ManyChat pricing in 2026: what you'll actually pay, with a bill calculator

If you last priced ManyChat a year ago, you remember a bill that grew with every contact you ever collected. That stopped being true for new accounts on 2 March 2026. ManyChat now charges for the people you talk to this month, and the count starts again at zero every billing cycle. The catch is on the other end: the Free plan went from 1,000 contacts to 25 a month, and a Reel that takes off can turn a $39 month into a $914 one if you leave the defaults alone. Here is how the bill is built, and a calculator to predict yours.

ManyChat plans and prices in 2026

ManyChat sells one free plan and four paid ones. You can pay monthly, or yearly for a discount. Every plan includes a set number of Active Contacts per month, and that number, not your follower count, is what decides which plan you need.

The plan price is the floor, not the bill. ManyChat's own pricing announcement lists what can land on an invoice: “your base plan cost, any Active Contact overages, any additional Inbox seats, if applicable, plus any applicable sales tax.” Its worked example: Essential at $17 with 280 Active Contacts is 30 over, so $17 + 30 × $0.10 = $20.

Is ManyChat free?

Yes, ManyChat has a Free plan that costs $0 and needs no credit card. Since March 2026 it covers 25 Active Contacts a month, up to 4 live automations, 2 channels (from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook Messenger and Telegram) and 1 user. The first time you message someone, a “Powered by Manychat” message appears. WhatsApp, SMS and email are not available on Free.

Twenty-five people a month is less than one a day. One Reel where 30 people comment your keyword is already over it. ManyChat is upfront that this is a test drive, not a plan to run a business on:

This applies to everyone: ManyChat's Help Center says all Free accounts “have already been moved to the new Free plan”, including ones created before March 2026. What happens to person number 26 on a Free account? The pages we read don't spell it out for web accounts. Free has no overage option (“N/A” on the pricing page), so plan to upgrade. For plans bought in the iPhone or Android app, the Help Center says that past the limit, automations “will not trigger” for new contacts but keep working for the ones already counted.

If you want to try the real thing first, Essential and Pro both come with a 14-day free trial, and you can ask for a refund if you cancel within 30 days of your first purchase.

How ManyChat's Active Contacts billing works

Four details decide whether someone is on this month's bill:

• Once per person. Ten messages from the same person in a month is still one Active Contact.
• Sent counts too. The pricing page says a contact is active “when messages are sent or received through Manychat - via automations, AI, Broadcasts, or the Inbox”. Replying by hand in the Inbox, or a broadcast, puts someone on the bill.
• Quiet people are free. Contacts who don't interact in a month “remain stored in your Contacts list” and don't count.
• Deleting doesn't help. ManyChat's announcement says deleting contacts “will not reduce your Active Contact usage for that month”. The same person on Instagram and TikTok “may be counted separately”.

ManyChat emails and notifies you at 70%, 90% and 100% of your limit, and you can watch the live count under Insights on the Home tab. Past 100%, nothing stops: overage is on by default. ManyChat adds that if you grow “well beyond your plan's maximum cap without upgrading, automations may eventually pause.”

Calculate your ManyChat bill

Put in how many different people your automations reach in a normal month (comment-to-DM, story replies, people who DM you) and in a big month. Tap any month in the chart to turn a viral month on or off. The calculator puts you on the cheapest ManyChat plan for your numbers and shows the matching DMFa.st plan beside it.

The two tools meter different things, so read the comparison with that in mind:

• ManyChat counts people per month, across every channel and every message, including broadcasts and Inbox replies.
• DMFa.st counts auto-DMs: each comment, Story reply, Story mention or DM an automation answers. Follow-up messages in the same chat are free, comments without your keyword don't count, and with Only message each person once (on by default) a repeat comment on the same automation doesn't count either. Someone who triggers three different automations is three auto-DMs, which is what the 1, 2, 3 switch is for.
• ManyChat does much more. WhatsApp, Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, SMS, email, AI replies, broadcasts and a team Inbox. DMFa.st automates Instagram comments, Story replies, mentions and DMs only (TikTok and Threads aren't live yet). Compare the price of what you will actually use.

What a viral Reel costs on ManyChat

ManyChat answers this one itself: “If one of your posts suddenly drives 20,000 people into an automation, all of those people will become Active Contacts that same month.” Here is that month for a creator on Pro, billed monthly, worked out with ManyChat's published rates.

The cheapest move is usually to upgrade inside the same billing cycle, because ManyChat says that if you “upgrade to a higher plan within the same billing cycle, any overage fees incurred so far will be forgiven”. Then downgrade again: on monthly billing, that takes effect at your next billing period. On annual Pro the default is worse, $29 + 17,500 × $0.038 = $694 for that month, because an upgrade starts a new billing period on the new plan, and annual plans are charged a year upfront.

“Under Active Contacts, that spike is a one-month cost event.”

