Editorial review — prices checked 7 October 2026
MailerSend Pricing Guide 2026
For AI-native teams that want code and agents to own outbound transactional email, MailerSend is our pick among the sending tools in this guide. The Hobby plan costs $6.30 a month and covers 5,000 emails, while the Free plan includes 500 emails a month with the Email API and SMTP relay, so you can wire the sender into your stack before paying anything.
Who this guide is for
This page is written for teams whose product or agents send transactional mail themselves: receipts, password resets, account notices, alerts triggered by a workflow, and small batches of announcements that come out of code rather than a marketing dashboard. If your main need is an inbox client for your own reading, or a journey builder that nurtures subscribers over weeks, MailerSend is the wrong category, and the comparison below says so plainly.
The question that matters for this audience is not which tool has the longest feature list. It is which sender you can call from code, observe through logs and webhooks, and afford at the volume you will actually reach in the first year. MailerSend scores well on the first two and sits at a low entry price on the third, which is why it leads this guide.
Prices at a glance
The table compares the three sending tools covered on this page by their entry plan, the billing option shown on the vendor's pricing page and the main limitation to plan around. Prices are in US dollars and were read from each vendor's pricing page on 7 October 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Entry price (plan and billing) | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailerSend | Developer-owned transactional sends, SMTP and API sending, agent-driven sending | Free: 500 emails/month. Hobby: $6.30/month, or $75.60 billed yearly, for 5,000 emails/month | Not a lifecycle or journey platform; usage above the monthly allowance is billed as overage |
| Resend | Developers who want a simple sending API with a large free allowance | Free: 3,000 emails/month. Pro: $20/month for 50,000 emails/month | Marketing contacts are priced on a separate contact ladder from sending volume |
| Sender | Small teams that want a low-cost plan with a subscriber list and modest sending volume | Free Forever: 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails/month. Standard: $6.30/month for 6,000 emails/month | Limits combine subscriber count and send volume, so a growing list can push you up a tier |
Source: each vendor's pricing page. Plan prices and billing options change; confirm them on the pricing page before you commit.
What each MailerSend plan includes
Free and the 14-day trial
The Free plan costs $0 and includes 500 emails a month, the Email API and the SMTP relay. This is the right starting point for an integration: you can send real test messages from your application, check how your templates render and confirm that your webhook handlers receive events. The free plan is not a production plan for anything you cannot afford to have rate-limited or paused.
MailerSend also offers a 14-day trial with Professional features, which allows 500 emails a month during the trial. Use the trial to evaluate features you will need later, such as SMS or longer retention, and then decide which plan you want. Do not build your launch around the trial length; plan the transition to a paid tier before it ends.
Hobby: $6.30 a month for 5,000 emails
Hobby is the entry paid plan. It costs $6.30 a month when billed monthly, or $75.60 billed yearly, and covers 5,000 emails a month. It suits side projects, early product notifications, and internal tools that send a few thousand messages. Usage beyond the 5,000 allowance is billed as overage per 1,000 emails. The overage rate is stated on the pricing page and is not repeated here, so check it before you model a spike month.
Starter: $31.50 a month for 50,000 emails
Starter costs $31.50 a month, or $378 billed yearly, and covers 50,000 emails a month. The step from Hobby is $25.20 a month ($31.50 minus $6.30), and it buys ten times the monthly allowance. For most growing products with steady transactional traffic, this is the tier where the bill becomes predictable, because you are far less likely to cross the allowance in a normal month.
Professional: $99 a month for 50,000 emails plus SMS
Professional costs $99 a month, or $1,188 billed yearly, and also covers 50,000 emails a month. Its distinguishing addition is 150 SMS messages a month. Pay for Professional when you need that SMS allowance, or when the vendor's feature list for Professional matches a requirement you have. If you only need the 50,000-email volume and no SMS, Starter is $67.50 a month cheaper ($99 minus $31.50), which is $810 a year.
Above 50,000 emails a month
For volumes above 50,000 emails a month, the price is pricing on request in this guide. Confirm the tier and the overage terms on the pricing page or with the vendor directly before you commit a budget to a volume that large.
What the bill looks like at real volumes
Costs below are for MailerSend at the monthly send volumes teams commonly reach. The plan is the smallest one whose monthly allowance covers the volume. Overage is excluded because its rate is not quoted here.
| Emails per month | Smallest plan that covers it | Monthly price | Billed yearly | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 400 | Free | $0 | Not applicable | Within the 500-email allowance; good for integration testing |
| 4,000 | Hobby | $6.30 | $75.60 per year | Within the 5,000-email allowance |
| 20,000 | Starter | $31.50 | $378 per year | Above Hobby's allowance, well within Starter's 50,000 |
| 50,000 | Starter, or Professional for SMS | $31.50, or $99 | $378, or $1,188 per year | Professional adds 150 SMS a month for $67.50 more per month |
| 60,000 | Pricing on request | Pricing on request | Pricing on request | Above the 50,000-email tiers; check the pricing page for current options |
Sending volume is the figure that moves a MailerSend bill. Plan the tier from your monthly peak, not from the average, because usage above an allowance is billed as overage.
