Picking a free SMTP server means betting your email delivery on a plan the provider can cancel. Two of the best-known options cancelled theirs in the last 14 months.
SendGrid retired its permanent free plan in May 2025, leaving only a 60-day trial. Most roundups still list them as free forever, so the list you’re reading elsewhere is probably out of date.
Below, you’ll find the best free SMTP servers. I tested each provider to verify their sending limit and deliverability.
You’ll also see which “free” plans are really trials and which providers ask for a credit card first. Let’s get started.
What is a free SMTP server?
A free SMTP server is a hosted relay that sends your app’s email through someone else’s mail infrastructure. You pay nothing up to a monthly or daily cap.
You point your app or website at the provider’s SMTP host and add your credentials. The provider handles delivery from there. That includes the hard parts: IP reputation, retries, bounce handling, and authentication.
Two different things share the name, so it helps to separate them:
- A hosted SMTP relay service. You get a host, port, username, and password. The provider owns the servers and the sending reputation. Every option in this guide is one of these.
- A self-hosted mail server. You install software like Postfix on your own machine. It’s free as in no license fee, but you own deliverability, blocklists, and uptime.
Almost everyone searching for a free SMTP server wants the first kind. Running your own mail server for transactional email is rarely worth it. Fresh IP addresses land in spam by default.
Pro Tip: Free plans are priced per email, not per feature. Work out your real monthly volume before you compare features. A password reset flow for 500 users sends far fewer emails than a weekly newsletter to that same list.
Which free SMTP server has the highest limit?
Brevo has the highest effective free limit at 300 emails a day. That works out to roughly 9,000 a month. Mailjet has the highest fixed monthly allowance at 6,000 emails.
Here’s every provider side by side, with limits verified in July 2026.
| Provider | Free emails | Free forever? | Credit card? | Cheapest paid plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevo | 300/day (~9,000/mo) | Yes | No | $9/mo (5,000) | The most free volume |
| Mailjet | 6,000/mo (200/day cap) | Yes | No | $17/mo (15,000) | A predictable monthly cap |
| Resend | 3,000/mo (100/day cap) | Yes | No | $20/mo (50,000) | Developer experience |
| Mailgun | 100/day (~3,000/mo) | Yes | Not stated | Volume-based | Developers who want an API |
| SMTP2GO | 1,000/mo (200/day cap) | Yes | No | $15/mo (10,000) | Free-tier reporting and support |
| MailerSend | 500/mo | Yes | Yes | $6.30/mo tier listed | Templates and a clean UI |
| Postmark | 100/mo | Yes | No | $15/mo (10,000) | Testing on strong deliverability |
| SendLayer | 200 emails total (trial) | No, trial | Not stated | $5/mo (1,000) | The cheapest step up from free |
| Google Workspace | 500/day, 14-day trial | No, trial | Yes | $6/mo | Teams already using Gmail |
| SendGrid | 100/day, 60-day trial | No, trial | No | $19.95/mo (50,000) | Existing SendGrid users |
| Amazon SES | Credits only since July 2026 | No | Yes | $0.16/1,000 | High volume at low cost |
Read that table by column, not by row. The biggest number isn’t the best plan. It might expire, cap you at 200 a day, or take your card details up front.
Google Workspace is a 14-day trial, not a free plan. Google’s documentation caps trial accounts at 500 messages a day. MailerSend has a real free plan, but its FAQ asks for card details up front. It says it does this “to prevent abuse of the platform.”
Warning: A free plan is a business decision, not a promise. Both providers above gave notice and moved on. Does email earn you money? Then price the paid tier before you build on the free one.
How to choose a free SMTP server
Match the free limit to your real sending volume, then check whether the plan is permanent. Those two checks eliminate most options in a minute.
How many emails do you actually need to send?
Count your sends per month before you compare providers. Free tiers differ by 90x at the extremes.
Rough guides for common cases:
- A small site’s contact form: 50 to 200 emails a month. Almost any free plan works, including Postmark’s 100.
- Transactional email for a small app: 500 to 3,000 a month. Resend, Mailgun, SMTP2GO, or MailerSend all fit.
