Amazon SES pricing, explained: the new plans, à la carte, and a calculator
Amazon SES costs $0.10 per 1,000 emails on à la carte pricing, plus $0.12 per GB of message data. Since July 21, 2026, new SES accounts start on the Essentials plan instead, at $0.16 per 1,000 for the first 10 million emails a month. Pro ($0.22 per 1,000 plus $105 a month) and Enterprise ($0.23 per 1,000 plus $500 a month) bundle managed dedicated IPs and other deliverability features.
We build SendForAI, an email API that runs on Amazon SES and passes it through at the à la carte price. We have a stake in this, so every number links to AWS's pricing page, the calculator reproduces AWS's own worked examples to the cent, and there's a section on when raw SES is the better buy.
The four ways to pay for Amazon SES
For most of its life SES had one price list. AWS now sells outbound email four ways: three plans with tiered per-email rates, and the original pay-as-you-go à la carte pricing. Plan rates are applied marginally, so each rate only covers the emails inside its tier.
| Per 1,000 emails | À la carte | Essentials | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First 10M a month | $0.10 | $0.16 | $0.22 | $0.23 |
| 10M to 100M | $0.10 | $0.14 | $0.17 | $0.18 |
| Over 100M | $0.10 | $0.11 | $0.12 | $0.13 |
| Fixed fee a month | None | None | $105 | $500 |
| Message data | $0.12 per GB on all four | |||
Fixed fees are per AWS account, per Region. Source: aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing, read November 5, 2026.
The default changed on July 21, 2026
AWS's footnote is easy to miss: new SES accounts, and account and Region combinations with no metered SES activity since June 1, 2025, start on Essentials from July 21, 2026. If you open a new AWS account today and start sending, you pay $0.16 per 1,000, not the $0.10 most guides still quote. You can switch to à la carte at any time, and if you were put on Essentials by default, your first switch takes effect immediately.
What each plan includes
| Feature | Essentials | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Deliverability Manager (SES deliverability) | Included | Included | Included |
| Managed dedicated IPs | Add-on | Included | Included |
| Email validation | Add-on | Included (2,500 API checks) | Included (5,000 API checks) |
| Global Endpoints | Add-on | Add-on | Included |
| Tenants (reputation isolation) | Add-on | Add-on | Included (1,000) |
| Standard dedicated IPs | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
À la carte add-ons
- Standard dedicated IP: $24.95 a month per IP. You warm it up and manage it yourself.
- Managed dedicated IPs: $15 a month plus $0.08 per 1,000 emails up to 10 million, $0.04 up to 50 million, $0.02 up to 100 million.
- Virtual Deliverability Manager: $0.07 per 1,000 emails up to 10 million, then $0.05, then $0.02 above 100 million.
- Tenants: $0.005 per tenant a month plus $0.005 per 1,000 emails.
- Global Endpoints: $0.03 per 1,000 emails on top of sending.
- Email validation: $0.01 per address checked by API, or $0.01 per 1,000 with Auto Validation.
What Amazon SES costs for real workloads
Each row prices the same sending four ways on AWS, plus SendForAI's published price. Two rows are AWS's own worked examples, reproduced exactly. Every message is 32 KB, matching AWS's examples.
| Workload | Emails / mo | Extras | À la carte | Essentials | Pro | Enterprise | SendForAI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small app | 50,000 | None | $5.19 | $8.19 | $116.19 | $511.69 | $20.00 |
| AWS's Example 1 | 250,000 | None | $25.96 | $40.96 | $160.96 | $558.46 | $25.00 |
| Same, with VDM | 250,000 | VDM | $43.46 | $40.96 | $160.96 | $558.46 | $25.00 |
| Growing SaaS | 1,000,000 | VDM | $173.84 | $163.84 | $328.84 | $733.84 | $100.00 |
| AWS's Example 2 | 2,000,000 | VDM, managed IPs | $522.68 | $502.68 | $552.68 | $967.68 | $244.95 |
| High volume | 10,000,000 | VDM, managed IPs | $2,553.40 | $2,453.40 | $2,343.40 | $2,838.40 | $1,204.95 |
Monthly USD before tax, one Region. Essentials with managed IPs assumes the add-on is billed at the à la carte managed-IP rate, because AWS's plan table only says “Add-on”. SendForAI does not offer VDM or managed IPs; its price above 1 million emails includes one standard dedicated IP.
Amazon SES pricing calculator
Cheapest way to buy this on SES: À la carte at $25.96 a month. Monthly USD before tax, one AWS Region. SendForAI is its published price; it does not offer VDM or managed IPs, and adds a standard dedicated IP above 1M emails.
Which SES option is cheapest?
Running the calculator across volumes gives three rules of thumb:
- If you don't need extras, à la carte is always cheapest. At $0.10 per 1,000 it undercuts every plan at every volume. At 250,000 emails it's $25.96 a month against $40.96 on Essentials.
