HubSpot Email Send Limits Explained: Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise (2026)
HubSpot email send limits in 2026: 2,000 on Free, 5x/10x/20x your contact tier on paid plans, what counts, what happens at the cap, and newsletter math.
HubSpot doesn’t charge per email, but every account has a monthly email send limit. On HubSpot’s free tools it’s 2,000 emails per month. On paid Marketing Hub plans it’s a multiple of your marketing contact tier: 5× on Starter, 10× on Professional, and 20× on Enterprise. One marketing email to 100 contacts uses 100 sends, and the count resets at the start of each calendar month.
That sounds generous until you run newsletter math. A weekly newsletter can use five sends per subscriber in a month with five send days, which is the entire Starter multiplier before a single welcome email goes out. This guide explains how the limit is calculated, which emails count, what happens when you hit it, and how much sending room each plan really leaves a newsletter.
Our sources: HubSpot’s knowledge base article on which emails count toward the limit, its marketing contacts billing article, its Product Specific Terms, its Product & Services Catalog FAQ, its Marketing Contacts and legacy Marketing Hub pricing pages, and its free email page. We checked all of them on November 2, 2026.
How we researched this: Everything below comes from HubSpot’s own documentation, terms, and pricing pages. We haven’t run a HubSpot account up to its send limit ourselves, so there are no screenshots or results of our own here. Where HubSpot’s pages word things differently, we point it out.
About our links: HubSpot links go through /go/hubspot, which forwards to HubSpot’s homepage; we don’t earn anything from HubSpot. beehiiv links (/go/beehiiv) are affiliate links, the only program we earn from. Our recommendations would be the same either way.
The short version
| Plan | Monthly send limit | Example at the included contact tier |
|---|---|---|
| Free tools | 2,000 emails per month | 2,000 sends, whatever the size of your list |
| Marketing Hub Starter | 5× your marketing contact tier | 1,000-contact tier = 5,000 sends |
| Marketing Hub Professional | 10× your marketing contact tier | 2,000-contact tier = 20,000 sends |
| Marketing Hub Enterprise | 20× your marketing contact tier | 10,000-contact tier = 200,000 sends |
| Need more? | Upgrade your contact tier or edition, or buy the Dedicated IP Add-On (unlimited sends) |
The included tiers in that last column come from HubSpot’s Marketing Contacts comparison table (Starter 1,000, Professional 2,000, Enterprise 10,000 for “Marketing Hub with Marketing Contacts”). Accounts on legacy Marketing Hub (the older, non-marketing-contacts model) have different multipliers; see legacy plans below.
Our take in one line: HubSpot’s send limit rarely matters for occasional promotional email, but for a newsletter it’s a real constraint on Free and Starter. If sending is your main job, a platform with no send cap is simpler.
How HubSpot calculates the monthly limit
Free tools: a flat 2,000
HubSpot’s free email page says: “With HubSpot’s free email hosting software, you can send up to 2,000 emails per month.” To send more, it tells you to upgrade to Marketing Hub Starter, Professional, or Enterprise. There’s no way to buy extra sends on the free tools alone.
Paid Marketing Hub: a multiple of your contact tier
HubSpot’s Product & Services Catalog FAQ (“Are there any separate email sending fees?”) answers no, then sets the limit by edition:
- Starter: “5 times per contact per calendar month”
- Professional: “10 times your contact tier per calendar month”
- Enterprise: “20 times your contact tier per calendar month”
Notice the Starter wording says “per contact,” while Professional and Enterprise say “contact tier.” HubSpot’s Marketing Contacts comparison table words all three the same way (“5x / 10x / 20x marketing contacts”), so in practice we read Starter as 5× the tier like the others. If your exact number matters, HubSpot says your account’s monthly email send limit is shown under Account & Billing in the My Products & Add-ons section.
Why it’s your tier, not your list size
Your contact tier is the number of marketing contacts your subscription includes. Because the limit is a multiple of the tier, two accounts on the same tier get the same allowance even if one has fewer marketing contacts. For example, if you pay for the 1,000-contact Starter tier but only 600 contacts are set as marketing contacts, your limit is still about 5,000 sends, which works out to roughly 8 emails per contact that month.
The flip side: adding contacts raises your limit only when it pushes you into a higher tier, and that upgrade costs money (more below).
