Amazon denied my request to use Simple Email Service, and I'm trying to understand why. I'd prefer to keep my infrastructure on AWS rather than pay another provider just to send transactional messages. My use case is limited to registration confirmations and service notifications for a SaaS application, not marketing emails. What does AWS look for when reviewing SES access requests, and what can I do to get approved?
3 Answers
Submit the SES production-access request again with specific operational details: what triggers each message, who receives it, your estimated volume, and confirmation that you won’t send unsolicited mail. A newer account, missing billing history, incomplete domain authentication, or a vague request can make approval less likely. AWS does approve ordinary SaaS notification use cases, but they want enough information to judge the abuse risk.
SES access is restricted because abusive senders can damage AWS’s shared email reputation and cause delivery problems for other customers. SMTP is easy to misuse at scale, so AWS reviews requests before allowing production sending. Explain your application, the kinds of transactional emails you’ll send, your expected daily volume, how users opt in, and how you’ll handle bounces and complaints. Also make sure your domain is verified and that you have proper SPF, DKIM, and unsubscribe or preference handling where relevant.
That makes more sense, but I’m still unclear how I’m supposed to start if access is restricted from the beginning.
You can start in the SES sandbox, where sending is limited and recipients generally need verification. From there, submit a production-access request with a concrete explanation instead of only saying that you need email notifications.
The EC2 port restriction is a separate issue from SES authorization. If you plan to send through an SMTP client on an instance, check the relevant outbound SMTP restrictions, but changing those ports won’t automatically grant SES production access. You still need to request removal from the SES sandbox.
Some people get approved with a very short request, but account age and overall account history may affect the review. Providing the extra details gives the reviewer more confidence.