Transactional Email API
Amazon SES Pricing Explained: Tiers, Limits & Hidden Costs
Proprietary
- Starting price
- $0.10 per 1,000 emails
- Pricing model
- Pay-as-you-go per 1,000 emails
- Free tier
- 3,000 message charges/mo for the first 12 months on a new AWS account
Amazon SES plans and limits
| Tier | What you get |
|---|---|
| Free | 3,000 message charges/mo for the first 12 months on a new AWS account |
| Paid entry point | $0.10 per 1,000 emails |
| How the bill grows | Pay-as-you-go per 1,000 emails |
| Self-hosted | Not available |
Hidden costs to budget for
- Billing arrives as one line in a larger AWS invoice, which is easy to lose track of
What Amazon SES costs as you grow
Sending 500,000 emails a month costs about $50 on SES and roughly $180 or more on SendGrid's equivalent tier, but SES gives you no deliverability team, so the saving is only real if an engineer owns email.
Amazon SES vs SendGridCheaper alternatives to Amazon SES
ResendEMAILProprietaryFrom $20/mo (Pro, 50,000 emails)Twilio SendGridEMAILProprietaryFrom $19.95/mo (Essentials, 50,000 emails)PostmarkEMAILProprietaryFrom $15/mo (10,000 emails)
Compare all Amazon SES alternatives Amazon SES pricing: FAQ
How much does Amazon SES cost?
Amazon SES uses pay-as-you-go per 1,000 emails pricing. Paid usage starts at $0.10 per 1,000 emails.
Does Amazon SES have a free tier?
3,000 message charges/mo for the first 12 months on a new AWS account.
What are the hidden costs of Amazon SES?
Billing arrives as one line in a larger AWS invoice, which is easy to lose track of.
What are cheaper alternatives to Amazon SES?
Resend ($20/mo (Pro, 50,000 emails)), Twilio SendGrid ($19.95/mo (Essentials, 50,000 emails)), Postmark ($15/mo (10,000 emails)).