Resources · n8n integration

n8n Send Email nodeConfigure Send Email in n8n.

The n8n Send Email node pushes mail out of a workflow over SMTP, from your own server and your own domain. It carries 2 operations: a straight send, and a send that halts the run until someone answers. Handy when notifications and approvals should not depend on a mailbox API.

Try the Send Email node on n8nSee the 2 operations

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Why automate

What does the n8n Send Email node actually do?

It talks to an SMTP server, the plain mail protocol every host and every mailbox provider speaks, and asks it to deliver a message. No mailbox API, no OAuth dance, no inbox to read: the node only sends. One credential, created once in n8n and reused everywhere, is all it needs. The node runs on every item that reaches it, so a batch of 8 rows produces 8 emails.

Three shapes of workflow cover most of what teams build with it. The first is the plain notification: something happened upstream, and a person needs to know. A trigger fires, a Set node shapes the text, and Send an Email delivers it. That pattern is why the node sits next to a spreadsheet so often, as in the Google Sheets workflows that generate an invoice and mail it to the customer.

The second shape is the document handoff. A PDF or an image arrives as binary data in the workflow, and the Attachments option names the binary property to attach. Several attachments go in as a comma separated list, and an image can be embedded in the HTML body with a cid: reference instead of riding along as a separate file.

The third shape is the pause. With Send message and wait for response, the execution stops mid workflow and waits for a human. The recipient clicks Approve, or fills a small form, and only then does the rest of the branch run. That is the difference between a robot that informs and a robot that asks, and it is the reason this node shows up in review and approval flows alongside chat tools like Slack or Telegram.

When should you reach for something else? If the mail has to live in a real mailbox, threaded under an earlier message, take the Gmail node instead. If you send in volume through a provider API and want per message tracking, SendGrid is the better fit. SMTP has no concept of campaigns or unsubscribe handling, which is where a marketing tool like Mautic belongs.

The known limit is threading. The node does not set the In-Reply-To and References headers that mail clients use to group a conversation, so each message opens a new thread. The documented workaround is the Gmail node's Reply to a message operation, or a custom node that accepts custom headers.

Connect

How do you set up the SMTP credential?

  1. 01

    Create the SMTP account credential

    Open the Credentials menu in n8n and create an SMTP account credential. A credential is the stored login n8n uses on your behalf, saved once and reusable across every workflow, so a shared sending address is set up a single time for the whole team. The details come from whoever runs your mail server or from your provider's outgoing mail settings.

  2. 02

    Select it on the node

    Drop a Send Email node onto the canvas and pick that credential in Credential to connect with. Nothing else on the node authenticates: there is no Authentication dropdown to choose from, no scopes to tick. Any Send Email node in any workflow can point at the same credential, and changing the password later updates all of them at once.

  3. 03

    Send one test message

    Fill From Email and To Email with real addresses, put something in Subject, and run the node on its own. A delivered test tells you the server accepts the sender address you chose, which is the part that usually breaks first. Keep that working node around as the template for the rest of the workflow.

Actions

What can the node do, operation by operation?

The Send Email node exposes 2 operations across 1 resources. For each one: the node as you configure it in n8n, the required fields, and our field notes.

Resources × operations matrix
ResourceSendSend and Wait for Response
Email✓✓

Email

2 operations
01

Send an Email

email.send

What you see in n8n

Notes & use cases

This operation hands one message to the SMTP server and moves on, so the workflow never waits. Every item that reaches the node produces its own email.

Key parameters

  • From Email: the sending address, with an optional display name in the form Nathan Doe <nate@n8n.io>.
  • To Email: the recipient, most often an expression such as {{ $json.email }} pulling the address from the previous node.
  • Email Format: text, html or both, which decides whether the Text field, the HTML field, or both get sent.
  • Attachments: the binary property names to attach, comma separated for several files.
Use cases
a nightly recap mailed to an account manager, or a generated invoice going straight to the customer who ordered it.
02

Send message and wait for response

email.sendAndWait

What you see in n8n

Notes & use cases

Here the execution stops. n8n mails the message, then holds the run until the recipient answers through the link it contains, and that answer comes back as node output.

Key parameters

  • Subject and Message: both required, both written for someone who has 5 seconds to decide.
  • Response Type: approval for buttons inside the message, freeText for a short form, customForm for a form you build yourself.
  • Limit Wait Time: caps how long the node waits before the execution resumes on its own, either after an interval or at a set time.
Use cases
a manager signing off a refund before it is issued, or a request for the purchase order number that nobody filled in.
Need help

Need help automating Send Email with n8n?

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FAQ

Questions people ask next

01Is the n8n Send Email node included with n8n?
Yes. Send Email is a core node, shipped with n8n itself. There is nothing to install, no marketplace to visit and no extra cost on the n8n side, and it behaves the same on n8n Cloud, the hosted offer run by n8n, as on a self hosted instance under the Community Edition and its Sustainable Use license. What you do need is a mail server that will accept your messages, and that part is on your side: a company mail account, a provider's outgoing server, or your own. The node itself adds no sending quota and no per message charge.
02What do you need to make it work?
One thing: an SMTP account credential. A credential in n8n is a stored set of connection details, created once from the Credentials menu and then picked from a list on any node that needs it. There is no authentication selector on Send Email, so the credential is the whole setup. Take the connection details from the team that runs your mail server, or from the outgoing mail settings your provider publishes. Once saved, the same credential serves every Send Email node in every workflow, and rotating the password updates all of them in one place.
03What are the limits of the Send Email node?
The main one is threading. The node does not set the In-Reply-To and References headers that mail clients read to group messages into a conversation, so every email it sends opens a new thread instead of landing under the previous one. The documented workaround is the Gmail node and its Reply to a message operation, or a custom node that lets you set headers yourself. Beyond that, the node only sends: it never reads a mailbox, and it has no campaign, list or unsubscribe features. This page describes version 2 of the node, and an older workflow may show fewer options.
04Send Email or the Gmail node, which one should you use?
Pick Send Email when the address is not a Gmail one, when you want a neutral sending identity tied to your own domain, or when you would rather store a simple SMTP login than manage an OAuth connection. Pick Gmail when the message has to appear in a real mailbox, when the reply needs to sit in the same thread, or when a later step in the workflow reads incoming mail. The two coexist happily: plenty of workflows send operational notifications over SMTP and keep Gmail for anything a human will reply to.
05n8n or Make for sending email in a workflow?
Both send mail from an automation, so the choice sits elsewhere. n8n can be self hosted with Docker or npm, which keeps message content and recipient addresses inside your own infrastructure, and it can also run on n8n Cloud when nobody wants to maintain a server. Make is hosted only, and bills per operation, which matters when a single run fans out into one email per item. If your workflow is a long chain with a few mails at the end, either tool copes. If it loops over hundreds of rows, count the operations before deciding.
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