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Pricing · 2026

Klaviyo pricing (2026): profiles, email, SMS — and the bill people miss

Email scales with active profiles. SMS is a second, dollar-based meter. The expensive mistake is paying HubSpot prices for a Shopify list — or staying Free until a 251st profile pauses the welcome series.

Gregory Greenstein, Aiacent

  • Published
  • Updated
  • Pricing verified
  • 15 min read
  • How we rank
01

Klaviyo

8.9/10

Best ecommerce CRM

Email and SMS for ecommerce, now with a serious AI layer.

Klaviyo is not 'an AI tool.' It is the ecommerce CRM that added AI in the places that matter: segments, subject lines, product recommendations, and (carefully) content. That is why it leads our ecommerce ranking, the 2026 marketing stack, and the AI email ranking. The brands making money on owned channels already live here; the AI features are leverage, not the reason the category exists.

Best for
Shopify-class brands that make money from owned channels.
Skip if
You send a monthly newsletter from Mailchimp and that is the whole program.

Why it ranks

  • Still the default marketing OS for serious ecommerce
  • AI helps with segments, content, and predictions — on top of a real platform
  • SMS, email, and reviews in one customer graph

Watch-outs

  • Bills grow with your success, which feels like a tax
  • You can over-message if you turn every AI suggestion on
  • B2B / non-commerce CRM use is a stretch
Start with KlaviyoFull Klaviyo review

Product look

Klaviyo

Figure slot. No vendor screenshot until we have a rights-cleared file.

Klaviyo product look — screenshot slot reserved. Add a rights-cleared capture at public/figures/klaviyo.png. We do not hotlink vendor UIs.

People search 'Klaviyo pricing' because they want the $20 number, or because finance asked why a 'free CRM' now invoices profiles, SMS, Composer, and a helpdesk. Those are different tickets. If you do not name whether you needed a Shopify lifecycle graph, a newsletter, or a B2B hub, you will treat Klaviyo as a cheaper HubSpot — or stay on 250 profiles until the welcome flow pauses mid-launch.

This is a cost page, not a feature dump. Public plan shape was checked against klaviyo.com/pricing, Klaviyo Help ('How Klaviyo billing works'), and Klaviyo's July 2026 mobile-messaging FAQ on 19 September 2026. The email slider is usage-based and moves. We will not paste a 20-row ladder that the calculator will outdate, invent a deliverability lab, or invent a partner URL. The full review is /tools/klaviyo. HubSpot vs Klaviyo is the two-way. The email ranking is the four-way with Mailchimp and Brevo. The ecommerce ranking is the store desk.

Klaviyo cost in 2026, at a glance

What you are buyingPublic price / shapeWhat it actually is
Free (Marketing)$0 — 250 active profiles, 500 emails/mo, $5 mobile, $5 ComposerA real taste of flows and forms. Not a store at scale.
Email (Profile + Email)First paid band commonly ~$20/mo (about 251–500 profiles)The lifecycle graph. Send caps scale with the band (often ~10× profiles).
Email at a working listCommon slider rows: ~$60 at 2,500; ~$100 at 5,000; ~$400 at 25,000Still email-only. SMS is not hiding in this number.
Mobile messaging (SMS / MMS / WhatsApp)Separate monthly spend pack; $5 included on Free; dollar rates by channel and regionAs of 13 July 2026, credits are gone. Unused dollars do not roll.
Reviews / Customer Hub / ServiceSeparate SKUs on the same accountNot 'the email plan.' Do not bury a helpdesk in a profile slide.
Shape from klaviyo.com/pricing and Klaviyo Help, checked 19 September 2026. Email bands are usage on active profiles. Representative paid rows below are commonly published public-slider points from 2026 recaps of the same calculator — confirm the live band before you treat a blog as the invoice.
  • Klaviyo bills monthly. There is no honest 'annual Klaviyo Pro' discount hiding on the marketing page we checked.
  • Active profiles — people who may receive marketing — are the email meter. A dirty list is a price increase. Suppress, don't hoard.
  • Mobile messaging is a second product: you buy a monthly dollar pack ($15 / $25 and up are typical public starting packs), then spend it at per-message rates that vary by country, channel, and number type. Short codes are another line.
  • Composer, Reviews, Customer Hub, Helpdesk / Customer Agent, and Advanced KDP sit next to email. Flexible overages exist on some meters and not others — read Help, not a Twitter thread.
  • AI subject lines and segments ride on the graph you already pay for. They are not a cheaper plan.