Reading the volume table honestly
Two numbers drive most of the decision. The first is your monthly peak. A product that sends 4,000 messages in a typical month but 9,000 during a launch will pay overage in the launch month on Hobby, so either buy Starter for the year or accept the overage as a planned cost. The second is the step size between plans. Going from Free to Hobby costs $6.30 a month. Going from Hobby to Starter costs $25.20 a month more. Going from Starter to Professional costs $67.50 a month more, and that extra money buys SMS, not extra email volume.
A simple budget rule works well here. Take the monthly peak from the last three months, add a margin for the next quarter's growth, and pick the smallest plan that covers that figure. If the result sits near a plan boundary, price both plans with the overage rate from the pricing page and compare. The table does not replace that check; it shows where the boundaries sit.
Comparing MailerSend with the other sending tools
MailerSend
What it does well for this audience. MailerSend puts the Email API and SMTP relay on its Free plan, which means an engineer can test real delivery paths before committing. It offers an API and SMTP access, inbound routing, webhooks, suppression management and a drag-and-drop template builder. The vendor's listing also describes an MCP server, which is the piece that matters for AI-native teams: an agent can work with sending through a standard interface rather than a custom wrapper. The Hobby plan is among the cheapest paid entries in this group for a sender of this kind.
Where it falls short. MailerSend is a sending platform, not a lifecycle platform. You will not get a journey builder that nurtures subscribers over several weeks from it, and the value you get comes from code and logs, not from a marketing timeline. Overage is billed beyond each allowance, so a volume spike is a billing event, not a throttle; plan for it. The trial and Free plan are for evaluation, not for launch.
Price. Free covers 500 emails a month. Hobby is $6.30 a month for 5,000 emails, or $75.60 billed yearly. Starter is $31.50 a month for 50,000 emails. Professional is $99 a month for 50,000 emails with 150 SMS. Check the current figures on the MailerSend pricing page.
Resend
What it does well for this audience. Resend is built for developers who want a simple sending API with a generous free tier. Its Free plan allows 3,000 emails a month, which is six times MailerSend's Free allowance, and its Pro plan gives 50,000 emails a month for $20. For a team whose main need is application email over an API, that is a strong combination, and it is the closest alternative to MailerSend in this guide.
Where it falls short. Marketing use is priced on a contact ladder that is separate from sending volume. If you plan to run newsletters or segmented campaigns to a large list, model the contact tier as well as the email tier. Compare the feature set you need against MailerSend's, particularly SMS and inbound routing, before choosing.
Price. Free includes 3,000 emails a month. Pro is $20 a month for 50,000 emails. Scale is $90 a month for 100,000 emails. See the Resend pricing page for current marketing contact tiers.
Sender
What it does well for this audience. Sender is aimed at small teams that want a low-cost plan built around a subscriber list. Its Free Forever plan includes 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, which makes it a practical choice for a small newsletter alongside a product. The Standard plan at $6.30 a month for 6,000 emails sits at the same price point as MailerSend's Hobby.
Where it falls short. Sender's limits combine subscriber count and send volume, so a list that grows quickly can move you up a tier even if your monthly sends stay flat. It is better suited to list-based email than to developer-driven transactional traffic, so check the API and webhook documentation against your integration plan before moving production sends to it.
Price. Free Forever covers 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month. Standard is $6.30 a month for 6,000 emails and 500 subscribers. Professional is $10.50 a month for 12,000 emails and 500 subscribers. See the Sender pricing page for the current subscriber tiers.
Inbox clients such as Superhuman, Shortwave, Spark and HEY are a different category. They help you read and reply to mail and do not send transactional or campaign email for your product, so they are not alternatives to the sending tools above.
How to choose
The table below turns the comparison into a short decision list. Each row names a common requirement, the pick that fits it best and the reason from the vendor's own plan details.
| If you need | Pick | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional sends from code, with an API and SMTP access | MailerSend | The Email API and SMTP relay are included on the Free plan, so integration can start at $0 |
| The lowest paid entry for a few thousand sends a month | MailerSend Hobby | $6.30 a month for 5,000 emails, or $75.60 billed yearly |
| The largest free sending allowance for developer testing | Resend | The Free plan allows 3,000 emails a month |
| A small list with a subscriber-based plan | Sender | Free Forever includes 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month |
| 50,000 sends a month plus SMS in one plan | MailerSend Professional | Professional includes 150 SMS a month alongside 50,000 emails for $99 a month |
| Journeys, nurture sequences and lifecycle automation | A lifecycle platform | MailerSend is a sending platform; its strength is code-driven delivery, not journey design |
Where AI-native workflows fit
MailerSend is a good match for AI-native workflows because the sending step is a plain API call that an agent can make only after its own checks pass. The common mistake is to let an agent write copy and press send in the same step. A safer pattern is a short gate before every send. The agent confirms that the sending domain is authenticated, that each recipient is checked against the suppression list, that every template variable in the message resolves to a real value, and that the account has quota headroom for the batch. It returns a pass or fail for each check and sends only when all of them pass.
