Email settings for Amazon Cognito user pools - Amazon Cognito
Default email configurationAmazon SES email configurationConfiguring the email account

Email settings for Amazon Cognito user pools

Certain events in your application can cause Amazon Cognito to email your users. For example, if you configure your user pool to require email verification, Amazon Cognito sends an email when a user signs up for a new account in your app or resets their password. Depending on the action that initiates the email, the email contains a verification code or a temporary password.

To handle email delivery, you can use either of the following options:

You can change your delivery option after you create your user pool.

Amazon Cognito sends email messages to your users with either a code that they can enter or a URL link that they can select. The following table shows the events that can generate an email message.

Message options

Activity API operation Delivery options Format options Customizable Message template
Forgot password ForgotPassword, AdminResetUserPassword Email, SMS code No N/A
Invitation AdminCreateUser Email, SMS code Yes Invitation message
Self-registration SignUp, ResendConfirmationCode Email, SMS code, link Yes Verification message
Email address or phone number verification UpdateUserAttributes, AdminUpdateUserAttributes, GetUserAttributeVerificationCode Email, SMS code Yes Verification message
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) AdminInitiateAuth, InitiateAuth Email¹, SMS, authenticator app code Yes² MFA message

¹ Requires advanced security features and Amazon SES email configuration.

² For SMS and email messages.

Amazon SES charges for email messages. For more information, see Amazon SES pricing.

To learn more about email MFA, see SMS and email message MFA.

Default email configuration

Amazon Cognito can use its default email configuration to handle email deliveries for you. When you use the default option, Amazon Cognito limits the number of emails it sends each day for your user pool. For information on service limits, see Quotas in Amazon Cognito. For typical production environments, the default email limit is below the required delivery volume. To enable a higher delivery volume, you can use your Amazon SES email configuration.

When you use the default configuration, you use Amazon SES resources that are managed by AWS to send email messages. Amazon SES adds email addresses that return a hard bounce to an account-level suppression list or a global suppression list. If an undeliverable email address becomes deliverable later, you can't control its removal from the suppression list while your user pool is configured to use the default configuration. An email address can remain on the AWS-managed suppression list indefinitely. To manage undeliverable email addresses, use your Amazon SES email configuration with an account-level suppression list, as described in the next section.

When you use the default email configuration, you can use either of the following email addresses as the FROM address:

  • The default email address, no-reply@verificationemail.com.

  • A custom email address. Before you can use your own email address, you must verify it with Amazon SES and grant Amazon Cognito permission to use this address.

Amazon SES email configuration

Your application might require a higher delivery volume than what is available with the default option. To increase the possible delivery volume, use your Amazon SES resources with your user pool to email your users. You can also monitor your email sending activity when you send email messages with your own Amazon SES configuration.

Before you can use your Amazon SES configuration, you must verify one or more email addresses, or a domain, with Amazon SES. Use a verified email address, or an address from a verified domain, as the FROM email address that you assign to your user pool. When Amazon Cognito sends email to a user, it calls Amazon SES for you and uses your email address.

When you use your Amazon SES configuration, the following conditions apply:

  • The email delivery limits for your user pool are the same limits that apply to your Amazon SES verified email address in your AWS account.

  • You can manage your messages to undeliverable email addresses with an account-level suppression list in Amazon SES that overrides the global suppression list. When you use an account-level suppression list, email message bounces affect the reputation of your account as a sender. For more information, see Using the Amazon SES account-level suppression list in the Amazon Simple Email Service Developer Guide.

Amazon SES email configuration Regions

The AWS Region where you create a user pool will have one of three requirements for the configuration of email messages with Amazon SES. You might send email messages from Amazon SES in the same Region as your user pool, several Regions including the same Region, or one or more remote Regions. For best performance, send email messages with a Amazon SES verified identity in the same Region as your user pool when you have the option.

Categories of Region requirements for Amazon SES verified identities
In-Region only

Your user pools can send email messages with verified identities in the same AWS Region as the user pool. In the default email configuration without a custom FROM email address, Amazon Cognito uses a no-reply@verificationemail.com verified identity in the same Region.

