# Bird vs Amazon SES for transactional email

Bird brings email, SMS and voice into the same account. Compare the email integration and published pricing for your workload, starting with the [Bird Email API](/email-api) for the full surface.

[Start for Free](/dashboard/signup?returnTo=%2Fdashboard%2Fw%2Femail)

[Contact sales](/demo?product=migrate-amazon-ses)

## Set up with your agent

[Read the agent setup guide](/docs/ai/set-up-your-agent)

Copy this prompt into your coding agent:

```text
Bird connects customer communications, data and automation. Help me build with Bird using my coding agent.
1. Read https://bird.com/docs/ai/set-up-your-agent.md and follow its setup workflow for this client. Use an existing connected Bird MCP server or signed-in CLI when available.
2. Read the product guide for the task I want to complete and inspect my existing integration. Identify the workspace, available operations and required setup.
3. Help me complete a first example for the product and destination I choose. Follow the operation through to its actual result, explain any uncertainty, and help me choose the next step.

First task: Compare the documented sending workflows and prepare a small migration test, including domains, templates and delivery events. Keep the current provider running until I approve a cutover.

Use this Bird page as the starting context: https://bird.com/email-api/compare/bird-vs-amazon-ses
Read its Markdown alternative and linked guides. Keep the first example relevant to this page and the customer outcome I choose. Preserve the supplied campaign context when following Bird signup or sales links.
```

[Read customer stories](/customers)

[Explore Enterprise](/enterprise)

- [Airwallex](/customers/airwallex)
- [Glovo](/customers/glovo)
- [Zillow](/customers/zillow)
- Uber
- [Binance](/customers/binance)
- Adobe
- Meta
- PayPal
- Pinterest
- Square
- [Al Jazeera](/customers/aljazeera)
- [Aramex](/customers/aramex)
- [Bazaar Technologies](/customers/bazaar)
- [ComparaOnline](/customers/compara)
- [Emma](/customers/emma)

- By the numbers: Bird
- Deliverability scale: ~40% of commercial email
- Message retention: 30 days
- Proven at peak: [19.9B emails, BFCM 2025](/blog/bird-s-black-friday-by-the-numbers)

## What Amazon SES is great at. Where Bird is different.

### What Amazon SES is great at

- Deep AWS integration. IAM, SNS, Lambda, and the rest of the stack are right there. If your infrastructure already lives in AWS, SES is the path of least resistance.
- Configuration Sets. A named bundle of behaviours (event destinations, IP pool, reputation tracking, suppression overrides) applied per send, so different traffic classes run different operational profiles in one account.
- Regional isolation you choose. A separate endpoint per AWS region, each with independent reputation, for senders who want to pin traffic to specific geographies.

### Where Bird is different

- Managed, not assembled. SES gives you primitives. With Bird, webhooks arrive at your URL signed (no SNS or SQS to wire up), message bodies are stored for 30 days (SES stores none by default), and dedicated-IP warm-up and deliverability are managed for you.
- A simpler API. A bearer-token HTTP call, a typed error hierarchy with an error-as-value option via .safe(), idempotency keys, and a hosted MCP server. SES signs every request with AWS SigV4 and IAM, which is power you pay for in setup.
- Built on SparkPost. Bird’s email runs on SparkPost, the deliverability platform Bird acquired in 2021, carrying about 40% of the world’s commercial email with a decade-plus of IP-reputation engineering and human deliverability support.
- Channels beyond email. Send email, SMS, and voice from one API and one auth model. With SES, SMS and voice are separate AWS services you integrate on their own.

## Capability by capability.

Amazon SES offers per-region isolation, and it is the natural pick if you already live in AWS. Bird wins on a simpler API, managed deliverability, native webhooks, stored message history, and channels beyond email, and matches SES on SMTP submission and address validation. Both readings are accurate today.

