A 10,000 contact list costs $4 a month to email on Amazon SES, about $20 on SendGrid, about $100 on Mailchimp and about $150 on Klaviyo at 4 sends a month. A 100,000 contact list is $40, $350, $800 and $1,000 on the same four, and a 1M list is $400, $2,400, $5,000 and $7,000. A dedicated server bought once for $549 sits at about $66 a month for every list up to 180,000 contacts and about $130 a month up to 1.5M. The rule that converts your list into a bill is contacts times sends per month. Everything below is that rule worked through at eight list sizes.
Figures are from each vendor's pricing page as of September 2026, rounded, and they match cost per 1,000 emails for every provider and the break-even point for a dedicated SMTP server, so you can cross-check.
Step 1, turn contacts into monthly emails
Monthly emails equals contacts multiplied by campaigns per month. Pricing pages quote sends, and unless you're on Mailchimp or Klaviyo, sends are what you pay for.
| Sender type | Sends per contact per month | 50K list becomes |
|---|---|---|
| B2B, SaaS, content, most newsletters | 4 | 200,000 emails |
| Ecommerce with promos and flows | 8 | 400,000 emails |
| Daily newsletter | 30 | 1,500,000 emails |
| Quarterly or occasional | 1 | 50,000 emails |
Four sends a month is the default in every table here, because that is where most lists I've audited sit once you count the automated flows. If you're a store, use the 8-send table further down. If you send daily, you're at volumes where list size stops mattering, so read the cost per 1,000 figures directly.
Count real sends from the last 90 days, not the plan. A "monthly newsletter" with a welcome series and two promos is 4 sends, not 1.
Step 2, read the bill off the master table
Monthly cost at 4 sends a month. Mailchimp and Klaviyo are billed on the contact count, everyone else on the send count. The dedicated server column is year-one cost per month: the one-time fee spread over 12 months plus hosting. In year two only the hosting remains.
| Contacts | Emails per month | Amazon SES | Mailgun | SendGrid | Brevo | Mailchimp | Klaviyo | Dedicated server, year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10K | 40K | $4 | ~$35 | ~$20 | ~$45 | ~$100 | ~$150 | ~$66 (Basic) |
| 25K | 100K | $10 | ~$90 | ~$90 | ~$75 | ~$300 | ~$400 | ~$66 (Basic) |
| 50K | 200K | $20 | ~$200 | ~$200 | ~$200 | ~$450 | ~$600 | ~$66 (Basic) |
| 100K | 400K | $40 | ~$350 | ~$350 | ~$250 | ~$800 | ~$1,000 | ~$66 (Basic) |
| 250K | 1M | $100 | ~$750 | ~$900 | ~$550 | ~$1,600 | ~$2,400 | ~$130 (Advance) |
| 500K | 2M | $200 | ~$1,300 | ~$1,500 | ~$900 | ~$2,800 | ~$4,000 | ~$130 (Advance) |
| 1M | 4M | $400 | ~$2,200 | ~$2,400 | ~$1,600 | ~$5,000 | ~$7,000 | ~$420 (top tier) |
| 10M | 40M | $4,000 | ~$18,000 | ~$20,000 | ~$12,000 | quote | quote | ~$2,900 (7 servers) |
How the server column was built. The tier boundary is the part people miss.
- Basic, $549 one-time, 25,000 a day. That's 750,000 a month, so it covers every list up to about 180,000 contacts at 4 sends. Year one is $549 / 12 plus about $20 hosting, roughly $66 a month. Year two is $20.
- Advance, $1,199 one-time. Needed once you pass 25,000 a day. 250K and 500K lists at 4 sends are 33,000 and 67,000 a day. Year one is $100 a month plus about $30 hosting.
- Top tier, $2,997 one-time, 200,000 a day. A 1M list at 4 sends is 133,000 a day. Year one is $250 a month plus a bigger VPS around $170.
- The ceiling is 200,000 a day per setup. A 10M list at 4 sends is 1.33M a day, which is 7 setups at the top tier. That's a quote, not a price list, and I've put a rough year-one figure in the table so the row isn't blank.
Amazon SES is $0.10 per 1,000 at any volume, which is why it's the only column that scales in a straight line. It's also the column with no warm-up help, no campaign UI and no support without a paid AWS plan.
Mailchimp and Klaviyo above 250K contacts are "contact sales" territory. The 500K and 1M figures are from real quotes, not published rates.
