HubSpot marketing contacts licensing is the second meter of HubSpot Marketing Hub, alongside seats. When buying Marketing Hub, the customer selects a contact tier, which limits the number of contacts it engages through HubSpot’s marketing tools each month, such as marketing emails and ads.[4] The Product Specific Terms describe the model as one where customers “will only pay for the contacts to which they want to send marketing emails and target ads”.[1] HubSpot introduced it in October 2020 and made it available to all new Marketing Hub customers on 2020-10-21. Customers who chose to keep the previous model remain on the legacy contacts pricing described below.[5]
Editions
Marketing contacts apply to Marketing Hub Starter, Professional and Enterprise. All Marketing Hub accounts created after September 2022 include marketing contacts. Older accounts may not have them and can check under Account & Billing.[4] Each edition includes a number of marketing contacts in its base price. All non-marketing contacts are free up to a limit of 15 million overall contacts (marketing plus non-marketing).[2]
| Edition | Included marketing contacts | Additional block | Monthly price per block (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing Hub Starter | 1,000 | 1,000 | 50 (1,001 to 3,000); 45 (3,001 to 5,000); 40 (5,001 and up) |
| Marketing Hub Professional | 2,000 | 5,000 | 250 (2,001 to 22,000); 225; 200; 175; 150 (82,001 and up) |
| Marketing Hub Enterprise | 10,000 | 10,000 | 100 (10,001 to 50,000); 90; 80; 70; 60 (500,001 and up) |
Source: Catalog, “Marketing Hub - Marketing Contacts Pricing”, retrieved 2026-10-06.[2] The Catalog states that the fee for marketing contacts “is a blended rate based on the number of contacts purchased and the applicable rates”.[2]
Metrics
The contractual unit is the Marketing Contact. The Product Specific Terms define Marketing Contacts as “Contacts that are able to receive marketing emails and be targeted with ads, and are designated as Marketing Contacts in your HubSpot account”. Non-Marketing Contacts are those not designated as marketing-eligible, and they cannot be targeted with marketing emails or ads.[1] A Contact is an individual other than a User whose information the customer stores in the Subscription Service.[6] Maximum Contacts is the number of Marketing Contacts identified in the Order Form plus any added by upgrade.[1]
Marketing contacts are counted at the account level across all users.[4] Under the legacy model the unit is the Contact itself, so every stored contact counts.[5]
Only these tools need a contact to be set as marketing: marketing emails (including follow-up emails after form submissions), contact segment audiences in the ads tool, and marketing actions in workflows such as sending email or adding to ads audiences. Sales one-to-one emails, sequences, registration emails, ticket emails, transactional emails and customer feedback surveys can be sent regardless of marketing status.[4]
Counting / floors
Only marketing contacts are billed (Product Specific Terms s.3.3, 2026-09-16). The Subscription Fee “will not increase if you add Contacts which are not designated as Marketing Contacts”.[1] Catalog proof: Only Marketing Contacts count toward the contact tier.
Automatic tier upgrade (s.3.3.1). If the customer exceeds its Maximum Contacts in a Billing Period, the fee rises immediately to the tier price matching the number of Marketing Contacts. The invoice increases by the prorated amount for the rest of the Current Term.[1] The Knowledge Base puts it more directly: “If you exceed your current tier by even one marketing contact, you’ll be upgraded to the next contact tier”. The upgrade takes place at midnight in the time zone of the HubSpot subsidiary for the account, and it “cannot be prevented once the limit is exceeded”.[3] Once increased, the fee “will not decrease, even if there is a subsequent reduction in the number of Marketing Contacts or emails sent”.[1] Catalog proof: Exceeding the contact tier upgrades the fee immediately for the rest of the term.
Down only at renewal. HubSpot does not downgrade contact tiers mid-term. To request a downgrade at renewal, Professional and Enterprise customers contact their HubSpot Contract Manager and Starter customers open an email support ticket, at least five business days before the renewal date.[3] Catalog proof: Contact tiers are only downgraded at renewal.
