{"id":7321,"date":"2020-07-24T13:25:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T13:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/?p=7321"},"modified":"2023-02-16T19:57:02","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T19:57:02","slug":"sending-emails-using-python","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/python\/examples\/sending-emails-using-python","title":{"rendered":"Python HowTo – Sending Emails using Python"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello everyone! In today’s article, we’ll be taking a look at how we can use Python to send emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sending Emails – A brief overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Usually, the task of sending emails is done using the MTP (Mail Transfer Protocol). In the present day, there is a separate protocol called SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) which is the widely used protocol for sending emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This protocol works on a client-server basis, similar to any other. When we want to send an email to a target machine, we (the client) need to send the mail contents to the SMTP Server. The server will now route it to the desired target machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in order to send an email, you’ll need to use a SMTP Server. While you may have a custom SMTP Server, we’ll be using Gmail’s free SMTP Server to send emails using Gmail!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prerequisite Setup for Sending Emails with Python<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before going through the rest of this tutorial, I’d advice you to set up a dummy gmail account that you can use to test sending emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After setting up the account, there’s one more thing you need to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By default, your Gmail account is not configured to allow access from less secure applications such as SMTP. We need to enable this access for our account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can go to your gmail account configuration page<\/a><\/em> and enable access from your Google account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Less
Less Secure Access Gmail<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Now, you’re ready to send emails using Python! Let’s move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Send Emails using Python SMTP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Python has an SMTP client library (smtplib<\/code>), which it will use to send emails to an SMTP server (Gmail).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a part of the standard library, so you can directly import it!<\/p>\n\n\n

\nimport smtplib\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Okay, so now let’s try writing a script to send a test email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any email using SMTP must have the following contents:<\/p>\n\n\n\n