Step 3, check the 8-send version if you're a store
Ecommerce lists send twice as often as B2B lists. That doubles every metered bill without moving the contact-priced ones or the server, until a cap is crossed. Here are the three routes that end up cheapest at each size.
| Contacts | Emails per month at 8 sends | Amazon SES | SendGrid | Dedicated server, year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10K | 80K | $8 | ~$60 | ~$66 (Basic) |
| 25K | 200K | $20 | ~$200 | ~$66 (Basic) |
| 50K | 400K | $40 | ~$350 | ~$66 (Basic) |
| 100K | 800K | $80 | ~$700 | ~$130 (Advance) |
| 250K | 2M | $200 | ~$1,500 | ~$130 (Advance) |
| 500K | 4M | $400 | ~$2,400 | ~$420 (top tier) |
| 1M | 8M | $800 | ~$4,500 | ~$840 (2 servers) |
| 10M | 80M | $8,000 | ~$36,000 | ~$5,900 (14 servers) |
SendGrid stands in for the relay band. Mailgun and Brevo land within about 20% of it at every row.
Two things change at 8 sends. The server tier boundary moves down one row, so a 100K list now needs Advance, because 800K a month is 27,000 a day. And SES pulls level with the server on cash at 500K contacts and above. Past that point the choice between SES and a server is about hours and control, not the invoice.
Klaviyo includes 10 sends per profile a month, so a 50K store list at 8 sends stays inside the $600 plan. At 12 sends you're over the cap and buying more.
Cost per contact per year
Divide the annual bill by the list size and the routes sort themselves cleanly. This is the number to put in a budget, because if the list doubles, the bill doubles.
| Contacts | Amazon SES | SendGrid | Mailchimp | Klaviyo | Dedicated server, year 1 | Dedicated server, year 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10K | $0.005 | ~$0.024 | ~$0.12 | ~$0.18 | ~$0.08 | ~$0.024 |
| 25K | $0.005 | ~$0.043 | ~$0.14 | ~$0.19 | ~$0.03 | ~$0.010 |
| 100K | $0.005 | ~$0.042 | ~$0.10 | ~$0.12 | ~$0.008 | ~$0.002 |
| 1M | $0.005 | ~$0.029 | ~$0.06 | ~$0.08 | ~$0.005 | ~$0.002 |
Read across the 100K row. Mailchimp charges 20 times what SES does per contact and 12 times a first-year server. Klaviyo is 24 and 15 times. That is why a 100K list on Klaviyo costs $12,000 a year for sending that costs $480 on SES.
The server's year-one figure is the worst it ever gets. At 10K contacts it is the second most expensive route, because $549 spread over a small list is a lot per head. At 100K it is a fraction of a cent, and by year two it is the cheapest route in the table at every size from 25K up.
Where contact pricing flips from cheapest to dearest
Between 5,000 and 10,000 contacts. Below that, contact pricing is fine and often the best deal. Above it, you are paying for a campaign editor at a price that scales with a number that only grows.
| List size | Mailchimp Standard | Klaviyo | SendGrid Essentials | Amazon SES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | $0 (free tier) | $0 (free tier) | ~$20 | $0.20 |
| 2,000 | ~$30 | ~$45 | ~$20 | $0.80 |
| 5,000 | ~$100 | ~$110 | ~$20 | $2 |
| 10,000 | ~$100 | ~$150 | ~$20 | $4 |
| 25,000 | ~$300 | ~$400 | ~$90 | $10 |
At 500 contacts Mailchimp is free and SendGrid is $20, so Mailchimp wins outright. At 2,000 they're level. At 5,000 Mailchimp is five times SendGrid and fifty times SES, and the ratio only widens from there. The reason is structural: a relay's cost per contact falls as you grow into cheaper tiers, while a contact-priced plan holds its per-contact rate or raises it.
The honest counter is that the $100 buys an editor, segmentation and reporting that SES does not have. If that saves 4 hours a month at $50 an hour it's paid for at 5,000 contacts. It is not paid for at 50,000, where the same tools cost $450 to $600 a month and Mautic does the job on a server for free. How many emails before you need dedicated infrastructure covers the non-cost signals that arrive around the same time.
Worked example, a 75,000 contact list
A 75K B2B list at 4 sends is 300,000 emails a month, or 10,000 a day spread over the working days. Here's what that costs on each route and how fast a server pays for itself against it.
| Route | Monthly bill | 12-month total | Break-even for a $549 server |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon SES | $30 | $360 | month 55, cash only |
| SendGrid Pro | ~$280 | ~$3,360 | month 3 |
| Mailgun | ~$280 | ~$3,360 | month 3 |
| Brevo Business plus IP | ~$300 | ~$3,600 | month 2 |
| Mailchimp Standard | ~$650 | ~$7,800 | month 1 |
| Klaviyo | ~$800 | ~$9,600 | month 1 |
| Dedicated server (Basic) | $549 once plus $20 hosting | $789 | not applicable |
The break-even column is $549 divided by the monthly bill minus $20 hosting, rounded up. Against SendGrid at $280 that's 549 / 260 = 2.1, so month 3. Against Mailchimp it's under one month. Against SES it's 4.6 years on cash, which is why SES is the one route where the server is a hours-and-control decision rather than a money one.
