Amazon SES's free allowance is an intro tier: new accounts get a larger allowance that steps down to a smaller permanent free tier after the intro period.
About
Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is a cloud-based email service provider for sending and receiving email at scale. It is designed for transactional messages, marketing campaigns, newsletters, and application-driven email workflows, with support for deliverability tools, IP management, and email processing controls.
The service integrates with applications and AWS environments to help businesses automate email communication while maintaining security, compliance, and operational visibility. It is positioned as a pay-as-you-go email platform for organizations that need reliable high-volume email delivery and inbound email handling.
- High-volume outbound email sending for transactional and marketing use cases
- Inbound email receiving and processing
- Email deliverability tools and sender reputation support
- Dedicated, shared, and owned IP address options
- Mail Manager features for email routing, automation, and archiving
Free Tier Value
This offer is a one-time AWS credit rather than a recurring monthly allowance, so it should be valued as a credit pool instead of a monthly plan. The page says new customers can get up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits, the free plan lasts 6 months, and the credits expire within 12 months; a credit card is required to create the account, which adds friction.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- Up to 3,000 message charges per month for the first 12 months after starting SES.
- Applies to outbound emails, inbound emails, and Virtual Deliverability Manager outbound email processing.
- One sent email counts as one message charge.
- One received email counts as one message charge.
- With Virtual Deliverability Manager enabled, each sent email counts as two message charges.
- Free tier message charges are applied to the most expensive eligible charges first.
- Free tier credits for new AWS customers can be used toward eligible SES usage.
- Free plan is available for 6 months after account creation for new AWS customers starting July 15, 2025.
See Amazon SES pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Essentials
- emails
- 0 - 10M / month
- price_per_1k_emails
- $0.16
- account_region_fixed_fee
- $0
- Outbound Email
- Virtual Deliverability Manager - SES deliverability
- Email Processing
- Authenticated Ingress Endpoint
- Add-ons available for several advanced features
Pro
- emails
- 0 - 10M / month: $0.22 per 1,000
- emails
- 10 - 100M / month: $0.17 per 1,000
- emails
- >100M / month: $0.12 per 1,000
- fixed_fee
- $105 / account / region / month
- Outbound Email
- Virtual Deliverability Manager - SES deliverability
- Virtual Deliverability Manager - Global deliverability
- Dedicated IPs - Managed
- Email Validation
- Email Add-Ons
Enterprise
- emails
- 0 - 10M / month: $0.23 per 1,000
- emails
- 10 - 100M / month: $0.18 per 1,000
- emails
- >100M / month: $0.13 per 1,000
- fixed_fee
- $500 / account / region / month
- Outbound Email
- Virtual Deliverability Manager - SES deliverability
- Virtual Deliverability Manager - Global deliverability
- Dedicated IPs - Managed
- Email Validation
- Global Endpoints
- Tenants
Pricing extracted from Amazon SES's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
Common questions
Is Amazon SES free forever?
Partly. Amazon SES gives new accounts a larger allowance at first, which then steps down to a smaller permanent free tier.
What happens when you exceed Amazon SES's free tier?
You move to a paid plan. Amazon SES's cheapest paid plan is Pro at $105 / month.
