AWS SES Cost Calculator
Calculate your true AWS SES costs — not just the $0.10/1K à la carte sending fee (AWS now defaults new accounts to $0.16/1K instead), but the full production infrastructure: EventBridge, Lambda, SQS, and DynamoDB. The only SES calculator that shows what you'll actually pay.
Deploy this exact setup in minutes
Wraps provisions every service in your breakdown — Lambda, SQS, DynamoDB, EventBridge — to your AWS account. Still AWS pricing, still your data, no boilerplate.
Understanding AWS SES Pricing
SES advertises $0.10 per 1,000 emails at the à la carte rate, but AWS defaults new accounts to the pricier Essentials plan ($0.16/1,000) instead — and production email infrastructure costs more on top. Here's what most calculators miss.
AWS SES has four pricing plans: à la carte ($0.10/1,000), Essentials ($0.16/1,000), Pro ($105/mo + $0.22/1,000), and Enterprise ($500/mo + $0.23/1,000). AWS defaults every new account to Essentials — use the calculator above to compare all four and see what switching to à la carte would save.
To track bounces, opens, clicks, and deliveries, you need EventBridge for real-time events, SQS for queuing, Lambda for processing, and DynamoDB for storage. These add $1-10/mo depending on volume.
A dedicated IP costs $24.95/month. You only need one if you send 100K+ emails per day consistently. Shared IPs work fine for most senders with good practices.
AWS free tiers cover most low-volume infrastructure: 1M Lambda requests, 1M SQS requests, and 25GB DynamoDB storage per month. SES sending itself has no free tier, so small senders often pay only the à la carte (or Essentials) sending fee.
SendGrid starts at $19.95/mo for 50K emails. Resend starts at $20/mo. With SES + infrastructure, the same volume costs ~$5-7/mo. The savings compound at scale.
With SES, infrastructure runs in your AWS account. No vendor lock-in, full data ownership, and transparent pay-as-you-go pricing. Wraps deploys this in one command.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about AWS SES pricing and costs.
AWS SES costs $0.10 per 1,000 emails ($0.0001 per email) at the à la carte rate. AWS defaults every new account to the Essentials plan instead, at $0.16 per 1,000 emails — moving back to à la carte takes effect immediately. However, a production email setup also requires infrastructure for event processing and storage — EventBridge, SQS, Lambda, and DynamoDB — which typically adds $1-10/mo depending on volume.
For a typical startup sending 50,000 emails/month with event tracking and 90-day history retention on the à la carte SES rate, expect roughly $5-10/month total including SES sending fees and supporting infrastructure — a few dollars more if the account defaults to AWS's pricier Essentials plan. Most AWS services include generous free tiers that cover low-volume infrastructure usage, though SES sending itself has no free tier.
SES itself has no permanent free sending tier — the à la carte rate is $0.10 per 1,000 emails, though AWS defaults new accounts to the Essentials plan at $0.16 per 1,000 instead. The SES-specific free tier (3,000 emails/month for 12 months) no longer exists for new accounts. New AWS accounts get a generic $200 AWS credit instead. However, the supporting infrastructure benefits from AWS free tiers: 1 million Lambda requests/month, 1 million SQS requests/month, and 25 GB of DynamoDB storage.
A dedicated IP address in AWS SES costs $24.95 per month on the à la carte or Essentials plans. Dedicated IPs are recommended for senders with consistent volume over 100,000 emails per day, as they give you full control over your sending IP reputation. The Pro and Enterprise SES plans include one managed dedicated IP at no extra charge.
AWS SES is significantly cheaper at scale. SES costs $0.10 per 1,000 emails at the à la carte rate (AWS defaults new accounts to the pricier Essentials plan at $0.16 per 1,000 instead) with no monthly minimum. By comparison, SendGrid starts at $19.95/month for 50K emails and Resend starts at $20/month. The trade-off is SES requires infrastructure setup, which tools like Wraps automate with a single command.
How We Calculate Costs
All costs are based on official AWS pricing as of 2026-07-21 for US East (N. Virginia) region. Costs include AWS free tier benefits where applicable. Storage costs shown represent steady-state (after retention period fills up) - initial months will be cheaper as storage builds gradually. Your actual costs may vary based on region and usage patterns.
What's Included
- SES email sending ($0.10 per 1,000 emails at the à la carte rate; AWS defaults new accounts to Essentials at $0.16 per 1,000 instead)
- Event processing (EventBridge, SQS, Lambda) if enabled
- Email history storage in DynamoDB if enabled
- Optional dedicated IP address ($24.95/month)
- All infrastructure runs in your AWS account - you pay AWS directly
Wraps Platform Fee
Wraps is a platform fee for email infrastructure you own. You pay us for tooling (dashboard, workflows, AI, analytics) and AWS directly for sending ($0.10/1K emails at the à la carte rate, or $0.16/1K if your account defaults to Essentials). Free tier includes 5K tracked events/month. Paid plans unlock more volume, longer history retention, and features like topics, segments, and campaigns.
CLI & SDK
The Wraps CLI and TypeScript SDK work with all plans, including Free. Deploy to your AWS account — no vendor lock-in, no hidden fees.
Check your email deliverability
Use our free Email Deliverability Checker to verify SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and domain reputation before you send.