How much does AWeber cost in 2026?
AWeber runs a genuine free plan at 500 subscribers and 3000 emails per month, then Lite from $15/mo and Plus from $30/mo at the same subscriber count. Annual billing is pay for 10 months, get 12, so 16.7% off, with one exception: Plus at 500 subscribers is $240/year rather than the $300 the formula predicts, a 33% discount. Lite is severely capped at 1 email list, 3 automations and 3 landing pages. The real trap is billing mechanics: crossing your subscriber tier upgrades you automatically, but shrinking your list never downgrades you back unless you phone support.
All four plans at a glance
AWeber sells one free tier, two self-serve paid tiers and a done-for-you onboarding package. Prices below are the entry tier at 500 subscribers; every paid plan scales by subscriber count.
Up to 500 subscribers and 3000 emails per month. Includes the email design tools and smart designer, campaign automations, sign up forms, landing pages, integrations and 24/7 support. AWeber branding stays on your sends. Unusually generous by 2026 standards: most competitors either killed their free tier or cut it below 300 contacts.
5000 sends per month at 500 subscribers, 10x your subscriber count. Removes AWeber branding. Hard caps that matter: 1 email list, 3 email automations, 3 landing pages, 3 users. Sales tracking with a 1.0% ecommerce transaction fee. 24/7 support.
6000 sends per month at 500 subscribers, 12x your subscriber count. Unlimited email lists, unlimited automations, unlimited landing pages, unlimited users. Ecommerce transaction fee drops to 0.6%. Priority 24/7 support. This is the plan for anyone running more than one audience.
Billed annually, setup fee currently $79 against a list price of $599. Full email marketing setup delivered in 7 days, 1 branded email template, 1 professional landing page, a 1:1 setup call and 30 days of unlimited edits. Unlimited users and lists. A service package wrapped around a subscription, not a feature tier.
Lite allows 10 times your subscriber count in monthly sends, Plus allows 12 times. At 5000 subscribers that is 50 000 sends on Lite against 60 000 on Plus. For a weekly newsletter this is irrelevant. For a store running abandoned cart, post-purchase and win-back flows on top of campaigns, the Lite ceiling arrives faster than the subscriber ceiling does.
The free plan: what you actually get
AWeber is one of the few remaining ESPs with a permanent free tier that is not a disguised trial. 500 subscribers and 3000 emails per month, with no expiry and no credit card.
What makes it unusual in 2026 is what is included rather than what is capped. The free plan carries the full email design toolset including the smart designer, campaign automations, sign up forms, landing pages, integrations, and 24/7 customer support. Free-tier support is close to unheard of; most providers restrict free users to a community forum.
| Subscribers | 500, permanent, no card required |
|---|---|
| Monthly sends | 3000, which is 6 emails per subscriber at a full list |
| Branding | AWeber branding stays on every send. Removing it is the main reason to move to Lite. |
| Support | 24/7, same channel as paid users |
Where it runs out. The 3000 send ceiling binds before the subscriber ceiling for most people. A weekly newsletter to 500 people is 2000 sends a month and fits comfortably. Add a welcome sequence and a second monthly campaign and you are over. In practice the free plan supports a list of roughly 400 people on a weekly cadence, not 500.
Mailchimp Free now caps at 250 contacts and 500 sends per month. Klaviyo gives 250 profiles and 500 sends. Moosend retired its free plan entirely in 2024. AWeber at 500 and 3000 is six times Mailchimp’s send allowance, with support included. If you are choosing a platform to start on and expect to stay small for a while, this is the strongest free tier among the mainstream ESPs.
Real cost as your list grows
Both paid plans price per subscriber tier. Annual billing works out to paying for ten months and getting twelve. Figures below are USD, taken from the official pricing page.
| Subscribers | Lite monthly / annual per month | Plus monthly / annual per month |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $15 / $12.50 | $30 / $20.00 |
| 1 000 | $25 / $20.83 | $45 / $37.50 |
| 2 500 | $35 / $29.17 | $55 / $45.83 |
| 5 000 | $60 / $50.00 | $90 / $75.00 |
| 7 500 | $85 / $70.83 | $120 / $100.00 |
| 10 000 | $100 / $83.33 | $135 / $112.50 |
| 15 000 | $150 / $125.00 | $180 / $150.00 |
| 20 000 | $185 / $154.17 | $215 / $179.17 |
| 25 000 | $210 / $175.00 | $250 / $208.33 |
| 35 000 | $275 / $229.17 | $350 / $291.67 |
| 50 000 | $375 / $312.50 | $400 / $333.33 |
| 75 000 | $500 / $416.67 | $600 / $500.00 |
| 100 000 | $600 / $500.00 | $750 / $625.00 |
| 150 000 | $920 / $766.67 | $1050 / $875.00 |
Above 100 000 subscribers AWeber publishes only the 150 000 tier and then directs you to sales for a custom quote.
