Mailchimp Referral Badge Cannot Be Removed on Free Accounts
Mailchimp puts a referral badge on every email and signup form, and free accounts cannot switch it off; here is how the badge works and when it can go.
Questions about the Mailchimp referral badge keep landing in our mail, and most of them boil down to a single frustration: the badge will not go away. It sits at the foot of campaigns and signup forms, and the option to remove it appears to be missing on some accounts. That is not a fault in the software. Mailchimp ties the badge to its referral program, and the rules shift with the plan you hold. We set out the controls below, along with the one wall that will not move.
What does the referral badge do?
The badge is the front door to Mailchimp’s referral scheme. A contact who clicks it, keeps cookies enabled in the browser, and moves to a paid plan within 60 days sets the reward in motion. Mailchimp then adds a $30 credit to the invoice on both sides, the referrer’s and the newcomer’s. Nothing is paid out in cash. The credit lands on the bill, and the account has to hold a paid subscription to use it. That pairing explains the badge’s persistence: it is the hook that makes the whole program visible.
Why does the badge stay on a free account?
This is the detail that catches people out. On a free plan the badge is not optional. Mailchimp requires it on campaigns and forms alike, so the switch that hides it sits out of reach until you upgrade. Readers who hunt for a delete button and come up empty are not missing a step. The step does not exist at that tier. Paid accounts work the other way round: the badge is a choice there, and it can be hidden, restyled, or left in place.
Setting the default badge
The account-level switch lives in the billing area, not inside a campaign. Click the profile icon and open the account and billing page. In the Extras dropdown, choose Referrals. A checkbox there controls whether the badge appears in your campaigns, and on a paid plan you can clear it to pull the badge from everything you send.
Below the checkbox sits the badge picker. Click the edit image link next to the badge you want to change, then pick a new design in the selection window. Whatever you settle on becomes the default across the account’s emails and signup forms.
Changing the badge in a single campaign
Defaults are not the whole story. Wherever the rewards merge tag appears in an email, Mailchimp swaps in the default badge automatically. One campaign can carry a different design without touching that default. The override applies in the classic builder; elsewhere a badge follows the account default until you pick a different badge template for that email or form. That is also why a badge can look different from one send to the next.
The rules attached to the credits
A few conditions decide whether the reward ever lands. The newcomer must arrive through the badge with cookies switched on, because the tracking depends on them. The move to a paid plan has to happen within 60 days of the click. Both accounts then receive the $30 credit, and the referrer needs a paid subscription to spend it against an invoice. Miss any part of that sequence and the credit simply does not arrive, which is worth knowing before you plan a campaign around it.
Three ways to deal with it
The options line up cleanly. Keep the badge and treat it as a quiet earner, since every signup through it carries a credit for both sides. Restyle it instead, so the footer carries a design that sits lighter on the page. Or remove it, which under the current rules means a paid subscription first. Anyone weighing the upgrade against the irritation now knows exactly where the line sits, and can decide with the settings open in front of them.
None of this is broken. The badge stays on free accounts because Mailchimp wants it there as the visible hook of a program that pays both sides. Paid users hold the real controls, and the path to them runs through the billing page rather than any campaign editor.