SendGrid and Mailgun are two of the longest-running email APIs, and they overlap a lot. The short answer: SendGrid is cheaper at 50k–100k emails a month on shared IPs and includes a dedicated IP on its Pro plan; Mailgun is cheaper at 10k, has an ongoing free plan, and is often chosen for its inbound routing and API-first design. With a dedicated IP at around 100k, they cost about the same.
All prices below are as of October 2026, based on third-party pricing trackers. Confirm on SendGrid's pricing page and Mailgun's pricing page before signing up.
SendGrid vs Mailgun at a glance
| SendGrid (Twilio) | Mailgun (Sinch) | |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | Trial: 100 emails/day for 60 days | Free: 100 emails/day |
| 10k emails/month | Essentials: $19.95/mo (covers up to 50k) | Basic: $15/mo |
| 50k emails/month | Essentials: $19.95/mo | Foundation: $35/mo |
| 100k emails/month | Essentials: $34.95/mo; Pro: $89.95/mo | Scale: $90/mo |
| 300k emails/month | Pro: ~$249/mo | Check their pricing page |
| 2.5M emails/month | Pro: up to ~$1,099/mo | Check their pricing page |
| Overage | Check their pricing page | Basic ~$1.80, Foundation ~$1.30, Scale ~$1.10 per 1,000 |
| Dedicated IP | Included on Pro | Add-on, ~$59–60/mo |
| Inbound email | Inbound Parse webhook | Inbound routing |
| Marketing email | Marketing Campaigns, separate (from ~$15/mo) | Check their pricing page |
| Developer experience | Broad platform, big dashboard | API-first, strong inbound tooling |
How much do SendGrid and Mailgun cost?
At 10k emails a month, Mailgun Basic ($15) is the cheaper paid plan. SendGrid's smallest plan in our sources is Essentials at $19.95, which covers up to 50k.
At 50k, SendGrid Essentials stays at $19.95 while Mailgun Foundation is $35. That is the widest gap in SendGrid's favour.
At 100k, SendGrid Essentials is $34.95 on shared IPs; Mailgun Scale is $90. If you want a dedicated IP, SendGrid Pro is $89.95 including the IP, while Mailgun is $90 plus about $59–60 for the IP add-on.
Above 100k, SendGrid's Pro tiers run around $249 for 300k and up to about $1,099 for 2.5M. Our sources disagreed on Mailgun's higher tiers, so we won't quote them; check their pricing page. To compare at your own volume, try the email cost calculator, and see SendGrid pricing explained for its plan structure.
Free plans
Both give you 100 emails a day. Mailgun's free plan is ongoing. SendGrid's is a 60-day trial. For evaluating either product, both are enough. For a long-lived side project, Mailgun's free plan lasts.
Dedicated IPs
This is one of the clearer differences. SendGrid bundles a dedicated IP into Pro. Mailgun treats it as an add-on (about $59–60/month) on top of your plan; check their pricing page for which plans can add one.
Do you need one? Usually not below steady, high volume. A new dedicated IP starts with no reputation and needs gradual warm-up. On a shared pool, the provider manages reputation for you. We cover the decision in shared vs dedicated IP email.
Inbound email
Both handle inbound. SendGrid's Inbound Parse posts incoming messages to a webhook in your app. Mailgun's inbound routing lets you match incoming mail and forward or post it to your app. We used Mailgun for inbound mail on our own domains before moving everything to our own server, and it did that job well. Check each vendor's docs for which plans include inbound and any limits.
Developer experience
SendGrid is a broad platform: transactional API and SMTP, templates, Marketing Campaigns, inbound parsing and a large dashboard. That breadth suits teams that want one vendor for several kinds of email, and it fits naturally if you already use Twilio.
Mailgun is API-first and developer-focused, with strong routing and inbound tooling. Teams that build email-heavy features (receiving, parsing, forwarding) often like how it is organised.
Both support SMTP and HTTP APIs and have SDKs for common languages, so either is straightforward to integrate, and switching later is mostly a DNS and credentials job.
Overage and growth
How each provider bills as you grow matters as much as the entry price.
Mailgun publishes per-1,000 overage rates as of October 2026: about $1.80 on Basic, $1.30 on Foundation and $1.10 on Scale. If your volume is spiky, those rates decide what a busy month costs, so it can pay to move up a tier before you need it.
For SendGrid, overage terms were not in our sources, so check their pricing page. Its plan ladder is published in more detail: Essentials at 50k and 100k, Pro from $89.95 at 100k, around $249 at 300k, and up to about $1,099 at 2.5M, with custom Premier pricing above that.
Two practical tips for either:
- Look at your peak month, not your average. Transactional volume often follows your customers' busy periods.
- Price marketing email separately. SendGrid's Marketing Campaigns is a separate product (from around $15/month). For Mailgun, check their pricing page for marketing options.
Our post on transactional email cost at scale looks at how these curves compare as volume grows.
Switching between them later
Neither locks you in. Both speak standard SMTP and HTTP, so a switch is mostly DNS and credentials: add the new provider's DKIM and return-path records next to the old ones, keep SPF as a single record within the 10-lookup limit, export your suppression list, change your app's settings, and move traffic gradually. Remove the old records only once nothing is flowing through them. If you'd rather move to your own server instead, our SendGrid migration guide shows each step.
Which should you choose?
Choose SendGrid if:
- You send 50k–100k emails a month on shared IPs and want the lower bill.
- You want a dedicated IP included in a plan rather than as an add-on.
- You want transactional and marketing email from one vendor, or already use Twilio.
Choose Mailgun if:
- You send around 10k a month and want the cheapest paid plan, or an ongoing free plan.
- Inbound routing is central to your product.
- You want a dedicated IP as a separate add-on rather than tied to a bigger plan.
Whichever you choose, deliverability depends more on your setup than the vendor. Get SPF, DKIM and DMARC aligned, and if mail is landing in spam, start with why emails go to spam.
A third option: your own server
Instead of picking between two rental models, you can run your own mail server. A self-hosted Postfix setup handles both outbound sending and inbound forwarding, which covers what many teams use SendGrid or Mailgun for. You get your own IP, no per-email fees and your data on your own server.
The honest catch: at small volume it costs more, not less. Up to about 100k emails a month, these services cost roughly $20–35, while a managed self-hosted server is around $99/month plus a VPS (typically $5–20/month). Self-hosting tends to win on cost above roughly 200k a month, and on control and multi-domain setups at any volume. It also needs warm-up and monitoring.
See our SendGrid alternative and Mailgun alternative pages for what a move looks like. If you want it done for you, our plans are on the pricing page.