Backwards compatible

Your user pools can send email messages with verified identities in the same AWS Region or in one of the following alternate Regions:

  • US East (N. Virginia)

  • US West (Oregon)

  • Europe (Ireland)

This feature supports continuity for user pool resources that you might have created to match Amazon Cognito requirements when the service launched. User pools from that period could only send email messages with verified identities in a limited number of AWS Regions. In the default email configuration without a custom FROM email address, Amazon Cognito uses a no-reply@verificationemail.com verified identity in the same Region.

Alternate Region

Your user pools can send email messages with verified identities in an alternate AWS Region that is outside of the user pool Region. This configuration occurs when Amazon SES isn't available in a Region where Amazon Cognito is available.

The Amazon SES sending authorization policy for your verified identity in the alternate Region must trust the Amazon Cognito service principal of the originating Region. For more information, see To grant permissions to use the default email configuration.

In some of these Regions, Amazon Cognito splits email messages between two alternate Regions for the default email configuration of COGNITO_DEFAULT. In these cases, to use a custom FROM email address, the Amazon SES sending authorization policy for your verified identity in each alternate Region must trust the Amazon Cognito service principal of the originating Region. For more information, see To grant permissions to use the default email configuration. With the Amazon SES email configuration of DEVELOPER in these Regions, you must use a verified identity in the first listed Region and configure it to trust the Amazon Cognito service principal in the user pool Region. For example, in a user pool in Middle East (UAE), configure a verified identity in Europe (Frankfurt) to trust cognito-idp.me-central-1.amazonaws.com. In the default email configuration without a custom FROM email address, Amazon Cognito uses a no-reply@verificationemail.com verified identity in each Region.

Note

Under the following combination of conditions, you must specify the SourceArn parameter of EmailConfiguration with a wildcard in the Region element, in the format arn:${Partition}:ses:*:${Account}:identity/${IdentityName}. This permits your user pool to send email messages with identical verified identities in your AWS account in both AWS Regions.

  • Your EmailSendingAccount is COGNITO_DEFAULT.

  • You want to use a custom FROM address.

  • Your user pool sends emails in an Alternate Region.

  • Your user pool has a second1 Alternate Region specified in the table of Amazon SES supported Regions that follows.

If you create a user pool programmatically–with an AWS SDK, the Amazon Cognito API or CLI, the AWS CDK, or AWS CloudFormation–your user pool sends email messages with the Amazon SES identity that the SourceArn parameter of EmailConfiguration specifies for your user pool. The Amazon SES identity must occupy a supported AWS Region. If your EmailSendingAccount is COGNITO_DEFAULT and you don't specify a SourceArn parameter, Amazon Cognito sends email messages from no-reply@verificationemail.com using resources in the Region where you created your user pool.

The following table shows the AWS Regions where you can use Amazon SES identities with Amazon Cognito.

User pool Region Region option Amazon SES supported Regions

US East (N. Virginia)

Backwards compatible

US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

US East (Ohio)

Backwards compatible

US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

US West (N. California)

In-Region only

US West (N. California)

US West (Oregon)

Backwards compatible

US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Canada (Central)

Backwards compatible

Canada (Central), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Canada West (Calgary)

Alternate Region

Canada (Central), US West (N. California)1

Asia Pacific (Tokyo)

Backwards compatible

Asia Pacific (Tokyo), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Asia Pacific (Hong Kong)

Alternate Region

Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Tokyo)1

Asia Pacific (Seoul)

Backwards compatible

Asia Pacific (Seoul), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Asia Pacific (Mumbai)

Backwards compatible

Asia Pacific (Mumbai), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Asia Pacific (Hyderabad)

Alternate Region

Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Asia Pacific (Singapore)1

Asia Pacific (Singapore)

Backwards compatible

Asia Pacific (Singapore), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Asia Pacific (Sydney)

Backwards compatible

Asia Pacific (Sydney), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Asia Pacific (Osaka)

In-Region only

Asia Pacific (Osaka)

Asia Pacific (Jakarta)

In-Region only

Asia Pacific (Jakarta)

Asia Pacific (Melbourne)

Alternate Region

Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Singapore)1

Europe (Ireland)

Backwards compatible

US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Europe (London)

Backwards compatible

Europe (London), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Europe (Paris)

In-Region only

Europe (Paris)

Europe (Frankfurt)

Backwards compatible

Europe (Frankfurt), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland)

Europe (Zurich)

Alternate Region

Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (London)1

Europe (Stockholm)

In-Region only

Europe (Stockholm)
Europe (Milan)

