SES Cost Calculator
Price Amazon SES outbound and inbound mail with attachment data, dedicated IPs, and a bounce and complaint rate check.
Inputs
SES bills attachment data separately per GB.
AWS places accounts under review above 5%.
AWS places accounts under review above 0.1%.
Estimated Monthly Cost
$52.29
Outbound Send Cost
$50.00
Attachment Data Cost
$2.29
Dedicated IP Cost
$0.00
Effective Cost per 1000 Emails
$0.10
Reputation Assessment
Watch closely — approaching the AWS review thresholds
Step by step
Values used
Emails sent per month = 500,000 emails; Average attachment size per email = 40 KB; Inbound emails received per month = 0 emails; Dedicated IP addresses = 0 addresses; Bounce rate = 2 %; Complaint rate = 0.0500 %; Price per 1000 emails sent = 0.1000 USD; Attachment data price per GB = 0.1200 USD; Price per 1000 inbound emails = 0.1000 USD; Dedicated IP price per month = 24.95 USD
SES Cost
cost = emails ÷ 1000 × send price + attachment GB × data price + inbound ÷ 1000 × inbound price + dedicated IPs × monthly IP price.
Effective unit cost
cost per 1000 emails = total monthly cost ÷ (emails ÷ 1000) — the figure to compare against a third-party ESP.
Estimated Monthly Cost
= 52.29
Outbound Send Cost
= 50.00
Attachment Data Cost
= 2.29
Dedicated IP Cost
= 0.00
Effective Cost per 1000 Emails
= 0.10
Reputation Assessment
= Watch closely — approaching the AWS review thresholds
How it works
SES prices the message and the payload separately: a flat fee per thousand messages plus a per-GB charge for attachment data, which is why a newsletter with a 2 MB PDF costs far more than its message count suggests. Dedicated IPs are a fixed monthly cost that only pays back at volumes high enough to build and hold a sending reputation. Verify the send, data and dedicated IP prices for your region on the SES pricing page. SES is usually an order of magnitude cheaper than a hosted email service, but that only holds if your bounce and complaint rates stay inside the AWS thresholds — a sending pause costs far more than the bill ever would.
Formulas
SES Cost
cost = emails ÷ 1000 × send price + attachment GB × data price + inbound ÷ 1000 × inbound price + dedicated IPs × monthly IP price.
- attachment GB
- emails × attachment KB ÷ 1,048,576 — billed on top of the per-message fee
- dedicated IP
- Fixed monthly charge, warmed separately from the shared pool
- bounce rate
- Hard bounces ÷ sends; AWS reviews accounts above 5%
Effective unit cost
cost per 1000 emails = total monthly cost ÷ (emails ÷ 1000) — the figure to compare against a third-party ESP.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is SES Cost calculated?
cost = emails ÷ 1000 × send price + attachment GB × data price + inbound ÷ 1000 × inbound price + dedicated IPs × monthly IP price. SES prices the message and the payload separately: a flat fee per thousand messages plus a per-GB charge for attachment data, which is why a newsletter with a 2 MB PDF costs far more than its message count suggests. Dedicated IPs are a fixed monthly cost that only pays back at volumes high enough to build and hold a sending reputation. Verify the send, data and dedicated IP prices for your region on the SES pricing page.
Why does SES Cost matter?
SES is usually an order of magnitude cheaper than a hosted email service, but that only holds if your bounce and complaint rates stay inside the AWS thresholds — a sending pause costs far more than the bill ever would.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 10 inputs: Emails sent per month, Average attachment size per email, Inbound emails received per month, Dedicated IP addresses, Bounce rate, Complaint rate, Price per 1000 emails sent, Attachment data price per GB, Price per 1000 inbound emails, Dedicated IP price per month. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
When is a dedicated IP worth it?
Roughly when you send consistently enough to keep the IP warm — tens of thousands of messages a week, every week. Below that the shared pool has better reputation than an IP you cannot keep active, and a cold dedicated IP actively hurts deliverability.