Which emails count (and which don’t)
HubSpot’s knowledge base article “Understand which emails count toward the monthly email send limit” (last updated August 14, 2026) splits it like this:
Counts toward the limit:
- Marketing emails sent from the email tool
- Automated emails sent from workflows, including internal emails (notifications to your own team count too)
- Follow-up emails sent to contacts after a form submission
- Automated blog subscription emails
- Transactional emails, if your subscription does not include marketing contacts
Doesn’t count:
- One-to-one emails sent from the CRM
- HubSpot notification emails
- Test emails
- Customer feedback email surveys (loyalty, satisfaction, and support surveys)
- Transactional emails, if your subscription does include marketing contacts
The items people miss are the automated ones. A welcome workflow, form follow-ups, and internal “new subscriber” alerts all draw from the same pool as your newsletter.
What happens when you hit the limit
HubSpot’s Product Specific Terms cover this in two places:
- Section 1.2 (the general email send limit): if you reach it, “you will not be able to send any more emails until the start of the next calendar month, including emails pre-scheduled to go out after reaching the Email Send Limit.” It adds that “kick-back emails from form conversion will not be interrupted.”
- Section 3.2.2 (Marketing Contacts products): if you reach the limit, “you may not be able to send any more emails.” You can raise the limit “by upgrading your Marketing Contacts subscription or by purchasing a ‘Dedicated IP Add-on’ which includes unlimited email sends,” and your fee increases mid-billing period if you do.
So the practical risk is a scheduled newsletter that silently doesn’t go out late in the month. If you’re close to the cap, check your usage before the last send of the month.
Raising the limit: tier upgrades and the Dedicated IP Add-On
There are three ways to get more sends, all of which cost money:
- Move to a higher contact tier. More marketing contacts means a bigger multiplier base.
- Move to a higher edition. Professional doubles Starter’s multiplier, and Enterprise doubles Professional’s.
- Buy the Dedicated IP Add-On, which HubSpot’s catalog FAQ and terms say includes unlimited email sends.
Watch out for automatic contact tier upgrades
HubSpot’s marketing contacts billing article explains that “if you exceed your current tier by even one marketing contact, you’ll be upgraded to the next contact tier.” Key details from that article:
- The upgrade happens automatically at 12:00 AM in the time zone of your HubSpot subsidiary and can’t be prevented once the limit is exceeded.
- You’re billed for the higher tier until your next renewal date, even if your marketing contact count drops later. HubSpot doesn’t downgrade tiers mid-term.
- Changing a contact from marketing to non-marketing takes effect on your update date: the first of each month on yearly subscriptions, or your monthly renewal date on monthly ones.
- To stop imports, forms, workflows, and chatflows from tipping you over, Super Admins (or users with Modify Billing permission) can set a maximum number of marketing contacts. Once it’s reached, new contacts from those sources are set as non-marketing.
A tier upgrade also raises your send limit, but it’s an expensive way to get more sends if you didn’t plan for it.
Newsletter math: how many sends do you really get?
The key number is sends per subscriber per month: your multiplier, minus whatever your automations use. A newsletter’s needs look like this:
| Newsletter cadence | Sends per subscriber per month |
|---|---|
| Monthly | 1 |
| Every other week | 2 to 3 |
| Weekly | 4 to 5 (5 in months with five send days) |
| Twice a week | 8 to 10 |
Now compare that with each plan (these are calculations from HubSpot’s published limits, not tests):
- Free (2,000/month): a weekly newsletter fits about 400 subscribers in a five-send month (2,000 ÷ 5), or 500 in a four-send month, with nothing left for welcome emails.
- Starter (5×): a weekly newsletter sent to a list that fills your tier uses 4× to 5×, which is up to the whole allowance. Any welcome emails, form follow-ups, or internal alerts push you over in a five-send month. Twice-weekly only works if your list is about half your tier or smaller.
- Professional (10×): room for a weekly newsletter plus a welcome series and occasional promotions, or a twice-weekly newsletter with little to spare.
- Enterprise (20×): enough headroom for most newsletter schedules.
On Free and Starter, the realistic fixes are sending less often, sending only to engaged segments, or keeping your list well under your tier.
Legacy Marketing Hub plans use different multipliers
If your account is on legacy Marketing Hub (priced by contacts rather than marketing contacts), HubSpot’s legacy pricing page lists:
- Starter: 5× contact tier per calendar month
- Professional: 10× contact tier per calendar month
- Enterprise: 10× contact tier per calendar month (not 20×)
So legacy Enterprise customers get half the multiplier of current Marketing Contacts Enterprise.
