Does Mailchimp offer SMS marketing? Pricing, credits and limits in 2027

For existing Mailchimp customers, adding SMS can be an easy way to introduce another channel without moving the rest of the marketing operation elsewhere. Teams choosing a new platform have a bigger decision to make, because SMS availability, credits and automation options vary considerably between providers.

How does Mailchimp SMS marketing work?

Mailchimp treats SMS as an additional marketing program within your account. You choose the audience and country you want to use, submit the required registration and wait for approval before sending promotional messages.

Approval doesn’t turn your existing email database into an SMS audience. Contacts need to give specific permission to receive marketing texts, even if they already receive your emails. Mailchimp can create an SMS signup form for collecting this consent, and businesses can promote the form to existing subscribers.

Once the program is active, you can use SMS for standalone campaigns or incorporate it into supported automation journeys. Businesses can decide which messages work best over email and which are better suited to SMS as customers move through their journey.

What do you need before sending SMS with Mailchimp?

Before sending your first SMS campaign through Mailchimp, make sure you have:

• An eligible paid Mailchimp Marketing plan. SMS Marketing isn't available on every plan.
• An approved SMS Marketing application. Apply for the country and audience you want to reach.
• Completed sender registration. Follow the registration requirements for your target country.
• SMS-specific consent from recipients. Email marketing consent alone doesn't permit you to send text messages.
• Enough SMS credits. Check your available credits and estimate how many you'll need for your campaign.
• Country-specific requirements covered. If you're sending messages internationally, check whether each market requires separate registration and how credit costs differ.

Keep in mind: SMS requires more country-specific preparation than email marketing. Expanding into another market may mean completing another registration process and accounting for different messaging costs.

Where is Mailchimp SMS available?

Mailchimp has expanded SMS beyond its original North American rollout. Its current documentation covers the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and a selection of European markets.

European availability includes countries such as Poland, Germany, France, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands. The type of sender used varies by market. North American sending can use registered 10DLC numbers, while some European markets support branded sender IDs.

Registration remains tied to the country where messages will be sent. A UK SMS program doesn’t automatically give you access to subscribers in every other supported market. For international companies, this can become an important operational consideration. Your email audience may be global while SMS requires several country-specific configurations.

How much does Mailchimp SMS cost?

Mailchimp prices SMS through a credit system. You select a recurring monthly credit amount and spend those credits when messages are sent. Additional credits can be purchased if a campaign needs more than the monthly allowance.

Mailchimp promotes SMS packages starting at around $20 per month alongside an eligible paid Marketing plan, although the total cost depends on your sending market and required credit volume.

The important point is that one SMS doesn’t always equal one credit.

Mailchimp SMS credits depend on the country

Mailchimp assigns different credit costs to different destinations. Its published credit table has included rates such as:

Mailchimp maintains the current rates in its SMS marketing credit documentation, so check the latest table when budgeting a campaign.

For a company sending only in Poland, the cost calculation can look very different from one texting customers in Germany. International campaigns may need several calculations before the real monthly cost becomes clear.

Do unused Mailchimp SMS credits roll over?

Recurring Mailchimp SMS credits don’t roll over into the next billing period. If your normal allowance is too small for a particular campaign, Mailchimp lets you purchase additional credits without permanently changing the following month’s recurring amount.

This structure is easier to forecast for teams with fairly consistent SMS activity. Seasonal businesses may need to plan their monthly allocation more carefully, especially if messaging volume changes sharply around launches or peak trading periods.

Mailchimp SMS cost goes beyond the headline credit price

Credit consumption is only part of the budget. Your underlying Mailchimp Marketing subscription continues alongside SMS, and certain SMS capabilities depend on the Mailchimp plan you use.

MMS is one example. Mailchimp supports MMS in the US and Canada, with access linked to higher-tier Marketing plans. Other SMS capabilities can also depend on the market or subscription level.

For this reason, compare the complete account configuration before upgrading Mailchimp primarily for SMS. A low introductory SMS price can mean very little if the workflow you need also requires a more expensive email plan.

Can you combine email and SMS in Mailchimp?

Yes. Mailchimp can add SMS activity to supported automation journeys, allowing email and text to play different roles during the same customer experience.

For example, an ecommerce journey could begin with an email after a shopper leaves a cart behind. A subscribed SMS contact who still hasn’t completed the order could receive a shorter follow-up later. Email carries more detail, while the text can handle a timely reminder.

The channels become more effective when they aren’t treated as duplicates.

Our SMS vs email marketing guide explains when each channel works best and where combining them can make sense.

Mailchimp also supports SMS-specific acquisition workflows, including text-to-join programs built around keywords. Businesses can use these to collect new SMS subscribers separately from the existing email audience.

What are the disadvantages of Mailchimp SMS marketing?

