Amazon SES or SendGrid: which should you pick?

Raw AWS pipe vs managed email API. Free plans, pricing basis, automation and transactional email from each vendor's pricing page, plus who should pick which.

Amazon SES free plan: No free plan; Amazon SES free plan
SendGrid free plan: 60-day trial; SendGrid free plan
Lumail free emails: 3,000/mo; Lumail free emails

TL;DR

Amazon SES has the lowest public per-email price: $0.10 per 1,000 emails with no monthly minimum, but no editor, audience or workflow. SendGrid costs more (Email API from $19.95 a month) and adds dashboards, templates, a marketing product and dedicated IPs. Engineering teams on AWS: SES. Teams that want a managed product: SendGrid.

Amazon SES vs SendGrid side by side

Every Amazon SES and SendGrid cell comes from the vendor's public pricing page, verified on August 17, 2026. Lumail is the third column, as the alternative.

Amazon SES vs SendGrid comparison with Lumail
	Amazon SES	SendGrid	Lumail (alternative)
Free plan	No free sending plan; new AWS accounts get up to $200 in credits	No free plan; 60-day trial with 100 emails/day	$0, 3,000 emails/month
Paid from	$0.10 per 1,000 emails, no monthly minimum	Marketing from $15/month; Email API from $19.95/month	$20/month, 40,000 included, then $0.60/1,000
Pricing basis	Per email sent or processed, charged per recipient, plus optional add-ons	Two separate subscriptions: the API priced by volume, Marketing by contacts	Unlimited subscribers; pricing follows email volume
Automation	No visual journeys; inbound rules can trigger AWS services like Lambda	Welcome and drip series on Marketing Campaigns Advanced, from $60/month	Graph workflows with triggers, branches, goals, exits, and A/B paths
AI and developer access	AWS SDKs and CLI; the SES MCP server is a sample, not for production	Read-only Twilio docs MCP; REST API and official SDKs	ChatGPT OAuth, MCP, skills, CLI, SDK, REST API, and visual editor
Transactional email	Core product, via the SES API or SMTP	Core product, via REST API or SMTP	Included through API, SMTP, SDK, CLI, and agent tools
Publishing	No newsletter publication, visual campaign editor, or capture pages	Single sends with drag-and-drop and code editors, plus signup forms	Capture pages and custom web domains; not a general website builder
Best for	Engineering teams on AWS that want the lowest public per-email price for high-volume sending	Engineering teams that need high-volume email through API or SMTP	Teams that want campaigns, workflows and transactional email priced by volume

Choose Amazon SES if

Raw sending cost matters most and you can handle AWS setup
You already send from application code on AWS
You need inbound processing rules that trigger AWS services like Lambda

Choose SendGrid if

You want a managed email API with a marketing product alongside
You need subusers and IP pools
You already use Twilio for other channels

Where Lumail fits

SES is a pipe and SendGrid splits API and marketing into two bills. Lumail gives you the editor, audience, workflows and transactional API on one plan.

Lumail prices by emails sent, with unlimited subscribers on every plan: $0 for 3,000 emails a month, Premium at $20 a month for 40,000 emails then $0.60 per 1,000, and Business at $200 a month for 400,000 emails then $0.40 per 1,000. Campaigns, graph workflows and transactional email (API and SMTP) live in one account, and agents can run it through MCP, the CLI or the SDK.

Read the full Lumail vs Amazon SES and Lumail vs SendGrid breakdowns, or the long-form Amazon SES and SendGrid articles.

Start for free See Lumail pricing

Sources

Amazon SES pricing, verified on August 17, 2026
Twilio SendGrid Email API pricing, verified on August 17, 2026

Frequently asked questions

How much cheaper is Amazon SES than SendGrid?

SES charges $0.10 per 1,000 emails with no monthly minimum. SendGrid's Email API starts at $19.95 a month. SES leaves the editor, lists and workflows to you.

Does Amazon SES have a free plan?

No free sending plan. New AWS accounts can get up to $200 in credits. SendGrid has a 60-day trial with 100 emails a day.

Do Amazon SES and SendGrid include transactional email?

Amazon SES: Core product, via the SES API or SMTP. SendGrid: Core product, via REST API or SMTP.

Is there an alternative to Amazon SES and SendGrid that prices by emails sent?

Lumail. It is $0 for 3,000 emails a month, then $20 a month for 40,000 emails and $0.60 per extra 1,000, with unlimited subscribers on every plan. Campaigns, workflows and transactional email share one account.

Where do these numbers come from?

From each vendor's public pricing page (Amazon SES pricing and Twilio SendGrid Email API pricing), last verified on August 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.

Keep comparing

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3,000 emails a month free. Unlimited subscribers on every plan. Campaigns, automations and transactional email on one domain.

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