Amazon SES is the transport: $0.10 per 1,000 emails à la carte, every AWS SDK language, and a dashboard, suppression and event pipeline you assemble from other AWS services. SendGrid is the assembled product: Essentials from $19.95 for 50,000 to 100,000 emails, seven SDKs, webhooks in the dashboard, and a published SLA on Pro and Premier. The table reads both from their own pricing pages, with the read date, and puts Notix in a separate third column so you can see where a smaller service with more in the box sits against each.
Amazon SES’s figures come from aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing, read on 2026-09-13. SendGrid’s come from Twilio’s Email API pricing page, read on 2026-09-13. The Notix column is read from its own pricing page and is there as a third option, not as the subject of this page.
| Criterion | Amazon SES | SendGrid | Notix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $200 in AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts, valid for 6 months; new accounts start in a sandbox | 60-day trial, 100 a day; sending stops when the trial ends (the free plan was retired from 27 May 2025) | 5,000 emails a month, 200 a day, no card, no end date |
| Entry paid plan | Pay as you go, $0.10 per 1,000 emails à la carte | Essentials from $19.95 a month | Pro $15 a month |
| Included on that plan | None: $0.16 per 1,000 on the Essentials plan, $0.12 per GB of attachments | 50,000 to 100,000 emails a month on Essentials, volume-priced | 50,000 emails, usage past that metered on the same invoice |
| SMTP relay | Yes, an SMTP interface and an API | Yes | Yes, on every plan |
| SDKs | Every AWS SDK language | Node, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go, Java, C# | TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP |
| Webhooks | Through SNS event destinations, which you wire yourself | Yes | Yes, signed, for email, contact and domain events |
| OTP / verification API | No | No | Yes, email and SMS codes |
| Deliverability check before sending | No | Email validation API on Pro and above | Yes, a pre-send check API |
| Billing outside USD | USD, on the AWS bill | USD by card | USD by card; naira and shillings from a prepaid wallet |
| SLA | AWS SES service level agreement | Stated for Pro and Premier plans | 99.9% on Pro, credits on the pricing page |
| Prices and limits read from the vendors' own pages: aws.amazon.com on 2026-09-13. Notix figures are from its own pricing page. | |||
Neither has a free plan that simply stays. A new AWS account gets $200 in Free Tier credits for six months, but SES starts in a sandbox: you can send only to addresses you have verified until AWS grants production access, which is a request, a review and usually about a day (how the sandbox works). SendGrid retired its free plan from 27 May 2025; a new account gets a 60-day trial of 100 emails a day and sending stops when the trial ends. On SES the barrier is the review; on SendGrid it is the calendar.
SES is priced by the thousand: $0.10 à la carte, $0.16 on the Essentials plan, plus $0.12 per GB of attachments and nothing included. SendGrid Essentials starts at $19.95 a month for 50,000 to 100,000 emails, volume-priced within that band, and its Pro and Premier tiers above it carry dedicated IPs. At a million emails a month SES is a fraction of any plan-priced service; at 50,000 a month the difference is a few dollars and the product around the sending decides it.
Both accept SMTP and both have an API. SES’s API is an AWS service call with IAM credentials, verified identities per region and the SDK of every AWS-supported language. SendGrid’s v3 API is a JSON endpoint with a single API key, dynamic templates, personalizations and scheduled sends. An existing SMTP integration moves to either with a credential change; an existing HTTP integration is a rewrite to SES and a smaller one to SendGrid.
SES is covered by every AWS SDK language, because it is an AWS service. SendGrid publishes Node, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go, Java and C#. If your stack already uses an AWS SDK, SES adds no dependency; if it does not, SendGrid’s library is the lighter import.
SendGrid posts delivery, bounce and complaint webhooks configured in its dashboard and sells an email validation API on Pro and above. SES delivers the same events through SNS event destinations that you wire yourself, and offers no validation product; suppression beyond the account-level list is your code. Neither offers a pre-send check on the message itself.
SES is billed in US dollars on the AWS bill and carries the AWS SES service level agreement. SendGrid bills in US dollars by card and states an SLA for Pro and Premier. These are the commitments each vendor publishes, not measurements of either service’s uptime.
Pick SES if you already run on AWS, your volume makes the per-thousand price the deciding number, and you have the engineering to build suppression, event handling and a dashboard. Pick SendGrid if you want those assembled, a single API key and seven SDKs, dedicated IPs at scale, and a published SLA on the higher tiers. The cheaper transport costs engineering time; the assembled product costs a monthly plan.
On the same criteria: a free plan of 5,000 emails a month and 200 a day with no card, no end date and no sandbox to leave, Pro at $15 a month for 50,000 emails with usage past that metered on the same invoice, SMTP on every plan, TypeScript, Python, Go and PHP SDKs, signed webhooks with a replayable log, an OTP and verification API for email and SMS codes, a pre-send deliverability check, and billing in naira or shillings from a prepaid wallet as well as US dollars by card. It has fewer SDK languages than either and no dedicated IPs.
The full picture is on Notix vs Amazon SES and Notix vs SendGrid.
SES plus the dashboard, suppression, webhooks, templates and domain onboarding you would otherwise build yourself.
AlternativesA free plan that does not end after 60 days, a suppression import, and an API you can move to in an afternoon.
ComparePer-thousand pricing against a flat plan, and what SES leaves you to build before the first receipt goes out.
CompareWhat changes when you leave a 60-day trial for a free plan that stays, and where SendGrid's scale still wins.
CompareEvery vendor in one table with read dates, and a straight answer to which transactional email API a startup should pick.
LearnWhat SES gives you, what you build yourself, and when a layer on top of it is the cheaper choice.
Notix is free to try without a card: verify a domain, copy an API key, send one message, and compare it against the two above on your own traffic.