Transactional email APIs

Twilio SendGrid Email API vs Mailgun

SendGrid has no permanent free plan and lists $19.95 for 50,000 emails with a dedicated IP from Pro; Mailgun keeps a 100-a-day free plan, starts at $15 and offers US or EU hosting per domain.

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The short answer

At 50,000 emails SendGrid Essentials lists $19.95 and Mailgun Foundation $35; at 100,000, SendGrid Essentials is $34.95 and Mailgun Scale $90, though a cheaper Mailgun step may exist. Mailgun also has a Basic plan at $15 for 10,000. SendGrid Pro starts at $89.95 for 100,000 with a dedicated IP, subusers and SSO included; Mailgun includes one dedicated IP at 100,000+ and charges $59 a month for each extra.

Free use differs: SendGrid offers only a 60-day trial at 100 emails a day, while Mailgun’s Free plan allows 100 a day permanently, with one domain and one day of logs.

Logs are short at the bottom of both: three days of searchable activity on SendGrid Essentials, one day on Mailgun Free and Basic, five on Foundation and 30 on Scale. Mailgun lets each domain use US or EU infrastructure and includes 1,000 sending domains on Foundation. SendGrid is part of Twilio, so SMS and email can share one vendor.

Choose Twilio SendGrid Email API if

You already use Twilio and want SMS and email from one vendor
You send 50,000 to 100,000 emails a month and want the lower list price
You need subusers and a dedicated IP included from $89.95 a month

Choose Mailgun if

You need a permanent free plan for a small app
Your email data must be processed in the EU
You send from many customer domains and want 1,000 of them on a $35 plan

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Side by side

	Twilio SendGrid Email API	Mailgun
Stages	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise	HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise
What it is	Email API and SMTP relay	Email API and SMTP relay
From	From $19.95/mo for 50,000 emails	From $15/mo for 10,000 emails
Free tier	None	100 emails a day, 1 custom domain, 1 inbound route, 1 day of logs, 1 user
Free	60-day trial, 100/day	100/day
50k emails/mo	$19.95/mo (Essentials 50k)	$35/mo (Foundation)
Dedicated IP	1 included on Pro ($89.95+)	Access at 50k, 1 included at 100k+; extra $59/mo
Inbound	Yes (Inbound Parse webhook)	Yes (1 route free, 5 Basic, full Foundation+)
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
EU data residency	Available	Available
Compliance	SOC 2 Type II, GDPR	Not stated
Checked	28 Sept 2026	28 Sept 2026
Strengths	Dedicated IP and subusers included from $89.95/mo $34.95 covers 100,000 emails on Essentials Part of Twilio, so SMS and email can share one vendor SOC 2 Type II and an EU data residency option	EU and US hosting from a single account Permanent free plan of 100 emails a day Foundation includes 1,000 sending domains for $35 Mature inbound routing
Limitations	No permanent free plan, only a 60-day trial at 100 emails/day Essentials includes only 3 days of searchable activity and one teammate Marketing Campaigns is billed separately from the Email API Premier pricing requires contacting sales	Free and Basic keep only one day of logs Free plan limited to one user and one domain SAML SSO only on Scale ($90+) Validations and deliverability tools cost extra

Sources: Twilio SendGrid Email API pricing, Mailgun pricing. Full plans on each tool's page.

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Plans

Twilio SendGrid Email API

Free Trial 100 emails/day	$0 for 60 days
Essentials 50k 50,000 emails, $0.00133 per extra email, 3 days of activity	$19.95/mo
Essentials 100k 100,000 emails, $0.00088 per extra email	$34.95/mo
Pro 100k 1 dedicated IP, subusers, SSO, 7 days of activity	$89.95/mo
Pro 300k 300,000 emails	$249/mo
Pro 700k 700,000 emails	$499/mo
Pro 1.5M 1,500,000 emails	$799/mo
Premier 2.5M+ emails, 5,000 validations	Custom

Mailgun

Free 100 emails/day, 1 domain, 1 day log retention	$0/mo
Basic 10,000 emails, extra from $1.80/1,000, 1 domain, 5 inbound routes	$15/mo
Foundation 50,000 emails, extra from $1.30/1,000, 1,000 domains, templates, 5 days logs	$35/mo
Scale 100,000 emails, extra from $1.10/1,000, SAML SSO, 5,000 validations, 30 days logs	$90/mo
Enterprise Deliverability services and burst sending SLA	Custom

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