Q: Can I use Amazon SES as a free emailing service?

New customers can send emails for free through Amazon SES using the AWS Free Tier. SES' flexible free tier enables new senders to try the SES features you need. Receive up to 3,000 message charges for free each month for the first 12 months after you start using SES. The free tier can be used to try the following emailing services for free: Outbound emails, Inbound emails, Virtual Deliverability Manager outbound email processing. For more details, please see the Pricing Page . Starting July 15, 2025, new AWS customers will receive up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits, which can be applied towards eligible AWS services, including Amazon Simple Email Service. At account sign-up, you can choose between a free plan and a paid plan. The free plan will be available for 6 months after account creation. If you upgrade to a paid plan, any remaining Free Tier credit balance will automatically apply to your AWS bills. All Free Tier credits must be used within 12 months of your account creation date. To learn more about the AWS Free Tier program, refer to AWS Free Tier website and AWS Free Tier documentation

Q: Can I send emails from any email address?

No. You can only use Amazon SES to send email from addresses or domains that you own. To prove that you own an email address or domain, you have to verify it. In each AWS Region, you can verify up to 10,000 email addresses and domains, in any combination. For more information about verifying email addresses and domains, see Verifying Identities in Amazon SES in the Amazon SES Developer Guide.

Q: Is there a limit on the size of emails Amazon SES can deliver?

Amazon SES v2 API and SMTP accepts email messages up to 40MB in size including any images and attachments that are part of the message. Messages larger than 10MB are subject to bandwidth throttling, and depending on your sending rate, you may be throttled to as low as 40MB/s. For example, you could send a 40MB message at the rate of 1 message per second, or two 20MB messages per second. Amazon SES API v1 accepts messages up to 10MB in size including any images and attachments that are part of the message.

Amazon Simple Email Service FAQs | Cloud Email Service

Getting Started
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Pricing and Billing
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Limits and Restrictions
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Authentication, Validation, and Configuration
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Sending Capabilities
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Deliverability
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Deliverability Expert Services
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Security and Encryption
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Amazon SES and Other AWS Services
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Contacting Us
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Getting Started

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Amazon SES offers many email tools including: email sender configuration options, email deliverability tools, flexible email deployment options, sender and identity management, email security, email sending statistics, email reputation dashboard, and inbound email services.

The Amazon SES sandbox is an area where new users can test the capabilities of Amazon SES. When your account is in the sandbox, you can only send email to verified identities. A verified identity is an email addresses or domain that you've proven that you own.

Additionally, when your account is in the sandbox, there are limits to the volume of email you can send each day, and to the number of messages you can send each second.

When you're ready to start sending email to non-verified recipients, submit an Amazon SES Sending Limit Increase request through the AWS Support Center. For more information, see Moving Out of the Amazon SES Sandbox in the Amazon SES Developer Guide.

SES offers a suite of email deliverability tools called Virtual Deliverability Manager. With Virtual Deliverability Manager, email senders are able to track their email deliverability through deliverability insights and improve email inbox placement through Virtual Deliverability Manager's deliverability recommendations. Email senders can also enable Virtual Deliverability Manager to automatically implement recommendations that instantly improve their email deliverability.

Pricing and Billing

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You can view your charges for the current billing period at any time by visiting the Billing Dashboard in the AWS Management Console.

Amazon SES FAQs

Getting Started

Q: What email tools does Amazon SES offer?

Q: What is an easy way to test Amazon SES?

Q: Can I start sending large email volumes right away?

Q: How can SES help me improve email deliverability?

Pricing and Billing

Q: How can I track my Amazon SES usage?