Business Email Cost in 2026: What 1, 3 and 10 People Pay at Google, Microsoft or Your Host

Key takeaways

• You pay per person, not per address. Every provider here charges by the mailbox or the user. Shared addresses such as info@ or sales@ can usually be aliases at no extra charge.
• Email-only plans start at about $1 to $3 a user a month. Zoho Mail Lite is $1 and Fastmail Basic is $3, both billed yearly.
• Google and Microsoft both start at $7 a user a month on a yearly plan. That buys email plus documents, storage and video calls. Google's month-to-month price is $8.40.
• A three-person business pays $36 to $504 a year, depending on the plan. Ten people pay $120 to $1,680.
• Setup is free but not optional. Google requires SPF or DKIM records on your domain for mail to reach Gmail users reliably, and bulk senders need DMARC as well.
• Check what happens when you stop paying. Microsoft's pricing page says the data in a cancelled subscription is deleted, so export it before you cancel.

The short answer

If you only need email and a calendar, an email-only plan is enough and costs between $12 and $60 a person a year. If your team also writes documents, shares files and holds video calls, Google Workspace Business Starter or Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $7 a user a month (yearly) is the usual pick, because you would pay for those tools somewhere else anyway. Choose Google if your team already lives in Gmail and Google Docs. Choose Microsoft if you work in Word, Excel and Outlook, or if your clients send you Office files all day.

Neither is right for a business that sends newsletters or thousands of automated messages a day from the same mailboxes. That job belongs to a sending service, which is a separate cost.

What each plan costs, read on 6 November 2026

Namecheap sells mailboxes in packs rather than per user. Its Private Email page showed three plans after a one-month free trial: Launch at $14.88 a year for one mailbox (5 GB, 10 aliases), Expand at $41.88 a year for three mailboxes (30 GB, 50 aliases each) and Scale at $71.88 a year for five mailboxes (75 GB, unlimited aliases). That works out at about $1.24, $1.16 and $1.20 per mailbox a month.

A few notes on the table. Google's page says prices are in US dollars "or equivalent in supported local currency", and that annual plans are billed yearly or monthly depending on region and how you signed up. Microsoft's page now also lists Business Standard with Copilot at $23.50 and Business Premium with Copilot at $32, after its 1 July 2026 packaging changes. Zoho's page says its free plan for five users is offered only "in select regions". Prices shown to you may differ by country, and tax is extra everywhere.

What a team of 1, 3 or 10 pays in a year

This is the table we could not find in any of the guides we read: the yearly bill at each plan's yearly price, for the team sizes most small businesses have. It's plain arithmetic, price per user times 12 times the number of people, before tax.

Two things stand out. First, the gap between email-only and a full suite is small for one person, $12 to $84 a year, and large for ten, $120 to $840. Second, the month-to-month option at Google adds $16.80 per user a year over the annual plan ($1.40 x 12), which is the price of being able to cancel or drop a user at any time.

For a sole trader, the cost of email is close to a rounding error next to the website itself. Our guide to what a website costs and the monthly running costs show where it sits in the full bill.

The cheapest saving: aliases instead of extra users

Most small businesses want more addresses than people: info@, sales@, billing@, hello@. Paying a full user for each one is the most common way to overspend.

Google's alias page says you can add up to 30 aliases per user at no extra cost, and that messages to an alias land in that user's inbox. Its own example is a one-person business with info@, billing@ and sales@ all going to the owner. Namecheap's plans list 10, 50 or unlimited aliases per mailbox.

Here is what that is worth. A three-person team on Google Business Starter that made info@, sales@ and billing@ into full users would pay for six users, $504 a year. Keeping them as aliases keeps the bill at $252, a saving of $252 a year.

The limit: only one person receives mail sent to an alias on Google. If two people must read the same address, Google points to delegation or a shared inbox instead. Decide this before you set it up, because turning a full user into an alias later means moving the mail.

