How to send email in Python via SMTPLIB

By mkyong | September 23, 2009 | Updated : August 30, 2012 | Viewed : 103,282 | +93 pv/w

Here is an email example written in Python module “smtplib”. It will connect to the GMail SMTP server and do the authentication with username and password given (hardcoded in program), and use the GMail SMTP server to send email to the recipient.


import smtplib

to = 'mkyong2002@yahoo.com'
gmail_user = 'mkyong2002@gmail.com'
gmail_pwd = 'yourpassword'
smtpserver = smtplib.SMTP("smtp.gmail.com",587)
smtpserver.ehlo()
smtpserver.starttls()
smtpserver.ehlo
smtpserver.login(gmail_user, gmail_pwd)
header = 'To:' + to + '\n' + 'From: ' + gmail_user + '\n' + 'Subject:testing \n'
print header
msg = header + '\n this is test msg from mkyong.com \n\n'
smtpserver.sendmail(gmail_user, to, msg)
print 'done!'
smtpserver.close()

Reference

http://docs.python.org/library/smtplib.html

About the Author

mkyong

Founder of Mkyong.com, love Java and open source stuff. Follow him on Twitter. If you like my tutorials, consider make a donation to these charities.

Comments

newest oldest most voted

Guest

Janith

Thanks, This helps me a lot.

Guest

Ayushi

This solves the problem for me. Thank you! No ConnectionRefusedError anymore.

Guest

Paddy3118

Try: this for a similar program snippet wraapped as a function.

Guest

mikefrid

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing

Guest

walter

thanks this is the only link Iv found so far that has worked

Guest

trzn

It’s works. thank’s mkyong 🙂

Guest

phone

great, this is the only correct one I have found. thanks!

Guest

rudy

thank you, it’s work ^_^

Guest

Picus

Thanks this helps, one note, you may want to change how the header variable is concatenated. The immutability of Python strings would be an issue were this code to be used heavily – say in a loop.

Try appending to a list then using .join() before sending.

Guest

sawan gupta

thanks, this is a great example.

Guest

Omar Mendoza

Thanks a lot excelent job !

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Guest

sandeep

Awesome and many thanks as it’s the only working solution i could find.

however i have 2 following questions…

1. Could you please post a sample for email with attachment when the attachments are picked from a list in a loop?
2. After sending a few mails from an account it’s getting marked as spam or it’s showing that daily email sending quota is exceeded. Is there a solutions for this problem?

thanks again ..

Guest

Bhavan

Hi folks,

I am new to python. Can any one share me the link to download smtplib package. I am working with windows 7 OS. Can any one help me in this concern….

Thanks,
Bhavan

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[…] http://www.mkyong.com/python/how-do-send-email-in-python-via-smtplib/ […]

Guest

Mandar

Thanks .. It worked .. Great script !!!…
Let me know if the there are multiple receiptent.

Mandar Parab

Guest

Vin

I have tried the gmail snippet, it worked well…thanks
If you can share the one for outlook 2007, will be great

Thanks

Guest

Vin

I have tried the gmail snippet, it worked well…thanks
will be great if you can share snippet for outlook 2007 too

Thanks

Guest

Lars

This is great! Works perfectly. Thanks so much!

Guest

javi

Hi Mikong,

In the second call to ehlo, parenthesis are missing… then, that line is doing nothin… is that intentionally?
”
smtpserver.ehlo
”
Regards.

Guest

Alexandre Magno

smtpserver.ehlo() or smtpserver.ehlo? mistake?

Guest

Sujayyendhiren

Nice example, works as intendend. Many examples in other’s posts dont work without too many changes!!
Thanks for this !!

Guest

SUMIT SAIN

how to send email with attachment using python and Google App Engine?

Guest

mounika

can anyone post code for how to write unittest for send email function.

Guest

mounika

Hi, could you please post code for how to write unittest for send email function via smtplib

Guest

AYRTON

THANK YOU FOR SHARE. DO YOU KNOW A GOOD BOOK ABOUT NETWORKING USING PYTHON?

Guest

faizan

HI, when I use this the smtpserver.starttls(), it gives me an error

smtplib.SMTPServerDisconnected: Connection unexpectedly closed: [Errno 10054] An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

any idea what might be causing this. I am using the exact code that your posted above….

Guest

rexw

Great code. No BS. Works immediately!

Guest

VIKAS RAWAT

hi thanks for the above example:

I am getting below error message

smtplib.SMTPNotSupportedError: SMTP AUTH extension not supported by server.