Evergreen concept
GuidePer-Thousand vs Plan-Floor Email Pricing
Why a $0.90/1k overage is not the price of 10,000 emails, and how Tools.Town picks the cheapest SKU that can actually send the volume.
A vendor page can show $0.90 per 1,000 and a $20 / month plan on the same screen. Those are not interchangeable.
Three prices that get mixed up
- Unit rate — SES a-la-carte $0.10/1k recipients; Cloudflare overage $0.35/1k after 3,000 included.
- Plan floor — you pay $15–$20 (or more) even if you send 1 email, because the SKU includes a quota.
- Overage — extra /1k after the included quota. Useless as a quote until the floor is paid.
Worked 10,000 (card 2026-08-18)
| Vendor | Honest row | Naive /1k mistake |
|---|---|---|
| SES | $1.00 | (this one is unit rate) |
| Cloudflare (already Paid) | $2.45 | ignoring the 3,000 included |
| Resend | $20 Pro | $9 from 10 × $0.90 |
| SendGrid | $19.95 Essentials 50k | treating trial as $0 |
| Postmark | $15 Basic | quoting Pro overage only |
What the calculator is required to do
Per vendor it keeps the cheapest SKU that can send the volume. That is why Postmark at 50k is Platform $66, not Pro $68.50. See the Email Cost Calculator guide.
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn’t 10k × $0.90/1k = $9 on Resend?
Because Pro’s $20 floor buys the right to send. Overage $0.90/1k applies after the included 50k, not instead of the floor.
Is SES a plan floor?
Not in the a-la-carte model. $0.10 × recipients/1000 is the row. Bundled SES plans are omitted in v1.
What about a daily cap?
A SKU that cannot send the month (Resend Free 100/day at 10k/month) is infeasible. The engine skips it instead of showing $0.