Pricing overview
Mailgun structures its pricing primarily around the volume of emails sent or received, offering different plans tailored to various usage levels and feature requirements. The core of Mailgun's pricing model is a monthly subscription that includes a set number of emails, with additional emails often incurring a per-email overage charge. Pricing tiers also differentiate access to features such as dedicated IP addresses, email validation, and advanced analytics. Customers can choose between subscription plans or a pay-as-you-go model for high-volume needs Mailgun pricing page details.
Mailgun categorizes its offerings into several plans: Foundation, Scale, and Enterprise. Each plan builds upon the previous one by increasing email allowances and unlocking more sophisticated features. Beyond the base email sending, costs may also arise from add-ons like email validation services, which help maintain list hygiene by verifying email addresses before sending Mailgun email validation information. Other potential cost factors include enhanced support packages, longer data retention periods, and specific security features.
Plans and tiers
Mailgun offers three primary paid plans: Foundation, Scale, and Enterprise. Each plan is designed to accommodate different email volumes and feature sets, moving from basic transactional email needs to complex, high-volume enterprise deployments.
| Plan Name | Starting Price | Key Email Volume / Limits | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation | $35/month | Up to 50,000 emails/month; additional emails at $0.80 per 1,000 | Small to medium-sized businesses and developers sending transactional emails or low-volume marketing campaigns. Includes basic analytics and 3-day log retention. |
| Scale | $90/month (for 100,000 emails) | Up to 100,000 emails/month included; additional emails at $0.70 per 1,000 (volume discounts apply) | Growing businesses requiring higher email volumes, improved deliverability with a shared dedicated IP, and more extensive analytics. Includes 7-day log retention and advanced inbound routing. Additional email validation credits included. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | High-volume requirements (over 1,000,000 emails/month), custom rates | Large organizations and enterprises needing custom solutions, dedicated infrastructure, personalized support, and advanced compliance. Features include dedicated IP pools, custom log retention, and premium support. |
Each plan includes access to Mailgun's core API for sending, receiving, and tracking emails, along with webhooks for real-time event notifications. Feature availability, such as dedicated IP addresses, log retention periods, and specific support levels, scales with the chosen plan. Overage charges for emails sent beyond a plan's monthly allowance are applied per 1,000 emails, with rates decreasing at higher volumes.
Free tier and limits
Mailgun offers a free tier designed to allow new users to test the platform's capabilities without an initial financial commitment. The free tier provides 1,000 emails per month for a duration of three months. This includes access to Mailgun's API for sending and receiving emails, basic tracking and analytics, and most core features. After the three-month period or exceeding the 1,000-email limit within three months, users must upgrade to a paid plan to continue service Mailgun pricing plans. This free tier is primarily intended for development and testing, enabling developers to integrate and configure the Mailgun API prior to full-scale deployment.
Real-world cost examples
Understanding Mailgun's pricing involves considering both the base plan cost and potential overage charges or add-ons. Here are a few scenarios:
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Small Business Transactional Emails: A small e-commerce store sends approximately 40,000 transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping updates) per month. This volume fits within Mailgun's Foundation plan. At $35/month for up to 50,000 emails, their monthly cost would be $35. If they spike to 55,000 emails in a month, they would incur an overage of 5,000 emails at $0.80 per 1,000, adding $4 to their bill, for a total of $39.
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Medium-sized Marketing and Notifications: A growing SaaS company sends 150,000 emails per month, including user notifications and marketing newsletters. This exceeds the Foundation plan. They would likely opt for the Scale plan, which includes 100,000 emails for $90/month. The additional 50,000 emails would be charged at the Scale plan's overage rate, which is $0.70 per 1,000 for that volume. This adds $35 to their bill, bringing the total monthly cost to $125.
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High-volume Enterprise Communication: A large social media platform sends 2.5 million emails monthly. This volume necessitates an Enterprise plan. While custom pricing applies, a typical structure might involve a base fee for the first million emails, with a significantly reduced per-email rate for subsequent volumes. For example, if they negotiate a rate of $0.40 per 1,000 emails at this scale, their monthly cost would be around $1,000. They might also include add-ons like dedicated IP pools and premium support, increasing the total customized cost.
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Email Validation Add-on: A business using the Foundation plan (sending 40,000 emails) decides to implement Mailgun's email validation service for 10,000 contacts monthly. The email validation service is priced separately. For instance, validating 10,000 emails might cost an additional $15 per month. Their total monthly bill would then be $35 (Foundation plan) + $15 (validation) = $50.
How the pricing compares
Mailgun competes in the transactional email space with providers like SendGrid, Postmark, and Amazon SES. The comparison often involves looking at the cost per email, included features, and the availability of a free tier.
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SendGrid: SendGrid offers a similar tiered pricing model with a free plan providing 100 emails/day forever SendGrid pricing plans. Paid plans start at around $19.95/month for 50,000 emails, which is generally lower than Mailgun's starting Foundation plan. However, SendGrid often charges extra for advanced features like dedicated IP addresses in its lower tiers, which Mailgun includes in some of its paid plans. Mailgun's per-email overage rates can be competitive at higher volumes.
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Postmark: Postmark focuses primarily on transactional emails, emphasizing speed and deliverability. Its pricing model typically starts at a higher base for fewer emails, for example, $15 for 10,000 emails, and scales with volume Postmark pricing information. Postmark generally does not offer a free tier in the same way Mailgun or SendGrid do, but provides a 30-day free trial. For very high volumes, its per-email cost can become less competitive than Mailgun or AWS SES.
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Amazon Simple Email Service (SES): AWS SES is known for its low cost, particularly for high volumes. It offers a free tier for emails sent from EC2 instances or through the AWS Lambda free usage tier Amazon SES pricing details. Standard pricing is often $0.10 per 1,000 emails, significantly lower than Mailgun's and SendGrid's starting overage rates. However, SES typically requires more technical setup and management, and lacks the user-friendly interface or pre-built email templates offered by Mailgun or SendGrid. Developers might need to build more functionality from scratch or integrate with other AWS services to match the feature set of a platform like Mailgun AWS SES developer guide.
Mailgun positions itself as a balance between ease of use and powerful API capabilities, often at a mid-range price point compared to its alternatives. The choice depends on a business's specific email volume, technical resources, and required feature set.