- Price
- $0.10 per 1,000 emails
- Free plan
- No
- Setup
- Needs a developer
- Up and running
- A day of setup, plus up to 4 days waiting for production access before you can email real users.
What Amazon SES is for
Amazon SES is Amazon's email sending engine: your app hands it a message (a login code, a receipt, a newsletter) and it delivers it from your domain. It is the cheapest option at volume, at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, but it is bare: no ready-made templates or friendly dashboard, and a new account can only send to addresses you verified until Amazon approves it.
How it plugs into your product
- 1Create an AWS account, pick a region close to your app (for example us-east-1) and verify your domain in SES by adding the DNS records it gives you.
- 2Request production access (leave the sandbox): describe your site and the kind of email you send. AWS answers within 96 hours, sometimes asking for more details.
- 3Create an IAM user or role with permission to send, and keep its keys on the server.
- 4Send from your backend through the AWS SDK or SMTP, and set up bounce and complaint notifications so you can remove bad addresses.
Does it fit your idea?
It fits if
- Your app already runs on AWS and you have someone comfortable with the AWS console and IAM.
- You send hundreds of thousands of emails a month, like a marketplace with order updates, and price per email decides.
- You want to build your own email features on top (templates, lists) instead of paying for a platform's.
Look elsewhere if
- You want to launch this week: the sandbox only lets you email addresses you verified until the review comes back.
- You are a solo non-technical founder: AWS permissions, regions and notifications take real time to learn.
- Your marketing team needs a visual editor and campaign reports: SES has neither out of the box.
What people only find out after building
Read this before you build on it. Each item links to the official page that says so.
Every new account starts in the sandbox: it can only send to verified addresses, 200 emails per 24 hours, 1 per second. The sandbox is per region, so moving region means asking again.
Official source: docs.aws.amazon.comProduction access is reviewed by hand: the first answer takes up to 96 hours, and longer if AWS asks for more information.
Official source: docs.aws.amazon.comA 5% bounce rate or 0.1% complaint rate puts the account under review; 10% bounces or 0.5% complaints can pause all sending, login codes included.
Official source: docs.aws.amazon.comThere is no permanent free tier. New AWS accounts get up to $200 in credits, and the AWS free plan itself ends after 6 months. Extras are billed apart: attachments at $0.12/GB and a dedicated IP at $24.95/month.
Official source: aws.amazon.com
Price
$0.10 per 1,000 emails
No permanent free tier; new AWS accounts get up to $200 in credits that also cover SES.
- Free tier
- None (AWS credits for new accounts)
- Price for 50k emails/month
- $5/month ($0.10 per 1,000)
- Setup
- AWS API, SMTP and SDKs; leave the sandbox first
Checked on Oct 28, 2026 · official pricing
What it costs in practice
A SaaS sending 30,000 emails a month: 30 × $0.10 = $3/month, plus a few cents if receipts carry PDF attachments. Rough estimate, before any AWS credits.
Estimate from the official price. Check it before you decide.
At a glance
- Free plan: no
- Open source: no
“Not stated” means the official site doesn’t say.
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