Sending 500,000 emails a month costs from about $50 to about $530, and this is the volume where the gap between providers gets wide. As of October 2026, Amazon SES charges about $50 for sending alone, Resend $350, Postmark $455 and SendGrid about $499. With a dedicated IP, which most senders want at this volume, the figures are $74.95, $380, $550.50 and about $499 (SendGrid includes one).
The numbers at 500,000 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 | $50 | $74.95 | $0.10 per 1,000, + $24.95 per IP |
| Resend | $350 | $380 | Scale 500k tier, + $30 IP |
| Postmark | $455 | $550.50 | Basic 700k; IP needs Pro 700k ($500.50) + $50 |
| SendGrid | about $499 | about $499 | Pro 700k tier, IP included |
| Mailgun | up to $530 | up to $530 | No published price above 100k; Scale includes one IP |
| OwnMailServer Scale 500k (early access) | — | $249 | Flat, own server, 1 dedicated IP |
Where per-email pricing bites
At 500,000 a month, three things push the bill up.
Tier gaps. Neither SendGrid nor Postmark has a 500k tier. SendGrid's Pro plans go from about $249 at 300,000 to about $499 at 700,000; Postmark's Basic from $245 to $455. In both cases the smaller tier plus overage costs more than the next tier, so at 500k you're paying for 700k. Resend is the exception, with a 500k tier at exactly $350.
The dedicated IP premium. On Postmark, a dedicated IP requires the Pro plan or higher, so the IP costs more than its $50 sticker: Pro 700k is $500.50 against $455 on Basic. On Resend it's a clean $30 add-on.
Growth. Per-email pricing moves with every email. Going from 500,000 to 1,000,000 a month takes Resend from $380 to $680 and SendGrid from about $499 to about $799, with dedicated IPs included. Our 1 million emails breakdown has the details.
None of this makes those services poor value. Resend, SendGrid and Postmark are mature products with dashboards, logs, support and integrations. It's simply the volume where it's worth checking the alternatives.
A dedicated IP at this volume
500,000 a month is about 16,000 emails a day, comfortably enough for Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo to judge an IP on your sending alone. For most senders at this volume, a dedicated IP is the right choice: your reputation is yours, and another customer's bad week can't affect it.
Two caveats:
- It shows problems faster. With no shared pool to dilute them, bounces from an old list or complaints about a campaign land directly on your IP. Keep complaints under 0.3% (Gmail's limit) and remove bounced addresses immediately.
- It needs warm-up. Plan three to five weeks of gradually increasing volume while your current provider carries the rest. Our IP warm-up guide has a schedule.
The cheapest option, and what it leaves out
Amazon SES is $50 a month here, or $74.95 with a dedicated IP. That's the sending engine. The parts you build yourself are bounce and complaint processing, suppression lists, event logs for support questions, dashboards and alerts, plus planning and running the warm-up on a standard dedicated IP. AWS also controls your sending limits and can pause an account whose complaint rate climbs. If you have the engineers, SES is excellent value. Our Amazon SES alternative page covers the trade-off.
The flat-price option
Our Scale 500k plan, in early access, is $249 a month: your own server and dedicated IP, a Resend-style API and SMTP on port 587, managed warm-up, automatic pauses if bounces or complaints spike, hourly blocklist checks and a daily deliverability summary. There's no payment until your server is live. Against the dedicated-IP column above, that's $131 a month less than Resend and about $250 less than SendGrid Pro.
It's built for steady senders at this volume who want a fixed cost. If you'd rather not change providers, or your volume swings a lot from month to month, staying on a hosted API is a reasonable choice. See high-volume email sending for how a move works without risk.
A year at 500,000 a month
With a dedicated IP, as of October 2026:
| Option | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES + IP | $74.95 | $899.40, plus the tooling you build |
| OwnMailServer Scale 500k (early access) | $249 | $2,988 |
| Resend Scale + IP | $380 | $4,560 |
| SendGrid Pro 700k | about $499 | about $5,988 |
| Postmark Pro 700k + IP | $550.50 | $6,606 |
Before you switch providers
A cheaper price isn't worth a delivery problem. Before moving 500,000 emails a month anywhere, check:
- Can you run both in parallel? You'll want the old provider carrying traffic for the 3–5 weeks a new IP takes to warm up.
- Does the API fit your code? A Resend-compatible API or plain SMTP makes the switch a configuration change rather than a rewrite. Our guides cover moving from Resend and moving from SendGrid.
- What happens to bounces and complaints? Make sure suppression lists come with you, or you'll mail dead addresses from a fresh IP, the fastest way to damage it.
- Who watches it? Someone needs to notice blocklist listings, DNS changes and complaint spikes before Gmail does.
Costs at other volumes
- 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: this page
- 1,000,000 a month: the full comparison at scale
- Any other volume: the email cost calculator