The Email Markup Calculator:
See Your "Success Tax"

Email sending is a commodity. Whether you send 10 emails or 10 million, the underlying cost of the infrastructure (bandwidth, compute, IP reputation) scales linearly, but remarkably cheaply. AWS Charges a flat rate: $0.10 per 1,000 emails.

The "Competitor Model" (SendGrid, Resend, Mailgun) is not based on cost-plus pricing. It is based on Value Capture. They know that as you scale, switching becomes harder (IP warmup, code changes, template migration).

So, they introduce what we call the "Linear Scaling Trap."

• At 10k emails, the markup is negligible ($20 vs $5). You don't care.
• At 1M emails, the markup is the salary of a junior engineer.
• At 10M emails, you are bleeding capital.

The list price is rarely what you pay. The real profit margin for legacy ESPs comes from "Overages." If you are on a "Pro" plan capped at 100k emails, and you hit a viral spike sending 150k, you don't just pay a pro-rated amount. You pay a penalty rate.

For SendGrid, overage fees can be as high as $1.00 per 1,000 emails on lower tiers. That is a 1000% markup over the raw AWS cost.

These hidden fees are a feature, not a bug. They rely on you not monitoring your usage perfectly.
Read our forensic analysis of the 'Overage' Revenue Model →

If you want to protect your reputation from "Noisy Neighbors," you need a Dedicated IP.

AWS Cost: $24.95 / month.
Competitor Cost: $89.95 / month (bundled into Pro plans) or completely gated until you send 300k emails (Postmark).

They gate-keep standard infrastructure features behind high-tier plans to force you to upgrade. Transmit passes the $24.95 raw cost directly to you. We don't mark up the metal.
See the Dedicated IP Racket deep dive →