"The practice of charging for unsubscribed contacts -- meaning you pay for contacts who will never receive another email -- remains one of the most criticised billing practices in the industry." … "The Trustpilot reviews are dominated by three themes: support that is effectively nonexistent below the $350/month Premium plan, pricing increases that caught long-time users off guard, and the unsubscribed contact billing practice" (2.7/5 from 1,365 reviews, 67% one-star).
I ran Mailchimp's public cancellation complaints through my churn tool
"'Expensive' is the #1 complaint everywhere. Increases stack right at the contact tiers, so the bill jumps exactly when you grow. Billed for contacts you can't email. Pricing counts unsubscribed contacts unless you archive them by hand. Free plan gutted. Down to 250 contacts, and automation moved behind a paywall in 2025. The trust killer. People canceling and still getting charged — some 're-signed up' without asking."
Mailchimp Pricing 2026: Real Cost & Fees | StackCut
"Every contact counts toward your billing tier — subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-opted-in alike — until you manually archive them." … "When you exceed your contact or send limit, Mailchimp automatically adds extra email blocks and charges your next invoice — without an upgrade prompt or warning. The exact overage pricing isn't publicly listed, making costs impossible to predict." … "Since Intuit acquired Mailchimp for $12B in 2021, pricing has increased 20-30% across paid tiers … the free plan was gutted from 2,000 contacts to 250 — an 87.5% reduction — and an additional 11-13% increase was implemented in April 2026, pushing Premium's base to $375+/mo."
"Cleaned and Unsubscribed Contacts Still Billed — 10-30% of license costs." Quoted customer: "they charged an extra $15 for 500 additional subscribers—even though I actually only have up to 2,500 subscribers—but they count both 'cleaned' and 'unsubscribed' ones. $64 a month!" … "Mailchimp charges based on contact count, including unsubscribed and inactive contacts."
Best Email APIs