Klaviyo prices you on active profile count, not on how many emails you send. That's been true since February 2025, when Klaviyo moved from send-volume billing to active-profile-based billing.
Free covers up to 250 active profiles. Paid plans start at $20/month for email only, or around $35/month with SMS included, and scale up from there based on how many active profiles you're paying to reach, not your total list size or send volume.
Here's what that actually means tier by tier, what changed and why it matters, and what to do if the number still feels too high.
How Klaviyo actually charges you
An "active profile" is anyone who can currently receive your emails, meaning they haven't bounced, unsubscribed, or been suppressed. It is not your total contact count.
This is the single most important thing to understand about your bill, because it means a large but poorly maintained list costs you more than the same list cleaned properly. Two brands with 50,000 total contacts can pay very different amounts depending on how many of those contacts are actually active. This is a genuine reason to care about list hygiene beyond deliverability, it's now a direct cost lever too.
Read: The Importance of Using a Single List in Klaviyo
What changed in February 2025
Before February 2025, Klaviyo billed primarily on email send volume, with a cap of roughly 10 times your profile count in monthly sends. That model rewarded brands who sent less, regardless of list quality.
The shift to active-profile-based billing means your cost now tracks who's actually reachable on your list, not how often you email them. If your last major pricing review predates this change, it's worth a full re-check, since the underlying logic of what drives your bill has genuinely changed, not just the numbers on it.
What it actually costs, module by module
Klaviyo isn't one number that scales with your list. It's several separately-priced modules, and what you pay depends on which ones you turn on.
Email, priced by active profiles: $150/month at 10,000 active profiles, $400/month at 35,000, and $1,380/month at 100,000. The relationship isn't linear, cost per profile actually falls as you scale, so modelling your cost off a per-profile rate from a smaller tier will overestimate what a larger list actually costs.
Composer, Klaviyo's AI agent for drafting and analysing campaigns, is priced separately in "Composer credits" rather than bundled into the Email tier. It's currently running a 20%-off introductory rate, worth checking the live calculator for the standing price once that promotion ends.
Mobile Messages (SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, and RCS) are priced by volume and destination country, not by active profile count, and sit as their own line entirely separate from Email.
Social Marketing is priced by active profiles like Email, currently under its own introductory pricing through 30 September 2026, and is worth noting that Klaviyo's own tool flags it as affecting your Email, Customer Hub, and Marketing Analytics pricing if you adjust the shared profile slider, since several modules draw from the same active-profile count.
Reviews is priced differently again, by orders per month rather than profiles or messages, starting around $25/month at 250 orders.
Read: 11-Point Checklist: Leveraging Klaviyo's AI Functions
SMS costs specifically
SMS sits inside the Mobile Messages module above, priced by volume and destination country rather than folded into your Email bill. Budget it as its own line, since it won't move in lockstep with your Email tier if your list grows but your SMS-opted-in segment doesn't.
How to choose a plan without overpaying
Size your plan around your engaged segment, not your total list. If your list is 40,000 contacts but only 15,000 are genuinely active and engaged, pricing and planning against 40,000 means you're likely paying to retain contacts who aren't generating any return.
This is exactly where list hygiene stops being a deliverability best practice and becomes a direct cost decision, since every inactive profile you clean out under the new billing model is money, not just a vanity metric.
How to Automate List Cleaning with Klaviyo Webhooks
How to Create a Segmentation Strategy in Klaviyo
Is Klaviyo worth it compared to Mailchimp or Brevo?
Klaviyo's pricing is rarely the cheapest option on paper against Mailchimp or Brevo. What it buys you is meaningfully deeper segmentation and behavioural data tied directly to Shopify, which is the entire foundation the four core flows (Welcome, Abandoned Cart, Post-Purchase, Browse Abandonment) run on. For a Shopify-first ecommerce brand, that data depth is usually worth the premium. For a brand without meaningful behavioural data to act on, a cheaper generic ESP may genuinely be the more sensible choice.
If the cost still feels too high
Two different approaches, depending on how deep you want to go. For a hands-on-the-database rebuild covering sunset segments, suppression flows, and even negotiating SMS rates between vendors, Klaviyo Pricing Changes: How to Reduce Costs walks through the technical build. For a faster checklist with a rough dollar estimate attached to each tactic, from list cleaning through to catching accidental tier jumps before they hit your bill, 10 Ways to Reduce Your Klaviyo Costs covers the same ground in a more actionable, checklist format.
If you're still getting familiar with the platform itself before worrying about the bill, How Does Klaviyo Work? covers the fundamentals first.
Frequently asked questions
How does Klaviyo's contact-based pricing compare to platforms that charge per email send?
Since February 2025, Klaviyo charges based on active profile count, not send volume. A platform billing per email send charges more the more often you email the same list. Klaviyo's model instead rewards keeping your list clean and active, since inactive profiles cost you regardless of how often you actually email them.
Can you use Klaviyo for free?
Yes, up to 250 active profiles, with roughly 500 email sends and 150 SMS credits a month included, though the free tier carries Klaviyo branding and limited support.
Does Klaviyo SMS cost the same as email?
No. SMS is billed separately in credits, and the cost per credit depends on the recipient's country and the message length, so it needs its own budget line rather than being assumed to scale with your email plan.
What happens if I go over my plan's limit?
Your account moves up to the next tier based on active profile count. Accounts spending over roughly $10,000/month move into Klaviyo One, which carries an additional surcharge.
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