Transactional Email Pricing: What It Costs in 2026

Transactional email pricing matters most at the moment you pick a service. Claude Code has told you your SaaS needs one, and you want to know what it'll cost now and as you grow.

This guide covers how the main services charge, what each one costs at 10,000, 50,000 and 100,000 emails a month, the extra costs worth knowing about, and how much email a small SaaS really sends. Every price comes from the provider's own pricing page, checked in October 2026.

Transactional emails are the ones your product sends to one person because of something they did: a sign-up confirmation, a password reset, a receipt. If you're new to the term, start with what a transactional email service is.

How do transactional email providers charge?

Most providers charge a monthly fee that includes a set number of emails, then a fee for each extra 1,000 emails. A few charge only for what you send, and one charges by contacts instead of emails.

A few things are true for all of them:

• An email counts per recipient. One email to three people counts as three.
• Free options are small. Each one has a daily or monthly cap, or runs out after a set time. Our guide to free transactional email services compares them in detail.
• Bigger plans cost less per email. Resend's extra-email rate, for example, drops from $0.90 to $0.46 per 1,000 as you move to larger plans.

Price table by monthly volume

At 10,000 emails a month, most services cost $15 to $20. At 100,000, the range runs from about $16 to about $134. The table shows the cheapest published plan that covers each volume.

Prices checked October 2026. All prices in US dollars, before tax.

*Postmark's plans start at 10,000 emails. These totals use its Pro plan ($16.50) plus its rate for extra emails ($1.30 per 1,000). Postmark's own volume selector may show a different price at these volumes.

How to read the Amazon SES column: new SES accounts start on its Essentials plan at $0.16 per 1,000 emails. You can switch to pay-as-you-go at $0.10 per 1,000 instead. SES is the lowest cost per email by a wide margin, but setting it up takes more work inside Amazon Web Services. Our guide to Amazon SES for beginners covers what's involved.

For the full ranking by price alone, see the cheapest transactional email services.

What extra costs should you watch for?

The monthly plan price is most of what you'll pay, but a few limits and add-ons can change the total. Check these before you choose.

Daily caps on free plans. Resend's free plan allows 3,000 emails a month but no more than 100 a day. Mailgun's free plan and SendGrid's 60-day trial also stop at 100 a day. Postmark's free plan allows 100 a month. If a busy launch day sends 150 sign-up emails, the last 50 won't go out until the next day, or at all.

Extra emails beyond your plan. Going over your allowance costs extra on every paid plan. Rates per 1,000 extra emails:

If you go over every month, the next plan up is usually cheaper.

How long your send history is kept. This decides how far back you can look when a customer says they never got an email. Resend keeps 30 days on every plan. Postmark keeps 45 days. SendGrid Essentials keeps 3 days of searchable history, and Mailgun's Free and Basic plans keep 1 day. Longer history is often a paid add-on.

Dedicated IP addresses. An IP address is the internet address your emails are sent from. By default you share one with other senders. A dedicated one is yours alone, and it's only offered at higher volumes. Resend charges $30 a month on its Scale plan, for senders above 3,000 emails a day. Postmark starts at $50 a month per IP, for 300,000 emails a month or more. A small SaaS rarely needs one.

Extra sending domains. Each plan allows a set number of domains to send from. Resend's Free plan includes 3 and Pro includes 10, with 100 more available for $20 a month. Mailgun's Free and Basic plans include 1.

Smaller charges. Amazon SES adds $0.12 per gigabyte of attachments you send, and its Pro plan adds a $105 monthly fee. Free plans on some services, such as Loops, add a small "Powered by" line to your emails.

What does a small SaaS need?

Most small SaaS products send fewer than 10,000 transactional emails a month, so an entry-level plan covers them. The exception is any email that goes to every user on a schedule.

Here's a rough monthly estimate for a SaaS with 1,000 users, 300 new sign-ups a month and 200 paying customers:

Without the weekly summary, this SaaS sends about 1,250 emails a month, which fits inside most free plans. With it, the total jumps past the free limits and into a $15 to $20 plan. A weekly summary email can be well worth sending; it's the email to count first when you budget.

To get a figure for your own project, ask Claude Code:

List every email my SaaS sends and what triggers each one. Then estimate how many of each we'd send in a month with our current number of users and sign-ups, and give me a monthly total.

You'll get a table like the one above, based on your own project. If you haven't decided which emails to send yet, our guide to which transactional emails your SaaS needs helps you plan the full set first.

A simple rule for budgeting: take your estimate, double it to allow for growth, and pick the plan that covers that number without paying for extra emails.

How does SimpleSends pricing work?

SimpleSends charges a flat monthly price with a daily sending limit, rather than a price per 1,000 emails.

SimpleSends is built for people who build with Claude Code but don't write code. Once you've signed up and connected it, you work in the chat: Claude Code designs, writes and sets up each email, and can check whether an email went out when a customer asks.

Which option is cheapest for you?

On price alone, the right choice depends on your volume:

• Under 3,000 emails a month: a free plan can cover you, as long as you stay under the daily caps.
• Up to about 50,000 emails a month: most entry plans cost $15 to $20.
• Very high volumes: Amazon SES costs the least per email, and suits teams who are comfortable working in AWS.

Price is one part of the decision. How the service fits the way you build matters too, and our guide to the best transactional email services for beginners compares them on more than cost.