| Capability | Bird | Amazon SES | Who wins |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Send API | Bearer-token HTTP API (POST /v1/email/messages). The SDK throws a typed error you narrow with instanceof, with an error-as-value option via .safe(). | SES v2 SendEmail signed with AWS SigV4 and IAM; no simple bearer-token endpoint. | Bird |
| Published pricing | [Bird email plans and rates](/email-api/pricing). Select the volume and features you need. | [Amazon SES plans and rates](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/). Select the same workload before comparing the total. | Not comparable |
| SMTP relay | Customer-facing relay at eu1 and us1.smtp.bird.com. Implicit TLS on 465, STARTTLS on 587 and 2525, authenticated with a normal API key. | Customer-facing SMTP relay at email-smtp.<region>.amazonaws.com. | Even |
| Email address validation | Real-time validation: a deliverability verdict, a 0-100 confidence score, role, disposable and free-provider flags, and a typo correction. One address per call. | Native recipient-validation feature plus Auto Validation gating. | Even |
| Event webhooks | Native webhooks delivered to your URL, signed (Standard Webhooks). | No native HTTP webhook; events publish to SNS, Kinesis Firehose, CloudWatch, or EventBridge that you wire up. | Bird |
| Stored message retention | Stored message body available for 30 days. | No stored bodies by default; archiving is a paid Mail Manager add-on. | Bird |
| Idempotency on send | Idempotency-Key header, reused across retries. | No idempotency key on the send path; consumers dedupe on messageId. | Bird |
| Dedicated IPs and warm-up | Dedicated IPs and pools with roughly 30-day automated warm-up. | Standard and managed dedicated IP options; see [AWS pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/) for their charges. | Even |
| Deliverability heritage | Bird acquired [SparkPost in 2021](/blog/welcome-to-the-nest-sparkpost). Its sending network [carries about 40% of the world’s commercial email](/email-api/features/sparkpost). | [SES managed dedicated IPs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/dg/managed-dedicated-sending.html) provide automated warm-up and scaling for sending workloads. | Bird |
| Channels beyond email | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice, Verify and Realtime on one API and one key, plus a wider omnichannel platform. | Email only; SMS and voice live in separate AWS services. | Bird |
| Agent tooling | [Bird’s hosted MCP server](/docs/ai/mcp-server) at mcp.bird.com exposes 354 tools. The [bird CLI](/docs/cli) sends and inspects email, manages domains, templates and webhooks, and gives [agents JSON output and semantic exit codes](/docs/ai/cli-for-agents). | [AWS CLI sesv2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/sesv2/) sends email and manages SES identities, configuration sets and suppression lists. The [AWS MCP Server](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/agent-toolkit/latest/userguide/getting-started-aws-mcp-server.html) connects agents with OAuth or SigV4 authentication. | Bird |
| Mailboxes | [Bird’s agent mailboxes](/docs/guides/email/mailboxes) provide addressable inboxes, threads, replies and sender rules managed through code. | [Amazon SES receiving rules](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/dg/receiving-email.html) deliver incoming email to AWS services, including S3 and SNS. | Bird |

## One send, two levels of plumbing.

Sending one HTML email. SES routes through the AWS SDK with SigV4 credentials and a nested command shape. Bird is a bearer-token call that returns a typed result. The fields are the same underneath.

**Amazon SES** · send.ts

```typescript
import { SESv2Client, SendEmailCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-sesv2";

const ses = new SESv2Client({ region: "us-east-1" });

await ses.send(
  new SendEmailCommand({
    FromEmailAddress: "onboarding@yourdomain.com",
    Destination: { ToAddresses: ["customer@example.com"] },
    Content: {
      Simple: {
        Subject: { Data: "Your March invoice" },
        Body: { Html: { Data: "<p>Attached.</p>" } },
      },
    },
  }),
);
// Credentials resolve from the AWS provider chain (env, IAM role, profile).
```

**Bird** · send.ts

```typescript
import { BirdClient } from "@messagebird/sdk";

const bird = new BirdClient({ apiKey: process.env.BIRD_API_KEY! });

const { data, error } = await bird.email
  .send({
    from:    { email: "onboarding@yourdomain.com", name: "Acme" },
    to:      ["customer@example.com"],
    subject: "Your March invoice",
    html:    "<p>Attached.</p>",
  })
  .safe();

if (error) console.error(error.message);
else console.log(data.id);
```

## Published email plans

Bird’s full monthly ladder is shown below. Nearest-volume plans are labelled and are not quotes for Bird’s volume. Check billing terms, features and overages.

Pricing verdict: Not comparable. The verdict compares the lowest published monthly amount at each exact volume and currency; daily-only allowances, annual commitments, usage rates, starting prices and custom quotes are not compared.

| Bird tier | Emails per month | Bird | Amazon SES |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | 1,000 | [$0 / month (USD)](/email-api/pricing); [€0 / month (EUR)](/email-api/pricing) | Matching volume: [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07; Matching volume: [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Matching volume: [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Matching volume: [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Startup | 50,000 | [$15 / month (USD)](/email-api/pricing); [€15 / month (EUR)](/email-api/pricing) | Nearest published volume: [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Startup | 100,000 | [$30 / month (USD)](/email-api/pricing); [€27.5 / month (EUR)](/email-api/pricing) | Nearest published volume: [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Growth | 100,000 | [$80 / month (USD)](/email-api/pricing); [€72.5 / month (EUR)](/email-api/pricing) | Nearest published volume: [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Growth | 250,000 | [$175 / month (USD)](/email-api/pricing); [€160 / month (EUR)](/email-api/pricing) | Nearest published volume: [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Growth | 500,000 | [$295 / month (USD)](/email-api/pricing); [€270 / month (EUR)](/email-api/pricing) | Nearest published volume: [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Growth | 1,000,000 | [$530 / month (USD)](/email-api/pricing); [€480 / month (EUR)](/email-api/pricing) | Nearest published volume: [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Growth | 2,500,000 | [$1,039 / month (USD)](/email-api/pricing); [€950 / month (EUR)](/email-api/pricing) | Nearest published volume: [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07; Nearest published volume: [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |

