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What it costs to send 2,000,000 emails a month

Pricing · Updated October 30, 2026 · 6 min read · By The OwnMailServer team

Key takeaways

As of October 2026, with a dedicated IP: SES $224.95, SendGrid about $1,099, Resend $1,115, Postmark $1,527.50.
Published tiers run out here: Postmark's top tier is 1.5M and Mailgun publishes nothing above 100k, so you'd negotiate.
On Resend, the 1.5M tier plus overage ($1,085) beats the 2.5M tier ($1,150).
2 million a month is about 66,000 emails a day, plenty to build a dedicated IP's reputation.
At this volume, a few percent of bounces or complaints is tens of thousands of messages: list hygiene matters more than price.

Sending 2 million emails a month costs anywhere from about $200 to over $1,500, depending on the provider and whether you need a dedicated IP. As of October 2026, Amazon SES charges about $200 for sending alone, Resend about $1,085, SendGrid about $1,099 and Postmark about $1,478 at published rates. This is also the volume where published price lists start to run out, so some figures here are ceilings to negotiate down from.

The numbers at 2 million emails a month

Monthly cost as of October 2026, using the cheapest published option. Confirm on each vendor's pricing page.

Provider	Shared IPs	With a dedicated IP	How we got it
Amazon SES	$200	$224.95	$0.10 per 1,000, + $24.95 per IP
Resend	$1,085	$1,115	Scale 1.5M ($825) + 500 × $0.52, + $30 IP
SendGrid	about $1,099	about $1,099	Pro 2.5M tier, IP included
Postmark	$1,477.50	$1,527.50	Pro 1.5M ($852.50) + 500 × $1.25, + $50 IP; above 1.5M, contact sales
Mailgun	quote	quote	No published price above 100k; ceiling $2,180 at overage
OwnMailServer pay as you go (early access)	—	$400	$0.20 per 1,000, dedicated IP included

A few things stand out.

Resend's 1.5M tier plus overage beats its 2.5M tier. $825 + 500 × $0.52 = $1,085, against $1,150 for the 2.5M tier. If you're growing toward 2.5M, the bigger tier catches up quickly. Our Resend pricing explainer has every tier.

On Postmark, Pro is cheaper than Basic here. Pro's overage is $1.25 per 1,000 against Basic's $1.70, so 500,000 extra emails cost $625 on Pro and $850 on Basic. Pro comes to $1,477.50, Basic to $1,625. Postmark asks senders above 1.5 million to contact sales, so expect to negotiate. See Postmark pricing explained.

SendGrid's tiers are approximate. Its pricing page lists only starting prices; the Pro 2.5M figure (about $1,099) comes from a third-party reading of Twilio's plan list. Get a quote.

Mailgun doesn't publish a price. The ceiling at published overage is the Scale plan plus 1,900 × $1.10 = $2,180. In practice, you'd get a quote well below that. See Mailgun pricing explained.

One IP or several?

2 million a month is about 66,000 emails a day. One well-warmed IP can carry that. The reasons to use more are about reputation, not capacity:

Separate transactional from marketing. A campaign that draws complaints shouldn't slow down login codes. Separate IPs, or at least separate subdomains, keep the two apart.
Very bursty sending. If most of your volume goes out in a few big sends, spreading it across IPs avoids sudden spikes that mailbox providers throttle.

Each new IP needs its own warm-up, usually four to six weeks to full volume at this scale. Keep your current provider carrying the rest while it builds.

What matters more than price at this volume

At 66,000 emails a day, small percentages are big numbers. A 2% bounce rate is about 1,300 bounces a day, and Gmail's complaint threshold of 0.3% is about 200 complaints a day. Before you compare per-email prices, make sure you have:

Automatic suppression of hard bounces and complaints, across every sending stream.
Alerts and a way to pause a send that's going badly, before it damages your IP.
Per-provider visibility. Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo each throttle differently; you need delivery and deferral rates for each.
One-click unsubscribe on all marketing mail, as Gmail and Yahoo require of bulk senders. Our guide to Gmail and Yahoo bulk sender requirements lists the rest.

The hosted APIs include most of this. On Amazon SES, it's what you build with the money you save.

Our pay-as-you-go option

Our sending, in early access, is $0.20 per 1,000 emails, so 2 million a month costs $400. That includes a dedicated IP, a Resend-style API and SMTP, adaptive warm-up and daily monitoring of bounces, complaints and blocklists, with automatic suppression and pauses. If you want more than one IP at this volume, talk to us. There's a $10 one-time setup fee, and nothing is charged before we approve your account. See the high-volume email page and the pricing page.

To be exact: that's about $175 a month more than Amazon SES with a dedicated IP ($224.95), and about $700 less than Resend or SendGrid. Over SES, you're paying for the parts listed above that you'd otherwise build. If you'd rather own the server outright, a managed server on your own VPS is $499 setup plus $99 a month.

Costs at other volumes

50,000 a month: where free tiers run out
100,000 a month: why shared IPs usually win
250,000 a month: where a dedicated IP starts to make sense
500,000 a month: where per-email pricing starts to hurt
1,000,000 a month: the full comparison at scale
2,000,000 a month: this page
Any other volume: the email cost calculator

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to send 2 million emails a month?

As of October 2026, about $200 on Amazon SES for sending alone, about $1,085 on Resend (1.5M tier plus overage), about $1,099 on SendGrid Pro and about $1,478 on Postmark Pro at published overage. With a dedicated IP, it's $224.95 on SES, $1,115 on Resend and $1,527.50 on Postmark; SendGrid Pro includes one. Mailgun quotes this volume.

Do I need more than one dedicated IP for 2 million emails a month?

Usually not for volume alone. 2 million a month is about 66,000 emails a day, which one well-warmed IP can handle. Senders often split transactional and marketing mail onto separate IPs or subdomains so a campaign can't slow down password resets, and very large or bursty senders spread traffic across several. That's a reputation decision more than a capacity one.

Can I negotiate email API prices at 2 million emails a month?

Often, yes. At this volume, Postmark directs senders above 1.5 million to sales, Mailgun publishes no prices above 100,000, and SendGrid's Premier plan above 2.5 million is custom. Use published rates as a ceiling, get written quotes, and check what's included: dedicated IPs, log retention and support levels differ a lot.

Is Amazon SES the best value at 2 million emails a month?

On sending cost, by far: about $200, or $224.95 with a dedicated IP, as of October 2026. At this volume, you'll also want event processing, searchable logs, alerts and a way to pause a bad send, which you build on SES. If you have engineers who already run that tooling, SES is hard to beat; if not, budget for building it.

How long does warm-up take for 2 million emails a month?

Usually four to six weeks to reach full volume on a new IP. You start with a few hundred emails a day to your most engaged recipients and raise the volume while bounces, complaints and deferrals stay low. Keep your current provider carrying the rest until the new IP is ready, and move one stream at a time.

Pay only for the email you send

$0.20 per 1,000 emails, $10 a month minimum. Dedicated IP from 200,000 a month, with warm-up and deliverability handled for you. In early access.