Amazon SES Pricing Explained (2026)
Amazon SES costs $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails — $1 for 10,000, $10 for 100,000, $100 for 1 million. Attachments are billed at $0.12 per GB. That is the pay-as-you-go rate; AWS also sells bundled Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise plans at higher per-email prices. These are AWS list prices as of October 2026; always verify on AWS's official pricing page.
Updated October 4, 2026 · All figures are US-region list prices
Price List
Every SES pricing component, in one table
On pay-as-you-go pricing, SES is pure usage-based billing: no platform fee, no per-contact fee, no minimums. Here is each component at list price, as of October 2026.
| Component | Price | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outbound email | $0.10 | per 1,000 messages | The core rate. Same price for transactional and marketing sends. |
| Attachments | $0.12 | per GB | Billed on attachment data you send, on top of the per-message rate. |
| Free tier | up to $200 | in AWS Free Tier credits | New AWS customers only. Credits apply to eligible AWS services, including SES; check AWS for current terms. |
| Virtual Deliverability Manager (VDM) | $0.07 | per 1,000 messages | Optional deliverability insights add-on; this rate applies to the first 10M messages. |
| Dedicated IP (standard) | $24.95 | per IP / month | You manage warm-up yourself. Optional — shared IPs are the default. |
| Managed dedicated IPs | from $15 | per month + tiered per-1,000 | AWS handles warm-up and scaling; usage charges tier with volume. |
| Inbound processing | $0.10 | per 1,000 messages | Receiving email is billed separately from sending. |
Before you can send at these rates you'll need a verified domain and production access — see our Amazon SES setup guide for the walkthrough.
SES Plans
SES pricing plans: Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise
Alongside pay-as-you-go, AWS sells three bundled SES plans. Each raises the per-email rate in exchange for features you would otherwise add one by one. Monthly fees are per account, per region. Rates below are for the first 10 million emails a month, as of October 2026.
| Plan | Monthly fee | Per 1,000 emails | At 1M emails / month | What it bundles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | — | $0.10 | $100 | Outbound email only; add VDM, dedicated IPs, and other features à la carte |
| Essentials | — | $0.16 | $160 | Outbound email plus Virtual Deliverability Manager for SES sends |
| Pro | $105 | $0.22 | $325 | Full VDM, a managed dedicated IP, 2,500 email validations a month, Mail Manager features |
| Enterprise | $500 | $0.23 | $730 | Everything in Pro plus global endpoints, tenants, and up to 12 managed dedicated IPs |
Which should you pick? Pay-as-you-go is still the cheapest way to send. Essentials only comes out ahead if you want Virtual Deliverability Manager anyway: $0.16 per 1,000 against $0.17 for pay-as-you-go plus VDM. Pro and Enterprise make sense when you need managed dedicated IPs, validation, or multi-region resilience at scale. If you get deliverability reporting elsewhere, you may not need any plan at all. Plans and rates change, so check AWS's official SES pricing page before committing.
Worked Examples
What SES actually costs at your volume
The math is simple: monthly volume ÷ 1,000 × $0.10. Here it is worked out at six common volumes, at list prices as of October 2026.
| Emails / month | Monthly SES cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $1.00 | Side project or early-stage transactional email |
| 50,000 | $5.00 | Small SaaS: receipts, notifications, a weekly digest |
| 100,000 | $10.00 | Growing product with regular broadcasts |
| 500,000 | $50.00 | Serious volume — still less than most ESPs' entry plans |
| 1,000,000 | $100.00 | ≈ $185 all-in with VDM + a managed dedicated IP |
| 10,000,000 | $1,000.00 | High volume; dedicated IPs and VDM usually worth it here |
Base send cost only — add VDM ($0.07/1,000) or dedicated IPs if you use them. Note that how much you can send is governed by your account's quota: see Amazon SES sending limits.
Comparison
SES vs. other email providers
At 1 million emails per month, list prices as of July 2026 run roughly: Resend ~$650 (plus contact storage — e.g. $250/mo for 50,000 contacts), Mailgun ~$1,080, Postmark $1,200+, and SendGrid several hundred dollars before marketing features. SES: $100. Drag the slider to compare at your volume.
4,000 emails/month
$0.40 SES + $0 SendOps
Provider list prices as of July 2026 — plans and rates change; check each provider's pricing page. For a feature-by-feature breakdown, see how SES compares to other ESPs.
The Honest Part
What the sticker price doesn't include
$0.10 per 1,000 (list price, as of October 2026) is real — but it buys you an API, not a platform. Budget for what SES leaves to you.
Your engineering time
Bounce and complaint handling, delivery event pipelines, dashboards, alerting, template plumbing — none of it exists out of the box. The biggest real cost of raw SES is usually salaried hours, not the AWS bill.
