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Klaviyo limits (2026): email send limit, profile limit, Free plan limits, overages, API rate limits and image/SMS size limits
Last verified against official pricing pages · published 8 Nov 2026
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Prices change often. Each price was checked on the platform's official pricing page on the date shown; plans, promos and taxes vary. Confirm on the official site before you buy. Not financial advice.
Short answer: Klaviyo Free allows 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month. Paid Email plans include 10 sends per profile in your tier each month (5,000 at 500 profiles for $20, 100,000 at 10,000 for $150). Going over the profile limit on a paid plan moves you up a tier next cycle; at the send limit you pick flexible overages, auto-upgrade, or stop sending. Separate limits apply to the API (XS–XL rate tiers), images (10 MB) and SMS (160 characters per segment).
From How Klaviyo billing works, free vs paid plans, active profiles, API rate limits and Klaviyo's image, GIF, clipping and SMS help articles (all checked 2026-11-11); tiers and prices from Klaviyo's pricing page (re-checked 2026-11-11, unchanged for the Email plan). Klaviyo is not an affiliate of this site.
Klaviyo limits at a glance
| Limit | Free | Paid Email plan |
|---|---|---|
| Active profiles | 250 | Your tier: 500 up to 150,000 (above: talk to sales) |
| Email sends per month | 500 | 10 × your tier's profiles (5,000 to 1,500,000) |
| Daily send limit | None published | None published |
| Over the profile limit | Can't send or set flow emails live until back to 250 | Keeps sending; moved to a tier that fits at the next cycle |
| At the send limit | Sending stops until next cycle or upgrade; flow emails can be skipped | Your choice: flexible overages, auto-upgrade, or stop (None) |
| Image / GIF upload | 10 MB | 10 MB |
| Support | Email support for the first 60 days | Email and chat |
"None published": Klaviyo's help and pricing pages describe monthly send allowances per billing cycle, not a daily cap. On 2026-11-11 the pricing page also showed a new Marketing plan (Email plus Social marketing, Customer Hub and Reviews) whose email row uses the same profile tiers and sends; its terms page offers a $1 first month for new customers at 500–5,000 profiles until 30 November 2026 (Klaviyo promotion terms). Prices by tier: Klaviyo plans.
The profile limit
- Who counts: any profile Klaviyo can email, including shoppers who left an email at checkout without opting in. Suppressed profiles (unsubscribed, bounced or suppressed by you) don't count but stay in the account (active profiles).
- Going over on a paid plan: sending doesn't stop. Klaviyo notifies you and moves you to a tier with enough profiles from the next billing cycle. This "profile enforcement" happens even if auto-upgrade is off (billing).
- Going over on Free: no upgrade, but you can't send emails or set flow emails live until you're back to 250 or fewer (billing).
- Downgrading: the lower tier must cover your active profiles. Auto-downgrade exists only when you use flexible overages, and never based on sends (billing).
The send limit: flex, upgrade or stop
When a paid Email plan runs out of sends for the cycle, what happens is set in Billing > Preferences (billing):
- Flexible overages: a one-time purchase that adds the sends between your tier and the next one, for this cycle only, at your plan's unit rate (plan price ÷ included sends). It doesn't raise your profile allowance.
- Automatically upgrade: moves you to the next tier as soon as you hit the limit or schedule a campaign that would pass it. That month you pay the difference between the two plans; you then stay on the higher plan until you downgrade yourself.
- None: sending stops until the next cycle, or until you upgrade or buy flexible capacity.
