Tool profile
Mailgun: cost, fit and limits
Mailgun is an email delivery service from Sinch that sends transactional and marketing mail through an API or SMTP, and sells related tools for address validation, pre-send inspection and deliverability optimization. It is built for developers and operations teams that send email at volume from their own applications.
What to know first
Mailgun separates its offer into Send, Optimize, Inspect and Validate, so the number on the sending plan is not the whole bill. Send plans run from a free tier of 100 emails a day to Scale at $90 with 100,000 emails, and validation is metered on top. The AI language on the page is thin, with send time optimization the one concrete feature, and it appears only on Scale.
Mailgun at a glance
| Maker | Sinch (Mailgun Technologies, Inc.), United States |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | $15 per month for 10,000 emails |
| API access | Yes |
| Category | Best AI Email Deliverability Tools in 2026, rank 3 of 11 |
| Website | mailgun.com |
Who Mailgun is best for
Teams with EU data residency needs
Mailgun's privacy policy says platforms are hosted in the United States or Europe depending on where the customer deploys, which gives European buyers a stated choice.
Sites that collect sign-ups through forms
Mailgun Validate cleans addresses through an API or bulk upload, so typos and dead mailboxes can be caught at sign-up before they bounce and hurt the sender reputation.
Growing senders moving off shared pools
Scale includes dedicated IP pools and extra IPs are priced at $59 per IP a month, so a team can step from shared to dedicated infrastructure without changing provider.
Mailgun plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100 emails a day, one custom sending domain, two API keys, one user and one day of log retention. |
| Basic | From $15 a month | 10,000 emails a month with no daily limit, five inbound routes and overage at $1.80 per 1,000 emails. |
| Foundation | $35 a month after a free month | 50,000 emails, 1,000 sending domains, an email template builder and five days of log retention. |
| Scale | $90 a month after a free month | 100,000 emails, SAML SSO, 5,000 validations, dedicated IP pools, send time optimization and 30 days of logs. |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | Higher volumes by negotiation. The page says custom quotes are available for large senders. Terms are set in a sales conversation, so no list price is available. |
Checked November 2026.
What Mailgun does
- Send time optimization
- Included on Scale, this is the one named AI-style feature on the pricing page. It adjusts when messages go out so they arrive at a better time for each recipient.
- Optimize deliverability tools
- A separate product line covers inbox placement and reputation monitoring. Its pricing is on a different page from the sending plans, so budgeting for it means reading a second page.
- Inspect previews
- Inspect previews and tests emails before a campaign launches, which helps with rendering checks across clients and with catching problems before the first real send.
- Validate address cleaning
- Validate runs lists through an API or bulk upload. Validations cost $1.20 per 100 on Basic and Foundation and $0.80 per 100 on Scale, with 5,000 included on Scale.
- Access controls
- Two-factor authentication and role-based access control are listed, with SAML SSO from Scale upward, which fits companies that manage logins through an identity provider. The pricing page does not list these controls for the free tier.
How Mailgun handles your data
Mailgun's privacy policy covers Sinch AB and its subsidiaries, with Mailgun Technologies, Inc. as the US operating entity. It says platforms are hosted in the United States or Europe depending on the customer's deployment, using providers such as Google Cloud, AWS, MacStadium and Rackspace, with no transfers between those locations. Email address validation data is kept for 30 days in one-way encrypted form. The policy contains no statement on training AI models with customer data, and it links to a separate AI information page that was not opened. The pricing page shows ISO, CSA and GDPR badges.
Where Mailgun falls short in practice
- Pricing is split across products. Send, Optimize, Inspect and Validate each carry their own price. A buyer who wants sending plus placement monitoring has to read two or more pages and add the totals by hand.
- Daily cap on the free plan. The free tier allows 100 emails a day and a single custom domain, with one day of logs. That is enough for a test but not for debugging a delivery problem a few days later.
- Thin AI description. The pricing page says Mailgun offers AI-powered tools but names only send time optimization. A buyer looking for AI-based diagnosis or content scoring has no concrete feature to evaluate.
Works with
Alternatives to Mailgun
Mailgun: common questions
Can I choose EU hosting for Mailgun?
Mailgun's privacy policy says platforms are hosted in the United States or Europe depending on where the customer chooses to deploy, and that no transfers occur between those locations. The pricing page also states data can be hosted in either region. Pick the region when you create the account, since the policy does not describe moving later.
What is the difference between Mailgun Optimize, Inspect and Validate?
Optimize covers deliverability tools such as inbox placement and reputation monitoring. Inspect previews and tests emails before a campaign launches. Validate cleans address lists by API or bulk upload. The sending plans do not include them by default, apart from 5,000 validations on Scale, so each is a separate budget line.
How much does a dedicated IP cost on Mailgun?
The pricing page lists extra dedicated IPs at $59 per IP a month. It also says Scale includes dedicated IP pools and that one dedicated IP is included with Foundation at 100,000 emails. Check the exact entitlement with sales, since the page is not fully clear on which plan includes what.
Does Mailgun train AI on my email data?
The privacy policy contains no statement about using customer data to train AI models, and a footer link points to an AI information page that was not opened for this page. Ask Mailgun for a written answer on this point before sending sensitive message content through it.
Is there a free Mailgun plan?
Yes, as of November 2026 the Free plan costs nothing and allows 100 emails a day with one custom sending domain, two API keys, one user and a day of logs. Foundation and Scale start with a free month before billing begins, according to the pricing page.