Keep a human-readable log of what the agent sent and why. MailerSend's logs and webhook events give you the delivery record; your own log should add the trigger, the template version and the check results. When something goes wrong, that combined record is what lets you tell a template fault from a list fault or a quota problem.
Model cost on the agent's behaviour, not only on your product's users. An agent that retries a failed batch can multiply the monthly send count quickly. Put a cap on retries and count every retry against the allowance so that a loop does not turn into overage.
Setup and migration checklist
Moving transactional sends to MailerSend is usually a sprint's work, because there are no journeys to rebuild. The checklist below sets out the order that avoids the common failures. Each row names a step, what to do and the condition to confirm before moving on.
| Step | What to do | Confirm before moving on |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Authenticate the domain | Publish the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records that MailerSend asks for on the sending domain | Records resolve and the domain shows as authenticated in the dashboard |
| 2. Start on Free | Send test messages through the Email API and SMTP relay from your application | Templates render and webhook events reach your handler |
| 3. Import suppressions | Copy the unsubscribe and complaint list from your current sender before any production send | Counts match, and no suppressed address can receive a message |
| 4. Dual-send low-risk mail | Send password resets or receipts through both senders for a short overlap | Delivery and bounce rates are comparable on both rails |
| 5. Cut streams over one by one | Move each message type separately, starting with the lowest-risk one | Each stream runs on MailerSend for a full billing cycle without incident |
| 6. Size the plan | Take the monthly peak, add a growth margin and choose the smallest covering tier | Overage at the peak is either acceptable or avoided by the chosen tier |
| 7. Retire the old sender | Keep logs from the overlap period, then decommission the old sending rail | Bounce categories in your retry logic match what MailerSend reports |
Common mistakes to avoid
The first mistake is picking a tier from the average month. Transactional traffic follows product events, so a launch, a price change or a bulk notification can produce a peak several times the average. Size the tier from the peak, or accept that overage is part of the plan.
The second is treating the trial as a launch plan. The trial gives Professional features for 14 days with 500 emails a month. It is an evaluation window. Move production to a paid tier before the trial ends, and test the Free plan's limits on your own integration rather than assuming them.
The third is forgetting suppression lists during migration. A complaint honoured on the old sender but not imported to the new one is a deliverability problem that will follow your domain. Copy the list first and verify it on the first overlap day.
The fourth is confusing a sending tool with a lifecycle tool. If your plan depends on journeys that wait days between messages and branch on user behaviour, MailerSend will not replace that work. Use it for the code-triggered messages and a lifecycle platform for the rest.
Related
- Top AI-native email tools — the full shortlist, including Resend and the developer-sender group.
- Pricing overview — the vendors on this site compared side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Is MailerSend free to start?
Yes. The Free plan costs $0 and includes 500 emails a month, the Email API and the SMTP relay. MailerSend also offers a 14-day trial with Professional features, which allows 500 emails a month during the trial.
How much is the Hobby plan?
Hobby costs $6.30 a month when billed monthly, or $75.60 billed yearly. It covers 5,000 emails a month. Usage above that allowance is billed as overage per 1,000 emails, at the rate shown on the pricing page.
Which plan should I pick for 50,000 emails a month?
Starter at $31.50 a month ($378 billed yearly) covers 50,000 emails. Professional at $99 a month ($1,188 billed yearly) covers the same volume and adds 150 SMS a month. Choose Professional only if you need the SMS allowance; otherwise Starter is $67.50 a month cheaper.
What happens when I go over my monthly allowance?
Usage beyond the monthly allowance is billed as overage, charged per 1,000 emails. The rate is listed on the MailerSend pricing page. Plan around your monthly peak so that overage stays a deliberate cost rather than a surprise.
Can an AI agent send email through MailerSend?
The vendor's listing describes an MCP server, and sending is available through the Email API and SMTP relay. Confirm the current tool list and authentication steps in the MailerSend documentation before you build an agent on it, and put a pre-send check in front of every send.
Is MailerSend a good choice for newsletters and nurture sequences?
It is a sending platform built around code-driven delivery, not a lifecycle platform with journey design. For newsletters with a large subscriber list, compare Sender's subscriber-based plans or a marketing-focused tool. Use MailerSend for the transactional messages your product triggers.
How does MailerSend compare with Resend on price?
Resend's Free plan allows 3,000 emails a month, and its Pro plan costs $20 a month for 50,000 emails. MailerSend's Free plan allows 500 emails, and Starter costs $31.50 a month for 50,000 emails. For a developer testing an integration, Resend's free allowance is larger. Compare the feature set you need, such as SMS and inbound routing, before deciding.
What should I do before moving production sends?
Authenticate the sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, import your suppression list, run both senders in parallel for low-risk messages, and then move each message type in turn. Confirm the delivery and bounce numbers match before you retire the old sender.