The 75K list is comfortably inside Basic: 10,000 a day against a 25,000 cap leaves room to grow to 180,000 contacts or move to 8 sends before you touch the next tier. Three IPs at 3,300 a day each is a light load once warm. The 250,000 emails a month cost breakdown is the closest full-stack costing if you want the line items.
What $280 a month on SendGrid buys is a warm shared pool and someone else's suspension policy. Google's bulk sender guidelines set the complaint line at 0.3%. SendGrid acts nearer 0.1%, because your complaints land on IPs its other customers share.
Five questions before you trust the number
- What was the real send count for the last 90 days? Divide by 3 and by contacts. That's your sends-per-month figure, and it's usually higher than you'd guess.
- Which server tier does that put you in? Under 25,000 a day is Basic at $549. Up to 200,000 a day is Advance or above. Over that is multiple setups and a quote.
- Are you paying for contacts or sends? If the bill is on contacts and the list is over 10,000, run the master table row for your size and see the gap.
- What does the peak month look like? Black Friday at 3x volume moves you up a relay tier and can cross a server's daily cap. Price the peak, not the average.
- Have you priced two years? The server's year-one figure includes the whole one-time fee. Year two is hosting only, $20 to $170 a month depending on tier.
Under 10,000 contacts, stay where you are and re-run this when the list doubles. Above 25,000 on anything except SES, the relay bill is 3 to 15 times the server's, and the gap grows with the list.
How BulkEmailSetup helps
We build dedicated SMTP infrastructure you own: your own server, your own IPs, SPF/DKIM/DMARC/PTR configured, MTA tuned, bounce handling wired up and a warm-up plan for the first 4 to 8 weeks. There is no contact count and no per-email meter, so the bill in the tables above is the one-time fee plus hosting, whatever size the list grows to.
Basic is $549 one-time, covering 1 SMTP server, 3 dedicated IPs, 25,000 emails/day and unlimited contacts, which carries any list up to about 180,000 contacts at 4 sends a month. Higher tiers scale to 15 IPs and 200,000 emails/day. See pricing, or take your row from the master table into the break-even calculation to see how many months the relay bill covers it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert my list size into a monthly email volume?
Multiply contacts by the number of campaigns you send each month. A 50,000 contact list at 4 sends a month is 200,000 emails. Most B2B and content senders land at 3 to 5 sends a month, ecommerce stores at 6 to 10, and daily newsletters at 25 to 30. Use your real campaign calendar from the last 90 days rather than the number you intend to hit.
What does it cost to email a 100,000 contact list every month?
At 4 sends a month that is 400,000 emails. Amazon SES bills about $40, SendGrid and Mailgun around $350, Brevo around $250, Mailchimp roughly $800 and Klaviyo roughly $1,000. A dedicated server at $549 one-time plus $20 hosting works out to about $66 a month in year one and $20 a month after that, because 400,000 a month is 13,000 a day, well inside the 25,000 a day Basic cap.
At what list size does Mailchimp or Klaviyo stop being cheap?
Between 5,000 and 10,000 contacts. Under 2,000 contacts Mailchimp is $20 to $30 a month, close to any relay with a campaign UI. At 5,000 contacts Mailchimp Standard is about $100 and Klaviyo about $110, while the same 20,000 emails cost $2 on SES and $20 on SendGrid. By 25,000 contacts the gap is $300 to $400 a month against $10 to $90.
How much does a dedicated SMTP server cost per contact per year?
Less than a cent per contact at 100,000 contacts and above. Basic is $549 one-time plus about $20 a month hosting, so year one is $789 in total, which is $0.008 per contact on a 100,000 list and $0.03 on a 25,000 list. Mailchimp at the same sizes is about $0.10 to $0.14 per contact per year, and Klaviyo $0.12 to $0.19.
Which dedicated server tier do I need for my list size?
Basic at $549 handles 25,000 emails a day, which is 750,000 a month, so any list up to about 180,000 contacts at 4 sends a month. Between 180,000 and 1.5M contacts at 4 sends you need Advance or a higher tier, which run up to 200,000 a day. Above that ceiling, or a 10M list at any cadence, you are on multiple servers and the price is a quote.
Does sending more often change which provider is cheapest?
Yes, and it favours flat-cost routes. Doubling from 4 to 8 sends a month doubles the SES, Mailgun, SendGrid and Brevo bill, leaves Mailchimp and Klaviyo unchanged until you hit their send caps, and leaves a dedicated server unchanged until you cross a daily tier cap. A 50,000 contact list at 8 sends costs $40 on SES, about $350 on SendGrid and about $66 on a Basic server.
