As of 2026, SMTP relay pricing ranges from $0.10 per 1,000 emails on Amazon SES to roughly $1.15 per 1,000 on Postmark, with SendGrid, Mailgun, SMTP2GO, and Brevo clustered between $0.60 and $1.00 per 1,000 at the 100K tier. At 1M emails per month that spread means $100 on SES versus $600-1,200 on the mainstream relays, and a flat-fee dedicated SMTP server at $100-300/month undercuts everything except SES while giving you your own IP. Prices drift; check current rates before signing.
I maintain this comparison because every provider prices in a different shape, tiers, buckets, overages, add-ons, and the only honest way to compare is normalizing to cost at fixed volumes. Here's 2026.
The master table
Monthly cost at each sending volume, 2026 ballparks:
| Provider | 1K | 10K | 100K | 1M | Pricing shape |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES | ~$0.10 | ~$1 | ~$10 | ~$100 | Pure per-email |
| SMTP2GO | Free tier | ~$10-15 | ~$75-100 | ~$500-700 | Tiered buckets |
| Brevo | Free tier | ~$15 | ~$65-80 | ~$500-600 | Tiered buckets |
| Mailgun | Free trial | ~$15 | ~$75-90 | ~$600-800 | Tiers + overages |
| SendGrid | Free tier | ~$20 | ~$90-250 | ~$700-1,200 | Tiers + overages |
| SparkPost (Bird) | Free tier | ~$20-30 | ~$75-120 | ~$500-900 | Tiered |
| Postmark | ~$15 min | ~$15 | ~$115 | ~$1,000+ | Per-email blocks |
| Managed dedicated SMTP | ~$50-150 flat | ~$50-150 flat | ~$50-150 flat | ~$100-300 flat | Flat infrastructure fee |
Notes that change the math:
- Dedicated IPs are mostly extra: ~$25/month on SES, ~$50-80 on Mailgun/SendGrid below premium tiers, included with dedicated servers.
- Overages bite: Mailgun and SendGrid charge $1-2 per 1,000 beyond your bucket, spiky senders pay more than this table shows.
- Minimums exist: Postmark and others have plan floors, so tiny volumes cost more per email than the rate implies.
Cost per 1,000 emails, normalized
The same data as effective rates, this is the column procurement should look at:
| Provider | Rate per 1K at 100K/mo | Rate per 1K at 1M/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES | $0.10 | $0.10 |
| Brevo | $0.65-0.80 | $0.50-0.60 |
| SMTP2GO | $0.75-1.00 | $0.50-0.70 |
| Mailgun | $0.75-0.90 | $0.60-0.80 |
| SparkPost | $0.75-1.20 | $0.50-0.90 |
| SendGrid | $0.90-2.50 | $0.70-1.20 |
| Postmark | $1.15 | $1.00+ |
| Managed dedicated SMTP | $0.50-1.50 | $0.10-0.30 |
The dedicated-server line is the one that changes shape with volume: a flat fee divided by more emails. At 100K it's competitive; at 1M it's within sight of SES while including warm-up and monitoring that SES doesn't offer.
What the price differences buy
Cheap and expensive relays deliver over the same SMTP protocol. The spread is in everything around it:
- SES ($): raw pipes. No warm-up help, minimal analytics, automated suspensions. You build the rest, see Amazon SES vs Dedicated SMTP Server.
- SMTP2GO / Brevo ($$): simple relay with decent dashboards and support. Shared IPs at most tiers.
- Mailgun / SendGrid / SparkPost ($$-$$$): strong APIs, webhooks, analytics, validation tooling. Pricing details and traps for Mailgun specifically: Mailgun Pricing Explained.
- Postmark ($$$): premium policed deliverability for transactional mail. Worth it for that job, priced out of bulk marketing.
- Dedicated server (flat): your own IP and reputation, with warm-up and blacklist work either on you (self-hosted) or on the provider (managed).
Picking by volume tier
| Your monthly volume | Sensible shortlist |
|---|---|
| Under 10K | Free/cheap tiers: SMTP2GO, Brevo, SES if technical |
| 10K-100K | Mailgun, SMTP2GO, Brevo, or SES with engineering time |
| 100K-500K | Decision zone: relays get expensive; dedicated server or SES |
| 500K+ | SES (if you carry the ops) or managed dedicated server |
The 100K-300K band is where most senders should re-run the numbers, because that's where relay bills cross what a flat-fee server costs, the full walkthrough at the top of that band is in the cheapest way to send 100K emails per month.
Two structural points that don't show in pricing tables. First, on any shared-IP plan, part of what you "pay" is exposure to other customers' sending behavior. Second, per-email pricing means your costs scale linearly with growth forever, while infrastructure pricing means they roughly plateau, the long-run argument laid out in SMTP server vs email service provider.
Hidden costs checklist before you sign
Run any relay quote through these questions, they move the real number more than the headline rate:
- What's the overage rate? If it's 2-3x the in-plan rate, your spiky months are priced at the overage rate, not the plan rate.
- Is a dedicated IP included, and who warms it? A $25-80/month add-on plus a self-managed warm-up changes the comparison.
- How long are logs retained? One-day retention means you can't investigate delivery complaints; the tier with usable retention is the real minimum price.
- Are emails counted per recipient or per message? A message to 5 recipients counts as 5 sends everywhere, teams forget this when estimating volume.
- What happens at the contract's volume cliff? Several providers force sales-negotiated Enterprise plans past a threshold, and negotiated pricing has a way of rising at renewal.
- What does support cost? On some relays, humans answering deliverability tickets is itself a paid tier.
A relay that looks $20/month cheaper routinely comes out $100/month more expensive after these six lines are filled in.
How BulkEmailSetup helps
BulkEmailSetup sits in the bottom row of that table: a dedicated SMTP server at a flat monthly fee, with IP warm-up, authentication setup, and blacklist monitoring managed for you. At 100K+ emails a month it beats every mainstream relay on cost while keeping your reputation entirely yours, current numbers on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest SMTP relay in 2026?
Amazon SES at roughly $0.10 per 1,000 emails is the cheapest at every volume tier. The trade-off is minimal tooling and strict automated policy enforcement. Among full-service relays, SMTP2GO and Brevo are usually cheapest at low volume.
How much does an SMTP relay cost for 100K emails per month?
As of 2026: about $10 on Amazon SES, $75-100 on Mailgun, SMTP2GO, or Brevo, $90-250 on SendGrid, and around $115 on Postmark. A flat-fee managed dedicated SMTP server runs $50-150 regardless of volume.
At what volume does a dedicated server beat SMTP relays?
Typically between 100K and 300K emails per month. Below that, relay convenience usually justifies the per-email premium; above it, a flat monthly fee beats every relay except raw SES.
Do SMTP relay prices include a dedicated IP?
Usually not. Dedicated IPs are add-ons of $25-80/month on most relays or are bundled only into premium tiers. On shared IPs, other customers' sending affects your deliverability.
Why is there such a price spread between relays?
You're paying for different things: SES sells raw infrastructure, Postmark sells policed premium deliverability, SendGrid and Mailgun sell APIs and analytics on top of sending. The SMTP protocol underneath is identical.
