Kit, the company formerly called ConvertKit, has a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers, with unlimited landing pages, forms and one-off broadcasts. Creator starts at $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers ($33 a month billed yearly) and adds automations and sequences. Pay for Creator when a welcome sequence would earn more than it costs.
The rename is the first thing to know, because articles still use both names and some quote a free limit of 1,000 subscribers from years ago. The vendor's own page now says 10,000. The harder question for a small business is not the headline price but which feature you are missing on the free plan and what that feature is worth.
What the free plan includes, and what it leaves out
On the pricing page, as captured on 3 November 2026, the free plan is described as free for up to 10,000 subscribers, counting only unique, active subscribers. It includes unlimited landing pages, forms and email broadcasts, audience tagging and segmentation, and the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions. Kit's FAQ adds that no plan has a sending limit. That is a long list for $0, and for a newsletter or an announcement list it is a complete product.
The limits are specific, and each one is a reason you might leave:
- One user. Creator lists two users. If a second person writes or sends, you will hit this.
- Two subject lines in an A/B test. Enough for a basic test, fine for most small lists.
- Email-only support. Creator adds 24/7 email and chat support.
- Kit branding stays on. Your emails and pages carry Kit's branding until you upgrade.
- No visual automations and no automated sequences. This is the one that matters most. A sequence is a set of emails sent on a schedule after someone signs up, such as a five-email welcome series.
If you read only one line of that list, make it the last. Everything else is polish or convenience; automation is a working change in how your list earns money.
The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration
From formulas and pivot tables to Power Query, DAX, VBA and AI with Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude — hands-on from the first lesson.
By Sagnik Bhattacharya and Virginia Thorn, Primetime Emmy Award winner
Buy nowWhat Creator adds, and the price at 1,000 subscribers
The Creator plan on the same page adds unlimited visual automations and email sequences, RSS campaigns, polls, removal of Kit branding, two users, scheduling in subscribers' local time zones, email version history, apps and integrations, Kit MCP (connecting AI assistants to your account), SMS marketing, and abandoned-checkout recovery for Shopify, Fourthwall and Wix stores. It also lists newsletter sponsorships and a paid recommendations feature with a 23.5 per cent fee, and free migration from another platform.
For 1,000 subscribers the page shows Creator at $390 a year billed annually, which is $33 a month, and the $78 yearly saving it quotes implies $39 a month on monthly billing. Pro is $66 a month billed annually at 1,000 subscribers; a limited-time offer takes 25 per cent off the first year ($593 billed for that year, about $50 a month), after which it renews at the standard rate. Pro lists unlimited users. Both paid plans include a 14-day trial with no credit card required. Kit also lists a fee of 3.5 per cent plus 30 cents on sales of digital products and subscriptions, the same on every plan.
Costs by subscriber count: how the price grows
Kit prices Creator and Pro by list size, and the page shows the 1,000-subscriber price until you move its slider. I have not quoted larger tiers, because comparison sites disagree with one another and Kit's slider is the only reliable source. Two rules from Kit's FAQ shape the cost as you grow. When a paid list passes its tier, Kit moves you up to the next tier automatically, without interrupting sending. If you clean the list and fall below a tier, the downgrade is manual: you ask Kit's support to adjust it.
| List size | Free plan | Creator | Where to read the price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $0 | $39 a month, or $33 a month billed yearly | kit.com pricing page, default view |
| Above 1,000, up to 10,000 | $0 | A higher tier that rises with the list | Move the slider on kit.com |
| Above 10,000 | Not available | Higher again | Move the slider; Free stops at 10,000 |
The pattern to take from this is that the free plan's real value grows with your list. At 1,000 subscribers you save $39 a month; at 9,000 you save the price of a much higher tier. That is why staying free as long as the missing features do not hurt is a strong default, and why a list close to the 10,000 limit deserves a decision before you cross it.
