AWS SES Cost Calculator

Split transactional email from campaign traffic first

SES looks like a simple send-volume bill until a team blends password resets, product notifications, and marketing campaigns into one average. Those workloads peak differently, retry differently, and often carry very different payload sizes.

• Measure transactional and campaign traffic separately before settling on one monthly volume assumption.
• Keep large-template or attachment-heavy email classes separate from plain-text or light transactional sends.
• Decide whether transfer belongs in the model for your configuration; if not, keep this as a send-cost review.

Where SES estimates usually miss

• Campaign bursts: launches, promotions, and digest sends can dwarf normal transactional volume.
• Retry and bounce behavior: failed deliveries and repeated attempts distort simple email-count assumptions.
• Heavy payloads: attachments and image-rich templates matter when transfer is billable or when payload size affects surrounding systems.
• Program extras: dedicated IPs, inbound email, analytics, and other email-program costs sit outside this page unless modeled separately.

How to reconcile the calculator with your email program

1. Compare estimated send volume with a representative billing or campaign-reporting period.
2. Check whether the highest-cost periods align with campaigns, retries, or unusual bounce behavior.
3. Review average payload size by major email class instead of using one blended attachment assumption.
4. Build separate baseline and campaign scenarios so peaks do not disappear into a flat monthly average.

What this page should hand off to next

If send volume dominates, review send segmentation and campaign scheduling. If transfer or payload-related cost dominates, examine template weight and attachment strategy. If the SES line item is not the whole story, the next review usually belongs with analytics, queues, Lambdas, or the broader outbound email stack.

Next steps