At 50K emails per month, most providers look affordable.
At 1M, the pricing model matters more than the headline rate.
I compared the published pricing and overage rules for 15 transactional email providers. These are monthly list prices in USD, excluding dedicated IPs and taxes. Some numbers are official list prices; others are estimates based on published overage rates. I mark the difference below.
The 1M picture
| Provider | ~1M/month | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES | $160 | Essentials rate |
| Zoho ZeptoMail | $250 | Credit pricing |
| Bird | ~$350 | Current deposit rate |
| Resend | $650 | Scale |
| Mailchimp Transactional | $720 | 40 blocks |
| Twilio SendGrid | ~$799 | Required 1.5M tier |
| SMTP2GO | ~$840 | Professional + overage |
| Mailgun | ~$1,080 | Scale + overage |
| MailerSend | ~$1,266 | Overage estimate |
| Postmark | ~$1,303 | Pro + overage |
Brevo, Mailjet and Elastic Email require a quote or higher tier at this volume. Loops and Buttondown price by contacts or subscribers, not by email volume, so they are not directly comparable.
What the table does not show
- dedicated IP cost
- log retention
- inbound email
- template/automation limits
- deliverability support
- annual discounts
A $160 SES bill can be more expensive than a $650 Resend bill if you need to build suppression management, monitoring, and log search yourself.
The real decision
- Lowest raw cost: SES or ZeptoMail.
- Developer experience: Resend.
- Long log retention and traceability: Postmark.
- Contact-based pricing with unlimited sends: Loops.
- Platform included: Mailchimp Transactional, only if you already pay for Mailchimp marketing.
Check the assumptions
Prices change. Overage rules change. Tiers change.
Every number in the public comparison is dated, and estimates are labeled as estimates:
https://mailers.email/compare/transactional-email-pricing/
Do not choose a provider from a single headline price. Calculate the bill at your actual volume, then add the cost of the work you will have to do yourself.
