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How to Get Approved for Amazon SES

10 min read

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is the most cost-effective way to send email at scale — around $0.10 per 1,000 emails, with no monthly minimums. Once connected to Aledamail, it becomes your sending infrastructure for campaigns, automations, and transactional email.

New Amazon SES accounts start in sandbox mode, which limits you to sending only to verified email addresses. This guide walks you through getting out of the sandbox and into production, then connecting SES to Aledamail.

Part 1 — Set up Amazon SES

Step 1 — Verify your sending domain

Before you can send from your domain, Amazon needs to verify that you own it.

1. Log in to the Amazon SES console.
2. In the left sidebar, click Verified identities.
3. Click Create identity and select Domain.
4. Enter your domain (e.g. yourcompany.com) and click Create identity.
5. Amazon will show you a set of DNS records to add — including DKIM records (three CNAME entries) and optionally an SPF record.
6. Add these records to your domain's DNS settings through your registrar (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.).
7. DNS propagation usually takes a few minutes to an hour. Once complete, the identity status in SES will change to Verified.

Step 2 — Request production access

By default, new SES accounts are in sandbox mode. You need to submit a request to move to production. This is a one-time step and usually takes 24 hours.

1. In the SES console, click Account dashboard in the left sidebar.
2. You'll see a banner that says your account is in the sandbox. Click Request production access.
3. Fill in the request form:

• Mail type — Select the type of email you'll send. For newsletters and marketing, choose Marketing. For transactional emails, choose Transactional. If you send both, select the primary use case.
• Website URL — Your company website.
• Use case description — This is the most important field. Write 3-5 sentences explaining who you're sending to, how you collected their consent, and how you handle unsubscribes and bounces. Be specific and honest. See the template below.
• Additional contacts — Optional. Add a backup email in case Amazon needs to reach you.

Use case description template

Make sure your website is ready

Amazon reviewers will visit your website as part of the approval process. Before submitting your request, make sure your site has:

• A working homepage — your site must be live, not under construction or password-protected
• Privacy policy — explaining how you collect and use personal data, including email addresses
• Terms of service — your terms of use for the product or service
• A visible unsubscribe or opt-out mechanism — a way for people to stop receiving emails from you
• Contact information — a way for people to reach you (email address or contact form)
• A clear description of what you do — Amazon needs to understand your business and why you're sending email

A professional, complete website significantly increases your chances of fast approval. If your site is still being built, wait until it's live before submitting the request.

Step 3 — Wait for approval

Amazon typically approves production access requests within 24 hours, though it can take up to 3 business days. You'll receive an email notification when approved.

If your request is rejected, Amazon will tell you why. Common reasons are a vague use case description or not explaining how consent was collected. Update your description and resubmit — approvals on second attempts are common.

Part 2 — Connect Amazon SES to Aledamail

Step 4 — Create SMTP credentials in AWS

Aledamail connects to Amazon SES via SMTP. You'll need to create SMTP credentials in your AWS account:

1. In the SES console, go to Account dashboard and click Create SMTP credentials (or go to SMTP settings in the sidebar).
2. Note your SMTP endpoint — it looks like email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com (the region will match where your SES account is set up).
3. Click Create SMTP credentials. AWS will create an IAM user and generate credentials for you.
4. Download or copy the SMTP username and SMTP password. You won't be able to see the password again after closing this screen.

Step 5 — Add Amazon SES as a sending server in Aledamail

1. Log in to Aledamail and go to Sending Servers in the left sidebar.
2. Click New Sending Server and select Amazon SES (or SMTP if you prefer SMTP credentials).
3. Enter your credentials:
   • SMTP host — your SES endpoint, e.g. email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
   • Port — 587 (TLS)
   • Username — your SES SMTP username
   • Password — your SES SMTP password
   • Encryption — TLS
4. Set your sending limits to match your SES account limits (default is 200 emails/day for new production accounts, increasing over time).
5. Click Test Connection to verify everything is working.
6. Click Save.

Step 6 — Assign SES to your list

Once your sending server is saved, Aledamail will use it automatically for campaigns sent from your verified domain. If you have multiple sending servers, you can assign a specific one to each list under Lists → Your List → Settings → Sending Server.

SES sending limits

The 200 emails/day limit only applies while your account is in the sandbox. Once production access is approved, your limits increase significantly — typically to around 50,000 emails per day and 14 emails per second to start, though the exact numbers vary by account and AWS region.

To see your actual current limits, go to Account dashboard in the SES console — your daily quota and maximum send rate are shown there.

Amazon increases your limits automatically over time as you build a positive sending reputation — consistent volume, low bounce rates, and low complaint rates all help. If you need higher limits sooner, you can request an increase through AWS Service Quotas or by opening a support case. In the request, explain your current volume, expected growth, and how you handle bounces and unsubscribes.