Marketing · Email Marketing

Amazon SES

Amazon Web Services' pay-per-use email service for sending and receiving transactional and marketing email from your own apps and domains.

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.

Best forHigh-volume app email on AWS

ReviewedOct 2026Paid

7.45 criteria · see breakdown

Try Amazon$0.10 per 1,000 emails (a la carte)

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.

Our score

Reviewed by the Conversion Gems editorial team. Hover a facet to focus it; click to pin.Tap a facet to focus it.

Community ratings

Shown for context only. Our score is independent.

Capterra

4.7

120+ reviews

4.7 / 5 aggregate · across 1 source

Third-party ratings shown verbatim; aggregate weighted by review volume.

What it is, and why we rate it

One line each. Open a row for detail.

What it really isAWS's pay-per-use service for sending and receiving email from your own applications.

Our takeSES 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 itLow per-email cost, sending and receiving, and deep ties into the rest of AWS.

The catchSandbox limits until AWS approves you, no campaign editor, and setup that assumes AWS skills.

Best / not good for

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

Trade-offs

Friction report

Trade-offs to know before signing up.

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.

Still a fit?

If none of these block you, try it on the official site.

Try Amazon

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

How much does Amazon SES cost per email?

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).

Is Amazon SES free?

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).

What is Amazon SES used for?

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.

What are the Amazon SES sandbox limits?

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.

What is the difference between AWS SES and SNS?

SES sends and receives full email messages. SNS is a notification service; SES can publish bounce, complaint and delivery events to SNS topics.

Is AWS SES deprecated?

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:

Showing 1–3 of 4See all 4 reviewed Amazon SES alternatives, compared side by side

Sources checked October 4, 2026: Amazon SES pricing, Amazon SES product page, What is Amazon SES? (Developer Guide), Request production access (Developer Guide).

Conversion Gems independently reviews every tool.