Amazon SES vs SendGrid (Twilio) (2026): pricing, free tier & deliverability

Amazon SES vs SendGrid: side by side

Free tier, entry price, dedicated-IP cost and deliverability — pulled from each vendor's own pricing page. Sort any column; star a provider to watch it.

Amazon SES: current pricing

What you actually pay on Amazon SES today, for context. Source: https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/.

SendGrid: current pricing

What you actually pay on SendGrid today, for context. Source: Twilio changelog (twilio.com/en-us/changelog/sendgrid-free-plan): free plan retired 2025-05-27; new accounts 60-day trial (100/day); Email API from $19.95/mo.

Amazon SES or SendGrid?

Amazon SES and SendGrid (Twilio) take different approaches to transactional email. Amazon SES is free only for the first 12 months (3,000/mo), then bills usage at $0.10 per 1,000 emails, with a dedicated IP at $24.95/mo.

SendGrid (Twilio) no longer has a permanent free tier (new accounts get a 60-day trial at 100/day), then paid plans run $19.95/mo for 50,000 and $89.95/mo for 100,000; dedicated IP: Included on Pro and above. SendGrid (Twilio) is known for mature feature breadth and scale and tight Twilio ecosystem integration.

For a Next.js codebase, the choice usually comes down to free-tier headroom and developer experience versus deliverability guarantees. Best when cost is paramount and you are AWS-native. In Next.js, use @aws-sdk/client-ses from a Route Handler. If a handful of emails absolutely must reach the inbox, weight deliverability more heavily; if you want the fastest start, favor the larger free tier and the better SDK. Pricing was verified on 2026-07-05.

Switch to Amazon SES in one Route Handler

Most migrations are a one-call change. Here's the Next.js Route Handler for each top alternative.

import { Resend } from "resend";

const resend = new Resend(process.env.RESEND_API_KEY!);

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { to, subject, html } = await req.json();
  const { data, error } = await resend.emails.send({
    from: "noreply@yourdomain.com",
    to,
    subject,
    html, // was: sgMail.send({ to, from, subject, html })
  });
  if (error) return Response.json({ error }, { status: 500 });
  return Response.json({ id: data?.id });
}

The free tier you're reading will change

It already has. StackPulse records every pricing move so you're never surprised — here's what changed in this category recently.

Questions, answered