The cheapest bulk email service depends on what you're sending. For marketing campaigns to an opted-in list, Amazon SES has the lowest sending price, about $50 for 500,000 emails as of October 2026, but it's sending only: you add campaign software and build bounce and complaint handling yourself. The cheapest managed option we know of is OwnMailServer at $0.20 per 1,000. That's $100 for 500,000 emails, with a dedicated IP, contact lists, scheduling, campaign stats and unsubscribe handling included, and nothing to install.
This page compares the realistic options at 100,000, 500,000 and 1,000,000 emails a month, by total cost rather than sticker price.
First: what kind of email?
| Email type | What matters | Cheap options |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing campaigns to people who opted in | Price per email, list tools, unsubscribe handling | SES + campaign software, OwnMailServer, Brevo, Elastic Email |
| Transactional (receipts, resets, alerts) | API, speed, logs, webhooks | SES, OwnMailServer, Resend, Postmark, SendGrid |
| Cold outreach to prospects | Many sending mailboxes, low volume each | Dedicated cold email tools. Most bulk services, including ours, forbid it |
The rest of this page is about the first two: bulk email to people who agreed to get it.
Sending costs at 100k, 500k and 1M
List prices as of October 2026 from each provider's pricing page or third-party trackers; confirm before you decide.
| Service | 100,000/month | 500,000/month | 1,000,000/month | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES | ~$10 | ~$50 | ~$100 | Sending only. Dedicated IP +$24.95/month |
| OwnMailServer | $20 | $100 | $200 | Sending, campaigns, monitoring. Dedicated IP included from 200,000 |
| Resend | $35 (Pro) | $350 (Scale) | $650 (Scale) | Developer API. Dedicated IP +$30 |
| SendGrid | $34.95 (Essentials) | ~$499 (Pro) | ~$799 (Pro) | API and marketing tools |
| Brevo (Standard) | check pricing | ~$429 | check pricing | All-in-one marketing: editor, automations, CRM |
| Elastic Email | check pricing | check pricing | check pricing | Budget email API and marketing plans |
We couldn't confirm Elastic Email's or every Brevo tier's price at these volumes, so check Brevo and Elastic Email directly. Run your own volume through our email cost calculator.
Total cost for 500,000 marketing emails
Sticker price isn't the whole bill. Here's what each route really costs for a monthly 500,000-email campaign program:
| Amazon SES | OwnMailServer | All-in-one platform (e.g. Brevo) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sending | ~$50 | $100 | Included in the plan (~$429 for Brevo Standard) |
| Dedicated IP | +$24.95 | Included | Varies by plan |
| Campaign tool | Extra: hosted tool, or self-hosted software plus a server | Included | Included |
| Bounce and complaint handling into your list | You build it | Included, automatic | Included |
| Monitoring, alerts, auto-pause | You build it | Included | Varies |
| Visual drag-and-drop editor | Depends on your tool | No | Yes |
| Signup forms with double opt-in | Depends on your tool | Included | Included |
| Automations (welcome series, etc.) | Depends on your tool | No | Yes |
| Setup | Technical | Sign up, verify domain | Sign up, verify domain |
| Rough monthly total | ~$75 + tool + your time | $100 | ~$429 |
Our honest read:
- Choose Amazon SES if you have engineering time and want the absolute lowest sending bill. See what SES leaves to you.
- Choose OwnMailServer if you want close to SES pricing without building the rest, and you send campaigns to a list you already have.
- Choose an all-in-one platform if you need a drag-and-drop editor, automated sequences and segments. Those are worth paying for if you use them.
What OwnMailServer includes, in plain terms
OwnMailServer is a hosted service. Despite the name, you don't install software, buy a license or run a server. You sign up, verify your domain, and send.
- Campaigns built in. Contact lists with CSV upload and export, drafts with a rendered preview, test sends, scheduling in your time zone up to 30 days ahead, and per-campaign delivered, open, click, unsubscribe, bounce and complaint numbers.
- Run it from your AI chat if you like. Ask Claude, ChatGPT or Meta Muse to draft, test, schedule and report on campaigns. See sending a campaign with Claude.
- API and SMTP for transactional email, in the same account at the same price. The API follows Resend's, so its SDKs work unchanged.
- Deliverability managed. Automatic warm-up, one-click unsubscribe on every campaign copy, automatic suppression of bounces and complaints, hourly blocklist checks, and an automatic pause if bounces or complaints spike.
- A dedicated IP from 200,000 emails a month, so other senders can't affect your reputation. Below that you share a pool of vetted senders.
Signup forms with double opt-in are included too. What we don't have: a visual editor, automated sequences and segments. We also review every account before it can send, and we don't allow cold email or bought lists. Pricing: $0.20 per 1,000 emails, a $10 monthly minimum that includes the first 50,000, and a $10 one-time setup fee. Details on the pricing page.
Cheap is only cheap if it lands in the inbox
Whichever service you pick:
- Authenticate your domain. SPF, DKIM and DMARC are required by Gmail and Yahoo for bulk senders.
- Mail only people who opted in. Keep spam complaints under 0.3%, and aim for under 0.1%.
- Offer one-click unsubscribe and honor it immediately.
- Remove bounces. Hard bounces never come back; keep them under 2%.
- Ramp up. A new domain or IP should build to 500,000 a month over a few weeks. See IP warm-up.
Moving up from a free or cheap plan
If you're outgrowing a contact-priced tool, the jump to 500,000 emails is usually where per-email pricing pays off. Our Mailchimp alternative page compares contact-based and per-email pricing, and the cost to send 500k emails breaks the transactional providers down further.
Want the managed option at close to SES pricing? Sign up. We review accounts within about one business day, and nothing is charged before approval.