Amazon SES Pricing Calculator & Complete Cost Guide
Interactive Amazon SES pricing calculator with an optional legacy free tier toggle. Understand per-email costs, dedicated IP pricing, and optimize your email sending expenses.
Pricing TLDR
- • $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent - Standard outbound email pricing
- • $0.12 per GB of attachments - Data transfer costs for email attachments
- • $24.95/month per dedicated IP - Optional dedicated IP addresses for better deliverability
- • No free tier for new accounts - New accounts (July 15, 2025+) use $200 in AWS credits, then pay standard rates; the 3,000 messages/month, 12-month free tier is legacy-only for pre-July-2025 accounts
Official pricing:
AWSAmazon SES Pricing Calculator
Quick Examples:
Monthly outbound emails
0
1M
Charged per recipient, not per message. 1 email to 100 recipients = 100 charges.
Average recipients per email
⚠️ Critical: Amazon SES charges per recipient, not per message. 1 email to 100 recipients = 100 charges ($0.01).
Average attachment size per email (MB)
Attachments are billed separately at $0.12 per GB. Set to 0 if no attachments.
Dedicated IP configuration
Shared IP pool - best for most use cases
Estimated Monthly Cost
$10.00
Email Sending
$10.00
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About Amazon SES
What is Amazon SES?
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is a cloud-based email sending and receiving service designed for bulk email sending, transactional emails, and marketing communications. It provides a reliable, scalable infrastructure for sending emails at scale with industry-leading deliverability rates.
- Bulk Email Sending: Send marketing campaigns, newsletters, and promotional emails to large subscriber lists with excellent deliverability and reputation management
- Transactional Emails: Deliver order confirmations, password resets, account notifications, and other critical customer communications with high reliability
- Email Receiving: Process inbound emails programmatically with automatic routing to Lambda, S3, or SNS for workflow automation
When to Use Amazon SES
Amazon SES is ideal for businesses that need cost-effective, scalable email delivery with the flexibility to integrate with their existing AWS infrastructure. It's particularly valuable when you want full control over your email sending infrastructure without the overhead of managing mail servers.
Ideal for
- SaaS applications sending transactional emails (user registration, notifications)
- E-commerce platforms delivering order confirmations and shipping updates
- Marketing teams running email campaigns to large subscriber lists
- Small businesses wanting low, pay-as-you-go email costs (from $0.10 per 1,000 emails)
- High-volume senders needing dedicated IPs for reputation management
- Developers building automated email workflows with AWS Lambda integration
Not ideal for
- Non-technical users needing drag-and-drop email builders (use MailChimp/SendGrid instead)
- Teams without AWS infrastructure (setup requires AWS knowledge)
- Organizations needing built-in CRM and marketing automation features
- Small teams wanting fully managed email marketing platforms with templates
Amazon SES Free Tier
No free tier
No free allowance. Usage is billed from the first request.
New accounts · since July 2025
No per-service free tier. AWS removed the classic 3,000 messages/month (62,000 when sent from EC2) allowance; new accounts cover SES from the $200 credit pool, then pay $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Legacy accounts may retain the old allowance.
Watch out for
- The old 62,000-free-emails-from-EC2 tier no longer applies to new accounts
- Dedicated IP addresses cost $24.95/month each
- The Deliverability Dashboard and attachments bill separately
Full service-by-service breakdown, the July 2025 changes, and the common billing traps in the AWS Free Tier reference.
Amazon SES Pricing Breakdown
Email Sending Costs
Amazon SES charges per recipient, not per message. One email sent to 100 recipients counts as 100 billable emails.
Pricing Tier
Standard Sending
Rate
$0.10 per 1,000 emails
Notes
$0.0001 per recipient
Pricing Tier
Legacy Free Tier (pre-July 2025 accounts)
Rate
First 3,000 messages/mo, 12 months
Notes
Legacy only. New accounts get $200 credits, then standard rates
Pricing Tier
Attachments
Rate
$0.12 per GB
Notes
Billed separately from email body
Dedicated IP Pricing
Dedicated IPs provide custom reputation management and compliance capabilities. Choose based on your email volume and requirements.
IP Type
Standard Dedicated IP
Cost
$24.95 per IP/month
Best For
< 10M emails/month
IP Type
Managed Dedicated IP
Cost
$15/month + tiered email fees
Best For
10M+ emails/month
IP Type
Managed Tier 1
Cost
$0.08 per 1,000 emails
Best For
0-10M emails
IP Type
Managed Tier 2
Cost
$0.04 per 1,000 emails
Best For
10M-50M emails
IP Type
Managed Tier 3
Cost
$0.02 per 1,000 emails
Best For
50M-100M emails
IP Type
100M+ emails
Cost
Contact AWS
Best For
Custom pricing
Regional Pricing
Unlike most AWS services, Amazon SES has completely uniform pricing across all AWS regions where SES is available. This simplifies budgeting and allows you to choose regions based on latency and compliance requirements rather than cost.
Uniform Global Pricing
Identical pricing in all regions: US East (Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Stockholm, Milan), Asia Pacific (Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai, Hong Kong), Canada (Central), South America (São Paulo), Middle East (Bahrain, UAE), Africa (Cape Town), and Israel (Tel Aviv).
Region Selection Strategy
Choose regions based on proximity to your users for best deliverability and lowest latency. Cost is identical regardless of location, so optimize for performance and compliance instead.
Multi-Region Deployment
Deploy in multiple regions for redundancy and global reach without worrying about price differences. Use the same pricing model across all your regional deployments.
