Amazon SES vs SendGrid: Pricing Comparison 2026
Side-by-side pricing comparison of Amazon SES and SendGrid. See all plans, features, and costs at a glance.
Bottom line: Amazon SES starts at $0.000032/mo, making it $20/mo cheaper than SendGrid ($19.95/mo). SendGrid offers a free plan.
Last updated: August 10, 2026
SendGrid - SendGrid's combination of transactional API and marketing tools with better developer experience is more practical for most teams not yet at extreme email volumes.
Amazon SES vs SendGrid: Quick Pricing Facts
| Feature | Amazon SES | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $0.000032/mo | $19.95/mo |
| Number of Plans | 49 | 4 |
| Free Tier | No | Yes |
| Pricing Model | usage-based | usage-based |
| Annual Discount | N/A | N/A |
Amazon SES is the more affordable option, starting at $0.000032/mo compared to SendGrid's $19.95/mo. Both are Email Marketing tools with 53 combined pricing plans and 16 features compared.
SendGrid stands out with a free plan for getting started.
Review the detailed tier-by-tier comparison above to see exactly which features are included at each price point and find the best fit for your Email Marketing needs.
| Pricing Plans |  Amazon SES Try free |  SendGrid Try free |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 0 – 10M emails1 / month $0/month | Free Trial $0/monthCheapest Includes
|
| Tier 2 | 10 – 100M emails / month $0/monthCheapest | Essentials $20/month Includes
|
| Tier 3 | > 100M emails / month $0/monthCheapest | Pro $90/month Includes
|
| Tier 4 | Per account per region per month Custom pricing | Premier Custom pricing Includes
|
| Tier 5 | Feature Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 6 | Outbound sending Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 7 | Outbound Email 1 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 8 | Virtual Deliverability Manager - SES deliverability Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 9 | Virtual Deliverability Manager - Global deliverability 2 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 10 | Dedicated IPs - Managed 3 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 11 | Email Validation 4 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 12 | Global Endpoints 5 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 13 | Tenants 6 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 14 | Dedicated IPs - Standard/BYOIP Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 15 | Inbound processing and routing (Mail Manager) Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 16 | Email Processing 8 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 17 | Authenticated Ingress Endpoint Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 18 | Open Ingress Endpoint 9 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 19 | Email Add-Ons 10 Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 20 | Outbound sending & Inbound processing and Email routing (Mail Manager) Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 21 | Archiving Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 22 | Outbound email $0/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 23 | Global Endpoints $0/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 24 | Email Validation $0/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 25 | Tenants $0/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 26 | Dedicated IPs – Standard $25/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 27 | Dedicated IPs – Managed $15/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 28 | Bring Your Own IP (BYOIP) $25/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 29 | Virtual Deliverability Manager – SES deliverability Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 30 | Virtual Deliverability Manager – Global deliverability $1250/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 31 | Mail Manager – Open / mTLS Ingress Endpoints 2 $50/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 32 | Mail Manager – Email Processing 3 $0/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 33 | Mail Manager – Archiving $2/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 34 | Mail Manager – Email Add-Ons $0/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 35 | Inbound email $0/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 36 | Outgoing messages (Essentials) $250000/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 37 | Outgoing mail data $0/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 38 | Total monthly cost Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 39 | Outgoing messages (Pro) $2/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 40 | Fixed monthly charge (Pro) $105/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 41 | Outgoing messages (Enterprise) $10/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 42 | Email processing (Mail Manager) $300/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 43 | Incoming mail chunks $50/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 44 | Fixed monthly charge (Enterprise) $500/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 45 | VDM – SES Deliverability $2/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 46 | VDM – Global Deliverability Custom pricing | - |
| Tier 47 | Mail Manager – Email Processing $500000/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 48 | Mail Manager – Mail chunks $32/monthCheapest | - |
| Tier 49 | Mail Manager – Open Ingress Endpoint $1/monthCheapest | - |
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SendGrid
SendGrid's combination of transactional API and marketing tools with better developer experience is more practical for most teams not yet at extreme email volumes.
Based on pricing data only. Review the full comparison below for your specific needs.
Try SendGrid freeFree plan availableWhich Should You Choose?
Choose Amazon SES if:
- •You're AWS-native and want the lowest possible cost for transactional email
- •AWS IAM authentication and native infrastructure integration are priorities
- •You send at very high volumes where SES's pricing is significantly cheaper
Choose SendGrid if:
- •You need a complete email platform covering both transactional API and marketing campaigns
- •SendGrid's marketing campaigns, template designer, and analytics serve both use cases
- •You want stronger deliverability tools, dedicated IP management, and a larger integration ecosystem
SendGrid and Amazon SES are both transactional email APIs, but SendGrid adds marketing campaign tools and more robust deliverability infrastructure. SES is cheaper at scale and AWS-native. SendGrid wins on feature breadth, easier setup, and marketing email capabilities. SES wins on cost at very high volumes and AWS integration. Many teams use SES for cost optimization after outgrowing SendGrid's pricing tier.
Frequently Asked Questions: Amazon SES vs SendGrid
Which is cheaper, Amazon SES or SendGrid?
How many pricing plans does Amazon SES have vs SendGrid?
Does Amazon SES or SendGrid offer a free plan?
Does Amazon SES or SendGrid offer custom enterprise pricing?
How do Amazon SES and SendGrid compare for Email Marketing?
Sources
- Amazon SES Official Pricing- Vendor pricing page
- SendGrid Official Pricing- Vendor pricing page
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