Mailchimp makes it possible to manage email and SMS campaigns from the same platform, which is convenient if you're already using it for email marketing. However, SMS comes with additional costs, registration requirements, and restrictions that can make it harder to manage than email.

Here are limitations worth considering.

1. Your existing email list isn't automatically an SMS list

You could have 50,000 email subscribers in Mailchimp and still have nobody eligible to receive your first promotional text message. That's because email marketing consent doesn't extend to SMS. Every recipient needs to opt in specifically to text marketing, and having their phone number in your audience doesn't count as permission.

Mailchimp provides ways to collect SMS consent, including signup landing pages. However, building an SMS audience takes additional effort, particularly if you've spent years growing your email list without collecting phone numbers and SMS permissions.

Abandoned-cart SMS campaigns can involve further opt-in requirements, depending on the configuration and applicable rules.

2. You'll pay for SMS on top of your Mailchimp plan

SMS Marketing requires an eligible paid Mailchimp Marketing subscription. You'll also need to purchase SMS credits, and that makes SMS another cost to account for alongside your existing email marketing subscription. The number of credits consumed depends on factors such as the destination country and message characteristics.

If you're sending thousands of promotional texts each month, it's worth calculating how much each campaign will cost, including SMS credits and subscription fees.

3. International sending gets complicated

An ecommerce brand selling in the US, UK, and several European markets can't necessarily activate one SMS program and send messages everywhere.

Mailchimp supports SMS in selected countries, with registration requirements that vary by market. Expanding into another supported country may involve another application or registration process. Costs can vary between destinations, too. The platform might cover your biggest markets, but you'll need to verify its country availability if your customers are spread across different regions.

4. Monthly SMS credits don't roll over

This is particularly relevant for businesses that don't send SMS consistently.

A business might run a large promotional campaign in November, send only a handful of messages in December, then have a relatively quiet January. A fixed monthly credit allocation might not match that pattern very well. Mailchimp's recurring monthly SMS credits expire rather than carrying over to the next billing period. One-time credit refills are available, but you'll still need to plan your credit purchases around actual campaign activity.

5. You can't start sending immediately

Email campaigns are usually straightforward to launch once your audience and account are ready. SMS requires an additional approval and registration process.

Mailchimp needs to approve your SMS Marketing application before you can send campaigns. You also have to meet the relevant sender registration and consent requirements.

An upcoming sale or product launch is a good reason to start the SMS setup process early, giving yourself enough time to get approved.

Who is Mailchimp SMS a good fit for?

For businesses already managing their customer communications through Mailchimp, keeping email and SMS together has obvious advantages. You can coordinate campaigns without moving to an entirely separate marketing platform.

However, Mailchimp SMS is less straightforward for businesses with international audiences, irregular sending schedules, or large email lists that haven't collected SMS consent.

Before choosing it, estimate your actual messaging costs, check which countries you can reach, and consider how much work it'll take to build an opted-in SMS audience.

Mailchimp SMS vs Transpond SMS

Mailchimp supports SMS across a much wider range of markets. Transpond SMS is currently available to UK customers, so businesses needing international SMS coverage will usually find Mailchimp more suitable on this specific requirement.

For UK teams, though, the comparison becomes more interesting because Transpond can bring SMS into the same marketing workflow as email and CRM-connected customer data.

Email and SMS can share the same Transpond Automation

A Transpond Automation can include email and SMS steps within the same journey.

A customer might receive a detailed email first and move to an SMS step later when a shorter message makes more sense. Transpond can also control what happens when a contact reaches an SMS action without a valid mobile number.

Teams new to this type of workflow can use our guide to building a marketing automation in Transpond to see how triggers and message actions work together.

The advantage becomes more pronounced when CRM data is already connected to Transpond. Contacts can enter marketing workflows based on customer information already flowing through the business, reducing the need to maintain another disconnected audience.

Transpond SMS uses the audience already managed in the platform

SMS campaigns can work with Transpond Groups and Segments, so teams don’t need to build an entirely separate audience structure for text messaging.

You select the relevant contacts, choose the field containing the mobile number and create the campaign from the same marketing environment used for email.

For a UK business building multi-step customer journeys, email and SMS can therefore be managed as parts of the same program instead of separate channels maintained independently.

So, is Mailchimp SMS worth it?

Mailchimp SMS can be a good fit for businesses already using the platform. Just keep an eye on the extra costs, consent requirements, and country restrictions.

But SMS works best when it's connected to everything else you're doing. Your emails, customer data, and automated campaigns should work together, making it easier to reach people with the right message at the right time.

With Transpond, UK businesses can manage email, SMS, automations, and CRM integrations in one place. It's handy for agencies, too, especially when running recurring campaigns and building customer journeys for different clients.

Think about what you need from SMS today, but also what you'd like to do with it as your business grows.