How long does SES production access take?

AWS says it gives a first response within 96 hours, and that it can take longer if it needs more information from you.

Is SES production access per region?

Yes. The sandbox is separate in each AWS Region, so request production access in every region you send from.

What are the SES sandbox limits?

You can only send to verified addresses or the mailbox simulator, up to 200 messages per 24 hours and one message per second.

What bounce rate gets an SES account reviewed?

AWS places an account under review at a bounce rate of 5% or more and may pause sending at 10%. For complaints, the thresholds are 0.1% and 0.5%.

Why was my SES production access request denied?

AWS doesn't publish its reasons. The form asks for a website, the kind of mail you send, and confirmation that you only email people who asked and handle bounces and complaints, so a request that doesn't show those clearly is the most likely to be turned down or questioned.

How to get Amazon SES production access

Updated November 12, 2026

Short answer

New Amazon SES accounts start in the sandbox in each region: you can only send to verified addresses, up to 200 messages per 24 hours and one per second. To leave it, request production access in the SES console with your mail type, website URL and contact addresses, and confirm that you only email people who asked and have a process for bounces and complaints. AWS gives a first response within 96 hours and may ask how you handle bounces and complaints, so explain it up front. HelloBox prefills that explanation from what it set up in your account.

What the sandbox limits

You can only send to verified addresses and domains, or to the SES mailbox simulator.
At most 200 messages per 24 hours and one message per second.
The sandbox is per region, so each region you send from needs its own request.

Once you're out, you still send only from identities you've verified. (AWS: request production access)

What the request asks for

In the SES console, choose Request production access. The form asks for:

Mail type: Marketing or Transactional, whichever describes most of what you'll send.
Website URL, so AWS can understand what you plan to send.
Additional contacts: up to 4 addresses for AWS to reach.
Preferred contact language: English or Japanese.
An acknowledgement that you'll only send to people who explicitly asked for your mail, and that you have a process for bounce and complaint notifications.

The same request works from the API or CLI. The API also accepts a UseCaseDescription of up to 5,000 characters. AWS marks that field deprecated, but it still accepts it, and it's the place to explain how you send. (AWS: PutAccountDetails)

aws sesv2 put-account-details \
  --production-access-enabled \
  --mail-type TRANSACTIONAL \
  --website-url https://acme.com \
  --additional-contact-email-addresses [email protected] \
  --contact-language EN

AWS answers within 96 hours and may take longer if it needs more information. You can't edit the details while the review is open. People who've been through it describe an automated reply first, then a person who asks how you handle bounces and complaints, and a wait of anything from a day to a week.

Why bounce and complaint handling matters

SES judges an account by its bounce and complaint rates, and the review is AWS checking you won't push them up. These are the thresholds AWS publishes:

Rate	Aim for	Account placed under review	Sending may be paused
Bounce rate	Below 5%	5% or more	10% or more
Complaint rate	Below 0.1%	0.1% or more	0.5% or more

AWS requires every sender to have a system for bounces and complaints: email notifications, an SNS topic, or event publishing. Accounts created after November 2019 also have an account-level suppression list that adds hard bounces and complaints automatically. Gmail doesn't send complaint data to SES, so people who press Spam in Gmail won't show up there. (AWS: reputation metrics, notifications, suppression list)

What gets requests turned down

AWS doesn't publish a list of reasons. It says only that it considers each request carefully to keep SES from being used for unsolicited or malicious mail. What it asks you to show is clear, though, and requests run into trouble when they leave it out:

No real website, or one that doesn't match the domain you send from.
No word on bounces and complaints, when the form asks you to confirm you handle them.
Unclear where addresses come from. Say who you email (customers, people who signed up, people who wrote to you) and that you don't buy or rent lists.
Marketing mail with no way out. If you'll send campaigns, say they carry an unsubscribe link and that opt-outs are honored.

If AWS writes back with questions, answer them in the support case rather than starting a new request.

A use case description that answers the questions

Keep it short and specific. This is the kind of text that heads off the follow-up email:

We send transactional email from our verified domain acme.com: replies to customers
who wrote to us. A person on our team writes and sends each one.

Bounces and complaints: our configuration set publishes delivery, bounce, complaint
and reject events to Amazon SNS. A permanent bounce or a complaint adds the address
to a suppression list automatically, and we don't send to it again.

Lists: we only email people who contacted us, are our customers, or signed up.
We don't use purchased or rented lists.

How HelloBox prefills the request

When you connect SES to HelloBox, it sets up the handling AWS asks about: a configuration set that publishes delivery, bounce, complaint and reject events to SNS, and a suppression list that adds an address after a permanent bounce or a complaint. The composer warns before sending to a suppressed address, and campaigns skip them.

In Settings, under your SES connection, Request production access opens a form with the mail type, website and contact address, and a How you'll use SES field already written from that setup and your verified domains. Edit it so it matches how you send, then send the request. There's a copy button too, since reviewers often ask for the same details by email. Approval is still AWS's decision.

Not set up yet? Start with how to receive email with Amazon SES.

Frequently asked questions

How long does SES production access take?: AWS says it gives a first response within 96 hours, and that it can take longer if it needs more information from you.
Is SES production access per region?: Yes. The sandbox is separate in each AWS Region, so request production access in every region you send from.
What are the SES sandbox limits?: You can only send to verified addresses or the mailbox simulator, up to 200 messages per 24 hours and one message per second.
What bounce rate gets an SES account reviewed?: AWS places an account under review at a bounce rate of 5% or more and may pause sending at 10%. For complaints, the thresholds are 0.1% and 0.5%.
Why was my SES production access request denied?: AWS doesn't publish its reasons. The form asks for a website, the kind of mail you send, and confirmation that you only email people who asked and handle bounces and complaints, so a request that doesn't show those clearly is the most likely to be turned down or questioned.