ManyChat Pricing in 2026: Plans, Active Contacts and What You'll Actually Pay

ManyChat changed how it charges on March 2, 2026: instead of pricing by the total number of contacts on your list, it now has five plans priced by active contacts per month. That’s why two versions of ManyChat pricing are still floating around, and why it’s easy to mistake the yearly price for the monthly one: the pricing page opens on the yearly view. This is the picture as of September 25, 2026, checked on ManyChat’s pricing page and help center, plus what you’d pay depending on how many people message you each month.

ManyChat plans and prices in 2026

List prices in US dollars, before tax. Sources: ManyChat’s pricing page and its help center article on each plan (Free, Essential, Pro, Business and Advanced).

How to read the table:

• Yearly plans are paid up front. ManyChat advertises 18% savings on Essential, 25% on Pro and 30% on Business and Advanced, and a yearly plan can’t be downgraded or switched to monthly until the term ends.
• AI and WhatsApp start on Pro. ManyChat’s AI answers DMs and FAQs using what you teach it about your business, and replies to positive comments. Pro also adds SMS, email and broadcasts.
• 14-day free trial on Essential and Pro, and a refund if you cancel within 30 days of your first purchase.
• Each account is billed separately. Pricing is per ManyChat account, not per user: three brands in three accounts means three plans.

ManyChat’s free plan: what you get today

The free plan needs no credit card and includes:

• 25 active contacts a month.
• 4 live automations at a time.
• 2 channels, from Instagram, TikTok, Messenger and Telegram.
• 1 user.
• A “Powered by Manychat” message the first time you message each contact.

There’s no AI, WhatsApp, SMS or email, and no per-contact overage: 25 people a month is the cap. A reel where 40 different people comment your keyword is already past it.

What counts as an active contact, and why the bill grows

A café posts a reel that says “Comment MENU and I’ll DM it to you.” Over the month, 180 different people comment and get the menu, and 40 of them reply with questions. For ManyChat, that’s 180 active contacts: each person counts once a month, even if they send ten messages.

Anyone who interacts with you through ManyChat (a DM, a comment, a story reply) counts; followers who don’t interact, don’t. Per its help article on active contacts, the count resets every billing cycle, annual plans included; imported contacts only count if they send or receive messages; and someone who messages you on Instagram and on TikTok may count twice, unless ManyChat matches them by phone number or email.

What happens when you go over

Your automations keep running, and ManyChat adds an overage charge to your next bill for each extra contact. On monthly billing:

• Essential: $0.10 USD per contact.
• Pro: $0.05.
• Business: $0.025.
• Advanced: $0.004, dropping with higher usage.

On yearly billing the overage is lower: $0.038 USD per contact on Pro.

That’s why the bill climbs right when a post takes off. A clothing store on monthly Pro has 1,500 active contacts in a normal month, until a reel with “Comment CODE” goes viral and the month closes at 6,000. With no cap and no plan change, that’s 3,500 extra contacts at $0.05 USD each: the overage alone costs more than the whole Business plan ($99 a month, with 7,500 contacts).

To keep it in check, ManyChat notifies you at 70%, 90% and 100% of your allowance and lets you set an overage cap under Settings, Billing, Subscription (“Set your contact limit”); once you hit it, automations only keep running for people who were already active that month. If you upgrade within the same billing cycle, the overage so far is forgiven. It also warns that if you grow far past your allowance without upgrading, automations may pause, without saying at what number.

How much ManyChat costs at your volume

The cheapest plan for each volume, on monthly billing, looking only at list price in USD, before tax and WhatsApp message fees:

On price alone, moving up a plan makes sense from 470 active contacts (where Essential plus overage matches Pro at $39 USD), from 3,700 (Pro plus overage matches Business at $99) and from 11,500 (Business plus overage matches Advanced at $199). But Pro is also the first plan with AI and WhatsApp, so if you need either one, you’ll move up sooner. Yearly billing lowers both the monthly price and the overage rate, with the year paid up front.

Tax, currency and paying from outside the US

ManyChat lists its prices in US dollars, before tax. Its pricing page notes that the price is determined by your billing country and that you’ll see the final amount on the purchase page before you pay, so outside the US it may not match the table exactly. If your card isn’t in US dollars, its help center suggests keeping some extra funds for exchange rate differences.

