Estimate transactional email service costs

Estimate one month and one year of transactional email service charges from the billable volume and prices shown for a service you choose. Enter the service's monthly included allowance, its applicable charge per 1,000 billable units above that allowance, and any fixed monthly subscription. Use the same currency for all costs. This page does not compare deliverability.

Enter all five values. Use 0 when an allowance, fee, or separate mailbox cost does not apply.

How the estimate works

Billable overage units = the greater of zero or monthly volume minus the included allowance. Estimated monthly service cost = fixed monthly fee + (overage units ÷ 1,000 × your entered overage price). The result also shows the service cost annualized over 12 identical months. If the plan uses graduated tiers, a separate per-message fee, or another billing unit, do not treat one flat rate as exact; use an effective rate only if the provider's terms support that estimate.

The optional mailbox amount is reported separately from transactional service charges, with a combined budget shown for convenience. It is not added to the transactional service subtotal. A mailbox plan and an automated transactional sending service solve different jobs; use the website mailbox cost comparison for mailbox subscription terms.

Example of why the rate needs checking

Amazon SES's pricing page currently lists an Essentials plan rate of $0.16 per 1,000 emails for the first volume tier, with later tiers priced differently and applied marginally. Its page says outbound email is charged per recipient and lists a separate charge for attachment data. That is a dated example of one service's billing rules, not a universal rate or a prefilled quote. For a selected provider, check the service, region, plan, tier boundary, billing unit, included allowance, attachments, taxes, and any fixed fees before entering values.

For WordPress, the official mail guidance explains that WordPress submits messages through a configured mail system; it does not provide a mail transfer agent by default. The guide discusses local mail configuration and third-party relays. A successful WordPress API return does not establish that a recipient received a message, so this cost worksheet makes no delivery or inbox-placement claims.

Sources checked November 3, 2026

• Amazon SES pricing — current plan tiers, per-1,000 pricing, marginal tier application, recipient billing, and additional attachment-data charges.
• WordPress mail configuration guidance — WordPress mailing architecture and options for configuring a local mail system or relay.
• WordPress wp_mail() reference — a successful return indicates processing without errors; it does not confirm receipt.

Values are estimates based on your entries, not provider quotes. The calculation excludes attachment/data fees, taxes, overage rounding, credits, add-ons, and price changes unless you include them in your entered monthly fee or rate. Verify service terms and billing currency at checkout. Keep mailbox hosting separate when budgeting email accounts.