How much does ManyChat cost?

ManyChat costs $0 to $199 a month, depending on how many people you message. As of 2026-08-04: Free is $0 for 25 active contacts a month, Essential $17 for 250, Pro $39 for 2,500, Business $99 for 7,500, and Advanced $199 for 25,000. Annual billing takes up to 30% off.

Every one of those numbers hangs on a single definition, so it's worth getting that straight before you price anything.

What ManyChat's plans cost

Prices exclude tax and are set by your billing country. Channels and seats climb with the plan: Free and Essential connect two channels, Pro three, Business and Advanced unlimited; seats run 1, 2, 3, 5, 10. Manychat AI is included from Pro upward. Every figure here was read from manychat.com/pricing on 2026-08-04.

When did ManyChat's pricing change?

ManyChat introduced its current pricing model on 2 March 2026, and its help centre states that every existing Free account was moved onto the new Free plan, including accounts created before that date. A free account opened in 2025 is therefore on the 25 active contact plan today, whatever it started on.

The Free plan as it now stands is $0 for 25 active contacts a month, two channels chosen from Instagram, TikTok, Messenger and Telegram, four live automations, one user and one inbox seat. WhatsApp, SMS and email are not offered on it. The first message ManyChat sends a contact carries a "Powered by Manychat" line, and only a paid plan takes it off.

Free plan contents were read from ManyChat's own help centre on 2026-08-24. The tier prices in the table above carry the earlier 2026-08-04 check.

What counts as an "active contact"?

ManyChat defines an Active Contact as "a real person you interact with during a monthly billing period", and one person counts once for that month, no matter how many messages pass between you. A contact becomes active when a message is sent or received through ManyChat: an automation, AI, a broadcast, or you typing in the inbox.

Two consequences are worth holding on to. Replying five times to the same person costs exactly what replying once costs. And someone who engaged last month but not this month costs nothing this month.

Does ManyChat charge you for contacts who never come back?

No. The count resets every billing period, so an accumulated audience doesn't sit in the bill. This is the most misunderstood part of ManyChat's pricing: including, until we checked it properly, on this page. A month where a reel takes off raises that month's bill; the quiet month after it drops back down.

That puts the model closer to usage-based than to list-based. What you pay for is the number of distinct people you spoke to in thirty days.

What happens if you go over the contact limit?

You pay a per-contact overage fee for each additional active contact, and your automations keep running rather than switching off. ManyChat notifies you as you approach the limit, and there are two controls worth setting up front: an overage threshold that caps what you're willing to pay, and the fact that upgrading to a higher plan inside the same billing cycle forgives the overage accrued so far.

Downgrading works the other way. It takes effect at your next billing period rather than immediately, and annual plans can't be downgraded mid-term.

A worked example: one reel, 4,000 comments

Say a reel earns 4,000 comments in a month and your automation answers every one. That's up to 4,000 active contacts for that month, which puts you on Pro: $39, with 2,500 included and roughly 1,500 contacts of overage on top. The month after, with nothing else taking off, you're back inside Essential's 250 and can move down at the next billing date. Those 4,000 people don't follow you into next month's bill.

Priced on messages instead, the same reel is a different sum: 4,000 conversations that each deliver a link are around 8,000 sends, because the opener and the link are two separate messages. On a tool that meters messages, those 8,000 sends run against whatever allowance the plan carries. On inDM they are not a sum at all: we stopped metering on 2026-08-16, so 8,000 sends and 80 sends cost the same $0 or $14.99.

The point isn't which number is smaller. It's that the two models react to the same event in completely different ways, and only one of those shapes matches how your business actually behaves.

Is ManyChat's free plan usable?

For a look around, yes. For running anything, no, 25 active contacts a month is one modest post's comment section. Free also caps you at four active automations, two channels and one user, and it carries ManyChat branding on your messages. It needs no credit card, which makes it a real free plan rather than a disguised trial, but it isn't a tier you can grow on.

Essential and Pro both offer a 14-day free trial, which is the more realistic way to find out whether the product fits.

How does per-contact pricing compare to per-message pricing?

They answer different questions, so the only honest comparison is to price your own month twice.

• Per active contact (ManyChat) asks: how many distinct people will I talk to this month? Long conversations are free once the person is counted.
• Per message sent (CreatorFlow, LinkDM, ReplyRush) asks: how many messages go out on my behalf? You buy an allowance of outbound DMs, and a comment-to-DM conversion spends two of them, the opener, then the link after the tap.
• Nothing at all (inDM) asks you no question. As of 2026-08-16 we don't meter messages on either plan: free is unlimited on one connected account, and Growth is $14.99 a month. There is no unit, so there is no arithmetic to compare against ManyChat's.

A creator having long conversations with a small group is cheaper on ManyChat's shape. A creator delivering one link to a very large number of people is cheaper on ours. Take your last good week, count both numbers, and price it in each model. It's a five-minute exercise and it beats every comparison table, this one included.

The honest limits of this page

• We build a competing product. The plan figures are theirs; the framing is ours. Read it with that in mind.
• These numbers date fast. Plan names and allowances in this category change every few months. Everything above was read on 2026-08-04.
• We haven't priced the add-ons for you. Channel-specific costs, AI usage beyond what's bundled, and anything negotiated on the larger plans aren't in this table.
• Cheaper is not the same as right. If you need WhatsApp, Messenger, TikTok and SMS automated in one place, ManyChat does things we deliberately don't, the full comparison covers where it genuinely wins.

The short version

ManyChat's price tracks how many people you message in a month, not how large your audience is, and not how much you say to each of them. Find your realistic monthly contact number, take the plan above it, and check whether the overage cap matters for your spiky months. Then run the identical exercise on whatever you're comparing it against.