Asymmetric status changes (s.3.3.2). Contacts can be changed from non-marketing to marketing at any time, and the Catalog says such changes take effect immediately.[2] Changes to non-marketing “will not take effect until the first day of the next month or on your subscription renewal date, whichever comes first”.[1] The Knowledge Base calls this the update date. For monthly subscriptions it is the renewal day each month. For yearly subscriptions it is the first day of each month.[3] The two documents differ for monthly subscriptions, and the Product Specific Terms are the contractual text. Catalog proof: Changes to non-marketing take effect at the next update date.
Who can change status. All Users may designate contacts unless the customer restricts that right in the Users and Teams settings.[1] Super Admins and users with Modify Billing permission can set a maximum number of marketing contacts. Once the maximum is reached, imports and automated features set additional contacts as non-marketing instead.[3]
Switching from legacy pricing. When a customer moves from legacy contacts pricing to a Marketing Contacts subscription, all Contacts are designated Marketing Contacts by default. HubSpot recommends completing its Eligibility Flow tool first, because an unintended tier upgrade “will apply immediately and cannot be refunded”. A customer that has moved cannot buy the legacy subscription again.[1] Catalog proof: Switching from legacy pricing sets all contacts to marketing.
Worked example
The Knowledge Base gives this example. A one-year Marketing Hub Starter subscription bought on 2025-03-15 has a 1,000-contact tier and 998 marketing contacts. On 2025-03-28 the customer adds five marketing contacts, reaching 1,003. This triggers an automatic upgrade to the 2,000 tier, which is billed until the renewal on 2026-03-15. If instead the customer had set five of the original contacts to non-marketing, that change would only take effect on the next update date, 2025-04-01.[3] As commentary: an import, form or workflow that marks contacts as marketing late in a month can therefore lock in a higher tier for up to a year.
Email send limits
There are no separate email sending fees. The monthly send limit is tied to the contact tier: 5 times per contact for Starter, 10 times the contact tier for Professional and 20 times the contact tier for Enterprise, per calendar month.[2] On reaching the Email Send Limit the customer “may not be able to send any more emails”. The limit can be raised by upgrading the Marketing Contacts subscription or by buying the Dedicated IP Add-On, which includes unlimited email sends. Either way, the fee increases during the Billing Period.[1] The Dedicated IP Add-On costs USD 300 per month and is available with Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise.[2] Catalog proof: Email send limit is a multiple of the contact tier.
Legacy contacts pricing
Customers that stayed on the pre-2020 model are governed by the Marketing Hub Legacy Terms, which are incorporated in the Customer Terms of Service.[5] Under these terms, HubSpot sets the Contact tier for the next Billing Period by reviewing the number of all Contacts in the account. For Professional and Enterprise the review takes place between 40 and 25 days before the next Billing Period. For Starter it takes place on the last day of the Billing Period. If the count exceeds Maximum Contacts, the fee increases at the start of the next Billing Period.[5] For legacy Professional and Enterprise, exceeding the Email Send Limit raises the fee during the Billing Period to the tier matching the maximum monthly sends. Legacy Starter customers instead cannot send more emails until the next calendar month.[5] Catalog proof: Legacy contacts pricing: tier set by a periodic contact review.
Audits and compliance
HubSpot “will monitor or audit remotely the number of Marketing Contacts in the Subscription Service and the number of emails that you send”, and makes the information available in the customer’s account.[1] There is no separate customer-side audit process for contacts. The meter is enforced continuously, and an overrun is billed automatically as a tier upgrade.[3] The Knowledge Base lists default contact properties that support monitoring: “Marketing contact status”, “Marketing contact until next update” and the source type and source name of the latest status change.[4] Catalog proof: HubSpot monitors marketing contacts and email sends remotely.
Virtualization & partitioning
Not applicable. The meter counts stored contact records designated for marketing, not infrastructure.[1]
Cloud / BYOL
Not applicable. Marketing Hub is offered only as a hosted service.
Programs
- Marketing Contacts pricing, the current model for Marketing Hub, under Product Specific Terms s.3.[1]
- Legacy contacts pricing, under the Marketing Hub Legacy Terms, for customers that stayed on the earlier model.[5]
Out of scope
- Contacts held in Sales Hub, Service Hub and other products without Marketing Hub, which are not billed by contact tier.
- SMS marketing, which is metered in SMS message segments through the SMS add-on.[2]
- Data protection, consent and opt-in obligations for marketing to contacts.
- Negotiated contact tiers and prices in signed Order Forms.