The Overage Black Hole
Your Pro plan is $79/mo for 100k emails. But that viral campaign sent 150k. Your bill? $329. Here's how that happens.
Overage fees are where legacy email providers make their real money. Rates can be 5-10x higher than your plan rate, turning a predictable expense into a budget-busting surprise.
- Overage rates are often buried in pricing pages.
- SendGrid charges up to $1.00/1k for overages on lower tiers.
- That's a 1000% markup over AWS costs.
- Transmit has simple overage pricing: $0.20/1k extra. No surprises.
The Overage Business Model
Your plan says "100,000 emails/month for $79." Sounds straightforward. But what happens when you hit 100,001?
Most providers don't just charge you a pro-rated amount. They charge a penalty rate that can be 5-10x higher than your effective plan rate.
Emails sent: 147,000
Base plan: $79.00
Overage (47k @ $5.00/1k): $235.00
Total: $314.00
You paid $0.79/1k for your first 100k emails. Then $5.00/1k for the next 47k. That's a 633% price increase for going over your limit.
Why Overages Are So Profitable
Email providers rely on two things:
- Unpredictable usage: You don't know exactly how many emails you'll send each month. Product launches, marketing campaigns, viral moments all cause spikes.
- Monitoring friction: Most teams don't watch their email usage daily. By the time you notice, you've already gone over.
This creates a "tax" on success. Your marketing campaign worked? Great. Here's a surprise bill. Combined with linear scaling pricing, you're being squeezed from both ends.
How Transmit Handles Overages
Transmit takes a different approach:
- Managed Mode: Simple overage rate of $0.20/1k emails. No penalty pricing.
- BYOK Mode: You pay AWS directly. $0.10/1k. No overages from us.
If you send 147k emails on our Pro plan ($49/mo for 100k), your overage is 47k x $0.20/1k = $9.40. Total bill: $58.40.
Compare that to $314 on a legacy provider.
Stop Paying the Overage Tax
Predictable pricing that doesn't punish your success. Start free and scale without surprise bills.