Where the curve is kind and where it is not. Lite cost per subscriber per month on annual billing falls from $0.025 at 500 to $0.007 at 25 000 and $0.005 at 100 000. The efficient band is 10 000 to 100 000. Below 2500 subscribers AWeber is expensive per head compared with Moosend or MailerLite, and that gap is the single strongest argument against starting here on a paid plan.
Two tier crossings are worth planning around. Going from 100 000 to 150 000 on Lite adds $266.67/mo on annual billing, a 53% jump for 50% more subscribers. Going from 25 000 to 35 000 on Plus adds $83.34/mo, a 40% jump for 40% more list. Neither is punitive, but both arrive automatically.
What five real accounts actually pay
Annual billing, including the transaction fee where the account sells something. This is the total AWeber cost, not the sticker price.
| Account | Subscribers | Plan | Subscription/mo | Fees/mo | True monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby newsletter, weekly | 400 | Free | $0 | None | $0, branding on sends |
| Solo consultant, one list | 2 500 | Lite annual | $29.17 | None | $29.17 |
| Course seller, $9k/mo revenue | 5 000 | Plus annual | $75.00 | $54 at 0.6% | $129, vs $140 on Lite |
| Newsletter business, 3 flows | 25 000 | Plus annual | $208.33 | None | $208.33 |
| Store, $50k/mo revenue | 50 000 | Plus annual | $333.33 | $300 at 0.6% | $633, vs $813 on Lite |
Two of the five rows pay more in transaction fees than in subscription. That is the pattern to internalise: for a selling account, the AWeber tier table is the smaller half of the bill, and the plan choice is decided by the fee percentage rather than by the monthly rate.
Lite versus Plus: where the upgrade pays for itself
This is the decision that actually costs money on AWeber, and the answer changes completely depending on your list size and whether you sell anything.
The gap between Lite and Plus is not proportional. On annual billing it swings from 60% more at 500 subscribers down to 6.7% more at 50 000, then widens again.
| 500 subscribers | Plus costs $7.50/mo more. The cheapest the upgrade will ever be, because of the $240 annual promo on Plus. |
|---|---|
| 1 000 subscribers | Plus costs $16.67/mo more, an 80% premium. The worst-value point on the whole curve. |
| 10 000 subscribers | Plus costs $29.17/mo more, a 35% premium. |
| 50 000 subscribers | Plus costs $20.83/mo more, a 6.7% premium. Take Plus. There is no argument for Lite at this tier. |
| 100 000 subscribers | Plus costs $125/mo more, a 25% premium. |
Lite charges 1.0% on ecommerce transactions, Plus charges 0.6%. That 0.4% difference pays for the upgrade at surprisingly low revenue. At 5000 subscribers the Plus premium is $25/mo, so Plus becomes cheaper the moment you process more than $6250 a month. At 50 000 subscribers the premium is only $20.83/mo and the break-even falls to $5208 a month. Any store clearing those numbers is losing money on Lite.
The caps, not the price, are usually what forces the move. Lite gives you 1 email list, 3 automations and 3 landing pages. One list is the binding constraint: if you run a newsletter and a customer list, or segment by product line using separate lists, Lite cannot do it at all. Three automations disappears quickly too once you have a welcome sequence, an abandoned cart flow and a re-engagement series. Plus removes all three caps and the user limit at the same time.
Hidden costs and billing gotchas
AWeber states that when you pass your plan’s subscriber limit, “your account is automatically upgraded to the next tier.” It also states that downgrades “are not automatic and require you to contact Customer Solutions to adjust your billing tier based on your actual subscriber count.”
