Legacy? Essentials? Standard? Free?

Since May 2019, Mailchimp has had a number of different account levels depending on what you need for your email marketing (and if you were a customer prior to this date).

Because the way that Mailchimp charges you is based on the type of account you’re on (unless you’re a free user!), you need to be know your level AND be aware of what changes if you decide to upgrade.

So if you’re not sure, how do you know your level? Here’s a quick guide for you to point you in the right direction.

How to find your Mailchimp account level

There are two ways of finding your account level – looking at your monthly bill or accessing the information in your account.

1. Monthly billing email
   • If you’ve got access to your monthly billing email from Mailchimp which lets you know your charges, then all the information is there.
     • If it shows your payment as a “Monthly plan” and a subscriber band, then you’re on a Legacy Plan for an account that was set up prior to May 2019 and which hasn’t been upgraded.
     • If it shows either Standard plan or Essentials plan and a subscriber count (not a band), you’re on a Standard/Essentials plan (duh!).  It’ll also show you if you’re paying for extra contacts with “additional contact blocks” showing with the charge therein.
2. Accessing the information from your Mailchimp account
   • If you can’t find your email from Mailchimp, it’s still pretty easy to find out what level of account you’re on by viewing the information in your Mailchimp set up.
   • To do this follow these instructions:
     • Log into your account and access the account settings
       • You can do this by clicking the icon in the bottom left of the screen (which could be your logo/face) and then clicking Account.
       • This will take you to your overview page and it should show straight away what plan you’re on
         • If you are on a Standard or Essentials plan it should show this at the top of the overview page
           • Standard plan should have the words “Standard plan” and the contact level you’re on.
           • 
           • Essentials plan should have the words “Essentials plan” and the contact level you are on.
           • 
         • If you are on a Legacy plan it should just show the cost per month and the band (as in this image)
           • 

So now you know your account level…

Knowing the account level you’re on in Mailchimp is essential to being able to know how to minimise your costs – which you can learn in the following pages:

• If you’re on a Legacy account – click here to see how you can limit your Mailchimp costs
• If you’re on a Standard/Essentials account – click here to see how you can limit your Mailchimp costs

Obviously, there’s no way to “downgrade” from a Standard or Essentials plan to a Legacy Account, but you might decide you want to move from a Legacy plan to one of the new plans.

If this is on the horizon, make sure you’re aware of the key differences between the two from a cost point of view before you make the jump – otherwise you might end up paying more than you need.