- Klaviyo's free plan covers up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month and $5 of mobile messages a month, per its pricing page.
- Paid email plans are priced by active profiles. Unsubscribed and suppressed contacts don't count toward billing.
- Go over your plan's active profiles and Klaviyo moves you to a plan that covers them at the next billing cycle. A smaller list doesn't lower your bill unless you pick a lower tier or turn on auto-downgrade.
- SMS isn't part of the email plan. You commit to an amount of spend, and rates vary by message type and country.
- Upgrade when you hit the limits. The goal is making more money from Klaviyo, not saving money on it.
This is for Shopify founders who are about to install Klaviyo, or just got their first real bill and want to know what's driving it.
Is Klaviyo free on Shopify?
Yes, up to a point. Klaviyo's pricing page lists a free plan with:
- Up to 250 active profiles
- 500 email sends a month
- $5 of mobile messages a month
- $5 of Composer usage a month
- Email support for the first 60 days
Klaviyo says you can stay on the free plan indefinitely as long as your active profile count stays at or below 250. Go past the limits and you'll need to upgrade, or your sending may be paused.
There's also Klaviyo Starter, a free version that runs inside your Shopify admin. Klaviyo built it for early-stage stores with under 250 contacts and 0 to 100 orders a month. It's email only, with one live sign-up form and up to three active single-step flows. I go through what it covers, and when you've outgrown it, in my Klaviyo Starter post.
How does Klaviyo price its paid plans?
By active profiles. Klaviyo's own explainer puts it this way: Profile and Email plans "are priced by active profiles, with email send capacity included."
Klaviyo's billing help article defines an active profile as any profile, regardless of consent status, that can be emailed through Klaviyo. That includes subscribers and people added by general engagement, like a checkout started on your Shopify store. What doesn't count:
- Suppressed profiles
- Unsubscribed profiles
- Profiles with only a phone number and no email
Each profile tier comes with monthly email send capacity tied to that tier. Klaviyo says skipped emails don't count toward your send limit, but received and bounced ones do.
For the exact dollar amount at your size, use the "Build a plan" tool on Klaviyo's pricing page. Prices step up by tier, and Klaviyo changes them from time to time, so the calculator is the number to trust on the day you sign up. I keep a snapshot of the list prices in why did my Klaviyo bill go up.
What happens when I go over my plan?
Klaviyo upgrades you. Its billing FAQ says your plan "automatically upgrades to a tier that covers your active profile count for your next billing cycle." Owners and admins get a notice when you're approaching the limit, and another when an upgrade happens.
The useful part is in Klaviyo's own example. An account with 64,000 active profiles on a 65,000 plan adds 5,000 people, which would push it to the next tier. If it suppresses or deletes 4,000 or more active profiles before the plan is assessed for renewal, it stays on its current plan. So the "approaching your limit" email isn't a bill yet. It's a deadline.
Two billing preferences matter here, and Klaviyo says neither was turned on for you automatically:
- Flexible sending. When you blow past your send capacity, say during BFCM, you pay for extra capacity at your current rate without changing your plan. It expires at the start of the next billing cycle. Klaviyo's worked example: an $80-a-month plan with 35,000 monthly emails, an overage rate of $2.29 per 1,000, and 15,000 extra emails costing $34.35 before tax. That's Klaviyo's example, not a price list.
- Auto-downgrade on profiles. Your plan drops to the lowest tier that covers your active profiles for the next cycle. Without it, cleaning your list doesn't lower your bill. Klaviyo says it can't run alongside automatic upgrades based on sends, but it can run with flexible sending.
You set both under Billing, then Preferences. Only owners and admins can change them. Klaviyo notes these details apply to month-to-month customers who pay by card.
How much does Klaviyo SMS cost on Shopify?
SMS is billed separately from email. Klaviyo's explainer says you "commit to an amount of spend based on your expected volume, and it burns down as you send." An MMS burns more than an SMS, and each country has its own rate.
What a single text costs depends on how many segments it uses. One emoji can drop a segment from 160 characters to 70. I break the whole thing down in Klaviyo SMS credits.
Is Klaviyo more expensive than Shopify Email?
Usually, yes. When I compared the two in Klaviyo vs Shopify Email, Shopify Email came out cheaper by a lot, and for a brand-new store with a tiny list it can be enough. What you're paying Klaviyo for is the flows, segmentation and reporting that turn email into a real revenue channel.
That's the frame I'd use for the whole pricing question. Focus on making more money from Klaviyo, not on saving money on it. Upgrade when you hit the plan limits. If the platform is set up right, the flows pay for the plan many times over. Across 4 consumable brands I work with, welcome email #1 earns about $4.50 per person it goes to. A snack brand doing about $650K a month made $48,771 from one restock email. Those aren't numbers you get from a tool you're trying to keep cheap.
If you're weighing another option, Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for Shopify covers how each one counts contacts.
How do I keep my Klaviyo bill in check?
Stop paying for people you can't reach, then spend your energy on capturing better ones.
- Check your active profile count against your plan. It's on your billing page. If you're close to the line, you know a tier jump is coming.
- Turn on auto-downgrade. Otherwise a cleanup won't change what you pay.
- Remove the obviously bad profiles. Bounced addresses and people who will never open are dead weight. Klaviyo says suppressed profiles don't count toward your active profile limit.
- Don't over-clean. Founders obsess over cleaning the list instead of adding better profiles and better systems to capture them. A clean list of the wrong people still doesn't buy.
- Keep SMS tight. One segment, plain SMS before MMS, and watch the country mix in your SMS audience.
Klaviyo also notes that after a large cleanup, the profile count in billing can take up to 72 hours to refresh. Don't panic if the number doesn't move the same afternoon.
FAQ
What does Klaviyo cost for a Shopify store?
It's free up to 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. Past that, your email plan is priced by active profiles. Use the "Build a plan" tool on Klaviyo's pricing page for your exact number. SMS is extra.
Is Klaviyo free on Shopify?
Yes, for small stores. The free plan and Klaviyo Starter both cap you at 250 active profiles and 500 emails a month.
Do unsubscribed profiles count toward my Klaviyo bill?
No. Klaviyo says unsubscribed and suppressed contacts don't count toward billing.
Will Klaviyo charge me more automatically?
Yes, if your active profiles go over your plan. Klaviyo upgrades you to a plan that covers your count at the next billing cycle and emails owners and admins about it.
Does deleting profiles lower my Klaviyo bill?
Not by itself. Klaviyo says reducing your active profile count doesn't lower your price unless you select a lower plan or turn on profiles auto-downgrade.
Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.