- If you want Virtual Deliverability Manager, Essentials beats à la carte. À la carte plus VDM is $0.17 per 1,000; Essentials is $0.16 with VDM included. So the new default isn't a bad deal, as long as you actually use VDM.
- Pro pays off above about 4.5 million emails a month if you want managed IPs. Essentials plus managed IPs is about $0.24 per 1,000 plus $15; Pro is $0.22 plus $105. The $0.02 difference covers the extra $90 at 4.5 million emails. At 10 million, Pro is $2,343.40 against $2,453.40.
Enterprise is never the cheapest way to send. You buy it for what it bundles: Global Endpoints, 1,000 tenants and an inbound endpoint.
What the SES price doesn't include
SES is sending infrastructure, not an email product. The $0.10 buys delivery; most teams end up building the rest:
- Getting out of the sandbox. New accounts can only send to verified addresses, up to 200 messages per 24 hours, until you request production access.
- Bounce and complaint handling. SES reports events through configuration sets and SNS or EventBridge. SES can keep an account-level suppression list, but acting on events, and keeping your bounce and complaint rates under AWS's review thresholds, is on you.
- Contacts and unsubscribes. Storing a list, honoring one-click unsubscribe headers, and keeping broadcasts away from people who opted out.
- Reputation isolation and warmup. If you send for more than one product or customer, keeping one sender's complaints from hurting the others (tenants), and ramping new domains slowly.
- Metering and limits. Knowing what each send costs before it goes out, and stopping runaway loops.
That last list is what SendForAI is: one API for transactional and broadcast email on top of SES, with suppression, one-click unsubscribe, a tenant per sending domain, a warmup ladder, and the cost returned on every send. It's built for AI agents to set up and run. Membership is $20 a month for 200,000 emails and unlimited contacts, then SES at $0.10 per 1,000. SendForAI is in early access.
When raw SES is the better choice
- Low volume, and you have time to build. À la carte SES is cheaper than SendForAI's $20 membership below about 190,000 emails a month: 50,000 emails cost $5.19. If someone on your team will build and run the plumbing, raw SES wins on price.
- You need AWS's deliverability features. Virtual Deliverability Manager, managed dedicated IPs, Global Endpoints, email validation and Mail Manager for inbound are only on SES itself. SendForAI doesn't offer them.
- Everything has to live in your AWS account. With raw SES, mail and logs stay under your own AWS agreements, IAM and billing, and new AWS customers can apply up to $200 of Free Tier credits.
And if you want templates and a dashboard more than low prices, a full email platform fits better. We compared one in Resend pricing, explained.
Amazon SES pricing FAQ
How much does Amazon SES cost per email?
On à la carte pricing, Amazon SES costs $0.10 per 1,000 emails ($0.0001 each) plus $0.12 per GB of message data. On the Essentials plan, which new accounts now start on, it costs $0.16 per 1,000 for the first 10 million emails a month.
Is Amazon SES free?
There is no permanent SES free allowance on the pricing page. New AWS customers get up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits that can be applied to SES, usable within 12 months of account creation.
What is the Amazon SES Essentials plan?
Essentials is the entry SES plan: $0.16 per 1,000 emails for the first 10 million a month, $0.14 up to 100 million and $0.11 beyond, with no fixed fee. It includes Virtual Deliverability Manager. New accounts with no SES activity since June 1, 2025 start on it from July 21, 2026.
Can I switch from Essentials back to à la carte?
Yes. AWS says you can switch to à la carte at any time, and if you were defaulted onto Essentials without choosing it, your first downgrade or cancellation to à la carte takes effect immediately. Other downgrades take effect at the next billing cycle.
Does Amazon SES charge for attachments?
Yes. SES charges $0.12 per GB of outgoing mail data. AWS's own examples apply it to the full message size: 250,000 emails of 32 KB each add $0.96.
How much is a dedicated IP on Amazon SES?
A standard dedicated IP is $24.95 a month per IP. Managed dedicated IPs, which SES warms up and scales for you, are $15 a month plus $0.08 per 1,000 emails for the first 10 million, and are included in the Pro and Enterprise plans.
Why is my SES bill higher than the $0.10 per 1,000 I expected?
The usual causes: the account was defaulted onto the Essentials plan ($0.16 per 1,000), Virtual Deliverability Manager is turned on ($0.07 per 1,000 on à la carte), message data at $0.12 per GB, dedicated IPs, and charges from other AWS services you use around SES.
Sources and method
Prices: aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing, read November 5, 2026. Sandbox limits: SES production access docs. Suppression: account-level suppression list docs. The calculator applies tiers marginally and charges message data at 1 KB = 0.000001 GB, which are the conventions in AWS's worked examples; it reproduces Examples 1 and 2 ($40.96 and $552.68) exactly, and the outbound parts of Examples 3 and 4. It covers outbound email in one Region, not inbound Mail Manager. SendForAI prices: /v1/pricing. Spot an error? hello@sendforai.com.