Mailgun
Developer-grade transactional email API and SMTP relay with deliverability tooling.
Mailgun is a transactional email API and SMTP service positioned for developers shipping receipts, password resets, notifications, and other system mail. Distinct from marketing ESPs in this spine, Mailgun ships an API-first product with volume-based overage pricing, dedicated IPs, log retention, inbound routing, and deliverability tools (warmup, monitoring, send-time optimization). Owned by Sinch since 2021. Five tiers ranging from a free hobby plan capped at 100 emails/day up to custom Enterprise contracting.
- Category
- Transactional email
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plans
- 5
- Verified
Plans & pricing
Headline prices for each Mailgun tier, captured from https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/ on .
Free
Hobby tier capped at 100 emails per day
- Emails / month
- 3,000 emails (100/day cap, 30-day conversion)
- Custom domains
- 1
- API calls / month
- 2 API keys
Included
- 100 emails per day hard cap
- 1 custom domain
- 1 day log retention
- 2 API keys
- Ticket support
Not on this plan
- High-volume sends
- Email template builder
- Inbound routing
- SAML SSO
- Dedicated IP
- Phone and chat support
Daily cap (100/day) converted to a monthly figure of 3,000 for cross-tool comparability. The actual limit is enforced per day, not per month.
Basic
Entry paid tier with 10,000 emails/month included
- Emails / month
- 10,000
- Custom domains
- 1
- API calls / month
- ·
Included
- 10,000 emails/month included
- $1.80 per 1,000 overage
- 1 custom domain
- 5 inbound routes
- Email analytics and reporting
- Ticket support
Not on this plan
- Email template builder
- 1,000 custom domains
- Full inbound routing
- SAML SSO
- Dedicated IP
- Send-time optimization
Foundation
50,000 emails/month with template builder and full inbound routing
- Emails / month
- 50,000
- Custom domains
- 1,000
- API calls / month
- ·
Included
- 50,000 emails/month included
- $1.30 per 1,000 overage
- 1,000 custom domains
- Email template builder
- 5 days log retention
- Full inbound routing
- Email analytics and reporting
Not on this plan
- SAML SSO
- Dedicated IP included
- Live phone and chat support
- 30 days log retention
- Send-time optimization
Includes a 1-month free trial.
Scale
100,000 emails/month with SAML SSO, dedicated IP, and live support
- Emails / month
- 100,000
- Custom domains
- 1,000
- API calls / month
- ·
Included
- 100,000 emails/month included
- $1.10 per 1,000 overage
- SAML SSO
- 1 dedicated IP included
- Live phone and chat support
- 30 days log retention
- Send-time optimization
- Email template builder
- Full inbound routing
Not on this plan
- High-volume Enterprise pricing
- Custom contracting and SLAs
- Multiple dedicated IPs at negotiated rates
Includes a 1-month free trial.
Enterprise
Custom contracting for high-volume senders
- Emails / month
- Custom
- Custom domains
- Custom
- API calls / month
- ·
Included
- High-volume send capacity
- Custom contracting and SLAs
- Multiple dedicated IPs
- Priority support
- Custom log retention
- Account management
Where Mailgun earns its price
- Real transactional API; most competitors in this spine are marketing-first, not API-first
- Send-time optimization on Scale tier improves engagement without app-side logic
- Volume-based overage pricing is transparent and predictable ($1.80, $1.30, $1.10 per 1,000)
- Deliverability tooling is core to the product: IP warmup, dedicated IPs, monitoring
- SAML SSO available on the Scale plan without a custom Enterprise contract
Where it falls short
- Price ramps fast above 100,000/month; high-volume senders quickly land in custom Enterprise pricing
- UI feels dated relative to modern marketing ESPs
- No built-in template editor on the Basic tier; you ship raw HTML or upgrade
- Pure transactional positioning means little overlap with marketing campaign workflows
Best for
- Developers integrating receipts, notifications, and password-reset emails
- Teams already on a marketing ESP that need a separate transactional channel
- High-volume B2B applications with strict deliverability requirements
Not for
- Marketing teams seeking campaign tooling (use Mailchimp or Kit)
- Creators sending newsletters (use Kit or beehiiv)
- Free-tier hobbyists with low total volume but spiky daily-cap-bumping use cases
Alternatives to Mailgun
Tools we cover in the same space.
Common questions
- Does Mailgun have a free plan?
- Yes. Mailgun offers a free tier. Hobby tier capped at 100 emails per day
- How much does Mailgun cost?
- Mailgun starts at Free. Plan prices captured April 30, 2026.
- What plans does Mailgun offer?
- Mailgun ships 5 plans: Free, Basic, Foundation, Scale, Enterprise. Each plan's anchor price, included features, and limits are listed above. Pricing reflects the snapshot captured on April 30, 2026.
- What are the alternatives to Mailgun?
- We track 1 in-spine alternative to Mailgun with verified pricing: mailerlite. See the ranked /alternatives/mailgun page for the full list with derived verdict tags.
Source: https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/ · last verified · capture method: manual
TierGauge tracks live pricing for marketing & sales tools. Prices may change between refreshes; confirm at the vendor's pricing page before purchasing.