Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to grow in popularity as the global company makes a name for itself beyond just e-commerce. Amazon‘s tech services rely on innovation and artificial intelligence, which supports the rise of new web and cloud-based solutions.
So if you‘re interested in advanced tech, you may be wondering – what is Amazon SES? I was curious about this too, so I did some research and here‘s what I learned.
What Is Amazon SES?
Amazon SES stands for Simple Email Service, a scalable cloud service offering reliable inbound and outbound email from all applications in 2024. Made for developers, Amazon SES is commonly used for mass sales and marketing emails with analytics, email authentication, and sender reputation protection all available from this pay-as-you-go program.
If you want to know more about Amazon SES, including how it works and how much it costs, keep reading for more details!
How Does Amazon SES Work?
As a highly scalable email service based in the cloud, Amazon SES frees up tech resources and allows users to manage inbound and outbound mail efficiently and affordably.
Amazon SES is a cost-effective email program that supports mail delivery through all applications, with emails delivered from any domain or address owned by the account holder.
Companies like Reddit, Netflix, and Duolingo are making the most of Amazon SES technology, although this scalable solution is also popular for small and medium-sized businesses.
Before you can use Amazon SES, you need to prove ownership of a domain or email address with the capacity for up to 10,000 web addresses to ensure comprehensive email coverage.
Once you verify ownership, it’s easy to configure email settings and start sending within minutes, as you can use the Amazon SES console, SMTP, or APIs.
You can track email performance on the Amazon SES reputation dashboard and use flexible deployment for dedicated, shared, and customer IPs.
High-level content filtering technology checks that emails meet ISP standards, ensuring as many emails get delivered as possible.
There’s also a feedback loop for delivery, complaint, and bounce records.
This email sending and receiving platform provides enhanced customer interaction, too.
Overall, Amazon SES offers a welcome alternative to traditional email servers with optimized email deliverability on a pay-as-you-go model.
What Are the Amazon SES Limits?
Amazon SES is regarded as a highly flexible and scalable email service, as you can add up to 10,000 domains and email addresses if you can verify ownership.
In terms of sending limits, each account has a maximum send rate per second and a number of recipients in 24 hours. Here are the current limits:
- New accounts start with a 14,000 email per 24 hour sending limit
- Max send rate is 1 email per second initially
- Message attachments can be up to 10 MB for inbound mail
- Option to increase max message size to 40 MB
Keep in mind that sending limits may be viewed on the Amazon SES console at any time.
Also, Amazon reserves the right to pause sending abilities if emails are flagged as questionable with high complaint or bounce rates.
How Much Does Amazon SES Cost?
One of the key perks of Amazon SES is that it’s priced on a pay-as-you-go model, just like other popular AWS services.
There are no minimum charges or subscriptions required, as the costs are calculated based on how many emails you send and receive, with a base rate of $0.10 per 1,000 emails.
Then there are outgoing data charges of $0.12 per GB of data in the message body and attachments.
Additional fees apply for incoming mail chunks, dedicated IP addresses, and access to the Deliverability Dashboard.
Something else to consider is the AWS Free Usage Tier. This allows you to send 62,000 messages a month at no charge when using applications hosted through AWS Lambda or Amazon EC2.
This free usage benefit does not expire, although incoming mail chunks, EC2 transfer fees, and outgoing mail data charges still apply.
Also, the Bring Your Own IP (BYOIP) feature is optional and costs $24.95 per month for every IP address, so if you want to use several IPs, you’ll just need to pay slightly more.
To track Amazon SES usage and get a better idea of your bill, just head to the AWS Billing Dashboard, where current billing charges will appear in the management console.
You may also want to try the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate costs for your inbound and outbound email needs.
How to Get Started with Amazon SES
If you’re interested in paying as you send and receive emails via a trusted cloud service, then Amazon SES is worth exploring.
To get started, go to aws.amazon.com to create your AWS account, which is where you will add SES and any other desired web services to your organization’s dashboard.
If you already have an AWS account, then simply log in and go to the Amazon SES homepage to set up this service.
Once that’s done, you will get access to the Amazon SES sandbox, which is a testing area for new users. Here you can send messages to verified email identities, although your daily email send capacity will be limited at first.
These sandbox restrictions will lift following a review of your Sending Limit Increase request, as outlined on the Moving Out of the Amazon SES Sandbox page.
To learn more, you can also read posts on what is Amazon Subscribe & Save, what is Amazon Lightsail, and what is Amazon.Mx.
Amazon SES Pricing Table
Here is a summary of the current Amazon SES pricing for key features:
| Feature | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Outbound Email | $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent |
| Inbound Email | $0.10 per 1,000 emails received |
| Outgoing Data Transfer | $0.12 per GB |
| Inbound Data Transfer | $0.12 per GB |
| Dedicated IP Addresses | $24.95 per IP address per month |
| Reputation Dashboard | $0.80 per 10,000 emails tracked |
Conclusion
Amazon SES is Amazon‘s Simple Email Service and part of Amazon Web Services. Like other AWS offerings, Amazon SES uses a pay-as-you-go model that you can scale up or down as needed.
The flexibility, scalability, and low cost of Amazon SES make it attractive to developers for sending corporate updates and marketing campaigns from all applications. With features like analytics, authentication, and deliverability tools, Amazon SES provides an efficient way to manage high-volume email.
