ManyChat pricing, explained
ManyChat pricing in 2026: Active Contacts, plainly
How ManyChat's price is worked out, what going over your contacts costs, and what several Instagram accounts add up to. Every ManyChat number is from manychat.com, read October 20, 2026. Written by Postkey, the most agentic DM automation tool, so you know who is talking.
The short answer
ManyChat charges by Active Contacts: each person you message in a month counts once. Paid plans run from $17 to $199 a month on monthly billing and include 250 to 25,000 contacts; each person past that costs $0.004 to $0.10. Each Instagram account needs its own ManyChat subscription.
Updated October 20, 2026
What an Active Contact is
ManyChat moved to five fixed plans on March 2, 2026. The price of each depends on how many different people you talk to in a month, not on how many messages you send. In ManyChat's words: "It doesn't matter how many messages you exchange. One person = one Active Contact for the month."
What makes someone count: "A contact counts as "active" when messages are sent or received through Manychat - via automations, AI, Broadcasts, or the Inbox." So a person who comments your keyword and gets one DM is an Active Contact for that month, the same as someone you chat with all month.
Yearly billing does not change the count: "On annual plans, Active Contacts are still calculated monthly, and any overages are billed monthly, too."
Sources: manychat.com/pricing, ManyChat help: Active Contacts, ManyChat help: accounts
The plans
| Plan | Monthly billing | Billed yearly, a month | Contacts a month | Each extra contact (monthly / yearly billing) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 25 | No overage: a hard limit |
| Essential | $17 | $14 | 250 | $0.10 / $0.082 |
| Pro | $39 | $29 | 2,500 | $0.05 / $0.038 |
| Business | $99 | $69 | 7,500 | $0.025 / $0.018 |
| Advanced | $199 | $139 | 25,000 | $0.004 / $0.0028 |
The Free plan also limits you to 2 channels and 4 live automations. Accounts made before March 2, 2026 may still be on ManyChat's older pricing.
Sources: manychat.com/pricing
What going over costs
Going over your plan's contacts does not stop your automations. "If you go over it, your automations don't suddenly shut off, we'll just charge a small overage fee for each additional Active Contact." Here is what that looks like on monthly billing:
- Essential: $17 a month, all 250 people included
- Essential: $17 + 750 extra contacts × $0.10 = $92 a month
- Pro: $39 a month, all 2,500 people included
- Pro: $39 + 2,500 extra contacts × $0.05 = $164 a month
- Business: $99 + 2,500 extra contacts × $0.025 = $161.50 a month
When to move up a plan
Extra contacts are cheap one at a time and add up fast. On monthly billing, Essential plus overage costs the same as Pro at about 470 people a month, and Pro plus overage costs the same as Business at about 3,700. Past those points the bigger plan is cheaper, and it adds features.
Two of ManyChat's own rules help here. "You can also set an overage threshold, which lets you control whether overages are allowed at all, and how many additional Active Contacts you're comfortable paying for." And: "If you exceed your limit and upgrade to a higher plan within the same billing cycle, any overage fees incurred so far will be forgiven".
For any number of people, the cheapest ManyChat plan on monthly billing is: 1,000 people, Pro; 5,000 people, Business; 20,000 people, Advanced.
Several Instagram accounts
This is where ManyChat gets expensive. One ManyChat account connects 1 Instagram account. In ManyChat's words: "If you want to manage multiple accounts for the same channel type, such as two Instagram accounts, you'll need to create a separate Manychat account for each. Note that each Manychat account has its own settings and billing."
So 5 Instagram accounts, each talking to 1,000 people a month, are 5 subscriptions: Pro at $39 each, $195 a month on monthly billing. On Postkey the same 5 accounts fit on one Pro plan for $85 a month.
Sources: ManyChat help: accounts
Work out your own bill
Pick your accounts and how many people each one talks to in a month. It uses the same ManyChat prices as above and Postkey's own price list.
Contacts per account a month
Billing
ManyChat, 3 subscriptions
$87
a month
3 × $29 = $87
Postkey Create
$44
a month
3 accounts on one plan
You keep $43 a month. $516 a year.
- $87 − $44 = $43 a month
- $43 × 12 = $516 a year
- $43 ÷ $87 = 49%
1 ManyChat list prices in US dollars, per ManyChat account, before tax (Pro plan, 1,000 Active Contacts per account a month, monthly billing), from manychat.com/pricing, read October 20, 2026. Each ManyChat account connects one Instagram account. Accounts made before March 2, 2026 may be on older pricing. manychat.com/pricing
What Postkey charges instead
Postkey uses the same idea and the same numbers for contacts: the same allowances and the same price for each extra contact, plan for plan. What differs is everything around them: one Postkey plan holds several Instagram accounts and counts their contacts together, the post scheduler is built in, and an AI assistant can run it all through MCP.
That is why Postkey is the best ManyChat alternative: the same contact pricing, a lower plan price, and several accounts on one plan.
Where it makes no difference: one small account. Both Free plans include 25 contacts a month and cost nothing, so for that, price is not a reason to switch.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Billed yearly, a month | Instagram accounts | Contacts a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $15 | $12 | 2 | 250 |
| Create | $34 | $25 | 5 | 2,500 |
| Pro | $85 | $59 | 10 | 7,500 |
| Advanced | $175 | $119 | 15 | 25,000 |
Why Postkey is the most agentic DM automation tool
Postkey was built for AI agents from the start, not given an API afterwards. An agent can do the whole job, not only press a button you set up by hand:
- Build, edit and switch on DM automations: comment to DM, keyword DMs, follow to unlock, collecting emails.
- Read the inbox, draft replies and send them once you say yes.
- Write, schedule and publish posts, and set the DM keyword each post's comments reply to.
- Find and tag contacts, and report how posts and automations did.
- Up to 45 tools in one MCP server, with OAuth sign-in or an agent key, and a skill file that teaches the agent the rules.
- Approvals, limits and protection from instructions hidden in DMs built in, so you can let an agent run it.
Questions
From $17 (Essential, 250 contacts) to $199 (Advanced, 25,000 contacts) a month on monthly billing, or $14 to $139 a month billed yearly, per ManyChat account (read October 20, 2026).
A person you exchange messages with through ManyChat in a month, by automation, AI, broadcast or the inbox. One person counts once a month, however many messages you send.
Your automations keep running and ManyChat charges for each extra contact: $0.10 on Essential, $0.05 on Pro, $0.025 on Business, $0.004 on Advanced on monthly billing. You can set an overage limit in ManyChat.
Five subscriptions, one per account. With 1,000 people a month on each, that is $195 a month on monthly billing. Postkey holds the five on one Pro plan for $85 a month.
For a small account, maybe: it includes 25 contacts a month and 2 channels, with no overage, so it stops at the limit.