With Email by Zapier and SMTP by Zapier, you can send emails in Zaps when something happens in another app. If you want an action to take place in another app when you receive new emails, you can trigger your Zap from new emails.
You can also connect email apps like Gmail and Outlook to send emails in Zaps. View a full list of the email apps you can connect to Zapier.
Email by Zapier vs SMTP by Zapier
With Email by Zapier, Zapier sends the emails on your behalf. With SMTP by Zapier, Zapier communicates with your mail server, and your mail server sends the emails.
Email by Zapier
- If you’re on a trial or free Zapier plan:
- You can send up to 5 emails per account per day.
- Emails you send during testing will only go to your Zapier account email address. Once the Zap is published, emails will go to the intended recipients (To, CC, BCC).
- If you’re on a paid plan, you can send up to 10 emails per hour.
- You cannot customize the From email address.
- To comply with CAN-SPAM laws, the "Stop these emails" link cannot be removed.
- Emails sent from a @zapiermail.com email address must be less than 10 MB in size, including attachments.
SMTP by Zapier
- SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which is an Internet standard for email transmission available in Microsoft, Google. and Yahoo! products among millions of mail servers worldwide.
- With SMTP, the emails are sent using your own mail server. Zapier communicates with the mail server via SMTP to deliver the data, but your mail server is ultimately sending these emails. If you need more information about email delivery statuses, you have to review your mail server's SMTP logs.
- Zapier only supports either unencrypted (non-TLS on port 25/2525/etc), and encrypted TLS (STARTTLS over either port 465/587/etc) connections for SMTP. SMTPS over port 465 is not supported.
Send emails with Email by Zapier
- In the Zap editor, click the Action step, or click the plus icon to add an action to your Zap. A dialog box will open.
- Search for and select Email by Zapier.
- Click Continue. The right sidebar will open.
- Enter the email addresses you want to send this email to. You can add up to five email addresses in the 'To' field.
To customize the To address, subject line, body or any other field with data from an earlier step, open the dropdown menu and insert the field. If you want to send to email to the same email address every time, enter the email address in the field.
- Enter a subject line for the email.
- Enter the body of the email. You can use HTML formatting or plain text.
- Make any additional optional customizations.
- Click Continue.
- Click Send Test to Email by Zapier
- If the test was successful, you’ll see a success message.
The 'From' email address is a noreply email address and cannot be customized. To customize the 'From' email address, send emails with SMTP or use a high-volume sending email app like Mandrill, Mailgun, or Sendgrid.
To comply with CAN-SPAM laws, every email sent with Email by Zapier will include a Stop these emails link which allows email recipients to unsubscribe. When a recipient clicks this link, your Zap will be turned off. To send emails again, you must turn the Zap back on.
Next, you can continue setting up your Zap or turn it on.
Send emails with SMTP by Zapier
- Click the plus icon + to add a new action to your Zap
- Search for and select SMTP by Zapier.
- Click Continue.
- Click Sign in to SMTP by Zapier.
- A new browser tab or window will open. Here, you'll set up your SMTP connection.
- Host: This will be the URL for your SMTP server. For example, Gmail's is smtp.gmail.com.
- Username: This is typically the username and/or email address you use to log in to your email account
- Password: This is the password you use to log in to your email account
- Use TLS: This is a Yes/No dropdown that determines whether we connect to your account using TLS/SSL. Consult your email provider's SMTP instructions if you aren't sure which you need.
- Port: We let you choose between Port 25(default), 587, 110, 465, or 2525. Consult your email provider's SMTP instructions if you aren't sure which you need.
- From Email: If you try connecting and run into problems, try filling in this field with the email address for your SMTP account.
- When you're done, click Yes, Continue.
- In the HTML Body field, enter your email content in HTML formatting. You'll also need to provide a plain text version of the email as a fallback in case the recipient can't accept HTML.
If you get an error with "503 5.5.1 RCPT" in the message, this likely means that the email address the Zap was trying to send to was empty or invalid. Double check that you have a valid email address in your trigger test data and Zap history for that Zap, and make changes to the configuration of your Zap if you don't.
Next, you can continue setting up your Zap or turn it on.
Format HTML emails
To style your email you will need to use HTML. Here's some basic quick start formatting HTML markup:
- Paragraph:
<p> This is a paragraph </p>
- Links:
<a href="http://www.zapier.com">This is a link</a>
- Images:
<img src="imageurl.jpg" alt="alt text" width="104" height="142">
- Bold:
<b>This text is bold</b>
- Italic:
<i>This text is italic</i>
Learn more about writing HTML on W3schools.
Troubleshoot common problems
I accidentally clicked the Stop these emails link in my sent email
To comply with CAN-SPAM laws, Zapier must immediately turn your Zap off when the Stop these emails link is clicked. Once you turn your Zap back on, you'll be able to send emails again.
Error: Sorry! That is too many emails sent. Please try Mandrill, Mailgun, Gmail, or others for bulk email
Learn more in Email by Zapier: Sorry! That is too many emails sent. Please try Mandrill, Mailgun, Gmail, or others for bulk email
How do I attach a file to my email that's not from my trigger?
If you have a fixed file you want to attach to your email each time it sends in the Send email action, you first need to upload the file publicly (e.g., on Dropbox), then include the file URL in the Attachment field.