Quickstart: Send Your First Email

Step 1

Step 2

Add authorized recipient

Step 3

Send your first email

Send an email in under two minutes using your sandbox domain

Info

After creating your account, follow the guided setup in your Mailgun Dashboard to activate your account and create your first API key. Both of these things will need to be done during this setup in order for you to continue. You can then choose to continue with the dashboards guide to quickly send your first email, or you can grab your API key and continue below.

Go to API Keys in your dashboard
Copy your Private API key

Step 2: Add Authorized Recipient

First, add your email as an authorized recipient. This will send a verification email to that address.

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.mailgun.net/v5/sandbox/auth_recipients?email=your-email@example.com" \
  --user 'api:YOUR_API_KEY'

Important

Check the authorized recipients email inbox and click the verification link before proceeding to Step 2B. You must verify your email address to receive emails from this sandbox domain.

Step 3: Send Your First Email

Once you've clicked the verification link in your email, you can now send an email to that recipient.

curl --user 'api:YOUR_API_KEY' \
  https://api.mailgun.net/v3/YOUR_SANDBOX_DOMAIN/messages \
  -F from='Test <postmaster@YOUR_SANDBOX_DOMAIN>' \
  -F to='your-email@example.com' \
  -F subject='Hello!' \
  -F text='Test message'

You're response will look like
200 ok { "id": "message-id@your-domain.com", "message": "Queued. Thank you." }

Step 4: Check Your Inbox

Check your inbox - email should arrive in seconds
Didn't get it? Check spam folder or view logs

🎉 That's it! You just sent an email through Mailgun.

Step 5: Get production ready

Now that you've sent your first email, here's how to level up:

Set up your own domain

Move from sandbox to your custom domain..

Domain verification guide

DNS setup and verification process.

Send more email

Send to multiple people

Batch sending with personalization variables.

Use HTML templates

Create beautiful, branded emails.

Track opens & clicks

Monitor engagement with detailed analytics.

Go beyond basic sending

Set up webhooks

Get real-time notifications for email events.

Receive emails

Parse and route incoming emails to your app.

Manage mailing lists

Build and maintain subscriber lists.

Email validation

Verify email addresses before sending.