Mailgun vs SendGrid: what each plan costs and what it leaves out
At 50,000 emails a month SendGrid Essentials lists at $19.95 and Mailgun Foundation at $35. At 100,000 emails the lists read $34.95 for SendGrid Essentials and $75 for Mailgun Foundation, so SendGrid is the cheaper sticker price in the middle of the range. The picture changes once you need the features the cheap tiers skip: SendGrid Pro at 100,000 is $89.95 and Mailgun Scale is $90, five cents apart, and Mailgun's plan keeps searchable logs for 30 days where SendGrid Pro keeps 7. Below 50,000 the order flips, because Mailgun sells a $15 plan for 10,000 emails while SendGrid publishes nothing between its trial and a 50,000 bucket.
The two price lists side by side
| Plan | List price at the volume shown | Searchable history | Dedicated IP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailgun Free | $0, 100 emails a day | 1 day of logs | No |
| Mailgun Basic | $15 for 10,000 | 1 day | No |
| Mailgun Foundation | $35 for 50,000; $75 for 100,000 | 5 days | One included at the 100,000 step |
| Mailgun Scale | $90 for 100,000; $215 for 250,000; $400 for 500,000 | 30 days | Dedicated IP pools |
| SendGrid free trial | $0, 100 emails a day for 60 days | 3 days | No |
| SendGrid Essentials | $19.95 for 50,000; $34.95 for 100,000 | 3 days | No |
| SendGrid Pro | $89.95 for 100,000; $249 for 300,000; $499 for 700,000 | 7 days | One included |
The SendGrid figures come from the volume selector on its pricing page, which shows "starting at" prices until you pick a volume. Mailgun's page uses a slider in the same way, and the $75 Foundation and $215 Scale figures appear only once the slider reaches 100,000 and 250,000. Neither vendor lists a 250,000 step on both sides, so the comparison below pairs the nearest stops and says so.
Cost at 10,000, 50,000, 100,000 and 250,000 emails
| Monthly volume | Mailgun | SendGrid |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $15 (Basic) | $19.95 floor; no step below 50,000 |
| 50,000 | $35 (Foundation) | $19.95 (Essentials) |
| 100,000 | $75 (Foundation) or $90 (Scale) | $34.95 (Essentials) or $89.95 (Pro) |
| 250,000 | $215 (Scale) | $249 at the 300,000 stop (Pro) |
The arithmetic behind the gaps: at 50,000 emails SendGrid saves $35 - $19.95 = $15.05 a month, or $180.60 a year. At 100,000 on the cheaper tiers it saves $75 - $34.95 = $40.05 a month, or $480.60 a year. Those are real savings for a team that needs nothing from the higher plans, and the next section lists what it gives up.
Mailgun's Basic plan is the better fit under 21,000 emails. It includes 10,000 emails and charges "from $1.80" for each additional thousand, so 20,000 emails cost 15 + 10 x 1.80 = $33, and 30,000 would cost $51. Foundation at $35 is cheaper than that, so the moment you pass roughly 21,100 emails (the point where 15 + 1.80 x (n - 10) reaches 35) you should move up a step. SendGrid has no equivalent arithmetic to do, since its page shows no per-thousand overage rate at all.
At 250,000 emails the comparison is lopsided by the selector. Mailgun's Scale plan costs $215 for 250,000, or $0.86 per thousand. SendGrid's selector skips from 100,000 to 300,000, where Pro costs $249, or $0.83 per thousand. If you send exactly 250,000, SendGrid asks you to buy the 300,000 stop and pay $34 more than Mailgun for 50,000 emails you may not send.
What the cheaper plans leave out
SendGrid Essentials
The Essentials column on SendGrid's feature table lists one teammate, two event webhooks, three days of searchable email activity and no dedicated IP, subuser management or single sign-on. Email validation is listed as zero included checks. A team with a developer, a support person and a product manager who all want to look at delivery data hits the one-teammate limit first. Pro raises teammates to 1,000, event webhooks to 5, activity history to 7 days and adds one dedicated IP, subusers, SSO and 2,500 free validations.
