Shopify Messaging vs Klaviyo: what a store actually pays and gets in 2026

Shopify Messaging bills per email sent: 10,000 emails are free each month, then $1 per 1,000. Klaviyo bills per active profile: $30 a month at 1,000 profiles, $150 at 10,000 and $400 at 25,000, each tier including 10 emails per profile. Which is cheaper depends on one multiplication, list size times how often you email it, and this article does it at six list sizes. Shopify Messaging, formerly Shopify Email, was renamed when Shopify added SMS in December 2025, so most comparisons still ranking use the old name. Every figure below was read on help.shopify.com, shopify.com, klaviyo.com/pricing and help.klaviyo.com on 28 September 2026, in US dollars, billed monthly.

Shopify Messaging vs Klaviyo at a glance

How Shopify Messaging prices email

What counts as an email

Shopify's pricing page puts it plainly: "sending 1 promotional email to 800 subscribers counts as 800 emails." Every store gets 10,000 free emails per calendar month, shared across campaigns and automations, and unused emails do not carry over. Above that the rate is $1 per 1,000 additional emails up to 300,000, then $0.65 per 1,000 until 750,000, then $0.55 per 1,000. Shopify's own example: two campaigns to 6,000 subscribers are 12,000 emails, 10,000 free and 2,000 chargeable, $2 in total.

What is free, and who can use it

The rule that matters most for a store is buried in the automations documentation: "Abandoned checkout automation emails don't count towards your emails sent with Shopify Messaging." Other automations, welcome and winback included, do count, but the flow with the most volume and revenue is free. Our abandoned cart email sequence guide covers what those emails should say.

The help center says Shopify Messaging is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans; on a free trial or Pause and Build you can build campaigns and send tests to yourself but not to subscribers. Extra emails land on the next Shopify bill as "Marketing emails"; the monthly spending threshold you can set is a notification, not a cap.

How Klaviyo prices email

What an active profile is

Klaviyo's billing article defines active profiles widely: "Any profile, regardless of consent status, that can be emailed through Klaviyo is considered an active profile. This includes your subscribers and those who are added by general engagement (such as sharing their email on a store's checkout page but not actually opting in)." Suppressed, unsubscribed and deleted profiles do not count, but the count can take up to 72 hours to refresh, and the plan never downgrades on its own: you pick the lower tier yourself, more than 24 hours before renewal.

The Shopify integration syncs checkout customers into Klaviyo, so the billable count is usually higher than the newsletter list. The tables below assume the two are equal, which flatters Klaviyo. Our list cleaning guide covers finding and suppressing the profiles that should not be billed.

Tiers, the 10x send allowance and automatic upgrades

The Email plan tiers read from the profile slider on klaviyo.com/pricing are $20 at 500 profiles, $30 at 1,000, $60 at 2,500, $100 at 5,000, $150 at 10,000, $350 at 15,000, $400 at 25,000, $720 at 50,000 and $1,380 at 100,000. Each tier includes 10 emails per profile per month (250,000 at the 25,000 tier), a rule Klaviyo's limits article states as 10 times the plan's maximum profiles. The steps are not smooth: $150 at 10,000 becomes $175 at 10,500 and $350 at 15,000, so a few months of growth past 10,001 profiles can more than double the bill.

Both limits are enforced. Exceed the profile tier at the end of a billing cycle and "You will be automatically upgraded to a profile-compliant plan"; exceed the send allowance and you choose between flexible overages, an upgrade or stopping sending. The free plan covers 250 active profiles, 500 emails a month and $5 of mobile messages. Deeper features cost extra: Marketing Analytics starts at $100 a month for up to 13,500 active profiles, and predictive analytics sits in the Marketing plan, not the Email plan. Tier mechanics are compared with Mailchimp's in Klaviyo vs Mailchimp pricing.

What a store actually pays at six list sizes

Two sending patterns: 4 emails per subscriber per month (a weekly newsletter) and 8 per month (newsletter plus welcome, cart and post-purchase flows). Shopify Messaging follows its formula: (emails sent minus 10,000) times $1 per 1,000, and $0.65 per 1,000 above 300,000. Klaviyo is identical in both scenarios because 8 emails per profile is inside the 10x allowance. MailingPlatform is the plan price in euro, excluding VAT, plus AWS delivery (see the footnotes).

Worked example, last row at 8x: 400,000 emails. 10,000 free, 290,000 at $1 per 1,000 ($290), 100,000 at $0.65 per 1,000 ($65): $355.

• Currencies are kept apart: Shopify and Klaviyo in US dollars, MailingPlatform in euro, no conversion.
• The Shopify Messaging figures are a ceiling: abandoned checkout emails do not count, so a store whose 8 emails include a cart flow pays less.
• The Klaviyo figures assume active profiles equal subscribers; because checkout profiles who never opted in also count, the real bill is often a tier higher.
• The MailingPlatform figures exclude AWS SES, which Amazon bills at $0.10 per 1,000 emails pay as you go, or $0.16 per 1,000 on the Essentials plan new SES accounts start on since 21 July 2026. At 25,000 subscribers and 8 emails that is 200,000 emails, $20 to $32 a month. Details in the billing help article; delivery runs through your own Amazon SES account.
• The Shopify plan itself is not included; you pay it whichever email tool you choose.
• Prices checked 28 September 2026.