Costs the price table leaves out

• The domain. Your address needs a domain you own, usually $11 to $23 a year for a .com. See how much a domain name costs for renewal prices.
• Storage that arrives in stages. Google's page says pooled storage is granted in stages: you get part of it at purchase and the rest after a $30 payment on the subscription.
• Moving old mail. Importing years of mail from another provider is often free with the provider's own tools, but it takes time, and a helper may charge for it.
• Sending lots of email. Newsletters and app notifications should go through a sending service, priced by volume, not through staff mailboxes.
• Bundles that end. Email bundled free with hosting or a website plan sometimes covers a trial period only. Read what the renewal includes.

The three records that decide whether your mail arrives

Paying for email is the easy part. Whether it reaches people depends on three DNS records on your domain, and setting them costs nothing.

Google's sender guidelines say that anyone sending to personal Gmail accounts must set up SPF or DKIM for their domain, and that bulk senders (5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail) need SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Google recommends all three for everyone.

Your email provider gives you the exact values, and you add them where your domain's DNS is managed. If your website is also sending form notifications, those need to be covered by the same records, or they're the messages that end up in spam. This is the step most often skipped when a business sets up email in a hurry, and it's the first thing we check when a client says enquiries have stopped arriving.

Google Workspace or Microsoft 365?

At $7 a user a month on a yearly plan, the two start at the same price, so the choice is about how you work.

• Pick Google if your team uses Gmail and Google Docs already, you work in the browser, and you want shared files that several people edit at once. Business Starter's storage is 30 GB per user, pooled across the team.
• Pick Microsoft if you need Word, Excel and Outlook as desktop apps, or your clients and suppliers send Office files. Note that Business Basic has web and mobile apps only. The desktop apps start at Business Standard, $14.
• Pick an email-only plan if you just need a professional address, already have documents sorted elsewhere, and want the lowest bill. Zoho, Fastmail and Namecheap all fit here.

Keep the provider you have if it works, your team knows it and the records above are set. Moving email is a small job, but a nervous week for any business.

When you leave a provider

Every plan here is a subscription, and the mail is yours only while you can export it. Microsoft's pricing page says that when a subscription is cancelled, all associated data will be deleted. Before you cancel any provider, export the mailboxes, move the domain's mail records to the new provider, and only then close the old account. Keep the account that owns the subscription in the business's name, not a freelancer's.

How we help at Amariq

When we build a site, the domain, hosting and analytics sit in your accounts, and we can set up or connect your email at the same time: the right plan for your team, aliases instead of extra users where they fit, and the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records so that your mail and your website's form notifications arrive. Website work is priced from the scope, never by the hour, with 40% to start, 30% at design approval and 30% before launch. Once the final payment is made, the design, copy and code are yours. See our web design services or our website hosting cost guide for the rest of the running costs.

If you move your domain's DNS, copy the mail records first; how long DNS propagation really takes explains the wait and the safe order.

The MX and TXT records that connect a mail provider to your domain are explained in DNS records in plain English.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a business email cost per month?

About $1 to $14 per user a month on a yearly plan, from the makers' pages read on 6 November 2026. Email-only plans are $1 to $5; Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 start at $7.

Is Google business email free?

No. Gmail at your own domain needs Google Workspace, which has a 14 day free trial and then starts at $7 a user a month on an annual plan, or $8.40 on the flexible plan.

How much does Google Workspace cost for one person?

$84 a year on Business Starter with an annual plan, or $100.80 a year if you pay the flexible monthly price. Add aliases for info@ and sales@ at no extra cost.

Is Microsoft 365 cheaper than Google Workspace?

At the entry level they cost the same: $7 a user a month paid yearly. Microsoft's Business Basic has a larger mailbox, 100 GB, but web and mobile Office apps only.

What is the cheapest business email?

Of the plans we read, Zoho Mail Lite at $1 a user a month, billed yearly, and Namecheap's Launch plan at $14.88 a year for one mailbox. Zoho also offers a free plan for five users in some regions.

Do I pay for every email address?

Not usually. You pay per person or mailbox. Extra addresses for the same person can be aliases, up to 30 per user on Google Workspace, at no extra cost.

Do I need a domain to have business email?

Yes, for an address like you@yourbusiness.com. The domain is a separate yearly cost, and it should be registered in your own name.

Why does my business email go to spam?

Most often because the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are missing or wrong. Google requires SPF or DKIM for mail sent to Gmail users. Ask your provider for the values and add them to your domain's DNS.