In-Region only

 Europe (Milan)
Europe (Spain)

Alternate Region

 Europe (Paris), Europe (Stockholm)1

Middle East (Bahrain)

In-Region only

Middle East (Bahrain)

Middle East (UAE)

Alternate Region

Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (London)1

South America (São Paulo)

In-Region only

South America (São Paulo)

Israel (Tel Aviv)

In-Region only

Israel (Tel Aviv)

Africa (Cape Town)

In-Region only

Africa (Cape Town)

1 Used in user pools with the default email configuration. Amazon Cognito distributes email messages among verified identities with the same email address in each Region. To use a custom FROM address, configure EmailConfiguration with a SourceArn parameter in the format arn:${Partition}:ses:*:${Account}:identity/${IdentityName}.

Configuring email for your user pool

Complete the following steps to configure the email settings for your user pool. Depending on the settings that you use, you might need IAM permissions in Amazon SES, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), and Amazon Cognito.

Note

You can't share the resources that you create in these steps across AWS accounts. For example, you can't configure a user pool in one account, and then use it with an Amazon SES email address in a different account. If you use Amazon Cognito in multiple accounts, repeat these steps for each account.

Step 1: Verify your email address or domain with Amazon SES

Before you configure your user pool, you must verify one or more domains or email addresses with Amazon SES if you want to do either of the following:

  • Use your own email address as the FROM address

  • Use your Amazon SES configuration to handle email delivery

By verifying your email address or domain, you confirm that you own it, which helps prevent unauthorized use.

For information on verifying an email address with Amazon SES, see Verifying an Email Address in the Amazon Simple Email Service Developer Guide. For information on verifying a domain with Amazon SES, see Verifying domains.

Step 2: Move your account out of the Amazon SES sandbox

Omit this step if you are using the default Amazon Cognito email configuration.

When you first use Amazon SES in any AWS Region, it places your AWS account in the Amazon SES sandbox for that Region. Amazon SES uses the sandbox to prevent fraud and abuse. If you use your Amazon SES configuration to handle email delivery, you must move your AWS account out of the sandbox before Amazon Cognito can email your users.

In the sandbox, Amazon SES imposes restrictions on how many emails you can send and where you can send them. You can send emails only to addresses and domains that you have verified with Amazon SES, or you can send them to Amazon SES mailbox simulator addresses. While your AWS account remains in the sandbox, don't use your Amazon SES configuration for applications that are in production. In this situation, Amazon Cognito can't send messages to your users' email addresses.

To remove your AWS account from the sandbox, see Moving out of the Amazon SES sandbox in the Amazon Simple Email Service Developer Guide.

Step 3: Grant email permissions to Amazon Cognito

You might need to grant specific permissions to Amazon Cognito before it can email your users. The permissions that you grant, and the process that you use to grant them, depend on whether you are using the default email configuration, or your Amazon SES configuration.

Complete this step only if you configure your user pool to Send email with Cognito or set EmailSendingAccount to COGNITO_DEFAULT.

With the default email configuration, your user pool can send email messages with either of the following addresses.

  • The default address no-reply@verificationemail.com.

  • A custom FROM address from your verified email addresses or domains in Amazon SES.

If you use a custom address, Amazon Cognito needs additional permissions to email users from that address. These permissions are granted by a sending authorization policy for the address or domain in Amazon SES. If you use the Amazon Cognito console to add a custom address to your user pool, the policy is automatically attached to the Amazon SES verified email address. However, if you configure your user pool outside of the console, such as using the AWS CLI or the Amazon Cognito API, you must attach the policy using the Amazon SES console or the PutIdentityPolicy API.

Note

You can only configure a FROM address in a verified domain using the AWS CLI or the Amazon Cognito API.

A sending authorization policy allows or denies access based on the account resources that are using Amazon Cognito to invoke Amazon SES. For more information about resource-based policies, see the IAM User Guide. You can also find example resource-based policies in the Amazon SES Developer Guide.

Example Sending authorization policy

The following example sending authorization policy grants Amazon Cognito a limited ability to use an Amazon SES verified identity. Amazon Cognito can only send email messages when it does so on behalf of both the user pool in the aws:SourceArn condition and the account in the aws:SourceAccount condition.