Read that pairing carefully, because it is the most expensive thing on this page. A list that spikes to 10 400 subscribers during a campaign moves you to the 15 000 tier automatically. When it settles back to 9800 after cleaning, nothing happens. You keep paying the higher tier indefinitely until you notice and phone in.
On Lite that mistake costs $41.67/mo on annual billing, or $500/year. Nobody sends you an email about it. Set a calendar reminder to audit your subscriber count against your billing tier every quarter; on AWeber this is a real recurring task, not housekeeping.
Send limits throttle silently, subscriber limits bill loudly
The two ceilings behave in opposite ways. Exceeding your 10x or 12x monthly send allowance affects delivery rather than your invoice. Exceeding your subscriber count changes your invoice without asking. A store with heavy automation can therefore hit the send ceiling repeatedly, see flows stop firing mid-month, and find nothing on the bill to explain it.
Ecommerce transaction fees are a percentage of revenue, uncapped
The 1.0% Lite and 0.6% Plus fees are charged on sales processed through AWeber, on top of whatever your payment processor takes. There is no ceiling. A store doing $50 000 a month pays $500 on Lite and $300 on Plus in AWeber fees alone, which dwarfs the subscription at every tier below 75 000 subscribers.
Lite is a single-list plan
This is not a soft limit you grow out of, it is an architectural one you hit on day one if your business has two audiences. Buyers who assume “1 email list” means one campaign at a time discover otherwise after paying. Check this before choosing Lite, not after.
AWeber does not publish how the same address on two different lists is counted for billing, nor whether unsubscribed and inactive subscribers fall out of the billable total. Since Plus is built around unlimited lists, this materially affects what Plus actually costs a segmented sender. We are not going to guess a rule AWeber has not stated. If you plan to run overlapping lists, get the counting method confirmed by Customer Solutions in writing before committing to an annual term.
Annual billing, nonprofit and the Plus anomaly
AWeber’s annual discount follows a clean rule with exactly one exception, and that exception is worth real money at the entry tier.
The rule. Annual billing means paying for ten months and receiving twelve, a 16.7% effective discount. Lite at 500 subscribers is $15/mo monthly and $150 for the year. Every tier follows the same ten-times multiplication.
The formula predicts $300 for the year. AWeber charges $240, a 33% discount rather than 16.7%. That makes the effective rate $20/mo and puts the Plus upgrade at just $7.50/mo over Lite annual. At every other subscriber tier the same upgrade costs two to three times that gap. If you are starting at 500 subscribers and there is any chance you will need a second list, buy Plus annual now rather than upgrading at 1000 subscribers where the premium jumps to $16.67/mo.
Nonprofit and charity pricing
AWeber’s nonprofit offer is materially better than the category norm, and it has two parts: 3 months of service free when opening a new account, followed by a 25% discount on all future invoices from that point forward.
Set against competitors, that is the strongest nonprofit deal among the mainstream ESPs. Mailchimp offers 15% and no free period. Moosend offers 25% but no free months. A nonprofit on AWeber Plus at 10 000 subscribers pays nothing for three months, then roughly $84/mo against the standard $112.50 annual rate.
The offer is framed around opening new accounts, so apply during signup rather than after you have been paying for a year.
Is Done For You worth $79?
Done For You sits oddly in the lineup because it is a service, not a feature tier. You pay $20/mo billed annually plus a one-time setup fee currently discounted to $79 from a $599 list price.
For that you get a full email marketing setup delivered in 7 days, one branded email template, one professional landing page, a 1:1 setup call, and 30 days of unlimited edits. Unlimited users and lists come with it.
| Buy it if | You have no template, no landing page, and no time. A freelance email designer charges $300 to $1500 for the same two deliverables, so at $79 the setup fee is well below market. |
|---|---|
| Skip it if | You already have brand assets, or you intend to build more than one template. One template and one landing page is a starting point, not a system. |
| Watch | The $79 is a promotional rate against a $599 list price. Verify the current setup fee at checkout rather than assuming it holds. |
Common misconceptions
It does not. AWeber sells subscriptions priced by subscriber count, plus the Done For You service package. There is no email credit product, no per-email rate card, and nothing that expires. A number of pricing articles describe an AWeber credit system with per-email costs and expiry rules; those figures do not correspond to anything AWeber publishes. If you want credit-based billing, Moosend sells non-expiring credit bundles and Mailchimp sells credits that expire after 12 months.
