📣AWS SNS Pricing

AWS SNS Pricing Explained

Amazon SNS pricing is not a single number — it breaks down by delivery channel. Here is what SMS, push notifications, and email actually cost, and when SNS beats the alternatives.

$0.0065/SMS
US SMS / message
200+
SMS Countries
3
Delivery Channels

Channel 1 — SMS

SMS is the most complex SNS channel to price. Costs depend on the destination country, message type (transactional vs. promotional), and sender type (toll-free number, short code, or sender ID). For US domestic SMS, our tracked rate is $0.0065/SMS per outbound message — versus $0.0079/SMS on Twilio. SNS does not natively support inbound SMS, and two-way messaging is limited.

Countries
200+
MMS
No
Two-way SMS
Limited
Short codes
Yes
AWS SNS vs Twilio SMS →AWS SNS vs Bird SMS →All SMS providers →

Channels 2 & 3 — Push and Email

🔔 Push Notifications
Push pricing is per delivery attempt to mobile endpoints (iOS via APNs, Android via FCM) and does not vary by country. The AWS free tier covers a meaningful monthly volume of push deliveries, which makes SNS one of the cheapest options at small to medium scale — and native integration with Lambda, SQS, and CloudWatch means one service instead of several. Verdict: for push, SNS is the cost leader in nearly all scenarios versus dedicated push providers.
📧 Email
SNS can deliver email notifications, but it is not a dedicated email service. It fits occasional transactional notifications (alerts, confirmations) inside a multi-channel workflow. Verdict: if email is your primary channel, use a dedicated email API instead — compare real per-message costs on our Email API pricing page.

Rates shown for US domestic SMS from our tracked comparison data. Verify current pricing on AWS's official SNS pricing page before committing volume.

AWS SNS Pricing — FAQ

How much does AWS SNS cost for SMS?
For US domestic SMS, Amazon SNS charges $0.00645 per outbound message in our tracked data. There is no single global rate — SMS cost depends on the destination country, message type (transactional vs. promotional), and sender type (toll-free, short code, or sender ID). Always check the channel and country you actually plan to send to.
Is AWS SNS free to use?
Partially. The AWS free tier covers standard SNS requests and a meaningful volume of push notification deliveries each month, so light push/fan-out workloads can run at little or no cost. SMS is never free — every text message is billed at the destination country rate.
Which is cheaper for SMS — AWS SNS or Twilio?
For US outbound SMS, SNS ($0.00645/msg) undercuts Twilio ($0.0079/msg) in our comparison data. Twilio offers a richer messaging API, native two-way SMS, and better tooling; SNS wins on price for outbound-only workloads that already live on AWS. See our full AWS SNS vs Twilio comparison for the detailed breakdown.
Should I use AWS SNS or Amazon SES for email?
Use SES for dedicated email sending at scale (lower per-message cost, better deliverability tools). Use SNS for occasional email notifications that are part of a multi-channel workflow alongside SMS and push.

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