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Important cost considerations that can significantly impact your Amazon SES spending if not properly understood.
- Per-Recipient Billing (CRITICAL): You're charged per recipient, not per message. Sending 1 email to 1,000 recipients costs 1,000 × $0.0001 = $0.10, not $0.0001. This is the most misunderstood aspect of SES pricing and can lead to unexpected bills.
- Attachment Overhead: Attachments are billed separately at $0.12/GB. A 10MB attachment on 10,000 emails costs $11.72 for attachments alone - often more than the email sending cost. Consider hosting files on S3 and sending download links instead.
- No Free Tier for New Accounts: Accounts created on or after July 15, 2025 get no per-service SES free tier. They cover SES from up to $200 in AWS credits, then pay standard rates ($0.10 per 1,000 emails). The classic 3,000 message/month tier is a legacy benefit for accounts created before July 15, 2025, and even there it lasts only 12 months, is a one-time benefit, and does not reset annually. Don't budget around a free allowance a new account won't have.
- Dedicated IP Break-Even: Standard dedicated IPs ($24.95/month) make sense below 10M emails/month. Above that volume, managed dedicated IPs become more cost-effective with tiered pricing. Don't use dedicated IPs unless you specifically need custom reputation management.
- No Free Trial for Dedicated IPs: Dedicated IPs are billed from day one. There's no free tier or trial period for dedicated IP addresses, and they aren't covered by the legacy sending allowance.
Real-World Amazon SES Pricing Examples
Micro Newsletter (New Account)
$0.25/month
• 2,500 emails × $0.0001
• No per-service free tier
• Covered by $200 credits at first
2,500 subscribers, 1 email/month = 2,500 total emails, no attachments
SaaS Transactional
$55.86/month
• Email sending: $50.00
• Attachments: $5.86
• No free tier (new account)
500,000 emails/month, 100KB attachments per email (new account)
E-commerce Platform
$685.94/month
• Emails: $100.00
• Attachments: $585.94
• S3 links save 85%
1M emails/month with 5MB invoice attachments
Marketing Agency
$2,415/month
• Managed IP: $15
• Tiered emails: $2,400
• 52% cheaper vs standard
50M emails/month, managed dedicated IP, no attachments
11 Amazon SES Cost Optimization Tips
Know Your Free Tier: New vs Legacy Accounts
New accounts (created July 15, 2025 or later) get no per-service SES free tier. They cover early usage from up to $200 in AWS credits, then pay $0.10 per 1,000 emails, so budget for standard rates from the start. Only legacy accounts (created before July 15, 2025) keep the classic 3,000 message charges/month allowance, and only for the first 12 months. If you have a legacy account, plan onboarding and testing inside that window before it expires.
Compress Attachments or Use S3 Links
Attachments at $0.12/GB can exceed email costs. For 10,000 emails with 10MB attachments, you pay $11.72 for attachments vs $1.00 for emails. Instead, host files on S3 ($0.023/GB storage) and send download links - saving ~80%.
Avoid Dedicated IPs Unless Necessary
Dedicated IPs cost $24.95/month but most senders don't need them. Shared IPs work well for transactional emails and moderate marketing volumes. Only use dedicated IPs for high-volume marketing (10M+ emails/month) or compliance requirements.
Choose Managed IPs for High Volume
At 10M+ emails/month, managed dedicated IPs ($15 + tiered fees) become cheaper than standard IPs ($24.95 flat). At 50M emails/month, managed IPs cost $2,415 vs $5,025 with standard, saving $2,610/month (52%).
Optimize Recipient Lists to Reduce Duplicates
Since you're charged per recipient, clean your email lists regularly. Remove duplicates, unsubscribes, and invalid addresses. For 100,000 emails with 10% duplicates/invalids, eliminating them saves $1.00/month and improves deliverability.
Monitor Bounce Rates to Avoid Reputation Damage
High bounce rates can damage your sender reputation and lead to throttling. Use SES reputation metrics and bounce notifications to maintain bounce rates below 5%. Good reputation ensures reliable delivery without needing expensive dedicated IPs.
Implement Email Verification Before Sending
Verify email addresses before sending to reduce bounces and wasted costs. Use Amazon SES email verification API or third-party services. Preventing 1,000 invalid sends saves $0.10/month and improves deliverability.
Use Configuration Sets for Detailed Analytics
Configuration sets are free and provide valuable delivery metrics. Track opens, clicks, bounces, and complaints to optimize your email strategy without paying for third-party analytics tools.
Leverage Amazon SNS for Bounce Handling
Set up SNS notifications (free for 1,000 notifications/month) to automatically process bounces and complaints. This automates list cleaning and prevents wasted sends to invalid addresses.
Choose Regions Based on Latency, Not Cost
Since SES pricing is uniform globally, select regions closest to your recipients for best deliverability. Lower latency improves sender reputation without any cost penalty.
Monitor SES Sending Costs in Real-Time
Track Amazon SES email volume, attachment usage, and dedicated IP expenses with CostGoat. Get alerts when attachment sizes spike unexpectedly or bounce rates increase, and watch your AWS credit balance draw down on a new account. Monitor your usage so costs stay predictable once credits run out or a legacy free tier expires.
Start Tracking Your AWS Spending
Monitor your AWS spending in real-time. Set custom budget alerts and get notified before costs spiral.
Amazon SES Pricing FAQ
Common questions about Amazon SES costs, free tier, and email sending pricing