That is a real improvement on the old model, where ManyChat itself says a viral spike “could permanently raise the contact price you paid forever.” The month after the Reel, the 20,000 people who don't write back cost nothing. Big spikes also run into Instagram's own sending limits, whatever tool you use. We cover those with Meta's wording in Instagram DM automation rules.

Monthly or annual billing?

Annual billing saves 18% on Essential, 25% on Pro and 30% on Business and Advanced. “When you choose an annual plan, the full amount is charged upfront for the year.” Active Contacts are still counted monthly on annual plans, and overage is still billed monthly, at the lower annual rate.

• Steady volume: annual wins. Pro for 12 months is $348 billed yearly against $468 paid monthly.
• Spiky volume: monthly can win. You can move up for a big month and back down after. On annual you can upgrade any time, but you can't downgrade or switch to monthly until the year ends. In the calculator's default case (600 people a month and one 20,000-person month), monthly comes to about $628 over a year and annual Pro with overage to $1,013.
• Monthly to annual is easy. Unused time on your monthly plan is credited toward the annual payment, so you can start monthly and switch once you know your numbers.

Extra costs: Inbox seats, AI, tax and the mobile app

• Inbox seats. Each extra seat is $25 on Pro (up to 3 seats), Business (up to 5) and Advanced (up to 10). The number of users is capped per plan: 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10.
• AI. Included from Pro up. ManyChat's blog: “AI-powered automation isn't a separate add-on under our current pricing; it's built into the Pro plan.” Some older help pages still mention a separate AI add-on; ManyChat says those describe the old model.
• Tax. “Prices do not include tax.” ManyChat's announcement says sales tax applies depending on your location.
• Buying in the mobile app. The iPhone and Android apps sell Free, Essential and Pro only, at prices that “may differ from web prices”. App subscriptions can't use WhatsApp, SMS or email, and instead of overage, automations stop for new people once you hit the limit.

If your ManyChat account is older than March 2026

The new plans are the default for accounts created on or after 2 March 2026. Older paid accounts may still be on the previous Pro plan, which ManyChat is moving across “country by country”, with an email when your account is eligible. Check yours under Settings → Billing → Subscription.

In ManyChat's own words: “Under the old model, someone who interacted with you two years ago could still contribute to your pricing today.” The old tier table only appears as an image in ManyChat's Help Center, and the pricing page now shows the new plans, so our calculator models the current plans only. The old Free plan was 1,000 contacts in total, counting unsubscribed and deleted ones.

When ManyChat is worth the money

ManyChat is a strong product, and for a lot of businesses the price is fair. It is the better buy if you:

• talk to customers on WhatsApp, Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, SMS or email as well as Instagram;
• want AI that answers DMs and comments from what you teach it about your business;
• send broadcasts, or run a team Inbox with assignments and lead routing;
• have long, chatty conversations, since you pay per person, not per message.

If what you mostly do is Instagram comment-to-DM, and your volume jumps around with your Reels, a flat plan is easier to predict. DMFa.st counts auto-DMs and has no overage: Free covers 1,000 a month, Creator ($15) 10,000, Pro ($29) 30,000 and Agency ($99) 120,000. When you hit the limit, new matches are logged but not answered until next month or until you upgrade, the same trade as ManyChat's contact limit. Free DMs end with a small “Sent with DMFa.st”, and paid plans are not on sale yet. New to the idea? Start with how comment-to-DM works, or compare more tools in ManyChat alternatives.

ManyChat pricing FAQ

How much does ManyChat cost per month?

$0 on Free, $17 on Essential, $39 on Pro, $99 on Business and $199 on Advanced, billed monthly. Billed yearly, the paid plans work out to $14, $29, $69 and $139 a month, paid upfront. Add overage for people above your plan's Active Contacts, $25 per extra Inbox seat, and tax.

How much is ManyChat Pro?

$39 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly ($348). It includes 2,500 Active Contacts a month, then $0.05 per extra person ($0.038 on annual), 3 channels (WhatsApp, SMS and email allowed), AI replies, broadcasts, 3 users and 2 Inbox seats. It has a 14-day free trial.

What are the ManyChat free plan limits?

25 Active Contacts a month, 4 live automations, 2 channels from Instagram, TikTok, Messenger and Telegram, 1 user and 1 Inbox seat. No WhatsApp, SMS or email, and a “Powered by Manychat” message appears the first time you message someone.

Does deleting contacts lower my ManyChat bill?

Not for the current month. ManyChat bills the people you engaged with during the billing period, and deleting them afterwards doesn't change that. People who stay quiet the next month don't count anyway, so there is nothing to clean up.

Can I cap my ManyChat bill?

Yes. In Settings → Billing → Subscription, click Set your contact limit and choose how many extra Active Contacts you'll pay for, including none. After that, automations only keep running for people already active that month.

Does ManyChat charge per message?

No. One person is one Active Contact for the month, however many messages you exchange. In ManyChat's words: “No pay-per-message nonsense.”