## Amazon SES published plans

| Plan | Published price and terms |
| --- | --- |
| À la carte outbound email | [À la carte outbound email: $0.10 / 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; No monthly fee; uncapped usage rate, not a monthly allowance; attachment data charged separately.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Essentials | [Essentials: $0.16 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. No account fee; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Pro | [Pro: $0.22 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $105 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |
| Enterprise | [Enterprise: $0.23 per 1,000 emails](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/); 1,000 emails; Usage rate for the 0–10M emails/month band, not a monthly allowance. $500 per account per region per month; attachment data charged separately. Tiered rates apply marginally; higher-volume rates are on the publisher page.; as published 2026-09-07 |

## How should you compare email costs?

### Where are the current Bird and Amazon SES prices?

Use Bird’s published email catalogue and Amazon SES’s pricing page for your sending volume. Check included usage, overage, dedicated IPs and support against the features your application needs. If a publisher requires a quote, request one before comparing totals.

## Switching cost: Low.

Most of the move is deleting code. The AWS SDK, SigV4 signing, and the SNS or SQS pipeline you built to receive events are replaced by a bearer-token call and a signed webhook to your URL. Domain authentication and the suppression list map across directly.

If you run a dedicated IP on SES, plan for a warm-up window on Bird to carry the reputation over. The migration guide covers domain auth, IP warm-up, and event mapping.

[Read the migration guide](/docs/guides/email/migrate/ses)

[See the email surface](/email-api)

## Bird vs Amazon SES: common questions

### What should I evaluate before moving from Amazon SES?

Evaluate the integration work as well as the published sending rates: authentication, delivery events, message history, suppression handling and domain warm-up. Use the migration guide to map your current workflow before changing providers.

### Does Bird offer an SMTP relay like SES?

Yes. Point your client at eu1.smtp.bird.com or us1.smtp.bird.com, on port 465 for implicit TLS or 587 and 2525 for STARTTLS. The username is bird and the password is a normal API key with the emails scope, so there are no separate SMTP credentials to generate. Mail submitted over SMTP goes through the same pipeline as the API, with the same domain verification, IP pools, DKIM signing, suppressions, tracking, and events.

### How does Bird’s deliverability compare to SES?

Bird’s email runs on SparkPost, the platform it acquired in 2021, which carries about 40% of the world’s commercial email and comes with human deliverability support. SES gives you the raw infrastructure; reputation and inbox placement are largely the sender’s job.

### Does Bird have native webhooks like the SNS setup on SES?

Yes, and they are simpler. Bird delivers signed event webhooks (delivered, bounced, opened, clicked, and more) straight to your URL using the Standard Webhooks scheme. There is no SNS topic or SQS queue to provision.

## Where to go next

The migration guide is the one to start with: it maps the API field by field.

- [Migrate email from Amazon SES](/docs/guides/email/migrate/ses): The SES v2 SendEmail call mapped onto Bird’s send, the account-level suppression list paged out with NextToken, and SNS plumbing retired rather than ported.
- [Bird email pricing](/email-api/pricing): Read the rates and plan features published in Bird’s email catalogue.
- [Amazon SES pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/): Check Amazon SES’s published rates for your sending volume and required features.
- [Bird vs SendGrid](/email-api/compare/bird-vs-sendgrid): Compare published pricing, retry handling and channels beyond email.
- [Bird vs Mailgun](/email-api/compare/bird-vs-mailgun): Compare published pricing, inbound routing and message history.
- [All email comparisons](/email-api/compare): See every Bird email comparison in one place.

Talk to our email team

## See how Bird fits your Amazon SES workflow.

Test your sender, templates and delivery events before moving traffic from Amazon SES. For a larger move, plan the cutover with an email specialist.

Create your account and test your integration. Your migration enquiry will include the provider you are comparing.



## Related resources

- [Getting started with email](/learn/email/getting-started-with-email) (video)
- [Send your first email](/docs/get-started/send-your-first-email) (docs)
- [Build your first integration](/learn/paths/integration) (course)

[Get an implementation brief](/learn/workspace?topic=email)