OneSignal vs Firebase Cloud Messaging vs AWS SNS: Real Push Notification Cost per 100 Million Messages in 2026
Prices checked: October 2, 2026.
Short answer
For 100 million mobile push notifications a month:
| Service | Monthly cost | Billing basis | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firebase Cloud Messaging | $0 | Free on every plan | OFFICIAL |
| AWS SNS mobile push | ~$99 | Per publish request + per delivery | ILLUSTRATIVE from REPORTED rates |
| OneSignal Growth, 1M monthly active users | ~$12,019 | $19 platform fee + $0.012 per mobile MAU, unlimited sends | ILLUSTRATIVE from OFFICIAL rates |
| OneSignal Growth, 5M monthly active users | ~$60,019 | Same | ILLUSTRATIVE |
These three don't sell the same thing. FCM and SNS are delivery pipes that charge nothing or almost nothing per message. OneSignal is a messaging product (segmentation, journeys, A/B tests, analytics) that charges per user, not per message. Your OneSignal bill depends on how many people receive the 100 million messages, not on the message count.
Native billing units
| Service | Billed on | Rate | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firebase Cloud Messaging | — | No cost on Spark and Blaze plans; no per-message charge listed | OFFICIAL |
| AWS SNS mobile push | Notifications delivered | $0.50 per million after the first 1M/month free | REPORTED (Aug 2026) |
| AWS SNS API requests | Publish requests, each 64 KB of payload = 1 request | $0.50 per million after the first 1M/month free | REPORTED (Aug 2026); 64 KB rule OFFICIAL |
| OneSignal Free | Mobile MAU | $0; unlimited mobile push sends up to 1,000 MAU; web push up to 10,000 subscribers per send | OFFICIAL |
| OneSignal Growth | Platform fee + mobile MAU + web subscribers | $19/month fixed platform fee, plus $0.012 per mobile MAU and $0.004 per web push subscriber; unlimited sends | OFFICIAL |
| OneSignal Professional / Enterprise | Custom | Custom | QUOTE-ONLY |
Scenario breakdown (ILLUSTRATIVE)
Firebase Cloud Messaging
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| 100M messages (Android, iOS via APNs, web) | $0 |
| Total | $0 |
You still run the sending backend yourself: the servers or functions that decide who gets what and call FCM's API. Those costs fall on whatever hosting you use.
AWS SNS mobile push (direct publish to endpoints)
| Item | Calculation | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Publish requests | (100M − 1M) × $0.50/M | $49.50 |
| Mobile push deliveries | (100M − 1M) × $0.50/M | $49.50 |
| Total | ~$99 |
SNS hands notifications to APNs and FCM for final delivery, so it adds AWS-native fan-out and IAM control on top of the same free platform pipes.
OneSignal Growth
OneSignal charges a $19/month platform fee plus a fee per audience member. 100 million messages costs very different amounts depending on how many users receive them:
| Monthly active mobile users | Messages per user | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 250,000 | 400 | $19 + $3,000 = $3,019 |
| 1,000,000 | 100 | $19 + $12,000 = $12,019 |
| 5,000,000 | 20 | $19 + $60,000 = $60,019 |
Add $0.004 per web push subscriber. For example, 1M web subscribers adds $4,000.
Cost per million messages
| Service | $ per million messages |
|---|---|
| FCM | $0 |
| AWS SNS | ~$0.99 |
| OneSignal, 250K MAU | $30.19 |
| OneSignal, 1M MAU | $120.19 |
| OneSignal, 5M MAU | $600.19 |
Where the cost catches you
- OneSignal's price follows users, not sends. A large but rarely messaged audience costs more than a small one you message often. Inactive users who still count as monthly active inflate the bill, so prune dead device tokens.
- SNS's 64 KB chunking. Each 64 KB of published payload counts as one request. Push payloads are small, but rich payloads sent through SNS topics can multiply request charges.
- SNS topic fan-out. One publish to a topic subscribed by many endpoints is billed as one request plus one delivery per endpoint. The delivery side dominates at scale.
- The hidden bill with FCM is engineering. Segmentation, scheduling, time-zone delivery, analytics and A/B tests are all yours to build. OneSignal's per-user fee is mostly paying for these features.
- Web push and email are separate meters on OneSignal. Email costs $1.50 per 1,000 sends after 20,000 free on Growth. A combined push and email program can cost more than push alone.
Which one fits
- Lowest cost, engineering team in place: FCM, which is free at any volume.
- AWS-native backend that needs fan-out and IAM integration: SNS, at about $1 per million.
- Marketing team that needs campaigns and analytics without engineering work: OneSignal. Model the bill on monthly active users, not message count.
- Hybrid: many apps send transactional pushes through FCM directly and use OneSignal (or similar) for marketing to a smaller segment, which keeps the MAU bill small.
Assumptions
- 100,000,000 mobile push notifications/month, small payloads (well under 64 KB)
- SNS: one publish request per notification, sent directly to platform endpoints
- OneSignal Growth list rates; Professional/Enterprise discounts not modeled
Pricing sources
- Firebase pricing: https://firebase.google.com/pricing
- Amazon SNS pricing: https://aws.amazon.com/sns/pricing/
- SNS rate breakdown (Aug 2026): https://cloudburn.io/blog/amazon-sns-pricing
- OneSignal pricing: https://onesignal.com/pricing