SendGrid (by Twilio) is a popular API for transactional and marketing email — sign-up confirmations, password resets, receipts and newsletters. Here's the pricing, the free tier, and how to get started.
| Plan | Price | Emails |
|---|---|---|
| Free free tier | $0 | 100 / day, forever |
| Essentials | from ~$19.95/mo | up to 50k / mo |
| Pro | from ~$89.95/mo | 100k+ / mo, more features |
SendGrid's free plan sends up to 100 emails per day, indefinitely — no credit card required to start. That's plenty for a small app's transactional email (confirmations, resets, alerts). When you outgrow it, the paid tiers scale by monthly volume.
1. Sign up at sendgrid.com and complete onboarding.
2. Verify a sender — either a single sender email or (better) your whole domain via DNS. Email won't send until this is done.
3. Go to Settings → API Keys → Create API Key.
4. Choose Full Access or Restricted Access (Mail Send only is safest), name it, and copy the key once.
Send a test email:
Resend is a popular modern alternative with a clean API and a free tier (~3,000 emails/month). Amazon SES is the cheapest at scale (~$0.10 per 1,000 emails) but is more bare-bones. Mailgun and Postmark (great deliverability for transactional) are also worth comparing. For SMS instead of email, see Twilio.
Yes — 100 emails/day forever, no credit card to start. Good for low-volume transactional email.
Sign up, verify a sender (single sender or domain), then Settings → API Keys → Create API Key, choose access level, and copy it once.
Amazon SES is cheapest at scale (~$0.10/1,000 emails) but more bare-bones. Resend has a generous free tier and a nicer developer experience. SendGrid sits in between with strong features.
Not affiliated with SendGrid/Twilio. Prices are reference estimates — always verify on the official pricing page.