Resend vs SendGrid

At a glance

1. At 100,000 emails, both vendors charge $55 for the same feature

Resend splits its ladder at 100,000 emails, where the plan name changes: Pro is $20 for 50,000 and $35 for 100,000, while Scale starts at $90 for that same 100,000. The $55 difference buys no volume at all.

SendGrid splits the same way: Essentials is $19.95 for 50,000 emails and $34.95 for 100,000, and Pro is $89.95 for the identical 100,000. The difference is $55.00, to the cent.

Two vendors that share no code and no pricing page arrived at the same step, at the same volume, for the same reason: at 100,000 emails the feature gates are what the plan is priced on, not the sending.

2. The ladder is not monotonic, and overage is sometimes the cheaper rung

Read each ladder as cost per 1,000, not as a monthly price.

Where one vendor has no rung at that volume, the column shows the cheapest rung that covers it, which is why SendGrid's 200,000 row is its 300,000 plan.

Resend's 200,000 rung costs $0.80 per 1,000, more than twice its 100,000 rung. That is not a discount curve; it is a plan boundary, and the cheaper block stops at 100,000.

Overage repairs it. Resend charges $0.90 per 1,000 beyond the included volume, so 100,000 on Pro plus 100,000 of overage is $35 + $90 = $125, not $160. SendGrid's same move on Pro is $89.95 + 100,000 × $1.10/1,000 = $199.95, not $249.

3. Dedicated IP: $30 plus a $55 step, or included at $89.95

A dedicated IP is the feature that decides most of these purchases, because shared IP reputation is the thing a growing sender cannot control.

Resend sells it as a $30 per month add-on, and only on Scale, to accounts sending more than 3,000 emails a day. At 100,000 emails that is $90 + $30 = $120, or $1.20 per 1,000.

SendGrid includes one dedicated IP in Pro, which is $89.95 at the same volume, or $0.90 per 1,000.

There is no Resend Pro path to an IP at any price. That is not a worse deal; it is a missing SKU, and it decides the vendor for anyone whose deliverability depends on one.

4. Domain authentication is table stakes; the domain count is not

Both authenticate sending with DKIM, SPF and DMARC, and both include a REST API, SMTP relay and official SDKs on every paid plan. The differences are in the quantities.

An agency managing dozens of client domains should price the domain line before the email line: Resend's add-on covers 100 extra domains for $20, and SendGrid's inclusion has no printed ceiling.

5. The bottom of the market is where they stop competing

Resend keeps a free plan: 3,000 emails a month, 100 a day, three domains, 30 days of data retention. SendGrid's free option is a 60-day trial at 100 emails a day, after which the account converts to a paid plan starting at $19.95.

That single difference moves a whole segment. A side project, a staging environment or a low-volume notification service runs at $0 on Resend and at $19.95 on SendGrid, and the gap is $239.40 a year before either vendor has been compared on anything else.

It also sets the frame for the first paid tier: $20 on Resend buys 50,000 emails, more than sixteen times what its own free plan allowed, and the same 50,000 that SendGrid now sells as its smallest paid plan.

6. Where each one breaks

Resend breaks on the feature boundary. The dedicated IP, SSO and 1,000 domains all sit on Scale, so the 100,000-email customer who outgrows Pro pays a $55 step and then $30 more for the IP. Marketing email moves to a separate contact-priced plan, and broadcasts only reach existing contacts.

SendGrid breaks on the tier edge and on history. The 50,000 Essentials tier charges $1.33 per 1,000 beyond its volume, so 80,000 emails bills $19.95 + $39.90 = $59.85 against $34.95 for the next tier up. Searchable activity is 3 days on Essentials against 7 on Pro, so a deliverability investigation can outlast the evidence.

Check three numbers before choosing: your monthly volume rounded up to the rung that covers it, whether you need an IP this quarter, and how many domains you will authenticate in a year.

Cost arithmetic at volume

These are computed from the published unit prices, not measured. Each row prints its own formula, so you can replace our assumption with your traffic and redo it.

Decision matrix

Rows are the situation you are actually in. Pick the row before you read the pricing page again.

Code and configuration

// Resend: the idempotency key is what stops a retry from sending twice.
import { Resend } from "resend";
const resend = new Resend(process.env.RESEND_API_KEY);

const { data, error } = await resend.emails.send(
  {
    from: "[email protected]",
    to: order.email,
    subject: `Receipt for ${order.id}`,
    react: Receipt({ order }),
  },
  { idempotencyKey: `receipt-${order.id}` },
);
// Breaks when: the key is built from Date.now(). A retry after a 429 is then a
// second email, and there is no deduplication on the receiving side.

// SendGrid: categories are the only cheap way to separate streams in the event webhook.
import sgMail from "@sendgrid/mail";
sgMail.setApiKey(process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY);

await sgMail.send({
  to: order.email,
  from: "[email protected]",
  templateId: "d-receipt-v3",
  dynamicTemplateData: { orderId: order.id, total: order.total },
  categories: ["receipt", `region-${order.region}`],
  customArgs: { order_id: order.id }, // echoed in the event webhook
});
// Breaks when: the template renders a total without a currency. The API accepts it,
// the receipt is wrong, and the event webhook reports a delivered message.

What you gain, what you give up

Migration path

Common questions

Sources & verification

Prices and limits were read from these pages on 2026-11-10. Vendor marketing claims are quoted as claims. Anything derived is arithmetic on the numbers below.

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