Pricing & Tier Selection

When to Use

Use this at project planning, when growing past current tier, or during quarterly cost review.

Decision

Plan	Monthly	Included emails	Authorized-recipients only?	Notable
Free (no CC)	$0	100 emails/day (~3,000/mo)	Yes — real users can't receive mail	Useful only for sandbox/eval; cannot reach real users
Free (CC on file)	$0	100 emails/day (~3,000/mo)	No	Workable for personal sites & tiny volume; 1 day log retention
Flex (PAYG)	pay-as-you-go	—	No	$2.00 per 1,000 emails (raised Dec 2025)
Basic	$15	10k	No	Entry plan for serious production transactional
Foundation	$35	50k	No	1,000 sending domains, 5-day log retention; overage $1.30/1k. Foundation 100k tier includes 1 dedicated IP
Growth	varies	10k-50k tier	No	Dedicated IP option, subaccounts, < 24h support
Scale	$90	100k	No	Dedicated IPs, 5,000 validations, send-time optimization, live chat, 30-day log retention; overage ~$0.60/1k

Additional dedicated IPs: $59/IP/month on Foundation 100k+, Growth, Scale.

The "authorized-recipients only" restriction: on Free without a credit card, every recipient must be pre-verified by clicking a verification email Mailgun sends them. Real users sign up and never receive your password reset, order confirmation, etc. Adding a CC removes this restriction even on Free.

Pattern

Tier upgrade triggers

Current tier	Upgrade to	When
Free (no CC) → Free (CC) or Basic	Add CC, OR Basic ($15/10k)	First production user signup. Without CC, recipient verification blocks real users
Free (CC) → Basic	Basic ($15/10k)	Volume exceeds 100/day, or you need multi-day log retention for support, or you want ticket support
Basic → Foundation	Foundation ($35/50k)	~18,000 emails/month — Foundation $35 beats Basic $15 + overage
Foundation → Scale	Scale ($90/100k)	Need >5-day log retention, send-time optimization, OR > 50k/month
Scale → Enterprise	Talk to sales	Above ~1M emails/month or need multiple dedicated IPs cheaply

Cost calculator example (40k/mo)

Plan	Cost
Basic + overage	$15 + (30k × $1.30/k) = $54/mo
Foundation	$35/mo flat
Foundation 100k	$80/mo (overhead, but headroom + 1 dedicated IP)

Foundation is the right tier here.

Dedicated IP — when?

Below ~100k/month: shared IP is fine; Mailgun manages reputation
100k-500k: dedicated IP starts paying off (your reputation, not shared)
500k+: definitely dedicated; consider IP pools (separate transactional from marketing)

Warming a dedicated IP requires 2-4 weeks of gradual volume increase. Plan ahead.

Common Mistakes

Wrong: Going live on Free without a credit card → Right: Add a CC (still $0/month) OR upgrade to Basic. Authorized-recipients restriction blocks real users until one of these is done.
Wrong: Assuming Free is "for evaluation only" → Right: With CC on file, Free's 100 emails/day is enough for a personal site or low-volume blog. Upgrade when volume or features force it, not on principle.
Wrong: Basic plan with 30k/month sends → Right: 30k - 10k included = 20k overage at $1.30/1k = $26 overage + $15 base = $41. Foundation at $35 is cheaper. Recalculate quarterly.
Wrong: Provisioning dedicated IP at 5k/month → Right: Insufficient volume to maintain warmth; reputation actually worse than shared. Wait until 100k+.
Wrong: Not checking Mailgun pricing page before quarterly budget review → Right: Pricing changes; PAYG was raised in Dec 2025. Verify current rates.