Cost guide

Klaviyo cost guide — by profile count and brand size

Klaviyo prices on active profiles — contacts you’ve emailed or SMSed in the last 30 days — not total contacts. That distinction matters: a brand with a 500K total contact list and a 90K active profile list pays for 90K, not 500K. Active-profile counts grow with GMV but the relationship isn’t linear, which is why operators routinely misbudget Klaviyo at scale.

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This guide is the real cost grid we send operators planning their Klaviyo budget. It covers email-only and email + SMS pricing across the brand-size bands, plus the annual-contract negotiation patterns that save 10–20% above $2K/month spend.

Headline range

$150–$8,000/month for $1M–$50M+ Shopify Plus DTC brands

By brand size

TierMonthly revenueRetention spendNotes
Sub-$1MUnder $1M GMV$150–$400/month5K–25K active profiles typical. Klaviyo email at this scale is $20–$250/month depending on active count. SMS rarely worth the spend below $1M GMV — most brands use Shopify Email + free SMS trials at this scale.
$1M–$5M$1M–$5M GMV$400–$1,500/month25K–75K active profiles typical. Klaviyo email at $250–$1,100/month. Klaviyo SMS at $150–$400/month if running natively. Most brands at this band are on month-to-month contracts; annual deals don’t pay back until $1K+/month spend.
$5M–$10M$5M–$10M GMV$900–$2,800/month50K–150K active profiles typical. Klaviyo email at $700–$2,300/month. Klaviyo SMS at $200–$500/month. Annual contracts start to pay back at this band — typically 10–15% savings vs month-to-month.
$10M–$25M$10M–$25M GMV$1,800–$5,000/month120K–300K active profiles typical. Klaviyo email at $1,400–$4,000/month. Klaviyo SMS at $400–$1,000/month if running. Annual contracts standard; 15–20% savings vs month-to-month. Profile-cleaning starts to be a real operational lever.
$25M+$25M+ GMV$3,500–$8,000+/month250K–1M+ active profiles typical. Klaviyo email at $3,000–$6,500/month. Klaviyo SMS at $500–$1,500/month if running. Custom contracts negotiated at $50K–$150K/year with multi-year discounts. $50M+ brands sometimes price-stress-test by quoting Listrak / Iterable / Bloomreach to negotiate harder Klaviyo terms.

By workstream

  • Klaviyo email — active-profile-based pricing

    $20–$6,500/month

    At 5K profiles: $20. At 25K: $250. At 50K: $700. At 100K: $1,400. At 150K: $2,300. At 250K: $3,200. At 500K: $4,800. Prices change annually but the curve is roughly linear with breakpoints at major tier boundaries.

  • Klaviyo SMS — send-volume-based pricing

    $150–$2,000/month at $1M–$50M GMV

    SMS pricing is per-send (typically $0.015–$0.025/send) plus a base fee. Volume discounts available above 50K sends/month. Klaviyo SMS is competitive with Postscript/Attentive on pure send pricing but trails on merchant-ops support.

  • Profile cleaning + management

    2–6 hours/month of operator time

    The most under-appreciated cost-management lever. Suppressing 180-day+ non-engaged profiles drops the active count by 15–30% without affecting program ROI. Many brands carry 20–40% of their active count in unengaged profiles and pay for the privilege.

  • Annual contract savings

    10–20% savings vs month-to-month above $1K/month

    Annual contracts above $2K/month spend are negotiable. Standard savings 10–15%; aggressive negotiators get 18–20% with multi-year commits. Common negotiation lever: quote Drip or Omnisend at the same volume.

  • Enterprise contract negotiations

    15–25% savings at $50K+/year spend

    Above $50K/year Klaviyo spend, the contract is custom. Multi-year deals, volume tiers, and bundled email + SMS pricing all become negotiation surface. Brands at this tier should engage procurement support, not negotiate directly.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Klaviyo cost so much more than Omnisend at the same GMV?
Omnisend is roughly 50–60% of Klaviyo’s cost at the same active-profile count. The gap reflects Klaviyo’s deeper Shopify-native integration, more mature segmentation, and broader agency ecosystem — which together typically drive 8–15 points more attributed revenue at $5M+. The cost gap pays back several times over above $2M GMV.
How much can profile cleaning save us?
15–30% of monthly Klaviyo cost at $5M+ GMV where most brands carry 20–40% of their active count in 180-day+ unengaged profiles. Profile cleaning is 2–6 hours of operator time per quarter and pays back the same quarter.
When should we move to an annual contract?
Above $1K/month spend, annual contracts typically save 10–15% — worth doing. Above $2K/month, savings climb to 15–20%, often with multi-year terms. Don’t commit to annual deals if you’re likely to outgrow Klaviyo within the contract window (which happens for very few brands).
Is Klaviyo SMS cheaper than Postscript or Attentive?
On pure per-send pricing, Klaviyo SMS is competitive — typically 5–15% cheaper than Postscript at the same volume. Where Klaviyo SMS trails is merchant-ops support and the agency ecosystem; brands without dedicated SMS staffing usually get more from Postscript despite slightly higher per-send cost.