Worked example: an online clothing store deciding when to upgrade
Take an illustrative online clothing store with 2,400 subscribers who signed up through a pop-up form. It sends one broadcast a fortnight, and the owner is considering Creator. The page's headline $39 a month (or $390 a year billed annually) is the 1,000-subscriber price; at 2,400 subscribers she is on a higher tier, so she reads her real price off the slider before doing any sums.
The feature she wants is a welcome series: three emails over a week, ending with a 10 per cent first-order code. The sums are all assumptions she should replace with her own data.
- New subscribers per month: 150.
- Share who would buy within 30 days after a welcome series: 3 per cent, so 4.5 orders.
- Average order margin after the 10 per cent code: $22.
- Extra margin: 4.5 x $22 = $99 a month.
So the decision rule is simple: if the slider shows Creator at under $99 a month for 2,400 subscribers, the series pays, but only if its 3 per cent is real and the cost of the 10 per cent code is already counted. The honest approach is to test it: run a manual version for a month by sending the three emails by hand to each new subscriber, record purchases, and upgrade once the manual version has paid for itself. That costs her time but not a subscription, and it tells her whether the series works before she buys the automation that sends it.
A manual welcome series on the free plan
You can prove the value of automation without paying for it, using broadcasts and segments. This is how, with the illustrative clothing store.
- Create a tag called "joined this week" and apply it to every new subscriber.
- Each Monday, send a broadcast to that tag with the welcome email, then remove the tag.
- Three days later, send the second email to the people you tagged "welcome 1". Tag them "welcome 2".
- Repeat for the third email and record sales that used the code.
It takes about twenty minutes a week for a list of this size. When the weekly job grows past thirty minutes, or when you notice you skipped a week, you have the clearest sign the automation is worth the money. The segmenting skills here carry over to any tool; segmenting a small list with AI shows how to do it well.
Welcome email 1 (day 0), illustrative:
Subject: Welcome, [first name]. Here is how our sizing works
Body: three short lines on fit, a link to the size guide,
a line saying you will send two more notes this week.
Welcome email 2 (day 3):
Subject: What people ask before their first order
Body: delivery times, returns, and one customer question answered.
Welcome email 3 (day 6):
Subject: A small thank-you for joining
Body: a 10% code valid for 14 days, and what it cannot be combined with.Free plan versus Creator for a furniture maker
A second illustration changes the answer. An illustrative furniture maker has 600 subscribers, mostly past customers and enquiries. He sends a quarterly newsletter with new designs and does not sell online. His needs are a sign-up form, a landing page for a new range and four broadcasts a year.
Every item on that list is on the free plan. Creator would cost $39 a month at his list size, $468 a year (or $390 billed yearly), for features he would not use. The only thing he would give up is the Kit branding on his emails, which for a craft business may not matter. His honest answer is to stay free and revisit when he wants a post-enquiry follow-up sequence, which is when automation begins to pay.
What the sales fee means on a $29 product
If you sell digital products or subscriptions through Kit, the pricing page lists a fee of 3.5 per cent plus 30 cents per transaction, the same on every plan. The page says that figure includes card processing, with Kit's own share 0.6 per cent, so there is no separate processor charge to add for these sales. An illustrative sums table, for a furniture maker who sells a downloadable $29 workshop-plans pack:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Price paid by customer | $29.00 |
| Kit fee: 3.5% of $29 plus $0.30 | $1.32 |
| Left after the fee (card processing included) | $27.68 |
| Fee as a share of price | 4.5% |
On a $9 product the same fee is $0.62, or about 6.8 per cent, because the fixed 30 cents bites harder on small prices. If you sell lots of low-priced items, the fee matters more than the subscription itself, and upgrading does not lower it. Check the page for the current rate before building a business on it.
