AWS SES production access: how to get approved in under 24 hours
Every new AWS SES account starts in sandbox mode — you can only send to verified email addresses, and your daily sending limit is 200. To send real campaigns, you need production access. Here's how to get approved, fast.
What sandbox mode actually means
In sandbox:
- You can only send from verified identities (domains or addresses)
- You can only send to verified email addresses
- Maximum 200 emails per 24 hours
- Maximum 1 email per second
Production access removes the "verified recipient only" restriction and raises your daily limit to 50,000 emails by default, with higher limits available on request.
How to submit the request
AWS SES console → Account Dashboard → Request Production Access. You'll fill out a form with four key fields. What you write here determines whether you wait 24 hours or a week.
What to write — field by field
Mail type
Select "Marketing" if you're sending newsletters or promotional email. Select "Transactional" for receipts, password resets, and notifications. If you need both, select Marketing — it's the higher bar and approval covers both.
Website URL
Your actual business website. If you don't have one, a landing page will do. AWS reviewers visit the URL. Make sure it's live and clearly shows what your business does.
Use case description
This is the most important field. Be specific. Vague answers get rejected or create delays. Here is a template that works:
We operate [describe business] and use AWS SES to send [marketing newsletters / transactional emails / both] to customers and subscribers who have explicitly opted in via [describe opt-in method — e.g. "a double-opt-in form on our website"].
Our list currently has approximately [X] subscribers. We send [frequency — e.g. "one newsletter per week"]. We manage unsubscribes using [describe method — e.g. "SES Mailbox, which automatically processes list-unsubscribe headers and one-click unsubscribes"]. We suppress hard bounces and spam complaints immediately.
Expected monthly send volume: [X] emails.
Additional contacts
Leave blank unless you want a second person to receive the approval notification.
How long does it take?
AWS advertises 24 hours. In practice:
- Well-written requests with established domains: 4–12 hours
- New domains or vague descriptions: 1–3 business days
- Rejected requests that require appeal: 3–7 business days
Submitting on a Friday adds 1–2 days. Submitting Monday morning gets the fastest review.
The most common rejection reasons
- Vague use case description ("I want to send marketing emails")
- No website or a broken/under-construction website
- Domain was created very recently (days ago) — consider waiting a week
- History of abuse on other AWS services linked to the same billing account
If you get rejected
Reply to the rejection email directly. Do not open a new support case. In your reply:
- Acknowledge the concern they raised
- Provide more detail about your opt-in process
- Include a sample of the confirmation email subscribers receive when they opt in
- Link to your privacy policy and unsubscribe mechanism
First-time rejections for legitimate businesses are almost always overturned on appeal. The review team wants to approve you — they just need enough confidence that you won't be a spam source.
Before you submit: make sure your domain has a valid SPF record, at least one DKIM signature, and a DMARC policy set to p=none with a rua address. AWS reviewers check DNS. Missing records are a yellow flag even if not an outright rejection reason.