Regions with Amazon SES

Your sending authorization policy in the user pool Region or alternate Region must permit the Amazon Cognito service principal to send email messages. Refer to the Regions table for more information. If your User pool Region matches at least one value in Amazon SES Region, configure your sending authorization policy with the global service principal in the following example.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "stmnt1234567891234",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": {
                "Service": [
                    "email.cognito-idp.amazonaws.com"
                ]
            },
            "Action": [
                "SES:SendEmail",
                "SES:SendRawEmail"
            ],
            "Resource": "<your SES identity ARN>",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "aws:SourceAccount": "<your account number>"
                },
                "ArnLike": {
                    "aws:SourceArn": "<your user pool ARN>"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}
Opt-in Regions without Amazon SES

Amazon SES isn't available in all opt-in AWS Regions where Amazon Cognito is available. Middle East (UAE) is an example, and can only send emails with verified identities in Europe (Frankfurt) (eu-central-1). In user pools with the default email configuration, Amazon Cognito also sends email messages with a verified identity in each of two Regions. In the case of Middle East (UAE), the additional Region is Europe (London). You must update the sending authorization policy in both Regions.

Your sending authorization policy in each of the alternate Regions must permit the Amazon Cognito service principal in the user pool opt-in Region to send email messages. Refer to the Regions table for more information. If your Region is marked as Alternate Region, configure your sending authorization policies with the Regional service principal as in the following example. Replace the example Region identifier me-central-1 with the required Region ID as needed.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": {
                "Service": [
                    "cognito-idp.me-central-1.amazonaws.com"
                ]
            },
            "Action": [
                "SES:SendEmail",
                "SES:SendRawEmail"
            ],
            "Resource": "<your SES identity ARN>",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "aws:SourceAccount": "<your account number>"
                },
                "ArnLike": {
                    "aws:SourceArn": "<your user pool ARN>"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

For more information about policy syntax, see Amazon SES sending authorization policies in the Amazon Simple Email Service Developer Guide.

For more examples, see Amazon SES sending authorization policy examples in the Amazon Simple Email Service Developer Guide.

If you configure your user pool to use your Amazon SES configuration, Amazon Cognito needs additional permissions to call Amazon SES on your behalf when it emails your users. This authorization is granted with the IAM service.

When you configure your user pool with this option, Amazon Cognito creates a service-linked role, which is a type of IAM role, in your AWS account. This role contains the permissions that allow Amazon Cognito to access Amazon SES and send email with your address.

Amazon Cognito creates your service-linked role with the AWS credentials of the user session that sets the configuration. The IAM permissions of this session must include the iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole action. For more information about permissions in IAM, see Access management for AWS resources in the IAM User Guide.

For more information about the service-linked role that Amazon Cognito creates, see Using service-linked roles for Amazon Cognito.

Step 4: Configure your user pool

Complete the following steps if you want to configure your user pool with any of the following:

  • A custom FROM address that appears as the email sender

  • A custom REPLY-TO address that receives the messages that your users send to your FROM address

  • Your Amazon SES configuration

Note

If your verified identity is an email address, Amazon Cognito sets that email address as the FROM and REPLY-TO email address by default. But, if your verified identity is a domain, you must provide a value for the FROM email address.

Omit this procedure if you want to use the default Amazon Cognito email configuration and address.

To configure your user pool to use a custom email address

  1. Go to the Amazon Cognito console. If prompted, enter your AWS credentials.

  2. Choose User Pools.

  3. Choose an existing user pool from the list.

  4. Choose the Messaging tab, locate Email configuration, choose Edit.

  5. On the Edit email configuration page, select Send email from Amazon SES or Send email with Amazon Cognito. You can customize the SES Region, Configuration Set, and FROM sender name only when you choose Send email from Amazon SES.

  6. To use a custom FROM address, complete the following steps:

    1. Under SES Region, choose the Region that contains your verified email address.

    2. Under FROM email address, choose your email address. Use an email address that you have verified with Amazon SES.

    3. (Optional) Under Configuration set, choose a configuration set for Amazon SES to use. Making and saving this change creates a service-linked role.

    4. (Optional) Under FROM sender address, enter an email address. You can provide only an email address, or an email address and a friendly name in the format Jane Doe <janedoe@example.com>.

    5. (Optional) Under REPLY-TO email address, enter the email address where you want to receive messages that your users send to your FROM address.

  7. Choose Save changes.

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