The short version: three kinds of overage
Vendors handle overage in three ways. Some upgrade you automatically: MailerLite and Kit move a paid account to the next subscriber tier and bill you. [1] [2] Some make you act: Moosend says you will need to upgrade when your list passes your plan limit and shows a notification banner. [7] beehiiv lets you choose between the two with an auto-upgrade switch. [4] Make is different again because it meters credits, not contacts. When credits run out, scenarios stop until credits are added. [8]
The practical risk differs by vendor. With automatic upgrades the risk is a bigger bill you did not expect. With manual upgrades the risk is a campaign or automation that does not go out. Know which one your vendor uses before a big import, giveaway or launch.
| Vendor | What is metered | Paid plan: over the limit | Free plan: over the limit | Warning before or at the limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Active subscribers, counted cumulatively within each billing cycle; Comfort also caps monthly emails at 10 times the tier ceiling [1] | Limit rises automatically; card charged for the next tier [1] | Sending locked for campaigns and automations above 250 active subscribers [1] | In-account notification before you reach the subscriber limit [1] |
| Kit | Confirmed, active subscribers [11] | Automatic upgrade to the next tier, billed with proration [2] | Paid plan needed to keep sending past 10,000 subscribers [3] | Kit invites you to email [email protected] if you are getting close [2] |
| beehiiv | Active subscribers across all publications in the workspace [5] | Prorated next-tier charge if auto-upgrade is on; sends may be delayed if it is off [4] | Free covers up to 2,500 subscribers; past a plan type's limit you must move to the next plan type [6] [5] | The help article describes the auto-upgrade switch, not a warning threshold |
| Moosend | Unique email addresses, billed once even if they sit in several lists [7] | You need to upgrade to a plan that covers your contacts [7] | After the 30-day trial you choose a plan or buy email credits [7] | Notification banner in the account; pay-as-you-go credits warn at 80% used [7] |
| Make | Credits: 1 per module operation for most apps, including every trigger check [10] | Scenarios stop until credits are added, unless extra credits or auto-purchase cover the gap [8] [9] | Free has 1,000 credits a month; extra credits are for paid plans only [8] [9] | The pricing FAQ and extra-credits help page do not describe a usage warning email |
Email platforms: how each one bills the jump
MailerLite counts active subscribers cumulatively within a billing cycle. Subscribers you delete during the cycle still count until it resets on your billing date. Its example: if you delete subscribers on April 1 and your billing date is April 5, they count until April 4. [1] Clean your list just before the billing date, not the day after. Comfort also limits monthly sends to 10 times your tier ceiling, so the up-to-1,000 tier gets 10,000 emails. If you hit that limit, MailerLite says you can upgrade to Power or wait for the next cycle. [1]
Kit gives a worked example. A monthly customer paying $39 for up to 1,000 subscribers reaches 1,001 on October 21 and moves to the $59 tier for up to 3,000. They get a $12.67 credit for 10 unused days on the old tier and a $19.67 charge for 10 days on the new one. Their November 1 bill is $66: $59 plus the $7 difference. [2] On annual plans, Kit charges the prorated difference immediately. [2] Kit also warns that a large import, such as a giveaway or live-event list, may temporarily suspend the account, and asks you to tell it in advance. [2]
beehiiv adds up active subscribers across every publication in your workspace and compares that total with your plan limit. Two publications with 3,000 and 2,000 active subscribers count as 5,000. [5] Auto-upgrade is a setting under Settings, then Billing & Plan. When it is on, going over your limit triggers a prorated charge for the next tier of your current plan. When it is off, sends may be delayed. [4]
Moosend's pricing FAQ says that if your list passes your plan's limit you will need to upgrade, and a notification banner will appear. It recommends checking your limits and upgrading as needed to avoid disruptions. [7] The page does not say whether sending pauses in the meantime, so treat the banner as a deadline. Downgrades take effect at the end of the current billing cycle. [7]
Make: stopped scenarios, extra credits and the auto-purchase cap
When a Make organization runs out of credits, its scenarios do not run until credits are added. Incoming webhooks are queued up to your webhook queue size and processed once scenarios resume. Scenarios that poll for data search for records since their last successful run. [8] Make lists the queue as 667 webhooks per 10,000 licensed credits, with a maximum of 10,000. [8] On a 10,000-credit plan, a form that receives more than 667 submissions while scenarios are stopped overflows that queue.