- Anything above 10,000 a month: budget for a paid plan. No free tier here handles it.
Add 30% headroom to whatever you calculate. Password resets, order confirmations, and retries spike in ways that flat averages hide.
Is it a free plan or a free trial?
Check whether the provider says “plan” or “trial.” The difference decides what happens in month two.
A free plan renews automatically every month. Postmark states it plainly. Its Developer tier “includes 100 emails every month. And it never expires or runs out.”
A free trial stops. Google Workspace runs 14 days and SendGrid runs 60. SendLayer’s own free offering is a trial of 200 emails in total, not 200 a month. That’s a real limitation, and worth knowing before you build around it.
Important: Watch for the daily cap hiding under a monthly number. Mailjet advertises 6,000 emails a month but limits you to 200 a day. Send 400 confirmations in one afternoon and the rest queue or fail. Your monthly allowance won’t save you.
What happens when you hit the free limit?
Most providers stop sending rather than billing you. That’s safer for your wallet and worse for your users.
Three behaviors to expect:
- A hard stop. Sending pauses until the next period. Your password resets simply don’t go out.
- Queuing. Messages are held and sent when the window resets. Fine for digests, bad for anything time-sensitive.
- Overage billing. You keep sending and pay per thousand. SMTP2GO lists extra emails at $0.85 per thousand.
A hard stop on a password reset email becomes a support ticket. Often, it becomes a lost customer too. That’s the main argument against running production email on a free tier.
If that’s where you’ve landed, the cheapest credible step up is worth knowing. SendLayer’s entry plan is $5 a month for 1,000 emails. Postmark and SMTP2GO both start at $15, and Mailjet at $17.
Does it work with your stack?
Confirm the provider gives you standard SMTP credentials. That’s what most platforms and plugins expect.
Check these four things:
- SMTP host, port, and credentials. Port 587 with TLS is the modern default. Our guide to SMTP ports covers when to use 465 instead.
- An API as well as SMTP. APIs are faster and give better error detail. See SMTP vs API for the tradeoffs.
- A plugin or official library for your platform, if you’re on WordPress, Laravel, or Django.
- Domain authentication on the free tier. Some providers restrict custom domains until you pay, which hurts deliverability.
What are the best free SMTP servers with a permanent free plan?
These 7 providers offer a free plan that renews every month with no expiry date. They’re ranked by how much you can send each month.
1. Brevo
Best for: the most free sending volume of any provider.
Brevo gives you 300 emails a day at no cost, which is roughly 9,000 a month. Its pricing page states, “Free forever, no credit card needed.”
That volume is far ahead of everything else here. Brevo also includes up to 100,000 contacts on the free plan. That makes it a light marketing tool as well as a relay.
Key features:
- SMTP relay plus a REST API
- 300 emails a day, free forever
- Up to 100,000 contacts stored
- Marketing automation and a basic CRM
- Email template builder
The catch? Brevo puts its own branding on emails sent from the free plan. Removing the logo costs $10.80 a month. For a customer-facing product, that partly defeats the point of a free tier.
Pricing: Free for 300 a day. Paid Starter plans begin at $9 a month for 5,000 emails.
Best for: side projects and small sites that need real volume and can live with Brevo branding.
2. Mailjet
Best for: a predictable monthly allowance.
Mailjet’s free plan covers 6,000 emails a month at $0. That’s the highest fixed monthly figure in this comparison. The pricing page also lists a cap of “200 emails per day.”
The daily cap is the part to plan around. It suits steady transactional sending. It struggles with bursts, like a launch announcement or a batch of invoices.
Key features:
- 6,000 emails a month free
- SMTP relay and API access
- Collaborative template editor
- Real-time sending statistics
The downside is that daily ceiling. Hit 200 in a morning and the rest of the day’s mail stops, whatever your monthly balance says.
Pricing: Free for 6,000 a month. Paid plans start at $17 a month for 15,000 emails.
Best for: apps with steady, evenly spread transactional volume.
3. Resend
Best for: developer experience.
