Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) is AWS's pay-per-use service for sending and receiving email from your own applications. Sending costs $0.10 per 1,000 emails on the a la carte rate, there is no fixed free allowance beyond AWS credits for new customers, and new accounts start in a sandbox capped at 200 emails a day.
The bottom line
The cheapest serious option for developers on AWS; not a tool for marketers who want an editor.
7.4
Our score
7.4 / 10
Conversion Gems editorial verdict
$0.10 per 1,000 emails (a la carte)
Features8/10
8 - sending by API, SDK or SMTP, inbound processing, Mail Manager, dedicated IPs and deliverability tools, per AWS.
Value9/10
9 - $0.10 per 1,000 emails a la carte with no monthly minimum on that rate.
Ease of use4/10
4 - sandbox with a 200 emails per day cap until approval, plus DNS, IAM and console setup.
Ecosystem9/10
9 - SMTP, API and SDKs, plus SNS, S3, Lambda, KMS, CloudTrail, CloudWatch and Firehose integrations.
Support6/10
6 - extensive AWS documentation and the re:Post community; we did not verify direct support without a paid AWS support plan.
What it really is
AWS's pay-per-use service for sending and receiving email from your own applications.
Our take
SES is the budget choice for sending email at volume, and that still holds at $0.10 per 1,000 emails on the a la carte rate. What you save in money you pay in setup: domain verification, a sandbox you must apply to leave, and bounce and complaint handling you wire up through SNS or event publishing. AWS now also lists Essentials, Pro and Enterprise plans, so check which rate you are on before you forecast costs.
Why we rate it
Low per-email cost, sending and receiving, and deep ties into the rest of AWS.
The catch
Sandbox limits until AWS approves you, no campaign editor, and setup that assumes AWS skills.
Best for
Developers sending transactional email
SaaS products already hosted on AWS
High-volume senders who watch cost per email
Not good for
Marketers who want a visual campaign builder
Teams with no one to manage DNS and AWS settings
Very small senders who want a free fixed allowance
Friction report
Time to value
Medium: verify a domain, request production access and wait up to about a day for AWS's first response.
Scale breakpoint
Scales by usage; dedicated IPs ($24.95/month each) or Pro and Enterprise plans add fixed fees.
Walled garden
Moderate: standard SMTP and API, but event handling and logging lean on other AWS services.
Amazon SES pricing
Item
Price
Notes
Outbound email (a la carte)
$0.10 per 1,000 emails
Plus $0.12 per GB of attachments
Essentials plan
$0.16 / $0.14 / $0.11 per 1,000
0-10M / 10-100M / over 100M a month; no monthly fee
Pro plan
$105/month + $0.22 / $0.17 / $0.12 per 1,000
Dedicated infrastructure and reputation protection
Enterprise plan
$500/month + $0.23 / $0.18 / $0.13 per 1,000
Isolated sending reputation across workloads
Inbound email
$0.10 per 1,000 emails + $0.09 per 1,000 incoming chunks
Mail Manager processing
$0.15 per 1,000 emails
Dedicated IP (standard)
$24.95 per month per IP
Managed dedicated IPs
$15 per month per account
Plus per-email fees
New AWS customers
Up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits
For 6 months; shared across eligible AWS services
From Amazon's SES pricing page, checked 4 October 2026.
Sandbox limits for new accounts
Limit
Sandbox
After production access
Recipients
Verified addresses and domains only
Any recipient
Daily sending
200 messages per 24 hours
Raised quota
Sending rate
1 message per second
Raised rate
From the Amazon SES Developer Guide, checked 4 October 2026. Sandbox status is set per AWS Region.
Frequently Asked Questions
The a la carte rate is $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent, plus $0.12 per GB of attachments. AWS also lists Essentials, Pro and Enterprise plans with per-email rates from $0.11 to $0.23 per 1,000, and Pro and Enterprise add $105 or $500 a month (checked 4 October 2026).
Not as a fixed allowance. New AWS customers get up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits for 6 months that can be used on eligible services, including SES (checked 4 October 2026).
Sending transactional email such as order confirmations and password resets, marketing email and newsletters from your own software, and receiving email to build things like autoresponders or support ticket systems.
New accounts can only send to verified addresses or domains, up to 200 messages per 24 hours and 1 message per second. You request production access in the SES console; AWS says it gives an initial response within 24 hours.
SES sends and receives full email messages. SNS is a notification service; SES can publish bounce, complaint and delivery events to SNS topics.
No. Amazon SES is an active AWS service with current pricing, documentation and new plans listed on AWS's site (checked 4 October 2026).
Amazon SES alternatives
Other email sending services in our directory:
SendGrid: Email API plus a marketing campaign editor and contact lists.
Mailgun: Developer email API with sending, receiving and log search.
Postmark: Transactional email service known for a simple setup.
Brevo: Marketing email and SMS platform that also sends transactional email.
