Transactional email APIs

Amazon SES vs Resend

Amazon SES charges $0.10 per 1,000 emails with no monthly minimum but leaves bounce handling and reporting to you; Resend lists $20 for 50,000 with a free tier, React Email and webhooks built in.

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The short answer

On list price SES is far cheaper: 50,000 emails cost $5 on a la carte pricing, plus $0.12 per GB of attachments, against $20 on Resend Pro, and Resend’s Scale 1M plan lists $650. Two caveats: new SES accounts default to the Essentials plan at $0.16 per 1,000 from July 21, 2026 unless switched, and SES has no free tier beyond general AWS credits of up to $200.

What you pay Resend for is the work around sending. SES starts new accounts in a sandbox that only sends to verified addresses, reports events through CloudWatch, SNS or event destinations, and expects you to build bounce handling and reporting. Resend includes webhooks, inbound email, open and link tracking and React Email templates on every plan, with a free plan of 3,000 emails a month capped at 100 a day.

SES runs inside AWS with IAM, S3 and Lambda integration in many regions, including EU ones; Resend does not state EU data residency.

Choose Amazon SES if

You already run on AWS and want IAM, SNS, S3 and Lambda integration
You send at high volume and the cost per email matters most
Your email data must stay in an EU region

Choose Resend if

You want a free plan to start, with 3,000 emails a month
You would rather not build bounce handling and reporting yourself
You write email templates as React components

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Side by side

	Amazon SES	Resend
Stages	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise
What it is	Cloud email sending and receiving service	Email API for developers
From	From $0.10 per 1,000 emails	From $20/mo for 50,000 emails
Free tier	None	3,000 emails a month, capped at 100 a day, 3 domains, 30-day data retention
Free	None; new AWS accounts get up to $200 credits	3,000/month (100/day)
50k emails/mo	$5 (a la carte, plus attachment data)	$20/mo (Pro)
Dedicated IP	$24.95/mo per IP, or managed from $15/mo	$30/mo add-on on Scale, 3,000+ emails/day
Inbound	Yes, $0.10/1,000 plus chunks; Mail Manager	Yes, all plans
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
EU data residency	Available	Not stated
Compliance	Not stated	SOC 2 Type II, GDPR
Checked	28 Sept 2026	28 Sept 2026
Strengths	Lowest list price among major providers at $0.10 per 1,000 No monthly minimum on a la carte pricing Runs inside AWS with IAM, SNS, S3 and Lambda integration Available in many AWS regions, including the AWS European Sovereign Cloud	Published price for every volume step from 50,000 to 2.5 million emails Inbound email and webhooks on the free plan $20 covers 50,000 emails, cheaper than most at that volume SOC 2 Type II report
Limitations	New accounts start in a sandbox and must request production access Little built-in dashboard; bounce and complaint handling is yours to wire up New accounts default to the pricier Essentials plan from July 21, 2026 unless switched Attachments are billed per GB on top of the per-email price	Free plan is capped at 100 emails a day Dedicated IPs only on Scale and only above 3,000 emails a day SSO costs $150/mo extra on Scale Marketing email is billed separately by contact count

Sources: Amazon SES pricing, Resend pricing. Full plans on each tool's page.

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Plans

Amazon SES

A la carte No minimum; $0.12/GB of attachments; features billed separately	$0.10 per 1,000 emails
Essentials Lower rates above 10M; default for new accounts from July 21, 2026	$0.16 per 1,000 emails
Pro Includes managed dedicated IP, validation, deliverability manager features	$105/mo + $0.22 per 1,000
Enterprise 12 dedicated IPs, 5 domains, Spamhaus add-on included	$500/mo + $0.23 per 1,000

Resend

Free 3,000 emails/month, 100/day, 3 domains	$0/mo
Pro 50k 50,000 emails, $0.90/1,000 over, 10 domains, no daily limit	$20/mo
Pro 100k 100,000 emails, $0.90/1,000 over	$35/mo
Scale 100k 1,000 domains, Slack support, dedicated IP and SSO add-ons	$90/mo
Scale 500k 500,000 emails, $0.70/1,000 over	$350/mo
Scale 1M 1,000,000 emails, $0.65/1,000 over	$650/mo
Scale 2.5M 2,500,000 emails, $0.46/1,000 over	$1,150/mo
Enterprise 3M+ emails, 99.99% SLA, SSO included	Custom

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