Twelve months of cost as the list grows: an illustrative plan
List growth turns a fixed decision into a moving one. Here is a plan for an illustrative online clothing store that starts with 800 subscribers and adds about 120 a month, so it reaches roughly 2,200 by month twelve. The Creator price depends on the list tier Kit applies, so I show a range rather than a made-up figure.
| Months | List size (approx.) | Plan | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | 800 to 1,150 | Free | Build form, landing page and manual welcome notes |
| 4 | 1,200 | Creator trial (14 days) | Build the welcome sequence and test it |
| 5 to 12 | 1,300 to 2,200 | Creator if the trial showed sales | Price follows list size; read it off the page each quarter |
The point of the table is the sequencing: you pay from month five, not month one, and only after a trial produced evidence. If the trial shows nothing, you have lost two weeks, not a year of subscription. Because the trial needs no card, nothing is charged when it ends: Kit's FAQ says you add a card to stay on Creator or carry on with the Free plan. Set a reminder for day twelve anyway, so you decide on purpose rather than drifting back to Free halfway through a test.
A subject-line test on the free plan
The free plan allows two subject lines in an A/B test, which is enough to learn something real. Take the illustrative car repair garage that emails 1,500 past customers a seasonal check reminder. It tests two subject lines against a half of the list each.
Version A: Winter tyre check: book before the cold snap
Version B: Is your car ready for winter, [first name]?
Illustrative result after 24 hours:
A: 750 sent, 255 opened (34%), 31 clicked to booking page
B: 750 sent, 210 opened (28%), 22 clicked
Decision: send A to the remaining list next year; note that the
subject mentioned a specific job and a reason to act now.The figures are invented to show the method, but the habit is real: change one thing, send at the same time, wait a full day, and keep a note of what won. Over a year of tests you build a short list of what your readers respond to, which is worth more than any plan feature.
Landing page and form: what you can do before you spend
The free plan lists unlimited landing pages and forms, which is where a small list is built. The car repair garage could set up three of them in an afternoon: a "book a service reminder" form, a landing page for a winter checklist download, and a simple "tell us about your car" form that tags people by make. Each captures a name and email and applies a tag, which lets later broadcasts go only to relevant people.
The two mistakes to avoid are asking for too much and promising too little. A form with six fields converts worse than one with two, and a page that says "Join our newsletter" converts worse than one offering something specific, such as the checklist. Write the offer in one line and test it for a month before you redesign anything.
How AI can help with the emails without any extra plan
You do not need a paid plan to use AI on the writing. A general assistant can draft a subject-line list or tighten a welcome email, and you paste the result into Kit. The risk is generic copy. Here is a short example of the edit to make:
AI first draft (illustrative):
"We are excited to share our latest updates and offers with you!"
Edited:
"The new linen shirts arrive on Thursday. Subscribers can order a day early."The edit replaces a statement about you with something the reader can use. Keep a swipe file of your best sent emails, and paste two of them into the assistant so it matches your tone. Before anything goes out, run the same checks every time; the practical-uses tutorial lists ten places AI helps.
Where the 10,000 free limit stops being generous
The free plan's ceiling is a subscriber count, so growth is the thing to watch. Two practical points follow.
First, subscribers are not the same as engaged readers. A list of 9,000 contains many people who never open. Cleaning inactive subscribers before you hit the cap saves money and improves your sending reputation. Second, Kit's page says subscribers are only counted if they are unique and active, so duplicates and people who have left should not push you over; check the count in your own account before you plan around it.
A pre-limit routine for a list of around 8,500: export the list, flag anyone who has not opened in six months, send a final "do you want to stay?" email to them, and remove those who do not answer. You will often cut the list by a tenth, which delays the upgrade by months. Do the same clean-up on a paid plan and ask Kit's support to move you down a tier, because that step is manual. For a wider view of low-cost options as lists grow, what a small list costs per month compares several tools.
