How Much Do Automated Drip Campaigns Cost

Cost Breakdown by Channel

The cost of a drip campaign depends primarily on which channel you use. Email and SMS have different underlying infrastructure costs, and the platform passes these through as credit charges.

Email Drip Costs

Sending email through the Email Broadcast app costs 1 to 3 credits per message. The base cost covers email delivery, open and click tracking, bounce handling, and unsubscribe processing. If your email includes dynamic content fields (like the contact's name or a product recommendation), there is no additional charge as long as the personalization uses stored data rather than AI generation.

The cost per email stays constant regardless of the email length. A short two sentence follow-up costs the same as a long newsletter style message. What matters is the number of recipients, not the content size.

SMS Drip Costs

SMS messages through the SMS Broadcast app cost 3 to 7 credits per message. The higher cost reflects carrier fees for SMS delivery, which vary by carrier and destination. Messages longer than 160 characters are split into multiple segments, and each segment counts as a separate message for billing purposes.

MMS messages (those with images or media) cost more than plain text SMS, typically 5 to 10 credits per message. For drip campaigns, plain text SMS usually performs just as well as MMS, so sticking with text keeps costs down.

Combined Email and SMS Drip Costs

If you run a combined email and SMS drip, each message is billed at the rate for its channel. A seven message sequence with four emails and three SMS messages would cost roughly 4 to 12 credits for the emails plus 9 to 21 credits for the SMS, totaling 13 to 33 credits per contact for the full sequence.

AI Personalization Costs

Standard drip campaigns use pre-written messages with simple merge fields (like inserting the contact's first name). These do not add any AI processing cost. However, if you use AI to generate custom message content for each contact, that adds an AI model fee on top of the delivery cost.

AI personalized messages use the platform's AI models to rewrite or customize content based on the contact's profile, behavior, or conversation history. The AI processing cost depends on which model you use:

• Fast models (like GPT-4.1 Mini) add 2 to 4 credits per message for personalization
• Standard models (like Claude Sonnet) add 4 to 8 credits per message
• Advanced models (like GPT-5 or Claude Opus) add 6 to 10 credits per message

For most drip campaigns, AI personalization is not necessary. Pre-written messages with merge fields work well for the majority of use cases. Reserve AI personalization for high value sequences where each contact genuinely needs unique content, such as personalized product recommendations or AI generated follow-ups based on a chatbot conversation.

Factors That Affect Your Total Cost

Your total drip campaign cost is determined by four main factors.

Number of contacts: Every contact enrolled in the drip receives every message in the sequence (unless they unsubscribe or meet an exit condition). A drip with 100 contacts costs 10 times more than the same drip with 10 contacts.

Number of messages: More messages in the sequence means more sends per contact. A 5 message drip costs half as much per contact as a 10 message drip. See the message count guide for recommendations on sequence length.

Channel mix: SMS messages cost roughly 2 to 3 times more than email messages. Choosing email over SMS for messages where both would work saves significant credits at scale.

AI usage: If you use AI to personalize content, select the cheapest model that produces acceptable results. For basic personalization like rewriting a subject line, the fast model tier is usually sufficient.

Example Campaign Costs

Here are realistic cost estimates for common drip campaign types.

Welcome Email Sequence (5 Messages, 200 Contacts)

5 messages x 200 contacts x 2 credits average = 2,000 credits = $2.00. This is a straightforward email drip with no AI personalization, just pre-written messages with name and company merge fields.

Lead Nurture Drip (8 Messages, 500 Contacts, Email Only)

8 messages x 500 contacts x 2 credits average = 8,000 credits = $8.00. A weekly email nurture sequence over two months. At less than two cents per contact for the full sequence, this is one of the most cost effective marketing tactics available.

Abandoned Cart Recovery (3 SMS + 2 Email, 100 Contacts)

3 SMS x 100 x 5 credits = 1,500 credits for SMS. 2 emails x 100 x 2 credits = 400 credits for email. Total: 1,900 credits = $1.90. The SMS messages cost more but perform better for urgent recovery sequences.

AI Personalized Follow-Up (3 Messages, 50 Contacts, Claude Sonnet)

3 messages x 50 contacts x (2 delivery + 6 AI) = 1,200 credits = $1.20. Each message is AI generated based on the contact's chatbot conversation history. This costs more per message but produces highly relevant follow-ups for high value leads.

Annual Renewal Drip (6 Emails Over 3 Months, 1,000 Contacts)

6 messages x 1,000 contacts x 2 credits = 12,000 credits = $12.00. A monthly email series reminding customers about their upcoming renewal. The low per-contact cost ($0.012) makes this viable even for low value subscriptions.

Compared to Other Platforms

Most email marketing platforms charge $20 to $100 per month for drip campaign functionality, regardless of how many messages you actually send. Some charge per subscriber, others per email sent, and many add surcharges for automation features.

The credit based model on AI Apps API is pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimum. You pay only for messages you actually send. For small to mid-size contact lists (under 10,000 contacts), this is significantly cheaper than subscription-based platforms. A 500 contact drip that costs $8 on credits would require a $29 to $49/month plan on most email marketing platforms.

The cost advantage is even larger for SMS drips. Dedicated SMS platforms charge 1 to 5 cents per message segment. The platform's credit pricing of 3 to 7 credits ($0.003 to $0.007) per SMS is substantially lower because the infrastructure costs are amortized across the entire platform rather than billed as a standalone service.

How to Reduce Drip Campaign Costs

If you want to keep your drip campaign costs as low as possible, here are practical strategies.

Use email instead of SMS when both work. Email costs 1 to 3 credits per message versus 3 to 7 for SMS. Unless the message requires the immediacy of SMS (like a time sensitive appointment reminder), email delivers similar results at lower cost.

Keep SMS messages under 160 characters. Messages longer than 160 characters split into multiple segments, each billed separately. Write concise SMS copy to avoid paying double for a single message.

Segment before you drip. Instead of sending a 10 message generic drip to everyone, use segmentation to send shorter, more targeted sequences to specific groups. Five highly relevant messages convert better than 10 generic ones, and cost half as much.

Set exit conditions. If a contact converts (makes a purchase, books a call, signs up), stop the drip immediately. Sending four more follow-up messages to someone who already converted wastes credits and annoys the customer.

Skip AI personalization for most messages. Pre-written templates with merge fields work for 90% of drip messages. Reserve AI generation for the one or two messages where truly personalized content will make a measurable difference in conversion.

Clean your list regularly. Contacts who have not opened any of your last several messages are unlikely to start now. Move disengaged contacts to a re-engagement campaign or remove them from active drips to stop paying for messages that nobody reads.