How this compares with beehiiv and Kit
The newsletter-first platforms we cover don’t meter sends at all:
- beehiiv: its pricing page says every plan includes unlimited email sends (“You’re never penalized for sending more often”). beehiiv Free is “free forever, with no credit card required.” Paid plans are priced by subscriber count instead. See beehiiv pricing explained.
- Kit: its pricing FAQ says “There are no sending limits on any of our plans at Kit.” See Kit pricing explained.
HubSpot’s strength is the CRM, forms, and sales tooling around the email, not raw sending volume. If you need that CRM, the send limit is a planning detail. If you mainly want to send a newsletter often, it’s a reason to look elsewhere.
Checklist before you rely on HubSpot for a newsletter
- Find your monthly email send limit under Account & Billing, in My Products & Add-ons
- Count your sends per subscriber per month (newsletter plus welcome, follow-up, and internal workflow emails)
- Compare that with your plan’s multiplier (Free: 2,000 total; Starter 5×; Professional 10×; Enterprise 20×)
- Set a maximum number of marketing contacts so imports and forms can’t trigger a surprise tier upgrade
- Check usage before the last scheduled send of the month, since emails scheduled after the cap don’t go out
- Remember the count resets on the first of each calendar month
Our take
For a business that sends a monthly update or occasional promotions, HubSpot’s send limits are generous and mostly invisible. For a newsletter, they’re one of the main things to plan around: Free tops out around 400 weekly subscribers, and Starter’s 5× multiplier is used up by a weekly send alone. Professional fixes most of that, but at a very different price level (see HubSpot pricing explained). If you’re comparing directly, our HubSpot vs beehiiv and HubSpot vs Kit guides walk through the trade-offs, and HubSpot free email marketing covers the free plan’s other limits.
FAQ
How many emails can I send with HubSpot for free?
Up to 2,000 emails per month, according to HubSpot’s free email page. To send more, you need a paid Marketing Hub plan.
What is the email send limit on HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter?
HubSpot’s catalog FAQ sets it at 5 times per contact per calendar month. At the 1,000-contact tier included on HubSpot’s Marketing Contacts comparison, that’s 5,000 sends a month.
Do test emails count toward HubSpot’s send limit?
No. Test emails, one-to-one CRM emails, HubSpot notification emails, and customer feedback surveys don’t count. Workflow emails, including internal ones, do.
What happens if I go over HubSpot’s email send limit?
HubSpot’s Product Specific Terms say you won’t be able to send more emails until the next calendar month, including emails already scheduled. Form kick-back emails aren’t interrupted. You can raise the limit by upgrading or buying the Dedicated IP Add-On, which includes unlimited sends.
When does HubSpot’s send limit reset?
At the beginning of each calendar month, according to HubSpot’s knowledge base.
Sources
All sources below were checked November 2, 2026.
- HubSpot: Understand which emails count toward the monthly email send limit (last updated August 14, 2026): 100-contact example, calendar-month reset, emails that count and don’t count, transactional email rule
- HubSpot: Product & Services Catalog: FAQ “Are there any separate email sending fees?” with Starter 5×, Professional 10×, Enterprise 20×, and Dedicated IP Add-On for unlimited sends
- HubSpot: Product Specific Terms: Section 1.2 (no sends until next calendar month, including pre-scheduled emails; form kick-back emails not interrupted) and Section 3.2.2 (raise limit by upgrading or Dedicated IP Add-on)
- HubSpot: Marketing Contacts: Compare Contact Plans table (included contacts 1,000 / 2,000 / 10,000; email sends 5× / 10× / 20× marketing contacts)
- HubSpot: Understand marketing contacts billing: contact tier definition, automatic tier upgrades, no mid-term downgrades, update dates, maximum marketing contacts
- HubSpot: Manage your HubSpot subscription: where Account & Billing shows the monthly email send limit
- HubSpot: Legacy Marketing Hub pricing: legacy Starter 5×, Professional 10×, Enterprise 10× contact tier send limits
- HubSpot: Free email hosting: “send up to 2,000 emails per month” on free tools
- beehiiv: Pricing: unlimited email sends on every plan; Free is free forever with no credit card
- Kit: Pricing: “There are no sending limits on any of our plans at Kit”
- AudienceBench: HubSpot pricing explained, HubSpot free email marketing, HubSpot vs beehiiv, HubSpot vs Kit