacity without permanently moving the base plan, but Klaviyo notes that its unit economics can be more expensive than upgrading. It can fit an occasional peak such as Black Friday, while repeated overages usually indicate that the base plan is wrong.

Review Billing Preferences before a seasonal period. Automatic upgrade, flexible overage, and manual stop behavior have materially different budget and customer-experience consequences.

Build a real Klaviyo cost model

Use a 12-month model rather than one monthly screenshot.

Model three cases:

1. expected growth and normal campaign cadence;
2. peak season with higher sends and mobile usage;
3. conservative revenue period with the same software commitments.

Use gross margin or contribution margin in the business case, not only attributed revenue. A platform can report high revenue while discounts, returns, and operational cost weaken the economics.

Profile count is not the same as sendable audience

Break the database into operational groups:

• active and marketable;
• active but not subscribed to recurring marketing;
• subscribed but recently unengaged;
• customers who are reachable only for an appropriate transactional purpose;
• suppressed;
• invalid or duplicate identities.

Then determine what each group should receive. High-volume campaigns should normally target an engagement-aware audience. Triggered flows need event-specific eligibility. A broad active count is useful for billing but too crude for campaign strategy.

Klaviyo distinguishes active profile management from list cleaning. List cleaning protects sender reputation by excluding unengaged recipients from regular campaigns. Active profile management suppresses people after sustained inactivity when the business no longer sees a realistic reactivation opportunity. The timing should reflect the purchase cycle and customer value.

How to control the bill responsibly

Audit unexpected profile creation

Check store integration behavior, imports, API calls, forms, third-party apps, and test profiles. Identify why a profile becomes active and whether the identity is valid.

Use a sunset policy

Run a final reactivation sequence for appropriately eligible contacts, then suppress people who meet a documented long-term inactivity rule. Use clicks, purchases, site behavior, and expected replenishment cycles rather than opens alone.

Delete test and duplicate records carefully

Normalize identities at collection and integration layers. Do not delete a profile merely to reduce the bill if it contains required consent, suppression, or customer history. Confirm retention obligations with the appropriate owner.

Review billing preferences before peaks

Set an owner for profile thresholds, email capacity, mobile spend, and invoices. Decide whether a peak should use a higher base tier, flexible overage, or reduced campaign frequency.

Measure incremental value

Use holdouts for major flows and campaigns where practical. Report delivered messages, net revenue, margin, unsubscribe, complaint, and repeat behavior. Attribution alone cannot tell you whether the platform caused the outcome.

Klaviyo pricing versus Brevo or Omnisend

A direct monthly-price comparison can be misleading because vendors use different billing units, inclusions, and product depth.

Brevo has historically emphasized email volume and plan features, while Klaviyo's base plan centers active profiles plus sends. Omnisend has its own contact and message rules. All three change packaging over time.

Compare one operational specification:

• exact marketable and active profile counts;
• monthly and seasonal email volume;
• SMS countries and volume;
• required ecommerce events and catalog depth;
• flow complexity and reporting;
• users, support, and service levels;
• implementation and migration work;
• expected annual growth.

Then price the same specification on each official calculator. A cheaper platform that needs manual exports, weaker data, or additional tools may produce a higher total cost. A more capable platform can also be poor value if the team never implements the capabilities.

Questions to ask before buying

Ask the vendor or implementation partner:

1. Which profiles count toward each product?
2. What exactly triggers a tier change?
3. What happens at send or mobile messaging limits?
4. Which add-ons are required for the proposed use cases?
5. How are peak-season overages handled?
6. Which support level is included?
7. What is the contract term and downgrade process?
8. How will taxes and currency apply?
9. Which implementation work is outside the subscription?
10. How will data be exported if the company later migrates?

Save the dated assumptions with the quote. This prevents a later comparison between an outdated public price and a different contracted package.

FAQ about Klaviyo pricing

Is Klaviyo free?

Yes at very small scale. As reviewed July 16, 2026, the free plan supports up to 250 active profiles and 500 monthly emails, plus a small mobile messaging allowance. Verify the current official page.

Do unsubscribed profiles count toward Klaviyo pricing?

The key billing state is whether a profile is active and email-reachable in Klaviyo, not simply whether it is labeled subscribed. Suppressed profiles currently do not count toward the base active-profile total. Inspect the actual account state.

Is SMS included in the email plan?

Mobile messaging uses separate monthly spend and regional message costs. The free tier currently includes a small allowance, but production SMS should be budgeted independently.

What is Klaviyo's price for 5,000 or 25,000 profiles?

Use the live calculator with the correct country, active profile count, send volume, channels, and products. Static figures become stale and may not match your configuration.

Can I lower the bill by suppressing inactive profiles?

Yes when suppression follows a considered inactivity policy. Do not suppress too early or use billing as the only criterion. Protect consent history, customer data, and realistic reactivation value.

Price the operating model, not the logo

The useful question is whether Klaviyo's full annual cost is justified by the lifecycle the team can actually operate. Deliver models profiles and volume, audits unnecessary cost, and builds the program behind the subscription. Request a Klaviyo cost and lifecycle audit.