No marketing layer
SES has no contacts, no segments, no campaigns, no automation. If you want to do email marketing on Amazon SES, you build that layer or buy it.
Sandbox-exit friction
New SES accounts start in a sandbox that only sends to verified addresses. Getting production access means a written request to AWS explaining your use case — usually quick, but not instant.
Dedicated-IP warm-up
A standard dedicated IP is $24.95/mo, but a cold IP with no sending history will land in spam. You ramp volume gradually over weeks — or pay for managed dedicated IPs and let AWS handle it.
Where SendOps Fits
Keep SES pricing. Add the platform.
SendOps turns your own SES account into an email operations platform: contacts and SendQL segments, broadcasts, SendFlow automation workflows, React Email templates compiled to SES-native Handlebars, and deliverability analytics. It's provisioned in your AWS account via CloudFormation and never holds your AWS keys — every email still sends through your own SES, at SES's $0.10 per 1,000.
Pricing is flat: Free at $0 (unmetered volume, no per-contact pricing), Team at $29/mo, Business at $149/mo. No per-contact fees, no per-email markup — so the worked-examples table above stays your real send bill. Full details on the SendOps pricing page.
FAQ
Amazon SES pricing questions, answered
How much does Amazon SES cost per 1,000 emails?
On pay-as-you-go pricing, Amazon SES charges $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails (list price as of October 2026). Attachments are billed separately at $0.12 per GB of attachment data. There are no monthly platform fees, no per-contact fees, and no minimums — you pay only for what you send. AWS also offers bundled plans (Essentials, Pro, Enterprise) at higher per-email rates. Always verify current rates on AWS's official SES pricing page.
Is Amazon SES really the cheapest way to send email?
On raw per-email list price, yes — at 1 million emails per month, SES costs about $100 while ESPs like Resend, Mailgun, and Postmark list at roughly $650 to $1,200+ (as of July 2026). But the sticker price excludes the engineering time to build observability and template tooling, and SES ships with no marketing layer — no contacts, campaigns, or automation. Whether it's cheapest overall depends on what you build or buy on top.
Does SES have a free tier?
Not as a fixed monthly email allowance any more. As of October 2026, AWS says new AWS customers receive up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits that can be applied to eligible services, including Amazon SES. Once the credits are used or expire, you pay the standard $0.10 per 1,000 outbound emails. Check AWS's pricing page for the current credit terms.
What are the Amazon SES Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise plans?
They are bundled plans AWS offers alongside pay-as-you-go pricing (as of October 2026, for the first 10 million emails a month). Essentials has no monthly fee and costs $0.16 per 1,000 emails, including Virtual Deliverability Manager for SES sends. Pro costs $105 per account per region per month plus $0.22 per 1,000, adding full VDM, a managed dedicated IP, email validation, and Mail Manager features. Enterprise costs $500 per account per region per month plus $0.23 per 1,000, adding global endpoints, tenants, and more managed dedicated IPs. You can stay on pay-as-you-go at $0.10 per 1,000 and add only what you need.
What does a dedicated IP cost on SES?
As of October 2026, a standard dedicated IP on Amazon SES lists at $24.95 per month per IP. Managed dedicated IPs start at $15 per month plus tiered per-1,000-email usage charges. Most senders below a few hundred thousand emails per month get good deliverability on SES's shared IP pool and don't need a dedicated IP at all.
How much does 1 million emails cost on Amazon SES?
Sending 1 million emails per month through Amazon SES costs $100 at the $0.10 per 1,000 pay-as-you-go list price (as of October 2026). With optional add-ons — Virtual Deliverability Manager at $0.07 per 1,000 and a managed dedicated IP — a realistic all-in figure is around $185 per month. The same volume lists at roughly $650 on Resend (plus contact storage fees), about $1,080 on Mailgun, and $1,200+ on Postmark.
What does SES pricing NOT include?
The $0.10 per 1,000 price doesn't include the engineering time to build observability (bounce and complaint pipelines, delivery dashboards) or template plumbing, and SES has no marketing layer built in — no contacts, segments, broadcasts, or automation. It also doesn't remove operational friction: new accounts start in a sandbox and must request production access, and dedicated IPs need gradual warm-up. Platforms like SendOps add that missing layer for a flat monthly fee while every email still sends through your own SES account at SES prices.
Get Started
Send at SES prices, with a real platform on top
Connect your AWS account in minutes via CloudFormation. Free plan, unmetered volume, no per-contact pricing — your only send cost is SES's $0.10 per 1,000.
All Amazon SES and third-party ESP figures on this page are US-region list prices as of July 14, 2026, and can change at any time. Verify current rates on AWS's official SES pricing page and each provider's own pricing page before making decisions.