What are ActiveCampaign's sending limits?
Two limits work together: the contact tier you pick, and a monthly send limit set by that tier and your plan.
The short answer
- ActiveCampaign sets 2 limits on a paid account: a Contact Limit, the most contacts you may send marketing content to, and a monthly send limit that its Terms of Service say is based on the Contact Limit and your subscription plan, as of September 2026.
- When an ActiveCampaign account reaches its monthly send limit, every further message stops, including scheduled ones, until the start of the next calendar month.
- ActiveCampaign's auto-upgrade raises subscription fees immediately once you exceed the Contact Limit, so a list import can change your bill the same day.
- ActiveCampaign's Acceptable Use Policy bans sending to paid or rented lists and requires every recipient to be fully opted in.
Your contact tier sets your send ceiling
When you buy a paid ActiveCampaign plan, you pick a Contact Limit. That's the most contacts you can send marketing content to from the account. The monthly send limit then follows from 2 things: that Contact Limit and the plan you're on.
So the 2 limits move together. Grow your list past the tier, and you either move up a tier or, with auto-upgrade on, pay more at once. Send more often than your plan allows, and you hit the monthly cap.
ActiveCampaign's limits, in its own terms
Read on ActiveCampaign's Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.
| Limit | What ActiveCampaign says | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Contact Limit | The maximum number of contacts you are permitted to send marketing content to | Your tier is set by list size |
| Monthly send limit | Based on the Contact Limit and your subscription plan (if applicable) | Your plan caps sends per month |
| At the cap | No more messages, including scheduled ones, until the next calendar month | Late-month sends can stall |
| Auto-upgrade | Fees increase immediately once you exceed the Contact Limit | An import can raise the bill |
| List source | No marketing content to paid or rented lists; recipients fully opted in | Bought lists are out of bounds |
Checked on activecampaign.com/legal/terms-of-service and the Acceptable Use Policy (effective 1 March 2022), September 2026.
Plan sends around the calendar month
The monthly reset is the limit that catches teams out. A campaign scheduled for the 28th won't go if the account hit its cap on the 20th. Check your send count in the middle of the month, and move big sends earlier when you're close.
Watch your contact count before an import, too. Clean duplicates and old bounces first, so you don't pay for contacts you'll never email. Our list dedupe guide covers the clean-up, and how many emails you can send per day explains the mailbox side of volume.
How SalesCrew limits volume for outbound
SalesCrew is a CRM built for outbound as well as inbound. Cold outbound is allowed, and you keep your own consent and CAN-SPAM duties. Cadences send through the mailbox-pool sender, which spreads a list across your own mailboxes under per-mailbox and per-domain daily caps.
Guardrails keep at least 3 days between touches to each contact and hold sends to business hours. Suppression is enforced when an audience is frozen and re-checked at send, and an unsubscribe or bounce suppresses the contact on its own. Pricing starts at $299 a month with unlimited seats, on the pricing page.
Importing a cold list into an opt-in tool
Questions
- What happens when you hit the ActiveCampaign sending limit?
- Sending stops until the next calendar month. ActiveCampaign's Terms of Service say that once you reach your monthly send limit, you can't send more messages to your contacts, including messages scheduled for later, until the start of the next month. Plan big sends early in the month for that reason.
- Does ActiveCampaign charge more if I go over my contact limit?
- It can, if you turn on auto-upgrade. The Terms say that with auto-upgrade on, your subscription fees increase immediately once you exceed your Contact Limit. With it off, you stay on your tier and manage the contact count yourself.
- Can I send cold email from ActiveCampaign?
- Not to bought or rented lists. ActiveCampaign's Acceptable Use Policy, effective 1 March 2022, bans sending marketing content to paid or rented lists and requires every recipient to be fully opted in. It adds that getting someone's business card is not an acceptable opt-in.
- How do cold email senders control daily volume instead?
- They cap sends per mailbox and per domain each day, and spread a list across several mailboxes. SalesCrew's mailbox-pool sender does this for cadences, with per-mailbox and per-domain daily caps and suppression re-checked at send.