In this article we'll explain:

• How billing is calculated.
• Which Subscribers count.
• How to view your Subscriber total.
• How to view the billing rate in your account.
• When you will be billed.
• Automatic early tier upgrades.
• Subscriber count grace periods.
• Managing subscriber tier.
• Missed payments and account access.
• Account status.
• How to change your plan.
• Monthly send limits and temporary waivers.
• What happens when you reach your send limit.

How billing is calculated

When you select a plan, the price is based on the subscriber tier you choose during purchase. 

Your price may change if you exceed:

• Your subscriber tier
• Your email send limits

Below are the tiers for the first 50,000 subscribers. Prices vary by region—check your account or our pricing page to view costs in your local currency.

^*The Lite plan send limit includes all email types. The Essentials plan has unlimited sends for campaigns, journeys, and RSS emails, but has a limit for transactional sending. The Premier plan has unlimited sends for all email types.

Your bill is determined by the number of subscribers you have at the time your bill is due. For example, if you have five lists with 8,000 active subscribers on each list, your bill will be calculated based on a total of 40,000 subscribers (8,000 subscribers x 5 lists = 40,000). This would put you in the pricing tier of 25,001-50,000 subscribers.

Which subscribers count

Subscribers with a status of unsubscribed, bounced, unconfirmed or deleted — as well as those on the suppression list — are not counted toward the total for billing.

However, if the same email address is active on multiple lists, it counts multiple times against the total. To avoid active subscriber duplication, use segments to create sub-lists instead of having separate lists for different audiences, or campaign sends.

View the current subscriber total

To see how many subscribers you have, open the Lists & subscribers section, then look at the number under "Total subscribers". This is the total number of subscribers across all of your lists.

View the billing rate in your account

To look up your current monthly rate, or view the pricing for the next tier:

1. Click your profile image in the top-right corner, then select Billing.
2. Under Plan and billing, you'll see your current plan and renewal rate.
3. To view plan options or change your plan, click Manage plan in the top right corner. This will show you the cost of the three plans based on the subscriber tier you select.

When you will be billed

• When you select a plan, the first charge is applied immediately.
• Charges recur monthly or annually, depending on your selection, and are billed to the credit card on file.
• Billing periods renew at the same time every cycle. For example, if your first monthly charge occurs at 2:38 PM, each subsequent charge will happen at the same time.
• To see what time the next billing period starts, check when the last invoice notification email was received.

If a billing period starts on the 31st, payments occur on the last day of shorter months but revert to the 31st for subsequent cycles.

While bills are always charged at the same time, you may be billed at other times for events such as early tier upgrades, when send limits are exceeded, or to pay for design and spam tests (only on the Lite plan).

Automatic early tier upgrades

If your subscriber count surpasses the limit of your current Subscriber tier within your current billing cycle, we will automatically move you to the next tier after a short grace period. A pro-rated charge will apply based on the remaining days in your current billing cycle. The new tier remains active unless you manually reduce your subscribers and downgrade to a lower tier.

Although subscriber tiers are automatically upgraded if you exceed your current subscriber limit, downgrades require manual action. A pending downgrade request will remain in place, but it's your responsibility to reduce your subscriber count within the lower tier's range before your next billing cycle — otherwise the downgrade will not trigger. 

Subscriber count grace period

We understand that subscriber numbers can fluctuate and if you briefly exceed your tier’s limit, a short grace period is applied before any upgrade is triggered. This helps avoid unnecessary changes due to temporary spikes. However, if campaigns are sent during the grace period, the upgrade will be actioned immediately. 

If you believe your account was upgraded in error, please contact our support team to conduct a review.

Managing subscriber tier

To manage your current subscriber tier:

1. Click on your avatar icon in the top right
2. Click on Billing
3. Click Manage plan
4. Select the subscriber tier you want
5. Review and confirm your change

Any subscriber tier upgrades you make will be immediate and you will be charged the prorated difference between the date the change was made and your next billing cycle.

To downgrade, you must first ensure your total subscriber count fits within the lower tier's range, then select the tier you wish to be downgraded to. The change will take effect in the next billing cycle if your subscriber count at that time falls within the newly selected range; otherwise, your existing tier will stay active.

Missed payments and account access

If a subscription payment attempt fails, we will retry to process the payment again over a period of time. During this period, your account remains active and campaigns can continue to send.

If payment cannot be collected after these retries, your account will be placed on hold and access will be restricted until payment is resolved.

To update your payment details:

1. Click on your avatar icon in the top right
2. Click on Billing
3. Click on Payment method

Once updated, service will resume immediately. If payment is delayed while on hold then your account will become deactivated. 

Messaging will be displayed in-app, also under billing, if your account enters hold status, including steps to restore full access.

Account status

Your account status may change depending on your payment activity. Each status determines feature availability and where action is required to restore account access.

Active — Your account is in working order and all features are available, no action is required.

On hold — A recent payment attempt was unsuccessful. This may be due to an expired card, insufficient funds or another issue with your chosen payment method and your account is now on hold. Some features will be restricted at this time. Payment retries will continue, if payment is successful, your account status will return to active. If payment remains unsuccessful, the account will become deactivated.