“The free plan is a trial.” It is not. The 500 subscriber and 3000 email free tier is permanent. AWeber separately offers a 14-day trial of paid features, which is a different thing.
“Lite is just Plus with fewer subscribers.” No. The subscriber tiers are identical across both plans. What Lite removes is structural: one list instead of unlimited, three automations instead of unlimited, three landing pages, three users, and a transaction fee nearly double the Plus rate.
“Annual billing saves 20%.” It saves 16.7%, which is what two free months out of twelve works out to. The single exception is Plus at 500 subscribers at 33%.
How AWeber compares on price
Entry pricing and structure against the alternatives buyers actually shortlist alongside AWeber. Annual effective rates, at the tier where each provider starts.
| Platform | Entry annual | At 10 000 | Free plan | Send limit | Structural note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWeber Lite | $12.50 | $83.33 | 500 subs, 3000 sends | 10x subscribers | 1 list only, no auto-downgrade |
| AWeber Plus | $20.00 | $112.50 | Same free tier | 12x subscribers | Unlimited lists, 0.6% fee |
| Moosend Pro | $7.00 | $70.00 | 30-day trial only | Unlimited | Cheapest, but transactional is quote-only |
| MailerLite Comfort | $10.80 | ~$73 | 250 subs, 2500 sends | 10x subscribers | Closest direct competitor |
| Mailchimp Essentials | $13.00 | $110.00 | 250 subs, 500 sends | 10x contacts | No annual discount at all |
| Klaviyo | $20.00 | ~$150 | 250 profiles | ~10x profiles | Ecommerce attribution justifies the premium |
Reading this table. AWeber is not the cheapest at any tier and does not try to be. Lite at $83.33/mo for 10 000 subscribers sits above Moosend at $70 and MailerLite around $73, and just below Mailchimp Essentials at $110. The pricing is mid-market and the positioning matches.
What AWeber actually wins on is the free tier and support. 500 subscribers with 3000 monthly sends and 24/7 human support beats every free plan in the category by a wide margin, and 24/7 support continues on every paid tier including the cheapest. Moosend runs 24/5 with no weekend cover.
Where AWeber loses: the send multiplier. Moosend and MailerLite both give unlimited sends on paid plans, so a daily sender on a 10 000 list pays $70 at Moosend with no ceiling against $83.33 at AWeber Lite capped at 100 000 monthly sends. For high-frequency senders that gap widens fast.
Who should pay for which tier
| Under 500 subscribers, starting out | Free. Genuinely the best free tier available. Move to Lite only when you need to remove AWeber branding or exceed 3000 monthly sends. |
|---|---|
| 500 to 2500 subscribers, one audience, no selling | Lite annual, $12.50 to $29.17/mo. Confirm you genuinely need only one list before committing. |
| 500 subscribers but expecting to segment | Plus annual at $20/mo. The entry-tier promo makes this the cheapest Plus will ever be. Upgrading later at 1000 subscribers costs more than double the gap. |
| Any store processing over $6000/mo | Plus, on transaction fees alone. The 0.4% saving exceeds the subscription premium at every subscriber tier. |
| 10 000 to 35 000 subscribers, multiple flows | Plus annual, $112.50 to $291.67/mo. Lite’s three-automation cap is unworkable at this size. |
| 50 000 subscribers | Plus, unconditionally. The premium collapses to 6.7% at this single tier, the narrowest gap on the entire curve. |
| Nonprofits | Any paid tier, applied for at signup. 3 months free then 25% off permanently is the best nonprofit rate in the category. |
| Daily senders | Price Moosend and MailerLite first. The 10x and 12x send multipliers make AWeber structurally expensive for high frequency. |
Cancellation and refunds
Cancellation is self-serve and takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Downgrading between paid tiers, however, is not self-serve: AWeber requires you to contact Customer Solutions to move your billing tier down after your subscriber count falls.
We checked the public pricing page and the pricing documentation, and neither states refund terms, a guarantee period, or what happens to the unused portion of an annual prepayment when you cancel early. We are not going to estimate a figure. Given annual billing commits you to ten months paid up front, get the refund terms in writing from support before choosing annual, and use the free plan or the 14-day trial as your real evaluation window.
