Attentive Pricing 2026: How the Quote Model Works
Attentive doesn't publish prices. How its pricing model works as of October 2026, what drives your quote, the hidden costs, and how to benchmark it.
Table of contents
- How much does Attentive cost?
- How Attentive’s pricing model works
- The packages
- AI tools
- What’s included with every plan
- What drives your Attentive quote
- Attentive cost by list size: the benchmark approach
- The hidden costs to ask about
- When Attentive makes sense, and when Klaviyo pays for itself
- How to negotiate an Attentive quote
- Want a second opinion on your SMS costs?
- Sources
“Attentive pricing” is a search people make because Attentive doesn’t show a price. There’s no table on its pricing page, no calculator and no starting rate. What it does publish is the model: what your quote is built from, what’s included, and which AI tools cost extra.
This guide explains that model honestly, from attentive.com/pricing as it stood on 10 October 2026. We won’t invent numbers. Where we give figures, they are published prices from Klaviyo and Postscript that you can use as benchmarks when you negotiate.
How much does Attentive cost?
Attentive doesn’t publish prices. As of 10 October 2026, every Attentive plan is quoted after a sales conversation and priced on four factors: how many messages you send, the size of your subscriber list, how many channels you use (SMS, MMS, RCS, email, push) and which premium AI tools you add. Bundling channels or AI products earns a discount.
In Attentive’s own words, pricing is “tailored to your business needs based on your message volume, subscriber list size, number of channels, and AI products selected.” It describes the model as usage-based with no credit system.
How Attentive’s pricing model works
The packages
| Package | What it covers | How it’s priced |
|---|---|---|
| Text | SMS, MMS and RCS | List size and messages sent (pay per message and subscriber count) |
| Text & email | SMS plus triggered email and full email campaigns | List size and messages sent |
| SMS, email, RCS and push (recommended) | All channels on unified profiles | List size and messages sent, with bundle savings |
| Everything | All channels, full AI suite, dedicated CSM, full-service onboarding | Custom, based on volume and needs |
AI tools
| AI product | What it does | Pricing basis |
|---|---|---|
| AI Essentials | Copy and subject line generation, retargeting automation | Included with all plans |
| AI Pro | Predictive send time and audience segmentation | Flat monthly fee |
| AI Grow | Personalised sign-up units and landing pages | Flat monthly fee |
| AI Journeys | Personalised welcome and abandonment journeys | Pay per click |
What’s included with every plan
Attentive lists strategic support (planning, onboarding and deliverability, a dedicated support team, 24/5 service), its data platform with 150+ integrations and the Attentive Signal identity tag, the marketing suite (two-tap sign-up, pre-built journeys, A/B testing, reporting), and compliance tools.
Source: attentive.com/pricing. Packages and AI pricing basis re-checked 10 October 2026; the included-with-every-plan list as published in September 2026.
What drives your Attentive quote
Because the page gives you factors instead of numbers, walk into the sales call with your own figures for each one:
- Monthly message volume by channel and country. SMS, MMS, RCS and email volumes each move the price. MMS costs more than SMS on every platform.
- Subscriber list size. Attentive prices on subscriber count as well as messages, so a big, unengaged list costs you even when you don’t text it.
- Channels. Adding email to SMS changes the package. If you already pay for an email platform, make sure you’re not paying for email twice.
- AI products. AI Pro and AI Grow are flat monthly fees; AI Journeys is pay per click. Price each separately and ask what lift they’ll commit to measuring.
- Term and commitment. Ask about contract length, minimum spend, what happens if you under-send, and overage rates if you over-send.
Attentive cost by list size: the benchmark approach
We can’t give you Attentive’s price at each list size, because Attentive doesn’t publish one. What we can give you is the published cost of the same workload on platforms that do publish prices, so you know what a competitive quote looks like.
| Monthly US SMS volume | Klaviyo SMS (toll-free, carrier fees included) | Postscript Starter (plus average carrier fees) | Attentive |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | $70 | ~$66 | Quote only |
| 10,000 | $125 | ~$123 | Quote only |
| 20,000 | $240 | ~$246 | Quote only |
Klaviyo: klaviyo.com/pricing calculator, September 2026. Postscript: $0.009 per SMS plus its published $0.0033 average carrier fee, re-checked 10 October 2026.
And if Attentive’s quote includes email, benchmark that too. Klaviyo’s email plan, as of September 2026, is $100 a month at 5,000 profiles, $150 at 10,000, $400 at 25,000 and $720 at 50,000. See our Klaviyo pricing guide for the full table.
A simple way to use this: ask Attentive for an effective per-message rate, all-in, at your forecast volume. If it’s well above these benchmarks, the gap should be justified by features or service you’ll actually use.
The hidden costs to ask about
- Carrier fees. Ask whether per-message rates include carrier fees or bill them separately. Klaviyo includes them; Postscript passes them through as a separate line. Attentive’s page doesn’t say, so get it in writing.
