Resend vs SendGrid (2026): Pricing, Free Tiers, Features

Resend is the better default for most new apps: it has a permanent free tier of 3,000 emails a month, a cleaner API, and React Email templates. SendGrid is the better fit if you need dedicated IPs on a mid-tier plan, subuser accounts, or a visual marketing editor. On price they're nearly identical at volume: $20 vs $19.95 for 50,000 emails, and $35 vs $34.95 for 100,000.

Last validated: September 2026. Prices and limits below were checked against Resend's and Twilio SendGrid's official pricing pages and docs, linked in References.

Resend vs SendGrid at a glance

How much does Resend cost?

Resend's transactional email is free up to 3,000 emails a month, then $20 a month for 50,000 emails or $35 for 100,000 on the Pro plan. Scale plans cost $90 to $1,150 a month for 100,000 to 2.5 million emails. Marketing email is a separate plan priced by contacts.

Resend transactional pricing

Pro and Scale both have a 100,000-email tier, but Scale costs $90 instead of $35. The extra buys up to 1,000 sending domains (Pro allows 10, Free allows 3), cheaper overage on larger tiers, and eligibility for dedicated IPs. Paid plans have no daily cap.

Worked example. An app sending 60,000 emails a month pays $29 on the $20 Pro plan ($20 plus 10,000 extra emails at $0.90 per 1,000), which is less than the $35 tier. Resend bills overage in blocks of 1,000 emails, so overage stays cheaper up to 66,000 emails a month; above that, move to the 100,000-email tier. Resend stops overage at 5 times your plan's monthly quota.

Resend marketing pricing

Broadcasts and marketing email use a separate plan priced by the number of contacts, not the number of emails:

Marketing plans don't limit how many emails you send to those contacts, and broadcasts don't count against your transactional quota.

Resend add-ons and limits

• Dedicated IP: $30 a month for senders above 3,000 emails a day, on a transactional Scale or Marketing Pro plan.
• Extra domains: 100 more for $20 a month.
• Single sign-on: $150 a month as an add-on to Scale; included on Enterprise.
• Automations: 10,000 runs a month included; paid plans continue at $0.0015 per run.
• Rate limit: 10 API requests per second per team by default.

How much does SendGrid cost?

SendGrid's Email API starts at $19.95 a month for 50,000 emails after a 60-day free trial. Essentials costs $34.95 for 100,000 emails, and Pro, which adds dedicated IPs and subusers, starts at $89.95.

Is SendGrid free?

No. Twilio moved new SendGrid accounts to a 60-day trial⁠ on March 25, 2025, and on May 27, 2025 announced⁠ that existing free Email API and Marketing Campaigns plans would be retired after 60 more days. The trial allows 100 emails a day through the API or SMTP and 100 marketing contacts. When it ends, sending stops until you choose a paid plan.

SendGrid Email API pricing

Overage rates come from Twilio's SendGrid pricing PDF⁠. Pro overage ranges from $1.10 down to $0.47 per 1,000, depending on tier. Essentials sends from shared IPs. Pro adds a dedicated IP, subuser management, single sign-on, and 7 days of searchable email activity instead of 3.

SendGrid Marketing Campaigns pricing

Marketing Campaigns⁠ is a separate plan. It charges for stored contacts and caps monthly marketing sends at roughly three emails per contact on Basic:

Resend vs SendGrid price at common volumes

For transactional email alone, the two are priced almost identically once you pass Resend's free tier:

*SendGrid's trial covers 100 emails a day for 60 days; the table shows the paid price after it ends.

Pricing compared

Transactional-only monthly price by volume

• SendGrid
• Resend

Transactional-only monthly price by volume

Item	SendGrid	Resend
3K emails	$19.95/mo	Free
10K emails	$19.95/mo	$20/mo
50K emails	$19.95/mo	$20/mo
100K emails	$34.95/mo	$35/mo
100K emails with a dedicated IP	$89.95/mo (Pro)	$120/mo (Scale + add-on)

The real price gap shows up in two places: below 3,000 emails a month (Resend is free) and when you need a dedicated IP (SendGrid Pro includes one; Resend charges $30 on top of a Scale or Marketing Pro plan).

Pricing compared

Transactional overage cost per 1,000 emails

Transactional overage cost per 1,000 emails

Provider	Price per 1,000 emails
Amazon SES	$0.10
SendGrid Essentials 100K	$0.88
Resend	$0.90
SendGrid Essentials 50K	$1.33

For raw cost at high volume, Amazon SES beats both at $0.10 to $0.16 per 1,000 emails. It includes console dashboards, deliverability metrics, and basic stored templates, but you wire bounce and complaint events into your app and build any richer template tooling yourself.

Mixed transactional and marketing workloads

If you also send newsletters or product updates, the marketing plan usually decides which provider is cheaper. These examples use monthly billing and the cheapest plans that cover the workload without overage:

Pricing compared

Mixed transactional and marketing workload

• SendGrid
• Resend

Monthly prices for mixed transactional and marketing workloads

Scenario	SendGrid	Resend
Starter	$34.95	$20
Growth	$69.95	$100
Big list, low frequency	$139.95	$200
Small list, high frequency	$69.95	$60

Resend totals combine Pro ($20) with Free, 10K, 25K, and 5K marketing plans. SendGrid totals combine Essentials 50K ($19.95) with Basic 5K, 20K, 50K, and 20K marketing plans. The Growth and high-frequency rows need SendGrid's Basic 20K plan because Basic 10K and Basic 5K cap marketing sends at 30,000 and 15,000.