What flexing vs upgrading costs at each tier
| Active profiles | Plan /mo | Sends /mo | Flex adds | Flex cost (our calc) | Upgrade: extra this cycle | Cheaper for one month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 251–500 | $20 | 5,000 | +5,000 | $20 | $10 | Upgrade |
| 501–1,000 | $30 | 10,000 | +5,000 | $15 | $15 | Same |
| 1,501–2,500 | $60 | 25,000 | +5,000 | $12 | $10 | Upgrade |
| 3,501–5,000 | $100 | 50,000 | +5,000 | $10 | $10 | Same |
| 6,501–10,000 | $150 | 100,000 | +5,000 | $7.50 | $25 | Flex |
| 13,501–15,000 | $350 | 150,000 | +50,000 | $116.67 | $25 | Upgrade |
| 20,001–25,000 | $400 | 250,000 | +10,000 | $16 | $25 | Flex |
| 45,001–50,000 | $720 | 500,000 | +50,000 | $72 | $70 | Upgrade |
| 95,001–100,000 | $1,380 | 1,000,000 | +50,000 | $69 | $60 | Upgrade |
| 140,001–145,000 | $1,900 | 1,450,000 | +50,000 | $65.52 | $55 | Upgrade |
USD, monthly list prices from Klaviyo's pricing page (checked 2026-11-11). Flex cost is our arithmetic with the formula in Klaviyo's billing help (plan price ÷ sends × the extra sends to reach the next tier), rounded to the cent; Klaviyo shows the real amount in Billing > Preferences or at checkout before you buy. "Upgrade: extra this cycle" is the next tier's price minus yours, which an upgrade adds in the first month; after that you pay the higher price every month until you downgrade. In 2 of these 10 tiers flexing is cheaper for a one-off month. It depends on how big the price step to the next tier is compared with the extra sends at your current rate, so check both in Billing > Preferences before you choose. At the top tier (150,000 profiles) there is no public next tier.
Free plan limits
Free covers 250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, with Klaviyo branding in email footers and email support for the first 60 days only (free vs paid). On 2026-11-11 the Free card on the pricing page also listed: $5 of Composer usage and $5 of mobile messages a month, Social marketing for 250 active profiles, Reviews for 50 orders a month, Customer Hub for 250 active profiles, Customer Agent with 10 resolutions and Helpdesk with 10 tickets a month. 500 sends to 250 profiles is about 2 emails per profile a month. Details and the cheapest step up: Klaviyo Free plan.
API rate limits
Klaviyo's API limits are per account, with a burst window (1 second) and a steady window (1 minute); passing either returns HTTP 429. Each endpoint lists its tier in the API reference; unless documented otherwise it uses one of these (developer docs):
| Tier | Burst (per second) | Steady (per minute) |
|---|---|---|
| XS | 1 | 15 |
| S | 3 | 60 |
| M | 10 | 150 |
| L | 75 | 700 |
| XL | 350 | 3,500 |
Private-key integrations share one quota per account; OAuth apps get their own quota per installed app. Responses carry RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining and RateLimit-Reset headers (developer docs).
Image, GIF, email size and SMS limits
- Images and GIFs: up to 10 MB per upload; Klaviyo recommends 1 MB or less, and its automatic compression doesn't work on GIFs (email images, GIFs).
- Gmail clipping: keep the email code under about 102 KB for desktop Gmail (about 20 KB in Gmail's iOS app, about 75 KB on other mobile devices). Image files don't count toward it (clipping).
- SMS characters: 160 per segment, 70 with an emoji or special character; multi-part texts hold 153 (or 67) per segment and each segment uses credits; 1,600 characters maximum for SMS and MMS (SMS and MMS). Prices: Klaviyo SMS pricing.
Related: Klaviyo plans · Klaviyo Free plan · Is Klaviyo worth it? · Klaviyo pricing · Klaviyo SMS pricing · Mailchimp sending limits · Brevo sending limits · Mailjet sending limits · Constant Contact email limits
Sources
- Klaviyo help: How Klaviyo billing works (profile and send limits, flexible overages formula, auto-upgrade, None; checked 2026-11-11)
- Klaviyo help: free vs paid plans (250 profiles, 500 sends, 60-day support; checked 2026-11-11)
- Klaviyo help: active profiles (who counts; checked 2026-11-11)
- Klaviyo developer docs: rate limits (XS–XL, 429; checked 2026-11-11)
- Klaviyo help: email images, videos and GIFs, Gmail clipping, SMS and MMS messages (checked 2026-11-11)
- Klaviyo pricing (tiers, sends, Free and Marketing cards; checked 2026-11-11) and Marketing Plan promotion terms (updated 6 November 2026)
FAQ
What is the Klaviyo email limit?
Free: 500 email sends a month to up to 250 active profiles. Paid Email plans include 10 sends per profile in your tier each month: 5,000 sends at 500 profiles ($20/mo), 100,000 at 10,000 ($150/mo), up to 1,500,000 at 150,000 ($1,955/mo). There's no published daily limit; the limit is monthly, per billing cycle (Klaviyo pricing).
What does Klaviyo's "email & profiles usage limit" mean?