- Minimums and commitments. Usage-based pricing can still come with a committed spend. Ask.
- Short codes. Dedicated short codes carry carrier costs on any platform (Postscript lists $750 a month). Ask who pays.
- Onboarding and professional services. Full-service onboarding is listed in the top package. Check whether it’s included or billed.
- AI add-ons. Flat fees add up. Pilot one at a time and measure incremental revenue.
- Two-platform overhead. If you keep Klaviyo for email and add Attentive for SMS, you run two profile databases and two attribution models. That costs time, and the revenue double-counting makes both look better than they are. Our Klaviyo and Attentive integration guide shows how to wire them together if you do.
When Attentive makes sense, and when Klaviyo pays for itself
Attentive is worth a serious look when:
- SMS is a primary revenue channel and you send at enterprise volume, where negotiated rates and a dedicated strategy team pay back.
- You want managed strategy. Attentive’s packages emphasise strategic support and onboarding. If you don’t have an in-house retention team, that has real value.
- You want its list-growth tooling. Two-tap sign-up and AI Grow are strong at capturing subscribers.
Klaviyo is usually the better value when:
- You’re under roughly $10M in revenue. Klaviyo email and SMS cover the same core flows (welcome, abandoned cart, browse, post-purchase, win-back) on published pricing, with no sales process.
- You want one profile and one attribution model. Email and SMS in the same flow, with “if they clicked the email, don’t text them” branching.
- You sell into several countries. Klaviyo publishes SMS rates by country in its calculator, including the UK and Australia.
- You need predictable budgets. With Klaviyo you can price your plan yourself before anyone calls you.
For a full feature comparison, read Klaviyo vs Attentive. For the per-message maths, see our Klaviyo SMS pricing guide and Postscript pricing breakdown. For the wider shortlist, our best SMS marketing platforms guide compares the main ecommerce SMS tools by use case.
How to negotiate an Attentive quote
- Bring a 12-month message forecast by channel, month and country, including BFCM peaks.
- Ask for an all-in effective rate per message, including carrier fees.
- Ask for the minimum, the term and the exit terms in writing.
- Price AI tools separately so you can drop one without renegotiating everything.
- Get competing published quotes from Klaviyo and Postscript. They’re a click away.
Want a second opinion on your SMS costs?
We build and run SMS marketing on Klaviyo for ecommerce brands, and we’re happy to tell you when a specialist like Attentive is the better fit. Get a free audit and we’ll benchmark your current or quoted SMS costs against published rates.
Sources
- Attentive Pricing (pricing model, packages, AI tools and FAQ, re-checked 10 October 2026)
- Klaviyo Pricing
- Postscript Pricing (10 October 2026)
/ Frequently Asked Questions
Q.01 How much does Attentive cost? +
/ Answer
Attentive doesn't publish prices. As of 10 October 2026, its pricing page says plans are tailored to four factors: the number of messages you send, your subscriber list size, the number of channels you use and the premium AI tools you choose. You get a figure only after a sales conversation, so budget by getting a written quote and modelling your own message volume.
Q.02 Does Attentive have a pricing calculator? +
/ Answer
No public one. Attentive's pricing page asks you to book a demo or take a tour, and pricing is built around your goals and usage. Third-party procurement sites publish estimates from buyer-reported contracts, but those are not Attentive's figures and vary widely. The most reliable approach is to bring your own message forecast to the sales call and ask for per-message rates.
Q.03 Is Attentive credit-based or pay as you go? +
/ Answer
Attentive describes its pricing as usage-based: you pay for what you use, with no credit system, as of October 2026. It also offers discounts for bundling channels such as SMS and email, or premium AI products. In practice, enterprise messaging contracts often include commitments, so ask whether your quote has a minimum spend, term length and overage terms.
Q.04 Does Attentive offer a free trial? +
/ Answer
Yes. Attentive's pricing FAQ says it offers free trials, which you request through the form on its pricing page, as of October 2026. Ask exactly what the trial includes, such as message volume and channels, how long it runs, and whether any onboarding or setup work carries over if you don't sign a contract afterwards.
Q.05 Who are Attentive's competitors? +
/ Answer
In ecommerce SMS, the main competitors are Postscript, Klaviyo SMS and Omnisend, with Emotive and others in the conversational space. For combined email and SMS, Klaviyo is the most common alternative. Postscript and Klaviyo both publish their SMS pricing, which makes them useful benchmarks when you negotiate an Attentive quote.
Q.06 Is Attentive worth it compared with Klaviyo? +
/ Answer
For large brands where SMS is a primary revenue channel and a dedicated strategy team is valuable, Attentive can be worth the premium. For most brands under about $10M in revenue, Klaviyo email plus Klaviyo SMS covers the same core use cases on published pricing, with one profile and one attribution model. Compare total cost including your email platform.
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