Kajabi Basic stops at 2,500 contacts. Here’s what that costs
Kajabi Basic includes 2,500 contacts at $179 a month; contact 2,501 needs Growth at $249 (kajabi.com/pricing). AXL Starter is $49 and includes 5,000 contacts. Extra contacts cost $0.002 each on every AXL plan, so growth adds overage instead of forcing an immediate upgrade. Compare the whole bill, not one threshold.
- •Basic includes 2,500 contacts at $179/month ($143 billed annually), according to kajabi.com/pricing.
- •Contact 2,501 requires Growth at $249/month; contact 25,001 requires Pro at $499. The list’s size decides the tier, not what the list earns.
- •Every subscriber counts against the cap, so a lead magnet that works raises the platform bill before it earns anything back.
- •AXL Starter includes 5,000 contacts at $49 per month, then charges $0.002 for each extra contact.
- •A flat plan still suits some businesses; the honest case for it is at the end of this article.
What $179 a month includes
Basic is the lowest plan with a published price: $179 a month, or $143 a month billed annually. It includes 2,500 contacts, 5 products, 2 admins, one website, and one community. Funnels, landing pages, marketing emails, and access groups are unlimited. The meaningful caps are contacts, products, and admin seats.
Growth is $249 a month ($199 annually) and raises the limits to 25,000 contacts, 50 products, and 11 admins. Pro is $499 ($399 annually) with 100,000 contacts, unlimited products, and 26 admins. The important cost appears at the boundary between tiers, not inside a tier.
Source for every figure in this section: kajabi.com/pricing. A “Save 50%” promotion was live when we read it; a promotional price is not a list price, so this article quotes the list.
The arithmetic at four list sizes
Method: take a contact count, find Kajabi's cheapest published plan that can hold it, then compare it with the lowest AXL plan total when every other usage input is zero. Real AXL bills can differ because storage, email, messages, viewing, admins and AI also have allowances and overage.
| Contacts stored | Tier that fits, per its cap | Monthly list price | Lowest AXL total, contacts only |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,500 | Basic: exactly at its cap | $179 ($143 annual) | Starter includes 5,000 = $49 |
| 10,000 | Growth | $249 ($199 annual) | $49 + 5,000 x $0.002 = $59 |
| 25,000 | Growth: exactly at its cap | $249 ($199 annual) | $49 + 20,000 x $0.002 = $89 |
| 65,000 | Pro | $499 ($399 annual) | $49 + 60,000 x $0.002 = $169 |
The AXL column is a contacts-only scenario, not a full bill. Other usage can make Growth, Scale or Pro the lower total. Use the calculator with your complete month before comparing platforms.
Why a contact cap taxes your best marketing
A contact cap measures the size of the stored list, not its activity. Lead magnet downloads, quiz completions, and webinar registrations all add records, including people who never buy and addresses that later go cold. A growing funnel can therefore trigger a higher plan before the new leads produce revenue.
That is the structural complaint about contact-based pricing generally, not a defect unique to one vendor: the meter correlates with effort, not with income. A revenue share rises when you earn more; a usage meter rises when you use more; a contact cap rises when you collect more, including the 40% of any old list that no longer opens anything.
Weighing the two platforms line by line (prices, fees, features, and migration) is its own page: see the full AXL vs Kajabi comparison.
Three ways people respond, and what each really costs
Prune the list
Deleting cold subscribers keeps you under the cap and costs nothing on the invoice. What it actually costs is the asset: those addresses were paid for with content, ads or a launch, and a winback campaign cannot be sent to a list you deleted. Pruning is good hygiene at the margins and a bad habit as a billing strategy.
Upgrade
The step from Basic to Growth is $249 − $179 = $70 a month, $840 a year, and it buys headroom to 25,000. For many businesses that is the honest, boring answer. The step that stings is the next one: contact 25,001 is a $499 tier, $250 a month more, $3,000 a year, triggered by one subscriber.
Migrate
Moving platforms is the most expensive option in the short term, whatever anyone’s marketing says. Pages and courses are rebuilt, videos re-upload, historical analytics stay behind, and a sending domain has to re-earn its reputation. It only pays back if the pricing model, not just the price, was the problem. Do the table above with your own numbers before deciding which side of it you are on.
What to check instead of the sticker price
Five lines to read on any platform’s pricing page before the headline number means anything. They apply to every vendor in this category, ours included.
- The contact cap, including what counts as a contact: subscribers only, or every lead a form ever captured.
- The product cap: a five-product limit decides your catalog structure before you do.
- Admin seats: two seats is a solo operation; the price of the third tells you what scaling the team costs.
- Fees on your payment setup: platform fees often differ depending on whose gateway processes the sale. Read the row that matches how you would actually take money.
- Metered add-ons: anything billed per send, per minute or per call sits outside the plan price and shows up in month two.
How AXL prices the same list
AXL has four plans. Starter is $49 and includes 5,000 contacts; Growth includes 15,000, Scale 50,000 and Pro 150,000. Contacts above any plan allowance cost $0.002 each. The calculator checks every plan because a larger allowance can sometimes cost less than a smaller plan plus overage. Contact stock is charged day by day, so contacts you remove stop adding charges the next day. Estimate your bill at your own numbers.
Contacts are only one line. Each plan also includes storage, platform email, messages, video viewing, webinar viewing, admins and AI credits. Heavy senders and media businesses should enter those numbers too. A contact-only comparison can be useful, but it cannot tell you the complete monthly cost.
What people ask about the contact limit
2,500, at $179 a month or $143 a month billed annually, alongside 5 products and 2 admin users. A Starter column lists 250 contacts but shows no price. Read from kajabi.com/pricing.
The published caps put contact 2,501 on the Growth plan ($249 a month, with room to 25,000) and contact 25,001 on Pro at $499, with room to 100,000. The tier follows the size of the list, not what the list earns.
AXL Starter includes 5,000 contacts at $49 per month. Growth includes 15,000, Scale 50,000 and Pro 150,000. Every extra contact above the selected plan allowance costs $0.002.
It can be the better deal when your list stays below the next threshold and the bundled tools fit your workflow. AXL uses included allowances plus overage, so compare the complete bill across contacts, storage, email, messages, viewing, admins and AI.
Run the table above on your own list.
Import your contacts and see the bill at your volume. There is no tier boundary waiting at 2,501.
Plans start at $49/month with included usage and published overage
Choosing between the two platforms rather than leaving one? AXL vs Kajabi, line by line