Stay on Free if the list is still a test

Free is a real product: 250 active profiles, 500 sends, $5 of mobile, $5 of Composer, the editors, the automations, the Shopify (or peer) sync. Email support for the first 60 days, then community and docs. Stay here while you prove abandoned checkout is not an insult and the catalog events actually fire.

Leave Free the week the 251st profile or the 501st send is the launch, not a surprise. Klaviyo will pause you. That is the product working. Do not leave Free because a deck said 'AI email CRM' and showed HubSpot Professional. If you are still a newsletter, Mailchimp is allowed — HubSpot vs Klaviyo already says so.

Pay for email when owned channels are the business

The paid email plan is the honest Klaviyo. Profiles from the store, flows, suppression, a customer graph a retention marketer can live in. AI is leverage after the welcome series exists. It is not why the category exists, and it is why Klaviyo still leads the ecommerce ranking (8.9) and the email ranking.

Buy the band that matches the list you will keep clean — not the list you imported from a 2019 popup. A commonly published first paid row is about $20 a month. A 5,000-profile shop that actually sends often lands near $100 email-only on the public slider. A 25,000-profile brand is a different meeting. Confirm the calculator. Skip paid Klaviyo if you are B2B SaaS looking for a product-led lifecycle tool — that is usually HubSpot. Skip it if the catalog and tracking are a mess; a better ESP will not invent events.

  • Best for: Shopify-class brands whose P&L is flows, SMS, and a list they will suppress
  • Skip if: the pipeline is the source of truth, or you send a monthly letter and that is the whole program
  • Honest watch-out: most 'Klaviyo is expensive' stories are overlapping automations and a dirty profile count, not a rival ESP.

Price SMS as a second invoice — because it is one

On 13 July 2026 Klaviyo moved mobile messaging from credits to dollar-based per-message rates. You still buy a monthly spend pack up front. You now see the dollar cost by channel and region instead of a credit conversion. Unused dollars do not carry over. Toll-free and short-code US/Canada rates are separate. WhatsApp spends the same pack at WhatsApp rates.

That is why 'Klaviyo is $20' slides lie. A store that texts a sale to the whole list bought a second product. Size the pack from last month's actual sends, not from a keynote. Skip SMS if you have not earned the email flow. Buying a $45 pack because a competitor texts is how you become an inbox pest with a second meter.

Klaviyo vs HubSpot vs Mailchimp vs Brevo, as a bill

HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional is a platform: public catalog rows have sat around $890 a month with seats and a required onboarding fee. That is not a $20 ESP. HubSpot wins when the send has to sit on the opportunity. Klaviyo wins when the money is in abandoned checkout. Forcing one trophy is how this page exists. HubSpot vs Klaviyo is the longer split.

Mailchimp wins a newsletter and a few automations. Brevo wins when the bill is the leak and SMS still has to go out — not at 40,000 profiles you already monetize. Switching off Klaviyo to save a month and then rebuilding flows is how small stores lose a quarter. The email ranking is the scored four-way. A sane AI stack for ecommerce is the store ladder.

What we are not pricing

  • A 20-row profile ladder as the 2026 invoice. Klaviyo's calculator is the source of truth; blogs go stale.
  • A deliverability or open-rate lab. We did not run 400-send tests or invent a review count.
  • Reviews, Customer Hub, Helpdesk, or Advanced KDP as if they were the email plan.
  • A per-message SMS rate for your country. Those live in-account and changed in July 2026.
  • A fake Impact or PartnerStack URL. Until a real partner link is set, the CTA goes to klaviyo.com.
Most 'what does Klaviyo cost' tickets are a clean-list email ticket, an SMS-pack ticket, or a HubSpot-is-the-wrong-graph ticket. The pricing page is doing too much work if you have not named the channel.— Aiacent pricing, 2026

Verdict

List under 250 and still proving events: Free. Shopify-class brand, flows you will suppress, a list that prints money: paid email at the band you actually have, annual is not a thing — pay monthly and clean the profiles. SMS only after the email flow is not an insult, sized as a dollar pack. HubSpot if the send has to know the deal. Mailchimp if the program is still a newsletter. Brevo if the bill is the leak and you are not already living in Klaviyo. Then read HubSpot vs Klaviyo if both logos are in the deck, the email ranking for the four-way scores, the ecommerce ranking for the store stack, and a sane AI stack for ecommerce if the next seat is Photoroom, not another ESP.

FAQ

Free covers 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month. Paid email commonly starts around $20 a month and scales with profiles — a 5,000-profile band often lands near $100 email-only on the public slider. SMS is a separate monthly dollar pack. Confirm klaviyo.com/pricing.