Mailgun Basic and Foundation
Basic keeps logs for one day, allows one custom sending domain and five inbound routes. Foundation lifts that to five days of logs, one day of message retention, 1,000 sending domains, an email template builder with a templates API, and full inbound routing. Neither plan lists SAML SSO, dedicated IP pools, bundled validations or live phone and chat support; those are the Scale column. Extra address validations are priced separately, from $1.20 per 100 on the lower plans and from $0.80 per 100 on Scale.
Log retention decides the Scale-versus-Pro question
When the sticker prices converge at $90 and $89.95, the practical difference is how far back you can search. A customer who writes in about a missing invoice email nine days after the send is outside SendGrid Pro's seven days, while Mailgun Scale still has the log entry for another three weeks. SendGrid sells extra history as an add-on, up to 30 days, on its paid plans; the page does not print that add-on's price, so treat the Pro total as a floor if you need it.
Mailgun's own limit on message retention is separate. Foundation keeps the message itself for one day and Scale for up to seven, so a 30-day log entry will not let you re-read the rendered body from three weeks ago.
Overage, trials and free usage
Mailgun prints its overage rates on the page: from $1.80 per thousand on Basic, from $1.30 on Foundation and from $1.10 on Scale. Foundation and Scale each start with a free month, and Mailgun's free plan allows 100 emails a day. SendGrid replaced its standing free plan with a 60-day trial of 100 emails a day. After the trial you pay or stop.
SendGrid says overage charges "may apply" without printing a rate, and its overage support article adds that charges appear on the invoice for the following month and that upgrading does not cancel overage already incurred. The same article says accounts created through Heroku or Google Cloud do not allow overages. If you will regularly exceed 100,000 on Essentials, SendGrid's FAQ recommends moving up a tier instead of paying overage.
Which one to choose
Pick Mailgun Basic or Free if you send up to about 20,000 emails and want a plan that fits a small product. At 100 messages a day or fewer, the free plan covers it.
Pick SendGrid Essentials if you send 50,000 to 100,000 emails, one developer manages the account, and a three-day activity window is acceptable. It is the cheapest published path to 100,000 in this comparison at $34.95.
Pick Mailgun Foundation at 100,000 if you want a dedicated IP, five-day logs and unlimited users for $75. Mailgun's FAQ states one dedicated IP comes with Foundation 100k, and extra IPs cost $59 a month each.
Pick Mailgun Scale when you need 30-day logs, SAML SSO or phone support, and especially above 100,000 emails, where 250,000 costs $215, or $0.86 per thousand. Pick SendGrid Pro when you want subusers, 1,000 teammates and the larger webhook allowance, and 300,000 emails at $249 is the volume you expect.
SendGrid also runs a separate Marketing Campaigns product with a free plan of up to 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails a month. That product is priced apart from the Email API plans above, so a team that wants one vendor for both sends should price the two together.
Related pages
For the sending model, webhooks and migration steps between the two, read SendGrid vs Mailgun. Mailgun's full plan table is on the Mailgun pricing page, and both vendors appear in the SendGrid alternatives and Mailgun alternatives lists. If Resend or Postmark is in your shortlist, see Resend vs Mailgun and Postmark vs Mailgun.
FAQ
Is SendGrid cheaper than Mailgun?
At 50,000 and 100,000 emails, yes on list price: $19.95 and $34.95 against $35 and $75. Below 50,000, Mailgun's $15 Basic plan is cheaper, and at 250,000 Mailgun Scale at $215 undercuts SendGrid Pro's $249 at the next stop, 300,000.
Which keeps logs longer?
Mailgun Scale keeps 30 days of logs, Foundation 5 and Basic 1. SendGrid keeps 3 days on the trial and Essentials and 7 on Pro, with up to 30 days available as a paid add-on.
Does either have a real free plan?
Mailgun does: 100 emails a day, one custom domain and one day of logs. SendGrid's Email API offers a 60-day trial at 100 emails a day, and its free tier exists only for Marketing Campaigns.
When is Mailgun Foundation better than Scale?
At 100,000 emails, Foundation is $75 against Scale's $90 and still includes a dedicated IP. Scale earns the extra $15 with 30-day logs, SAML SSO, bundled validations and live phone and chat support.