Do Mailchimp transactional contacts count toward your bill?

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Short answer: if a person is stored in one of your Mailchimp audiences as subscribed, unsubscribed, or non-subscribed, they count toward your monthly contact limit — even if the only email they can get from you is transactional, like an order notification (About Your Contacts).

Which contact types count

Subscribed — counts. Can receive marketing and transactional email (source).
Unsubscribed — counts. Can receive ads and transactional emails, but not marketing emails (source).
Non-subscribed — counts. Someone who's interacted with you but hasn't opted in, for example from your online store, an integration, or a manual import. Can receive ads and transactional emails only (source).
Cleaned, pending, archived, deleted — don't count (source).

Mailchimp defines your contact total as the number of contacts stored across all of your audiences (About Mailchimp Pricing Plans). So a connected store that adds every buyer as non-subscribed can grow your bill without growing your marketing list (more on non-subscribed contacts).

Transactional emails and your send limit

On Marketing plans, Mailchimp says test and transactional emails count toward your monthly sending limit (source). Your Marketing plan includes automated transactional options such as order notifications and abandoned cart emails (Add or Remove Mailchimp Transactional).

The Mailchimp Transactional add-on (formerly Mandrill)

Mailchimp says Mandrill was the original name for its transactional email service, rebranded to Mailchimp Transactional (Mailchimp Transactional Email).

It's an API delivery add-on for automated transactional email and SMS, available with the Standard plan or higher (source).
It's bought in blocks of 25,000 emails, purchased automatically at the start of each monthly billing cycle; blocks expire at the end of each month with no rollover (source).
Removing it doesn't change or remove your Marketing plan (source).

Mailchimp describes Transactional pricing in email blocks, not contacts. What drives your Marketing plan price is still the contacts stored in your audiences.

Before you archive transactional-only contacts

Archiving stops a contact from counting, but Mailchimp lists archived contacts as able to receive nothing (source). Only archive non-subscribed or unsubscribed contacts you no longer need to email from Mailchimp.

Export each audience, then run AudienceTrim's free audit in your browser. It counts unsubscribed, non-subscribed and cross-audience duplicates (nothing is uploaded).

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FAQ

Do non-subscribed contacts who only get order notifications count toward my Mailchimp bill? Yes. Mailchimp counts non-subscribed contacts toward the monthly contact limit, even though they can only receive ads and transactional emails.

How is the Mailchimp Transactional add-on billed? In blocks of 25,000 emails, purchased automatically at the start of each monthly billing cycle. Blocks expire at the end of each month with no rollover.

Do transactional emails count toward my Mailchimp send limit? Yes. Mailchimp says test and transactional emails count toward your monthly sending limit.

If I archive a non-subscribed contact, can they still get order notifications? No. Mailchimp lists archived contacts as able to receive nothing, so only archive contacts you no longer need to email.

Related guides

AudienceTrim isn't affiliated with Mailchimp or Intuit. Steps and quotes are from Mailchimp's help center, accessed October 2026. Privacy · Terms