Read honestly: at 4 to 8 emails per subscriber, Shopify Messaging is the cheapest of the three at all six list sizes. At 1,000 subscribers MailingPlatform (€39) costs more than Klaviyo ($30), and at 5,000 the Professional plan (€129) is the most expensive; between 3,001 and 5,000 both Shopify Messaging and Klaviyo undercut it. At 10,000, Klaviyo ($150) and MailingPlatform (€129 plus SES) are close. Only from 25,000 is Klaviyo clearly the most expensive: $400 and $720 against €129 and €299. Price alone is no reason to leave Shopify Messaging if you send once or twice a week.

If you send most days

Take 30 emails per subscriber per month: a daily send, or a newsletter on top of flows firing every day.

• 10,000 subscribers, 300,000 emails. Shopify Messaging: 290,000 billable emails, $290. Klaviyo: far above the 100,000 included at the 10,000 tier, so flexible overages or the 30,000-profile tier that covers 300,000 emails, $500. MailingPlatform: €129 plus $30 to $48 at AWS.
• 25,000 subscribers, 750,000 emails. Shopify Messaging: 290,000 emails at $1 and 450,000 at $0.65, $582.50. Klaviyo: the tier that includes 750,000 emails is 75,000 profiles at $1,070. MailingPlatform: €129 plus $75 to $120 at AWS.

Our flat rate email marketing pricing page says the same in one sentence (fine at low volume, expensive once automations fire daily); this is the arithmetic behind it.

SMS: two different bills

Shopify Messaging charges SMS per message, billed monthly, at a rate that depends on the country: $0.08 in Denmark, $0.06 in the United Kingdom, $0.072 in Sweden and $0.012 in the United States. Long messages count as several, each approved toll-free number in the United States and Canada costs $2.15 a month, and SMS to Spain and Austria is paused from 15 September and 1 October 2026 respectively.

Klaviyo uses dollar-based rates per message by channel, country and number type, with carrier fees bundled into the plan rate and $5 of mobile messages a month on the free plan. Its public pages express the SMS bundle in different ways, so we are not quoting a fixed price. MailingPlatform does not do SMS at all; if texts drive a meaningful share of your revenue, that alone decides between the other two.

What each one can automate and segment

Shopify Messaging

Shopify lists ready-made automations for welcome, winback and upsell, plus custom workflows where you "Set the trigger and conditions, then add any conditional logic or wait steps". Automations require Basic or higher and "For full functionality, your store needs to have the Shopify Flow app installed". Campaigns go to Shopify customer lists or segments, templates pull logo, products and prices from the store, Sidekick drafts copy and suggests a send time, and reports show open rates and sales. Signup forms are a separate free app, Shopify Forms, and Shopify Network Intelligence must be enabled in your privacy settings.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo's free plan lists web forms, basic templates with a drag-and-drop editor, basic segmentation and reporting; the paid Email plan adds 350+ integrations, A/B testing and sender reputation features. The Marketing plan holds the well-known depth: predictive analytics, onsite personalization, product recommendations and mobile push. That depth is Klaviyo's real argument, and the price comparison should be read with it in mind. What we have not verified, such as whether Shopify Messaging supports A/B testing, we do not claim either way.

When Shopify Messaging is enough

• Your list is small or medium and you send once or twice a week: the table shows it is the cheapest option, often free.
• Your flows are the standard three, welcome, abandoned checkout and winback, and the highest-volume one costs nothing.
• You want everything inside the Shopify admin, on one bill, with templates that already know your products.
• You sell mainly to countries where Shopify's SMS rates fit your margins; a 5,000-recipient text is $400 at Denmark's $0.08 per message and $60 at the United States' $0.012.

When it is time to move to Klaviyo

• You will use predictive analytics, engagement-based segmentation and A/B testing, and someone has time to maintain the flows. Features are the argument, not price.
• SMS is a core channel and must run inside the same flows as email.
• You have budgeted for reality: checkout profiles count, and tier jumps such as $150 at 10,000 to $350 at 15,000 happen automatically at the end of a billing cycle. The Klaviyo migration guide is there if you later want out.

Where a flat rate fits

There is a third bill shape. MailingPlatform prices by active, emailable subscribers: €39 a month up to 3,000, €129 up to 25,000, €299 up to 100,000 and €499 unlimited, excluding VAT. Unsubscribed, bounced and suppressed contacts are free, and platform sends are unlimited: no send cap, no send credits, no overage from us. The honest footnote is the one in the table: delivery runs through your own Amazon SES account, billed by AWS at roughly $0.10 to $0.16 per 1,000 emails.

It fits a growing list with high sending frequency, the "If you send most days" scenario. It does not fit a small list mailed twice a month, where Shopify Messaging is cheaper, and it does not replace Klaviyo if you need SMS or predictive analytics. The Shopify email marketing app sets up webhooks, product sync, on-site tracking and the coupon API on installation, so cart and back in stock flows run on live store data and unique discount codes per recipient are possible. Plan details are on the pricing page.

How to decide in 15 minutes

• Count active subscribers. In Shopify, customers who accept marketing. In Klaviyo, active profiles including checkout profiles who never opted in, because that is the billed number.
• Count emails per subscriber per month. Campaigns plus every flow email a typical subscriber receives.
• Multiply and price it. Shopify Messaging: (emails minus 10,000) times $1 per 1,000, $0.65 above 300,000. Klaviyo: the tier that covers your profiles, checked against 10 emails per profile. Flat rate: your subscriber band plus AWS.
• Ask what you actually use. If you would not open the predictive analytics tab this quarter, do not pay for it. If you send twice a month, do not pay a tier for it either.

Frequently asked questions