Kit against the alternatives, in one decision
Kit's free plan is not the only free option. Its positioning is creators and small businesses that sell their own content or products, and its strengths are tagging, forms and commerce. Mailchimp's free plan has different limits, and the Kit and Mailchimp free-plan comparison sets them side by side. For a newsletter-led business, Kit against beehiiv looks at the trade-offs. Before you switch tools for price alone, count the hours it takes to rebuild forms and automations: Kit lists free migration on Creator, which lowers that cost if you are coming from another platform.
A realistic early mistake: paying before the list exists
A typical case: an owner signs up for Creator on day one because the page promises automations, spends a week building a five-email sequence, and then has forty subscribers. The sequence sends to a handful of people a month and the subscription costs more than any sale it produces. The real constraint was never the tool; it was the number of people joining.
Do it in the reverse order. Start free, build the form and one landing page, and put your effort into getting subscribers by asking every customer at checkout or in person. When new sign-ups reach a rate where a sequence will reach 20 or more people a month, the automation is worth building. Before that, a manual welcome note is enough.
A short checklist before you pay
[ ] I can name the one feature I need that the free plan lacks
[ ] I ran it by hand for a month and recorded the result
[ ] I read the price for my list size on kit.com, not on a review site
[ ] I know whether the price I read is monthly or yearly billing
[ ] I used the 14-day trial and set a reminder to decide before it ends
[ ] I know how many people will be on the account (free: 1 user)
[ ] I have a plan for the list if it passes 10,000 subscribersIf you cannot tick the first two boxes, stay free. If you tick all seven and the sums above show a return, upgrade without guilt. For quality control on the emails themselves, the newsletter checklist is worth running before every send, and the practical-uses tutorial shows where AI can draft the copy.
Free, Creator or Pro: the order to take them in
Stay on the free plan while you have one writer, fewer than 10,000 subscribers and no need for automatic sequences. Move to Creator when a welcome or post-purchase sequence, a second user or removal of branding is worth more than the Creator price for your list size, which starts at $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers. Skip Pro until you have a reason you can name, since the page offers a promotional first-year price there and nothing a small list obviously lacks. If you would rather work out which emails your list should send, that is the kind of job my AI implementation consultation covers.
Kit pricing questions answered
Is ConvertKit still called ConvertKit?
No. The company now trades as Kit and its site is kit.com. The product is the same email platform for creators and small businesses, and older articles still say ConvertKit. When you compare prices, make sure the page you read is recent, because the plan structure and free limit have changed over the years.
Is the Kit free plan really up to 10,000 subscribers?
Yes. Kit's pricing page, as captured on 3 November 2026, says the Free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers and that only unique, active subscribers are counted. Some older articles still say 1,000. Treat the vendor page as the authority and check it again before you plan around the number.
Can I send automated email sequences on the free plan?
Not as the pricing page lists it. The free plan excludes visual automations and automated email sequences. You can send broadcasts, which are one-off emails to your list or a segment. Creator adds unlimited visual automations and sequences, so a welcome series is the usual reason to upgrade.
Do I need a card for the Kit trial?
No. The pricing page says Creator and Pro include a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. When it ends you add a card to keep the paid plan or carry on with the Free plan. Kit's FAQ also offers a refund on monthly or annual plans within the first 30 days after signing up.
Further reads
- How to Write a Customer Newsletter With AI in 30 Minutes — Write a customer newsletter with AI in 30 minutes.
- Best AI Email Marketing Tools for Small Businesses (2026) — Compare AI email marketing tools for small businesses.
- Bookstore Newsletter Template: AI-Polished Staff Picks and Events — A newsletter template with AI-polished picks and events.
- Marketing a Physio Clinic With AI: Posts, Tips, and Newsletters — Posts, tips and newsletters for a clinic.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: kit.com/pricing as captured by web.archive.org on 3 November 2026 (the live page served a bot check on 5 November 2026): Free plan limits, Creator and Pro prices at 1,000 subscribers, trial, transaction fee, plan comparison and FAQ. Prices for larger lists come from Kit's own slider and are not quoted here.