Klaviyo's email plan (called "Profiles & Email" in its billing help) has two separate limits: active profiles (everyone you can email) and email sends per billing cycle. Hitting the profile limit and hitting the send limit are handled differently; see the next two answers.
What is the Klaviyo profile limit and what happens if I go over?
Your tier's active-profile count (250 on Free). Any profile you can email counts, opted-in or not; suppressed profiles don't. On a paid plan going over doesn't stop sending: Klaviyo notifies you and moves you to a tier with enough profiles from your next billing cycle. On Free you're not upgraded, but you can't send emails or set flow emails live until you're back to 250 or fewer (Klaviyo billing help).
What happens when I reach my Klaviyo email send limit?
It depends on the option set in Billing > Preferences: flexible overages (buy the extra sends up to the next tier for this cycle), automatically upgrade (move up a tier, at any point in the cycle), or None (sending stops until the next cycle or until you upgrade or flex). On Free, sending stops until the next cycle or an upgrade, and flow emails can be skipped (Klaviyo billing help, free vs paid).
How much do Klaviyo overages cost?
Klaviyo doesn't publish an overage price list. Flexible overages add the sends between your tier and the next one, charged at your plan's unit rate (plan price ÷ included sends), as a one-time charge for that cycle. Using its public prices, that works out to $20 at 500 profiles (+5,000 sends) and $7.50 at 10,000 profiles (+5,000 sends) by our arithmetic. Klaviyo shows the exact amount in Billing > Preferences or at checkout before you buy (Klaviyo billing help).
Is it cheaper to flex or upgrade on Klaviyo?
For one month, compare the flex charge with the price difference to the next tier (that's what an upgrade adds in the first month). At 500 profiles flexing costs $20 and upgrading $10, so upgrading wins; at 10,000 profiles flexing costs $7.50 and upgrading $25, so flexing wins. If you go over every month, an upgrade is usually cheaper, and Klaviyo says the same.
What are the Klaviyo Free plan limits?
250 active profiles and 500 email sends a month, Klaviyo branding in email footers, and email support only for the first 60 days. On 2026-11-11 the pricing page's Free card also listed $5 of Composer usage and $5 of mobile messages a month, Social marketing and Customer Hub for 250 active profiles, Reviews for 50 orders a month, Customer Agent with 10 resolutions and Helpdesk with 10 tickets a month (Klaviyo pricing). More: Klaviyo Free plan.
What are the Klaviyo API rate limits?
Per account, with a 1-second burst window and a 1-minute steady window; going over either returns HTTP 429. Unless an endpoint documents otherwise, it uses one of five tiers: XS 1/s and 15/min, S 3/s and 60/min, M 10/s and 150/min, L 75/s and 700/min, XL 350/s and 3,500/min. Each endpoint's tier is in the API reference. Private-key integrations share the account's quota; OAuth apps get their own per installed app (Klaviyo developer docs).
What is the Klaviyo GIF and image size limit?
10 MB per uploaded image, including GIFs. Klaviyo recommends 1 MB or less so emails load fast, and its automatic compression doesn't work on GIFs (email images, videos and GIFs).
What is the Klaviyo SMS character limit?
One SMS segment holds 160 characters, or 70 if the text has an emoji or certain special characters. Longer texts are split into segments of 153 (or 67) characters and each segment uses credits. The maximum is 1,600 characters of message text, for SMS and MMS (Klaviyo help). Costs: Klaviyo SMS pricing.
How big can a Klaviyo email be before Gmail clips it?
About 102 KB of email code on desktop Gmail (around 20 KB in Gmail's iOS app, about 75 KB on other mobile devices). Images don't count toward this, only the HTML, text, styles and links (Klaviyo help).
Related guides: Klaviyo Free plan limits (2026) · Is Klaviyo worth it in 2026? Cost vs Mailchimp, Omnisend and MailerLite, Free 250/500 limit and when Email costs more · Klaviyo SMS pricing (2026) · Klaviyo vs Omnisend vs Mailchimp (2026) · Klaviyo to Mailchimp migration · Klaviyo to Omnisend migration · Is Omnisend free? Free plan limits (2026) · Is Omnisend worth it in 2026? Cost vs Mailchimp, Klaviyo and MailerLite, Free limits and when Pro is needed · all guides
Comparisons: Klaviyo vs Mailchimp · Klaviyo vs Omnisend · Omnisend vs Mailchimp · Cheapest for 500, 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, 25,000 subscribers
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