Using the Amazon SES SMTP interface to send email - Amazon Simple Email Service

Using the Amazon SES SMTP interface to send email

To send production email through Amazon SES, you can use the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) interface or the Amazon SES API. For more information about the Amazon SES API, see Using the Amazon SES API to send email. This section describes the SMTP interface.

Amazon SES sends email using SMTP, which is the most common email protocol on the internet. You can send email through Amazon SES by using a variety of SMTP-enabled programming languages and software to connect to the Amazon SES SMTP interface. This section explains how to get your Amazon SES SMTP credentials, how to send email by using the SMTP interface, and how to configure several pieces of software and mail servers to use Amazon SES for email sending.

For solutions to common problems that you might encounter when you use Amazon SES through its SMTP interface, see Amazon SES SMTP issues.

Requirements to send email over SMTP

To send email using the Amazon SES SMTP interface, you need the following:

Methods to send email over SMTP

You can send email over SMTP through any of the following methods:

For a list of SMTP response codes, see SMTP response codes returned by Amazon SES.

Email information to provide

When you access Amazon SES through the SMTP interface, your SMTP client application assembles the message, so the information you need to provide depends on the application that you're using. At a minimum, the SMTP exchange between a client and a server requires the following:

  • a source address

  • a destination address

  • message data

If you're using the SMTP interface and have feedback forwarding enabled, then your bounces, complaints, and delivery notifications are sent to the "MAIL FROM" address. Any "Reply-To" address that you specify isn't used.