Does Shopify have email marketing? What is free and when you need an app

The short answer: Yes. Shopify has email marketing built in through Shopify Messaging (formerly Shopify Email). On the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans you get 10,000 free emails a month, then pay $1 per 1,000, and abandoned checkout emails are always free. You need a separate app when you want more done for you.

So does Shopify have email marketing that is good enough for your store? For many new stores it is. Below is what Shopify's email tool includes, exactly what is free and what costs money, what Campaign Autopilot adds, and the signs that an email app would save you time or money.

Does Shopify have email marketing? What Shopify Messaging includes

Shopify Messaging is Shopify's own app for email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing. You build and send everything from the Shopify admin, under Apps and then Messaging. According to Shopify's product page and Help Center, it includes:

• Templates and an editor that pull your branding, products and prices from your store, with dynamic product sections for best sellers and new arrivals.
• Sidekick, Shopify's AI assistant, to generate on-brand copy for your emails.
• Automation templates you edit and switch on (listed below).
• Subscriber management and segments built on your Shopify customer data.
• Campaign reports so you can track how each email performs.
• Authenticated sending. Shopify authenticates all marketing emails. If you have not set up your own domain, it sends from an authenticated shopifyemail.com subdomain, which Shopify says meets the authentication requirements Gmail and Yahoo set for bulk senders. You can add SPF, DKIM and DMARC records to send from your own domain.

Which automations does Shopify Messaging include?

Shopify's automation templates include:

• Welcome new subscribers with a discount email, or a discount series (the discount, two brand-building emails, then a reminder if no purchase is made)
• Recover abandoned checkout, recover abandoned cart and convert abandoned product browse (by email, SMS or WhatsApp)
• Thank customers after their first and second purchases
• Upsell customers after their first purchase
• Win back customers a set time after their last order
• Drive online customers to your nearby retail locations

To collect subscribers, Shopify points you to its separate Shopify Forms app for signup forms on your store.

Is Shopify email marketing free? What you pay for

The app is free to install. What you pay depends on how much you send and which channels you use. These are the rules from Shopify's email pricing and SMS pricing pages:

What you send	What it costs
First 10,000 emails each calendar month (Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus)	Free; unused emails do not roll over
Emails 10,001 to 300,000 in a month	$1 per 1,000
Emails above 300,000 in a month	$0.65 per 1,000, then $0.55 per 1,000 above 750,000
Abandoned checkout emails	Always free, and not counted in the 10,000
Other automated emails, such as welcome and win-back	Count toward the 10,000 like campaigns
SMS and WhatsApp messages	Charged per message at the rate for each recipient's region; SMS to the US and Canada also needs a toll-free number at $2.15 a month

Emails are counted per recipient, so one campaign to 800 subscribers is 800 emails. A store with 2,500 subscribers can send four campaigns a month free; a store with 5,000 can send two. Shopify adds any charges to your Shopify bill, and you can set a monthly spending threshold to get an alert. For costs at bigger list sizes and how other apps compare, see how much email marketing costs for a Shopify store.

Does Shopify do email marketing for you? Campaign Autopilot

Partly, since June 2026. Campaign Autopilot is a free tool in the Growth section of your Shopify admin. It looks at your store and recommends marketing actions across Shopify Messaging email, Shop Campaigns, Meta Ads and Microsoft Advertising. For email it can generate branded emails and automations, such as abandoned checkout recovery and a welcome series. You can approve each recommendation first or let it create email campaigns on its own, within guardrails you set, and you pay the usual channel costs for what it sends.

Autopilot needs a live store with no storefront password, and the Shopify Messaging app installed for email tactics. Read our Campaign Autopilot review for what it does for email and when an AI email app is the better fit.

Is Shopify email marketing good?

For a store starting out, it is a strong default. The case for it:

• It costs nothing to start. 10,000 free emails a month covers weekly campaigns to a list of about 2,500.
• Cart recovery is free. Abandoned checkout emails never cost anything and do not use your allowance.
• It is already connected. Products, prices, discounts and customers come straight from your store, with no sync to set up.
• Sending is authenticated from the start, even before you add your own domain.

