Send your first email through AWS SES in 4 minutes

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is the cheapest way to send bulk email at scale — $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Mailchimp charges $1,200/month for 280k subscribers. SES charges $28. This guide walks you through it end-to-end in four steps.

Sandbox vs. production — what actually changes

Step 1: Create an AWS account

Go to aws.amazon.com and click Create an AWS Account. You need a credit card on file. AWS will charge a $1 verification hold that is refunded immediately. Set up MFA on your root account before doing anything else — this is non-negotiable for a production sending environment.

Step 2: Choose your region

Step 3: Request production access

Account Dashboard → Request Production Access. Fill out the form carefully — vague answers cause delays. See our production access guide for the exact wording that gets approved in under 24 hours.

Step 4: Verify your sending domain

SES Console → Verified Identities → Create Identity → Domain. AWS gives you four DNS records to add:

• One TXT record for SPF
• Three CNAME records for Easy DKIM (2048-bit)

Propagation typically takes 15–30 minutes. The SES console shows a green "Verified" badge when done. While waiting, set up your DMARC record at _dmarc.yourdomain.com.

Step 5: Create a configuration set

SES Console → Configuration Sets → Create Configuration Set. Name it marketing. Add an SNS event destination and select Bounces and Complaints. This is how SES Mailbox — and your own code — receives real-time notifications when emails bounce or recipients report spam.

Step 6: Generate IAM credentials

IAM Console → Users → Create User → Attach policies directly. Create a custom inline policy:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ses:SendEmail",
        "ses:SendRawEmail",
        "ses:GetSendQuota",
        "ses:GetSendStatistics",
        "ses:ListIdentities",
        "ses:DescribeConfigurationSet"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

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