SendGrid Pricing – Full Plan Breakdown & Comparison [2026]

SendGrid offers four pricing plans in 2026, based on the number of emails you send per month: a 60-day Free Trial (100 emails/day), Essentials starting at $19.95/mo for up to 100,000 emails, Pro starting at $89.95/mo for up to 2.5 million emails, and Premier with custom pricing for higher volumes. The free plan is no longer permanent — SendGrid replaced it with a 60-day trial in 2025. After the trial expires, you must upgrade to a paid plan.

Unlike most email marketing tools that charge by subscriber count, SendGrid prices by email volume. This means your bill depends on how many emails you send, not how many contacts you have. That model can work in your favor if you have a large list but send infrequently — or against you if you send often. This guide covers every pricing detail, feature difference, and overage policy so you know exactly what you will pay, plus how SendGrid compares to more affordable alternatives like SendX.

Table of Contents

• How Much Does SendGrid Cost?

• SendGrid Pricing by Plan

• Does SendGrid Have a Free Plan?

• Feature Differences Between Plans

• What About Limits and Overages?

• How Do Upgrades and Downgrades Work?

• Does SendGrid Offer Discounts?

• What Is SendGrid's Refund Policy?

• SendGrid vs SendX: Pricing Comparison

• FAQs

How Much Does SendGrid Cost?

SendGrid pricing is based on the number of emails you send per month — not the number of contacts or subscribers you have. The slider on SendGrid's pricing page lets you select your monthly email volume, and the prices adjust accordingly. Here is the complete pricing breakdown:

Important: SendGrid prices by email volume, not by subscriber or contact count. Essentials covers 50,000 to 100,000 emails per month. Pro covers 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails per month. If you need more than 2.5 million emails/mo, you must contact sales for Premier pricing. Taxes and overages may apply on top of the listed prices.

SendGrid Pricing by Plan

Here is a detailed breakdown of each SendGrid plan, what you get, and what the limitations are.

Free Trial — $0/mo for 60 Days

SendGrid's free option is no longer a permanent free plan. As of 2025, it is a 60-day trial. You can send up to 100 emails per day (roughly 3,000 per month). After 60 days, you must upgrade to a paid plan or lose access.

What the Free Trial includes:

• 100 emails per day (approximately 3,000/month)

• Drag-and-drop email editor with HTML/CSS editing

• Automation (time-based and trigger-based sequences)

• Segmentation

• 3 email testing credits per month

• 1 signup form

• 1 teammate seat

• Ticket support only

Limitations: No dedicated IP, no credit card required to start, but the 60-day expiration means this is only useful for initial evaluation — not for running ongoing campaigns.

Essentials Plan — Starting at $19.95/mo

The Essentials plan is SendGrid's entry-level paid tier. It covers 50,000 to 100,000 emails per month:

• Essentials 50K — $19.95/mo for up to 50,000 emails

• Essentials 100K — $34.95/mo for up to 100,000 emails

What Essentials adds over the Free Trial:

• A/B testing with actionable analytics

• 10 email testing credits per month

• 5 signup forms

• 1 teammate seat

• Ticket, chat, and phone support

• Access to expert services

Essentials limitations: No dedicated IP, no sub-user management, only 1 teammate, and a 100,000 email/mo ceiling. If you need to send more than 100K emails per month, you must upgrade to Pro.

Pro Plan — Starting at $89.95/mo

The Pro plan is SendGrid's high-volume tier, covering 100,000 to 2,500,000 emails per month. Pricing scales with volume:

• Pro 100K — $89.95/mo for up to 100,000 emails

• Pro 300K — $249.00/mo for up to 300,000 emails

• Pro 700K — $499.00/mo for up to 700,000 emails

• Pro 1.5M — $799.00/mo for up to 1,500,000 emails

• Pro 2.5M — $1,099.00/mo for up to 2,500,000 emails

What Pro adds over Essentials:

• 60 email testing credits per month

• 15 signup forms

• Up to 1,000 teammate seats

• Dedicated IP address (additional IPs available)

• Sub-user management for segmenting sending activity

• Guaranteed response times on support

Premier Plan — Custom Pricing

The Premier plan is for businesses sending more than 2.5 million emails per month or needing more than 5 million emails/mo. Pricing is custom — you must contact SendGrid sales. Premier includes everything in Pro plus enterprise-level customization.

Does SendGrid Have a Free Plan?