Deactivated — Your account has been deactivated. All features are restricted. To restore access, update your payment details. Once complete we will automatically try to process your payment, if successful your account will become active again and your billing cycle will reset.

How do I change my plan?

You can update your plan and subscriber tier directly from the Billing page.

To change your plan:

1. Click on your avatar icon in the top right
2. Click on Billing
3. Click Manage plan
4. Choose the new plan you'd like to switch to.
5. You can also adjust your subscriber tier and switch between monthly or annual billing during this step.
6. Confirm your changes.

What happens next?

• Upgrades take effect immediately. You'll be charged the difference at a pro-rated rate.
• Downgrades will be scheduled and applied at the start of your next billing cycle.
• Billing cycles (monthly / annually) can be updated, but billing dates cannot be changed.

A confirmation banner will appear after your update, including your new billing rate and when it will apply.

Monthly send limits and automatic upgrades

Customers on the Lite plan, or those who send transactional emails on the Essentials plan, need to be aware of send limits, as these define how many emails can be sent within a billing cycle. Check the table above to see what the send limits are for each tier.

Here's how send limits work for each of the monthly plans:

• Premier plan — No send limit.
• Essential plan — Include unlimited sending for campaigns, journeys, and RSS emails, but transactional emails have a monthly send limit.
• Lite plan — All email types (as mentioned above) count toward the monthly send limit.

What happens when you reach your send limit?

The next steps depend on your plan and the type of email being sent.

Lite Plan

If you exceed your send limit on the Lite plan, you'll be automatically upgraded to the next tier, ensuring uninterrupted email sending.

• This upgrade happens instantly, without requiring action from you.
• You will be charged the prorated difference for the upgrade.

Essentials Plan

For customers on the Essentials plan who exceed transactional email limits:

• You’ll be automatically bumped up a tier to maintain uninterrupted sending.
• Similar to the Lite plan, this upgrade remains in place until manually downgraded.
• You’ll be charged the prorated difference for the tier increase.

If you wish to revert to your previous tier, you can manually downgrade which will come into effect at the start of the next billing cycle.

Frequently asked questions

My account is on the original billing system, do I need to do anything?

No. The Chargebee billing system is currently only being used for new direct customers who purchased a plan on or after the beginning of August, 2026. Eventually, we will be migrating existing plans to the new system. Watch your email for communication around timing and next steps.

Do I have to pay by credit card?

Yes, for monthly and annual billing plans we only accept payment by credit card. 

What is the minimum contract term?

There is no minimum contract period for paid plans. For monthly billing your only commitment is for the current month purchased. You are free to close your account at any time or, to keep your account active but stop monthly payments, see the following answer.

How do I cancel my subscription?

1. Click your profile image, then select Account Settings.
2. Click the Close account link in the "Account details" section.
3. You will be prompted to confirm the account closure. Select a reason, then click Permanently close my account.

What happens if a credit card is declined?

If you are paying a regular charge and your card is declined we'll send you a notification email. As soon as you update your card details we'll take the payment and the affected account will be able to send campaigns.

During the period that a credit card payment has failed and updated details are pending, you will not be able to send any emails. If you are running journeys, they will also be paused.

As soon as payment details are updated everything will be back to normal, and paused journeys will be restarted automatically. In cases where the payment problem is temporary and your credit card details are correct, we will keep trying to process the payment a few times over.

What happens when the send limit is exceeded on a Lite plan?

If you exceed your send limit on the Lite plan, you’ll be automatically upgraded to the next pricing tier to ensure uninterrupted email sending. This upgrade happens instantly without requiring action from you, and you’ll be charged the prorated difference between tiers.

At the start of the next billing cycle, the higher tier remains in place unless you manually downgrade to a lower tier.

Alternatively, you can upgrade to an Essentials or Premier plan, paying the difference between your current plan and the new one immediately. You will then begin paying the new amount for the Essentials or Premier plan

What happens if I import more subscribers than I'm paying for?

You will be automatically upgraded to the next pricing tier to ensure uninterrupted email sending. This upgrade happens instantly without requiring action from you, and you’ll be charged the prorated difference between tiers.

Can I prevent my plan from moving to a higher pricing tier?

No, because moving between tiers is done automatically based on how many active subscribers you have and your plan's email send limit. Standard send limits apply to Lite plans only, while transactional send limits apply to Lite and Essentials plans.

If you're on a Lite plan, keep an eye on your send history. If it's looking like you're repeatedly hitting the send limit, consider switching to an Essentials or Premier plan.

Can I be invoiced in a different currency?

Currency is set when your account is created and can't be changed on an existing subscription. If you need to bill in a different currency, contact our support team — they'll set up a new subscription in the correct currency for you. Campaign Monitor supports six currencies for account billing.

Can I switch between plans?

You can switch between Lite, Essentials and Premier at any time:

1. Click your profile image at the top right, then select Billing.
2. Click Manage plan.

Upgrading a plan requires the difference between the two plans to be paid on the spot. After that, the upgraded plan kicks in immediately. If the switch is from Premier to Essentials, or Essentials to Lite, you will stay on the higher plan for the remainder of the billing period. The lower plan starts from the next billing period.

If I downgrade from the Premier plan, can I still contact phone support?

Premier plan phone support will not be available if you downgrade to the Essentials or Lite plans.