Brevo SMTP Settings
French email platform whose free plan includes an SMTP relay for 300 sends a day.
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Outgoing mail (SMTP)
SMTP server
smtp-relay.brevo.com
Port. STARTTLS
587
Port. SSL/TLS
465
Security
STARTTLS on 587 (recommended) or 2525, or SSL/TLS on 465.
Incoming mail (IMAP)
IMAP
Not supported. This is a send-only service.
Incoming mail (POP3)
POP3
Not supported by this provider.
Sending limits & login
Daily send limit
300 emails per day on the free plan; higher on paid plans.
Authentication
Authenticate with your Brevo SMTP login (an email address) and an SMTP key, not your account password and not an API key.
App password
Generate the SMTP key under Senders, Domains & Dedicated IPs > SMTP & API > SMTP.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a send-only relay: there is no IMAP or POP inbox. The old smtp-relay.sendinblue.com hostname still resolves but should be updated.
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Brevo SMTP, IMAP and POP3 settings
Brevo is the French marketing and transactional platform that used to be called Sendinblue. Its relay lives at smtp-relay.brevo.com and takes ports 587, 465 and 2525, with no port 25 offered at all. The login trips almost everyone up twice: the username is not your account email but a dedicated address in the format xxx@smtp-brevo.com, and the password has to be an SMTP key rather than an API key.
Brevo is a send-only relay, so there's no IMAP or POP3 inbox. You only configure the SMTP server above. Use the tool to copy each value into your app or script.
Checked against Brevo's own documentation: help.brevo.com. Ports and limits change, so check there too if something will not connect.
Brevo settings at a glance
One card with every server and port on it. Right click to save it, or share the page and this is the preview people see.
What to enter as your Brevo username and password
Wrong credentials, not a wrong port, are the usual reason a Brevo connection fails. These are the exact values to type.
The SMTP login shown in the Login field on Settings > SMTP & API. Brevo says explicitly that this is not your Brevo account email address: it is a dedicated address in the format xxx@smtp-brevo.com.
The SMTP key you generated on the SMTP tab. An API key from the API tab will be rejected.
Get your smtp keyHow to set up Brevo in a mail client
The exact path through Brevo's own settings, in order.
- 1
Verify the sender address or domain
Add the address you will send from on Brevo's Senders, Domains & Dedicated IPs page (https://app.brevo.com/senders/list), then enter the 6-digit code Brevo emails to it. An unverified sender cannot send transactional mail, though authenticating the whole domain removes the need to verify senders individually.
- 2
Generate an SMTP key, not an API key
Open the account dropdown and pick Settings > SMTP & API, choose the SMTP tab, click Generate a new SMTP key, set an expiry from 7 days to 1 year or none, then generate. The full key is shown only once. Direct link: https://app.brevo.com/settings/keys/smtp
- 3
Copy the exact SMTP login
On that same SMTP & API page, copy the value shown in the Login field. Brevo states this is not your Brevo account email address; it follows the format xxx@smtp-brevo.com.
- 4
Point your app at smtp-relay.brevo.com
Server smtp-relay.brevo.com. Use port 587 and leave the encryption field empty, or port 465 and select SSL/TLS. Port 2525 is the fallback when 587 is blocked.
- 5
Authorize your IPs before turning on blocking
IP blocking is optional for SMTP keys and there is no automatic learning phase, unlike API keys. If you want it on, first add every IP your SMTP clients use under Settings > Security > Authorized IPs (https://app.brevo.com/security/authorised_ips), then activate blocking. Activating it first cuts off your SMTP traffic immediately.
What Brevo looks like filled in
Every mail client asks for the same handful of fields. Here they are with Brevo's values already in place.
Account settings: Brevo
Server
smtp-relay.brevo.comPort
587Encryption
STARTTLSAuthentication
RequiredUsername
The SMTP login shown in the Login field on Settings > SMTP & API. Brevo says explicitly that this is not your Brevo account email address: it is a dedicated address in the format xxx@smtp-brevo.com.Password
The SMTP key you generated on the SMTP tab. An API key from the API tab will be rejected.IMAP / POP3
Not applicable. Brevo sends only, so there is no inbox to configure.An illustration of the fields, not a screenshot of any one app. Field names differ slightly between Outlook, Apple Mail and Thunderbird; the values do not.
Brevo SMTP settings in Thunderbird
The outgoing server dialog with Brevo's details entered. Outlook and Apple Mail ask for the same four things under slightly different names.
Which port should you use for Brevo?
STARTTLS on 587 (recommended) or 2525, or SSL/TLS on 465.
STARTTLS
Starts as a plain connection, then upgrades to an encrypted one. The modern standard for sending.
SSL/TLS
Encrypted from the first byte. Widely supported and a good choice when 587 is blocked.