What it leaves to you is the work. Shopify gives you the templates, the automations and an AI copy assistant, but you still decide what to send, when, and to whom. That means planning a calendar of campaigns around your products and the retail year, writing or prompting each email, and checking each automation is switched on and sensible. Autopilot helps by suggesting tactics for you to review.

When you need an email marketing app

An app earns its place when one of these is true for your store:

1. You have no time to plan or write. If campaigns slip because nobody has time to write them, an app that plans and writes them for you is worth more than free sends.
2. You want to see your year ahead. Shopify's tools work campaign by campaign. Some apps build a calendar of campaigns for the whole year, mapped to your category and retail moments, that you can review on day one.
3. Your emails need a specific voice or language. If you sell in German or French, or your brand has a particular tone, check how much control the tool gives you over both.
4. You send a lot to a list that is not growing fast. Weekly or twice-weekly campaigns to 10,000 people means 40,000 to 80,000 emails a month on Shopify Messaging, or $30 to $70. A per-contact price with unlimited sends can be easier to budget.
5. Your inbox placement is slipping. We did not find inbox-recovery segments by email provider (for example, Gmail or Yahoo subscribers who have stopped opening) in the Shopify Messaging help pages we reviewed. Some dedicated apps, including tinyAlbert, add segments like these.

Our list of the best email marketing apps for Shopify compares eight options with their prices, and the Shopify Email comparison puts Shopify Messaging side by side with tinyAlbert.

How to start email marketing on Shopify for free

1. Open Shopify Messaging. In your admin, go to Apps and then Messaging, or install it from the Shopify App Store.
2. Set your sender address. Add the email address customers will see, and authenticate your own domain when you are ready.
3. Add a signup form. Use the Shopify Forms app to start collecting subscribers on your store.
4. Switch on abandoned checkout. It is free and does not use your allowance.
5. Add a welcome series. Start from the welcome template and edit the copy to sound like you.
6. Plan your first month of campaigns. Pick your dates, products and offers, then write and schedule them.
7. Set a spending threshold so you hear from Shopify before any charges add up.

Our Shopify email marketing guide covers each of these steps in more depth.

Where tinyAlbert fits

tinyAlbert is an AI email marketing app for Shopify built for the work Shopify leaves to you. When you install it, you pick a layout, one of seven tones and one of ten languages, and describe your store. It then writes a calendar of campaigns for your store's category and retail moments, six automations and four signup forms. Nothing sends until you switch it on. You can see what the AI campaign calendar plans for a year.

It is not free: tinyAlbert costs $3 a month for up to 100 contacts after a 7-day free trial, and $10 a month for 251 to 500 contacts, with unlimited sends. If you send under 10,000 emails a month and are happy writing your own, Shopify Messaging costs less. Every tier is on the pricing page, and you can try tinyAlbert free for 7 days.

Frequently asked questions

Does Shopify do email marketing?

Yes. Shopify Messaging lets you create, send and automate marketing emails from your Shopify admin, using templates that pull in your products and branding. It also sends SMS and WhatsApp messages. Campaign Autopilot, a free tool in your admin, can recommend and generate emails and automations for you.

Is Shopify Email the same as Shopify Messaging?

Yes. Shopify Email is now called Shopify Messaging, and it covers email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing in one app. Its email pricing is 10,000 free emails a month on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, then $1 per 1,000, with abandoned checkout emails always free.

Is Shopify email marketing free?

It is free up to 10,000 emails a month on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, and abandoned checkout emails are always free. After that you pay $1 per 1,000 emails up to 300,000. Other automations count toward the 10,000, and SMS and WhatsApp messages are charged per message.

Can I use Shopify Messaging and another email app at the same time?

Yes, as long as each automation runs in only one place. Shopify notes that two active welcome automations mean customers get twice as many emails. Before you switch on an abandoned cart or welcome flow in another app, pause the matching automation in Shopify Messaging.

Do I need a paid Shopify plan to use Shopify Messaging?

Shopify's pricing page lists the 10,000 free monthly emails for stores on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. Its Help Center notes that stores on a free trial, or on a plan that does not include Shopify Messaging, are prompted to upgrade before sending. Campaign Autopilot also needs a live store with Shopify Payments active.