No. SendGrid no longer offers a permanent free plan. Until 2025, SendGrid had a free tier that let you send up to 6,000 emails per month and store 2,000 contacts with no expiration. They replaced it with a 60-day free trial limited to 100 emails per day. Once the trial ends, you must pay for Essentials ($19.95/mo) or Pro ($89.95/mo) to continue sending.

Many older reviews and articles still reference SendGrid's permanent free plan. It no longer exists. If you need a low-cost entry point for email marketing, SendX offers paid plans starting at $7.49/mo for 1,000 subscribers with unlimited emails and a 14-day free trial with all features.

Feature Differences Between Plans

Here is what changes between SendGrid plans:

What About Limits and Overages?

Each SendGrid plan tier has a monthly email sending limit. If you exceed your plan's email limit during a billing period, SendGrid charges per-email overage fees on your next invoice. The overage rate depends on your plan tier.

For example, if you are on Essentials 50K and send 65,000 emails in a month, you pay $19.95 plus overage fees for the extra 15,000 emails. If you consistently exceed your limit, it is usually cheaper to upgrade to the next tier rather than paying overages.

Taxes may also apply on top of the listed prices depending on your location.

How Do Upgrades and Downgrades Work?

You can upgrade your SendGrid plan at any time. Your account data carries over automatically when you move to a higher tier.

Downgrading is more painful. If you move from a paid plan to a lower tier, SendGrid may permanently delete data that exceeds the lower plan's limits. If you downgrade from Pro to Essentials, you lose access to dedicated IPs, sub-user management, and teammate seats beyond 1. Downgrading from any paid plan to the Free tier means starting over.

Does SendGrid Offer Discounts?

SendGrid does not publicly advertise annual billing discounts or standing coupon codes. Promotional deals occasionally appear through third-party sites, but there is no guaranteed discount program. For high-volume senders (Premier tier), pricing is negotiated directly with SendGrid's sales team.

What Is SendGrid's Refund Policy?

SendGrid offers refunds but with strict eligibility. To qualify:

• You must not have used your account during the current billing month

• You must have no overages on your account

• You must have no contacts stored

If you have been actively using SendGrid, meeting all three conditions is unlikely.

SendGrid vs SendX: Pricing Comparison

SendGrid and SendX use fundamentally different pricing models. SendGrid charges by email volume — the more emails you send, the more you pay. SendX charges by subscriber count with unlimited emails on every plan. This makes a direct price comparison tricky, but here is how they stack up for typical use cases:

The key difference is the pricing model. With SendGrid, you pay based on how many emails you send. With SendX, you pay based on how many subscribers you have and can send unlimited emails. For businesses that send frequently — weekly newsletters, automated welcome sequences, promotional campaigns — SendGrid's per-email pricing adds up fast. SendX starts at $7.49/mo for 1,000 subscribers with unlimited sends, no overages, and a dedicated IP on every plan. Try SendX free for 14 days — no credit card required.

FAQs

1. Does SendGrid have a free plan?

No. SendGrid replaced its permanent free plan with a 60-day free trial in 2025. The trial allows 100 emails per day. After 60 days, you must upgrade to Essentials ($19.95/mo) or Pro ($89.95/mo).

2. How much does SendGrid cost?

SendGrid Essentials starts at $19.95/mo for up to 50,000 emails and $34.95/mo for up to 100,000 emails. SendGrid Pro starts at $89.95/mo for 100,000 emails and scales to $1,099/mo for 2.5 million emails. Pricing is based on monthly email volume, not subscriber count.

3. Does SendGrid charge by subscribers or emails?

SendGrid charges by email volume — the number of emails you send per month. This is different from most email marketing tools (like SendX, Mailchimp, or Kit) which charge by subscriber or contact count. Your bill with SendGrid depends on how often you send, not how large your list is.

4. What is a cheaper alternative to SendGrid?

SendX starts at $7.49/mo for 1,000 subscribers with unlimited emails — no volume caps and no overage fees. Unlike SendGrid, SendX prices by subscriber count so your bill is predictable regardless of how many emails you send. All plans include dedicated IPs, automation, and advanced segmentation.

5. Can I use SendGrid just for email marketing?

Yes, but SendGrid's pricing page shows the same plans for both transactional email (API-driven) and marketing campaigns. The Essentials and Pro plans include email marketing features like automation, segmentation, A/B testing, and signup forms. However, your marketing emails and transactional emails share the same monthly volume limit — so both count toward your plan cap.