# Bird Email > SparkPost's successor: Bird's email API, paid from a prepaid balance Bird Email is the email API from Bird (formerly MessageBird), which says SparkPost is now Bird Email. It sends transactional email and campaigns through an API, SMTP relay, SDKs, a CLI or an MCP server, receives inbound email, and gives AI agents mailboxes of their own. Paid plans are monthly deposits into a Bird balance that each email draws from at a published rate per 1,000. - **Category:** Email Sending Services - **Made by:** Bird B.V. - **Website:** https://bird.com/email-api - **Runs on:** Web - **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026 ## Pricing Bird Email has a free plan. Paid plans start at $15 per month, deposited to your Bird balance. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** 1,000 emails a month, limited to 50 a day, 1 sending domain, 5 mailboxes and 3 webhook endpoints. Sending stops at the limit. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | 1,000 emails a month and 50 a day, 1 sending domain, 5 mailboxes, inbound email and templates. | | Startup | $15 per month, deposited to your balance; email at $0.40 per 1,000 | About 37,500 transactional emails if the whole deposit goes on email. 10 sending domains, 10 mailboxes, no daily limit; unused balance carries forward. | | Growth | $250 per month, deposited to your balance; email at $0.45 per 1,000 | About 555,555 emails from the deposit. 500 sending domains, up to 5 dedicated IPs and IP pools, 25 mailboxes, 10 webhook endpoints. | | Scale | $1,000 per month and up, deposited to your balance; from $0.35 per 1,000 | Deposits of $1,000 to $10,000 a month with rates falling to $0.20 per 1,000. 1,000 domains, up to 10 dedicated IPs, 100 mailboxes. | Read from https://bird.com/pricing/email on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Bird Email before buying. ## Key features - **Email API, SMTP, SDKs and MCP:** Send through the API or SMTP relay, with typed SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go and PHP, a CLI and a hosted MCP server for AI assistants. - **Mailboxes for agents:** Mailboxes that send, receive and store email for your app or AI agents: 5 on Free, 10 on Startup, 25 on Growth and 100 on Scale. - **Deliverability controls:** DKIM signing, SPF alignment, DMARC setup, suppression lists and managed dedicated IPs warmed over about 30 days, from the Growth plan. - **Analytics and signed webhooks:** Delivery, bounce, complaint, open and click data by domain, inbox provider and IP, plus signed, replay-protected webhooks for every event. - **Templates and campaigns:** Send raw HTML or React Email templates, and run broadcasts to opted-in audiences from the same platform. - **One API for other channels:** The same send call and webhook format cover Bird's SMS, WhatsApp and voice products, so a code can fall back from email to text. ## Good for - Existing SparkPost customers planning their next integration - Teams that also send SMS or WhatsApp through one provider - Developers giving AI agents their own email mailboxes ## Worth knowing - Bird Email has its own API: Bird says SparkPost integrations should be reviewed with an account team before moving traffic. - Paid plans are deposits, not allowances: every email is charged at the plan's rate, and other Bird products draw on the same balance. - Dedicated IPs and IP pools start with the $250 Growth plan. - The free plan is limited to 50 emails a day and 1 sending domain. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Bird Email is what SparkPost became: an email API, SMTP and SDKs from Bird, with mailboxes for AI agents and the same send call for SMS and WhatsApp. You don't buy an allowance; you pay a monthly deposit into a balance and each email costs $0.40 per 1,000 on Startup, so 50,000 emails work out at $20. Old SparkPost code needs reviewing before you move over. - **Value for money: B.** Graded on 50,000 emails a month, worked out from the listed rate: Startup charges $0.40 per 1,000, so that's $20 of balance a month, more than its $15 deposit covers. Unused balance carries forward. That's in the cheaper quarter of this category at that volume. - **Free plan and trial: C.** Free for good: 1,000 emails a month, but only 50 a day and 1 sending domain, and sending simply stops at the limit. Enough to try the API, not to run an app on. - **Features: B.** API, SMTP, typed SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server, inbound email and mailboxes, signed webhooks, DKIM and DMARC setup, templates and broadcasts, with SMS and WhatsApp on the same API. It covers the whole job; dedicated IPs start at $250. - **Ease of use: C.** Judged on how fast a developer sends a first email: SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go and PHP plus a CLI, once a domain is set up. No rating on record. Coming from SparkPost means a new API, which Bird says to review with its team. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, with an API, SMTP, SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server, plus Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Replit, Lovable, v0 and Bolt. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Bird's own pages on 18 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among email sending services - Bird Email's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 6 of the 11 other email sending services we grade, and level with 4. - It stands best on value for money (B, above 6 of 11) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $15 a month, against a middle price of $15 for the category: 2 of the 10 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/email-sending ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Bird Email you would be making mail servers with a good name among inbox providers. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $180 a year. - You could not: Mail servers with a good name among inbox providers. - You could not: Newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor among them, and has an API. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Replit, Lovable, v0, Bolt **Tags:** Transactional email, Public API, Email campaigns ## Alternatives - [Twilio SendGrid](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sendgrid): Twilio's email API and SMTP service, priced by monthly email volume. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/sendgrid-vs-sparkpost) - [Mailgun](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailgun): Email API and SMTP relay for developers, with list validation. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mailgun-vs-sparkpost) - [Amazon SES](https://toolgpa.com/tools/amazon-ses): AWS email sending and receiving, paid per 1,000 emails. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amazon-ses-vs-sparkpost) - [Postmark](https://toolgpa.com/tools/postmark): Transactional email API and SMTP, with broadcasts on a separate stream. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/postmark-vs-sparkpost) - [SMTP.com](https://toolgpa.com/tools/smtp-com): SMTP relay and email API sold in monthly volume plans from 50,000. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/smtp-com-vs-sparkpost) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026: - https://bird.com/pricing/email - https://bird.com/email-api - https://bird.com/email-api/features/sparkpost Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/sparkpost Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).