The rule of thumb: Resend costs about $7 to $8 per 1,000 contacts (at 5,000 to 25,000 contacts) but never limits sends, so it wins for small lists you email often. SendGrid Basic costs about $2 to $3 per 1,000 contacts but caps sends at roughly three per contact, so it wins for larger lists emailed a few times a month.

Where Resend wins

• A free tier that doesn't expire. 3,000 emails a month is enough for a side project or an early product's password resets and receipts.
• Templates as code. React Email lets you build templates as JSX components that live in your repo. Resend also supports hosted templates and plain HTML.
• Longer logs by default. 30 days of data on Free, Pro, and Scale, versus 3 days on SendGrid Essentials. That matters when a user reports a missing email from last week.
• Unlimited marketing sends. Contact-based pricing means a weekly product update costs the same as a monthly one.
• Developer momentum. In the week of September 21, 2026, the resend npm package was downloaded about 13.2 million times, versus about 5.3 million for @sendgrid/mail (npm⁠).

Where SendGrid wins

• A dedicated IP without an add-on. Pro includes one from $89.95 a month. On Resend, it's a $30 add-on that requires a transactional Scale plan (from $90) or a Marketing Pro plan (from $40).
• Subusers and single sign-on. Pro includes subuser management and SSO, which helps agencies and companies sending for several brands. Resend's SSO is a $150 add-on that requires Scale.
• A visual marketing editor. Marketing Campaigns includes drag-and-drop and code editors, segmentation, A/B testing, automation, and signup forms.
• Cheaper marketing per contact. Basic plans cost $2 to $3 per 1,000 contacts versus Resend's $7 to $8, as long as you send about three emails per contact a month or fewer.

Which should you pick?

Pick Resend if:

• You send fewer than 3,000 emails a month and want to pay nothing.
• Your app uses React or Next.js and you want templates in version control.
• You want 30 days of logs without paying extra.
• You email a small list often.

Pick SendGrid if:

• You need a dedicated IP and want it included in the plan.
• You manage several brands or clients and need subusers.
• A marketer, not a developer, will build campaigns in a visual editor.
• You email a large list a few times a month.

Neither choice decides whether your emails reach the inbox. Authentication, list hygiene, and sending patterns matter more; our email deliverability guide covers the setup. If neither fits, see our SendGrid alternatives and Resend alternatives guides.

Where Dreamlit fits

Dreamlit is the company behind this blog, and it isn't an email API. If you need a provider for password resets and receipts, pick Resend or SendGrid from the comparison above.

Dreamlit takes activation email off your plate. Our experts find where users drop off, run the emails that turn signups into paying users, and own the results. You get a weekly report on what moved. It's built for companies with 500+ signups a month.

If what you actually want is more activated users, not another API to wire up, see how Dreamlit works or get a free activation audit.

References

1. Resend pricing⁠
2. Resend: What is Resend pricing?⁠
3. Resend account quotas and limits⁠ and dedicated IPs⁠
4. Twilio SendGrid Email API pricing⁠ and pricing PDF⁠
5. Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns pricing⁠
6. Twilio SendGrid trial account plan⁠
7. Changes coming to SendGrid's free plan⁠
8. Amazon SES pricing⁠
9. npm: resend⁠ and npm: @sendgrid/mail⁠

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Frequently asked questions

Is Resend better than SendGrid?

For most new apps, yes. Resend has a permanent free tier, 30-day logs, and React Email templates, and it costs the same as SendGrid at 50,000 and 100,000 emails a month. SendGrid is the better fit when you need dedicated IPs on a mid-tier plan, subusers, or a visual marketing editor.

How much does Resend cost?

Resend is free for 3,000 transactional emails a month (100 a day). Pro costs $20 a month for 50,000 emails or $35 for 100,000, and Scale runs from $90 to $1,150 a month. Marketing email is billed separately by contacts: free up to 1,000, then from $40 a month for 5,000.

Is SendGrid free?

No. SendGrid retired its free plan in 2025. New accounts get a 60-day trial capped at 100 emails a day, then need a paid plan. Email API Essentials starts at $19.95 a month for 50,000 emails.

Is Resend cheaper than SendGrid?

Under 3,000 emails a month, yes, because Resend is free and SendGrid isn't. At 50,000 and 100,000 emails the two cost within 5 cents of each other. For marketing email, Resend is usually cheaper for small lists and SendGrid for larger ones.

Does Resend offer dedicated IPs?

Yes, as a $30 a month add-on for senders above 3,000 emails a day on a transactional Scale or Marketing Pro plan. SendGrid includes a dedicated IP on its Pro plan, which starts at $89.95 a month.

Which has better deliverability, Resend or SendGrid?

Neither can guarantee inbox placement. Results depend mostly on domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list quality, sending patterns, and whether you share IPs with other senders.