Plain SMTP
Meant for server-to-server relay. Home networks and cloud hosts block it, so do not use it to send from a client.
Why your Brevo connection is failing
The failures people actually hit with Brevo, and what fixes each one.
Either you pasted an API key instead of an SMTP key, or you used your Brevo account email as the login. The login is the xxx@smtp-brevo.com value in the Login field on Settings > SMTP & API. Also check for stray spaces or line breaks in the key, which Brevo names as a cause on its own.
Blocking of unknown IP addresses is switched on for your SMTP keys and the address you are connecting from is not on the list. Add it under Settings > Security > Authorized IPs. On Docker, Kubernetes, AWS or Azure the outbound IP is often a shared NAT gateway rather than your server's public IP, so check what actually leaves your network before adding it.
Inactive SMTP keys expire after 90 days. Open Settings > SMTP & API and check the key is still listed and active, and generate a replacement if it has lapsed or been deactivated.
Transactional sending needs a separate activation from Brevo on a new account, so raise a ticket to request it. The same error also appears when Brevo suspends the platform after bots hit an unprotected form or after signs the account is compromised.
Brevo does not publish port 25 for its relay at all. Use 587, 2525 if your host blocks 587, or 465 if your software wants SSL from the first byte.
That string is the host address, not a login. Brevo calls this out as one of the most common causes of the 535 error. Put your xxx@smtp-brevo.com SMTP login in the username field.
Brevo sending limits
The free plan's 300 resets every day and unused sends do not roll over. Once you hit the cap, up to 1,000 further emails are held in a retry queue and anything beyond that is not delivered
Per day
300 emails a day on the free plan; Starter and above have no daily cap
Recipients per message
99 recipients when the message carries an attachment
Max attachment
under 4 MB per attachment, 20 MB for the whole message including content
Sending cold email through Brevo
300 emails per day on the free plan; higher on paid plans. Authenticate with your Brevo SMTP login (an email address) and an SMTP key, not your account password and not an API key.
Those caps make single-mailbox sending fine for personal mail but a poor fit for cold outreach at volume. Emailchaser spreads sending across warmed inboxes and manages deliverability, so you can scale without burning Brevo accounts.
Other smtp sending services
Setting up more than one mailbox? These sit in the same category as Brevo.
Common questions about Brevo SMTP settings
What are Brevo's SMTP settings?
Brevo's outgoing (SMTP) server is smtp-relay.brevo.com. Use port 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SSL/TLS). STARTTLS on 587 (recommended) or 2525, or SSL/TLS on 465. Sign in with the SMTP credentials Brevo issues you, not a mailbox address and password.
What is Brevo's IMAP or POP3 server?
Brevo is a send-only service, so it has no IMAP or POP3 inbox. You configure it as an outgoing SMTP server only.
Which port should I use for Brevo?
Use port 587 with STARTTLS wherever it's offered, it's the modern standard for authenticated sending. Port 465 with SSL/TLS is a solid alternative. Avoid port 25, which most networks block for client sending. Brevo's recommended value is above.
Why won't my Brevo SMTP connection work?
Check authentication first: Authenticate with your Brevo SMTP login (an email address) and an SMTP key, not your account password and not an API key. Generate the SMTP key under Senders, Domains & Dedicated IPs > SMTP & API > SMTP. Then confirm the host, port and security method match exactly, a 587/SSL or 465/STARTTLS mismatch will fail to connect.
Can I send bulk or cold email through Brevo?
Not at scale. 300 emails per day on the free plan; higher on paid plans. Providers throttle bursts to fight spam, so pushing cold email through one mailbox hits limits and wrecks deliverability. High-volume outreach belongs on dedicated infrastructure that spreads sending across warmed inboxes, which is what Emailchaser does.
Is a Brevo SMTP key the same thing as a Brevo API key?
No, and confusing them is the most common Brevo setup failure. SMTP keys are created on the SMTP tab of Settings > SMTP & API and only work against the mail relay. API keys live on a separate API tab and the SMTP server will not accept them. Brevo's own troubleshooting article tells you to check you are using an SMTP key and not an API key.
Why did Brevo suddenly stop accepting mail from my server?
Two Brevo-specific causes. Inactive SMTP keys expire after 90 days, so a key on a low-volume integration can lapse on its own. Separately, if blocking of unknown IP addresses has been enabled for SMTP keys, connections from any address not on the Authorized IPs list are refused with 525 5.7.1. Note that SMTP keys have no automatic learning phase; that two-phase behaviour applies only to API keys.
Can I use port 25 with Brevo?
No. Brevo lists three ports: 587, 465 and 2525. Port 587 is the normal choice and needs no encryption setting in most clients. Pick 2525 if your host blocks 587, and 465 if your software insists on SSL before the handshake.
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