Extra credits are for paid plans only. You can buy them by hand in units of 1,000, and Make uses your plan's credits first. [9] Every extra credit costs 25% more than a plan credit. Make's example: on a $9 plan with 10,000 credits, 1,000 extra credits cost $1.125 and 10,000 cost $11.25. [9] Make's pricing page listed Core with 10,000 credits on 2026-10-30 at $16 a month billed monthly, or $12 a month billed annually. By the same 25% rule, 10,000 extra credits would cost $20 on monthly billing and $15 on annual billing. [8]
Auto-purchase buys 10,000 credits each time your plan's credits run out. The number of auto-purchases in a monthly cycle is capped at the number of credits in your subscription. On an 80,000-credit plan, that means at most 8 purchases. [9] The same rule means a 10,000-credit plan can auto-purchase only once per cycle. If the extra 10,000 also run out, your scenarios stop. Extra credits expire at the end of the billing cycle on monthly plans. On Core with annual billing they expire at each monthly reset. [9] If a payment fails, scenarios pause until you update the payment method. [9]
Make's paid plans renew each billing cycle until you cancel. After you cancel, the current term runs to its end and the organization moves to the Free plan, unless the owner already has a Free-plan organization. [8]
| Make situation | What happens | Cost on Core 10,000 credits |
|---|---|---|
| Credits run out, nothing enabled | Scenarios stop; webhooks queue up to the queue size [8] | $0 extra, but work stops |
| Manual top-up of 1,000 credits | Added immediately at plan rate plus 25% [9] | $2.00 monthly billing, $1.50 annual (derived) |
| Auto-purchase enabled | Buys 10,000 credits; capped at your plan's credit count per cycle [9] | $20 monthly billing, $15 annual (derived); at most once a cycle on this plan |
| Card payment fails | Scenarios pause until payment method is updated [9] | Not applicable |
Worked examples: three ways to get surprised
A newsletter on MailerLite Free imports a 300-person event list. At 251 active subscribers, campaigns and automations lock, and the welcome automation for the new names does not send. [1] The fix is to upgrade before the import. Comfort's entry tier is $12 a month for up to 500 subscribers. [1]
A Kit creator with just under 1,000 subscribers on the $39 monthly tier runs a giveaway that adds 600 subscribers on October 21. Kit moves the account to the $59 tier for up to 3,000, and the November 1 bill is about $66, as in Kit's own example. [2] If the import is large, the account may also be suspended briefly unless Kit was told in advance. [2]
A Make Core organization with 10,000 monthly credits has a Google Sheets watch trigger checking every minute. Trigger modules use 1 credit per run even when they find nothing. [10] One check a minute is 1,440 credits a day, so the plan runs out in about a week. Auto-purchase adds one 10,000-credit block, roughly another week, and then the scenarios stop. [9] Lengthening the schedule fixes it more cheaply than buying credits.
Who should turn automatic upgrades on, and who should not
Turn auto-upgrade on, or accept it where it is built in, if missing a send costs more than a higher bill: daily newsletters, paid publications, stores with abandoned-cart flows, and anything with sponsors. Leave it off or watch the count closely if your list swells from low-quality sources such as giveaways. In that case a delayed send gives you time to clean up before you pay for contacts you will delete.
For Make, turn auto-purchase on for client-facing or revenue scenarios: lead routing, order processing, booking confirmations. Pair it with a schedule review, because auto-purchase on a small plan only covers one extra block per cycle. [9] If you buy extra credits regularly, Make itself recommends moving to a plan that matches your usage, since higher tiers have lower per-credit costs. [9]
Alert setup checklist
Set these up once. Each takes a few minutes and avoids the surprises described above.
- Write down your current tier ceiling for each tool and set a calendar reminder to check the count weekly once you pass 80% of it.
- MailerLite: note your billing date and run list cleanups a day or two before it, because deleted subscribers count until the cycle resets. [1]
- MailerLite Comfort: estimate monthly sends (list size times emails per subscriber) against 10 times your tier ceiling before a launch month. [1]
- Kit: email [email protected] before importing a large list, so the account is not suspended. [2]
- beehiiv: decide deliberately whether "Auto-upgrade my plan tier when I reach my subscriber limit" should be on, and add up subscribers across every publication in the workspace. [4] [5]
- Moosend: treat the in-account banner as a hard deadline, and remember that downgrades only take effect at the end of the cycle. [7]
- Make: open Organization, then the Subscription tab, and decide whether auto-purchase should be on; review how many credits are left after the first week of each cycle. [9]
- Make: review every polling trigger's schedule, since each check costs 1 credit even when it finds nothing. [10]
- Make: keep a backup card on file, because a failed payment pauses scenarios. [9]
- Finance: add each tool to a single list with its billing date and tier, so an automatic upgrade shows up as a known line rather than a surprise.
Questions before you decide
Will MailerLite stop my emails if I go over my subscriber tier on a paid plan?
No. MailerLite says that on a paid account the limit increases automatically and your card is charged for the next tier, with an in-account notification before you reach it. On the Free plan, sending is locked for campaigns and automations once you pass 250 active subscribers.
How does Kit bill me when I pass my tier mid-month?
Kit upgrades you automatically. On a monthly plan, your next bill has the new tier price plus a prorated charge for the rest of the current period. On an annual plan, you are charged the prorated difference immediately and the full new annual price at renewal.
What happens to my beehiiv sends if I do not turn on auto-upgrade?
beehiiv says that if auto-upgrade is off, sends to your subscribers may be delayed when you go over your plan limits. With it on, you are charged a prorated amount for the next tier and active discounts still apply.
Do Make scenarios lose data when credits run out?
Make says scenarios stop until credits are added. Incoming webhooks are queued up to your plan's webhook queue size and processed when scenarios resume, and polling scenarios search for records since their last successful run.
How much do Make extra credits cost?
Make says extra credits cost 25% more than the credits in your plan, whether you buy them manually or through auto-purchase. Its example: on a $9 plan with 10,000 credits, 10,000 extra credits cost $11.25.
Sources & verification
Product details and prices can change. Check the linked provider before buying.
- MailerLite pricing Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Kit Help Center: Account upgrade and downgrade FAQs Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Kit Help Center: The Kit Free plan Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- beehiiv support: How to change your beehiiv plan type and plan tier Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- beehiiv support: Plan types and subscriber plan tier pricing Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- beehiiv pricing Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Moosend pricing Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make pricing and FAQ Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: Extra credits Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Make Help Center: How features use credits Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- Kit Help Center: Billing at Kit Accessed 30 Oct 2026
Sources link directly to providers. Product buttons may use separately labeled affiliate links. Read our disclosure.