Two more things change what you pay:

• The app. If you subscribe through the App Store or Google Play, Apple or Google set the price based on your location, and it can differ from the web price; the app only offers Free, Essential and Pro (mobile subscriptions).
• WhatsApp. On top of the plan, ManyChat charges for each WhatsApp template message it delivers (messages Meta approves before they’re sent), priced by category and by the recipient’s country, and deducts it from your Manychat Wallet balance. Rates by market are in its WhatsApp pricing guide. From October 1, 2026, it also charges for service messages (replies while the conversation window is open), with 1,000 free per number each month.

What changed on March 2, 2026

Until then, according to its Billing FAQ, ManyChat had two plans: Free, capped at 1,000 total contacts (unsubscribed and deleted ones included), and Pro, from $15 USD a month for up to 500 contacts, with a price that rose as your list grew. That list never reset, Pro could only be billed monthly, and ManyChat’s AI was a paid add-on. If another page says Pro starts at $15, it’s quoting that model.

For a small account living on the free plan, the change is steep: from 1,000 total contacts to 25 active ones a month. For a big list with little activity, counting only the people who engage each month can come out cheaper.

Today, every free account and every account created since March 2, 2026 is on the new plans. Older paid accounts may still be on the old model: ManyChat is opening the switch country by country and emails you when your account can move.

Where HeyMark fits

HeyMark, the tool that publishes this page, charges for the plan, not per contact. If what you do with ManyChat is reply to keyword comments and send the DM:

• Keyword rules on every plan, with no credits spent. A public reply and a DM to anyone who comments the keyword on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, and an automatic reply to anyone who sends it by DM on those networks. On LinkedIn and YouTube, the public reply.
• AI replies in your brand’s voice, at 1 credit each. Creator includes 500 credits a month for $12 USD ($10 billed yearly), for 1 brand and 1 person; Company, 3,000 credits, 3 brands and 5 people for $30 ($25 billed yearly). Extra credits are $0.01 USD each, optional and only on monthly billing.
• In the same plan: scheduling to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, a unified inbox and analytics.

With the clothing store’s viral reel, the rule spends no credits and isn’t billed per person: the plan costs the same even if 6,000 people comment. If the AI then answers 800 DMs, that’s 800 credits: more than Creator’s 500, within Company’s 3,000. HeyMark has no free plan (there’s a 7-day trial), doesn’t work with WhatsApp, SMS, email or Telegram, and doesn’t build flows with branches and conditions.

If you’re thinking of leaving ManyChat, we compare the options in ManyChat alternatives. The comment-to-DM walkthrough is in Instagram DM automation, and AI that holds a DM conversation is covered in AI chatbot for Instagram.

When ManyChat is the better choice

ManyChat is the better pick if:

• WhatsApp matters to your business, or you need SMS, email or Telegram.
• Your automations branch on conditions, collect emails or phone numbers, check whether someone follows you, A/B test messages or start from a Meta or TikTok ad.
• You need broadcasts, or to connect the chat to your CRM, email platform or payments (HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp or Stripe, from Pro).
• Your volume fits in 25 contacts a month and 4 automations: there, ManyChat’s free plan costs less than any paid plan, HeyMark’s included.

HeyMark is the better fit if the job is comment-to-DM and you also need to schedule posts, run an inbox and reply with AI without moving to Pro ($39 USD a month, or $29 billed yearly). ManyChat doesn’t schedule posts.

How to work out your own number

If you already use ManyChat, your monthly active contacts are under Insights on the Home tab. If not, count the different people who comment on your posts and DM you in a month, and look up your busiest month in the table, not your average. With HeyMark connected to Claude or ChatGPT, you can ask for that count (change the network in brackets if you use TikTok or Facebook):

Look at my [Instagram] posts from the last 30 days in HeyMark.

Count how many different people commented (someone who commented several times counts once) and how many different people sent me a DM in that period.

Give me the total without counting anyone twice, and tell me which band it falls in: up to 25, up to 250, up to 2,500, up to 7,500 or up to 25,000 a month.

If one post accounts for most of the comments, call it out separately: that's the one that could push the bill up.

The prompt only reads: it doesn’t publish or reply to anything. To compare in practice, HeyMark’s 7-day trial is enough to connect Instagram and leave a rule running on your next post.