One practical consequence of the manual downgrade rule: if you are cancelling because the platform got expensive after an automatic tier upgrade, check whether a downgrade solves it first. Support can move you back down, and that call is worth making before you migrate a list somewhere else.
Frequently asked questions
Does AWeber still have a free plan in 2026?
Yes, and it is permanent rather than a trial. The free plan covers up to 500 subscribers and 3000 emails per month, and includes the email design tools, campaign automations, sign up forms, landing pages, integrations and 24/7 customer support. AWeber branding stays on your sends. Separately, AWeber offers a 14-day trial of paid features, which is a different thing from the free plan.
How much does AWeber cost at 10 000 subscribers?
Lite is $100/mo billed monthly or $1000 for the year, which works out to $83.33/mo. Plus is $135/mo monthly or $1350 annually, so $112.50/mo. Lite allows 100 000 monthly sends at that subscriber count and Plus allows 120 000.
What is the difference between AWeber Lite and Plus?
Subscriber pricing tiers are the same; what differs is the caps. Lite gives 1 email list, 3 email automations, 3 landing pages, 3 users, 10x subscribers in monthly sends and a 1.0% ecommerce transaction fee. Plus gives unlimited lists, automations, landing pages and users, 12x sends, a 0.6% transaction fee and priority support. The single-list limit on Lite is usually what forces the upgrade.
Does AWeber automatically downgrade my plan if my list shrinks?
No, and this is the most expensive detail in AWeber’s billing. Exceeding your subscriber limit upgrades your account automatically, but AWeber states that downgrades are not automatic and require you to contact Customer Solutions to adjust your billing tier. A list that spikes and then shrinks leaves you paying the higher tier indefinitely. Audit your subscriber count against your billing tier every quarter.
How much does AWeber annual billing save?
16.7%, because annual billing means paying for ten months and getting twelve. Lite at 500 subscribers is $15/mo monthly or $150 for the year. There is one exception: Plus at 500 subscribers costs $240 annually rather than the $300 the formula predicts, a 33% discount that makes the entry-tier Plus upgrade unusually cheap.
Does AWeber charge ecommerce transaction fees?
Yes. Lite charges 1.0% and Plus charges 0.6% on sales processed through AWeber, on top of your payment processor’s fees, with no cap. The 0.4% difference means Plus becomes cheaper overall once you process roughly $6250 a month at the 5000 subscriber tier, or about $5208 a month at 50 000 subscribers.
Is there an AWeber nonprofit discount?
Yes, and it is the strongest in the category. AWeber gives 3 months of service free when opening a new account, followed by a 25% discount on all future invoices. By comparison Mailchimp offers 15% with no free period. Because the offer is framed around new accounts, apply at signup rather than after you have been paying.
Does AWeber have a pay-as-you-go credit system?
No. AWeber sells subscriptions priced by subscriber count plus the Done For You service package. There is no email credit product, no per-email rate and no credit expiry. Pricing articles that describe an AWeber credit system with per-email costs are not describing anything AWeber publishes. For credit-based billing, Moosend sells non-expiring bundles and Mailchimp sells credits that expire after 12 months.
What is the AWeber Done For You plan?
A service package rather than a feature tier. It costs $20/mo billed annually plus a one-time setup fee currently $79, discounted from a $599 list price. You get a full email marketing setup delivered in 7 days, one branded email template, one professional landing page, a 1:1 setup call and 30 days of unlimited edits, with unlimited users and lists. Worth it if you have no brand assets; unnecessary if you do.
Does AWeber offer refunds?
AWeber does not publish a refund policy or money-back guarantee period. Neither the public pricing page nor the pricing documentation states refund terms or what happens to the unused portion of an annual prepayment on early cancellation. Since annual billing is paid ten months up front, get the terms in writing from support before committing, and use the permanent free plan as your evaluation window.
Changelog (recent)
- 2026-08-20 Pricing tab rewritten from scratch and migrated from legacy post 27660. Full 14-tier Lite and Plus price table, send multipliers, ecommerce transaction fees and nonprofit terms verified against the official AWeber pricing page and pricing documentation. The legacy article described a pay-as-you-go credit system that AWeber does not operate; that section was dropped and replaced with an explicit correction. Refund terms are reported as unpublished rather than estimated.
This review follows our email infrastructure testing methodology. We disclose affiliate relationships in our editorial independence policy.
