{"id":525,"date":"2026-10-28T01:02:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T06:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/photonconsole.com\/blog\/?p=525"},"modified":"2026-10-28T06:58:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:28:31","slug":"brevo-free-plan-limits-and-transactional-email-constraints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/photonconsole.com\/blog\/brevo-free-plan-limits-and-transactional-email-constraints\/","title":{"rendered":"Brevo Free Plan Limits and Transactional Email Constraints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brevo’s free plan is genuinely free forever. No trial period, no credit card, no expiry date \u2014 which makes it unusual and, for some projects, the right answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You pay in two other currencies. There is a ceiling on what you can send in a single day regardless of your monthly volume, and until you upgrade, your emails carry Brevo’s branding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a newsletter, the second one is a minor annoyance. For a password reset, it is a different kind of problem entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick Answer: What Are Brevo’s Free Plan Limits?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From Brevo’s own pages<\/a>, the free plan allows 300 emails per day<\/strong> \u2014 which Brevo states as 9,000 emails per month \u2014 and is described as forever free with no credit card required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plan<\/th>Price<\/th>Volume<\/th>Daily cap<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Free<\/td>$0<\/td>300\/day, stated as 9,000\/month<\/td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>
Starter<\/td>From $9\/month<\/td>5,000\/month<\/td>No<\/td><\/tr>
Standard<\/td>From $18\/month<\/td>5,000\/month<\/td>No<\/td><\/tr>
Professional<\/td>From $499\/month<\/td>150,000\/month<\/td>No<\/td><\/tr>
Enterprise<\/td>Custom<\/td>Custom<\/td>No<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look at the first two rows together, because the comparison is not what anyone expects. We will come back to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prices are listed as starting figures and change over time, so confirm against Brevo’s transactional email page<\/a> before deciding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Daily Cap Is Not a Monthly Allowance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"A
Nine thousand a month assumes perfectly smooth sending. Transactional email is never smooth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

300 a day multiplies out to 9,000 a month, and Brevo presents it that way. The arithmetic is correct and the implication is misleading, because it assumes your sending is evenly distributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transactional email is the least evenly distributed traffic there is. It spikes when you launch, when a campaign lands, when something breaks and everyone resets their password at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# How long a burst takes to clear at 300\/day\n\n   300 emails  ->  1.0 day\n   500 emails  ->  1.7 days\n 1,000 emails  ->  3.3 days\n 2,000 emails  ->  6.7 days\n\n# A password reset that arrives three days late\n# has not been delivered. It has failed.\n#\n# On a flat per-thousand rate such as PhotonConsole's,\n# the same 1,000-email burst clears in minutes.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Your heaviest single day<\/th>Fits in 300\/day?<\/th>What happens<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Under 300<\/td>Yes<\/td>Free plan works, whatever your monthly total<\/td><\/tr>
400<\/td>No<\/td>100 emails wait until tomorrow<\/td><\/tr>
1,000<\/td>No<\/td>Backlog clears over three days<\/td><\/tr>
2,000<\/td>No<\/td>Nearly a week to clear one day’s sending<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
So the usable monthly figure is not 9,000. It is whatever your busiest day allows, multiplied out \u2014 and if any single day exceeds 300, the overflow does not borrow from tomorrow’s quiet allowance. It waits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Common Mistake<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sizing a project against the monthly figure because it comfortably exceeds your expected volume. A product sending 4,000 emails a month is well inside 9,000 and will still break the moment 400 of them land on the same afternoon. The constraint is the shape of your traffic, not its total. Work out your heaviest single day in the last quarter and compare that against 300 \u2014 that is the number that decides whether the free plan works for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quick Fix<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sending Stopped Partway Through the Day<\/p>\n\n\n\n