A few actions are unavailable in your account when you reach your contact limit, as explained below.
You set your contact limit when creating your ActiveCampaign account. This can be updated in the Billing & Account section of your account. How your contact limit is calculated depends on when your account was created:
- Accounts created on or after November 3, 2025: All contacts, regardless of their list status, count towards your contact limit. Learn more about contact list statuses
- Accounts created on or before November 2, 2025: Only active contacts count towards your contact limit. Learn more about contact list statuses
Take Note
- We recommend enabling the auto-upgrade feature, which automatically upgrades your contact limit when needed to prevent workflow interruptions. Without auto-upgrade enabled, your contact limit will not automatically increase. Learn more about how to adjust your contact limit
- Starter plans can have a maximum of 25,000 contacts
You may not be able to add new contacts
This depends on the method used to add contacts to your account. Below are the most common ways to add contacts to your account, along with what happens when you reach your contact limit.
Adding contacts via API
You may use our open API or a 3rd party integration, such as ClickFunnels or Leadpages, to add contacts to your account. Once you reach your contact limit, you can still add contacts to your account using this method.
Adding contacts via ActiveCampaign Forms
If you are using an ActiveCampaign form to capture subscriptions and exceed your limit, contacts can still submit the form and be added to your account.
Adding contacts via Import
Accounts created on or after November 4, 2025: Contacts can be added via CSV import if you are over your contact limit.
Accounts created on or before November 3, 2025: You will not be able to add new contacts via CSV import.
You will not be able to send email campaigns
Once you reach your contact limit, you will not be able to send any email campaigns until you upgrade your account. However, you can still create email campaigns.
If the contact limit is exceeded at an email campaign’s scheduled send time, any campaign that has not already started sending will not send.
Contacts will skip the “Send an email” action in automations
Once you reach your contact limit, automations will continue to trigger, and contacts will move through them. However, any "Send an email" actions will be skipped, and emails will not be sent.