SES Bridge for Ghost · Free tool · prices checked October 1, 2026
Ghost newsletter cost calculator: Mailgun vs Amazon SES
Enter your member count and how often you send. The calculator estimates what self-hosted Ghost newsletters cost per month on Mailgun's plans and on Amazon SES. It runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere (the page does load Cloudflare's cookieless visit counter, as our privacy policy explains).
Disclosure: this tool is built with AI by CEVICT, which sells a hosted Mailgun-to-SES proxy for Ghost (SES Bridge for Ghost, currently a pre-order). The SES fee estimate is the same whichever proxy you choose, including the free self-hosted ones; only the proxy cost field changes. Prices were checked on October 1, 2026 from Mailgun's and AWS's public pricing pages and can change; check them before deciding. Corrections: support@cevict.ai.
Emails per month: –
Mailgun (cheapest listed plan)
–
Amazon SES fees
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$0.10 to $0.16 per 1,000 emails
SES fees + proxy cost
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How the estimate works
- Volume. Ghost sends one email per member per newsletter, so monthly emails = members × issues per month. Transactional email (sign-in links, invites) is not included.
- Mailgun. We price each listed plan and show the cheapest: Free (100 emails per day, so it only fits if one send reaches 100 members or fewer and you send under about 3,000 emails a month), Basic ($15/month, 10,000 emails included, then from $1.80 per 1,000), Foundation ($35/month, 50,000 included, then from $1.30 per 1,000) and Scale ($90/month, 100,000 included, then from $1.10 per 1,000). We treat the "from" overage rates as exact. Above 100,000 emails a month Mailgun's volume selector offers larger plans whose prices may differ, so check it for big lists. Mailgun's volume selector may offer other plan sizes, and Foundation and Scale start with a one-month free trial, so your real price may be lower.
- Amazon SES. $0.10 per 1,000 emails à la carte, up to $0.16 per 1,000 on the Essentials plan that new SES accounts start on. Attachments ($0.12 per GB) and AWS data-transfer charges are left out; newsletters rarely carry attachments.
- The proxy. Ghost's newsletter sending only speaks Mailgun's API, so using SES needs a Mailgun-compatible proxy in between. That's the "proxy cost" field: open-source proxies are free software but need a server and your time; hosted ones charge a monthly fee. The guide lists the options, free ones first.
- Not included: your time, Ghost hosting itself, and the effort of getting SES production access. Savings are not guaranteed.
Want SES pricing without running the proxy?
SES Bridge for Ghost is a planned hosted proxy (SES only, one Ghost site). It's a pre-order: $5 one-time covers the first 30 days, then a planned $9/month if you choose to continue. It ships by December 1, 2026, or you get a full refund, and the project is cancelled with full refunds if fewer than 3 people pre-order by October 30, 2026.