Resend’s free plan covers 3,000 emails a month, capped at 100 a day, on 1 domain. Its pricing page lists the tier at “$0 / mo” with no credit card asked for.
Resend is the newest name here, and the one developers reach for first. It leads with a clean API, React Email templates, and documentation that doesn’t fight you. The free tier is generous enough to run a small production app.
Key features:
- 3,000 emails a month free, 100 a day
- 1 custom domain on the free plan
- React Email template support
- Clean REST API with SDKs for most languages
- Inbound email and scheduled sending
The tradeoff is the 100-a-day cap and the single domain. Multiple projects mean paying, since the Pro plan jumps to 10 domains.
Pricing: Free for 3,000 a month. Pro is $20 per month for 50,000 emails, with additional emails at $0.90 per 1,000.
Best for: developers who want the smoothest setup and don’t need more than 1 domain.
4. Mailgun
Best for: developers who want an API-first service.
Mailgun’s free plan includes 100 emails a day. Its pricing page lists it as “$0/mo” with “100 emails/day included.” Spread evenly, that’s about 3,000 a month.
Mailgun is built for developers first. The documentation, logs, and webhook tooling are strong. That’s why it shows up in so many backend stacks.
Key features:
- 100 emails a day free
- Detailed REST API and SDKs
- Email validation tools
- Inbound email routing
- Webhook event tracking
The catch? Mailgun’s pricing shifts to volume-based tiers quickly. Some deliverability features sit behind higher plans.
Pricing: Free for 100 a day. Paid pricing scales with volume from there.
Best for: developers testing an integration or running low-volume production sends.
5. SMTP2GO
Best for: getting real reporting and support on a free plan.
SMTP2GO offers “up to 1,000 emails per month” free with “No credit card required.” Free accounts are capped at 200 emails a day. Its pricing page is the most transparent here about what you actually get.
The free plan spells out limits other providers hide. You get 5 days of email reporting, 1 webhook, and 2 team members. Knowing that in advance is genuinely useful.
Key features:
- 1,000 emails a month free
- 5 days of reporting history
- 1 webhook for delivery events
- 2 team member accounts
- Global SMTP infrastructure
The tradeoff is the modest volume. 1,000 a month suits a small site but not a growing app.
Pricing: Free for 1,000 a month. Paid plans start at $15 a month for 10,000 emails, with extra emails from $0.85 per thousand.
Best for: small WordPress sites and anyone who wants delivery reporting without paying.
6. MailerSend
Best for: templates and a clean sending dashboard.
MailerSend’s free plan allows 500 emails a month. It lets you send up to 500 emails per month for free! With a counter that resets every 30 days.
One detail matters more than the volume. MailerSend asks for a credit card to activate the free plan. It explains that it does so “to prevent abuse of the platform.” No other permanent free plan here requires that.
Key features:
- 500 emails a month free
- Drag-and-drop template editor
- SMTP relay and API
- A separate trial plan for 100 emails a month to 2 recipients
The downside is the card requirement, plus a lower ceiling than most rivals.
Pricing: Free for 500 a month. Paid tiers listed from $6.30 a month.
Best for: teams who want polished templates and don’t mind adding a card.
7. Postmark
Best for: testing against strong deliverability.
Postmark’s free Developer tier includes 100 emails a month. The company is unusually clear about its permanence: “Everyone starts on our free Developer tier, which includes 100 emails every month. And it never expires or runs out.”
100 emails is the smallest allowance here. What you get for it is Postmark’s reputation for inbox placement. It also separates transactional and broadcast streams, so a marketing send can’t damage password reset delivery.
Key features:
- 100 emails a month, never expires
- Separate transactional and broadcast message streams
- 45-day activity history on paid plans
- Detailed delivery and open tracking
- Strong deliverability record
The tradeoff is volume. Treat the free tier as a way to evaluate Postmark, not to run a site on.
Pricing: Free for 100 a month. Paid plans start at $15 a month for 10,000 emails.
Best for: developers evaluating deliverability before committing budget.
Which SMTP servers no longer have a permanent free plan?
These 4 are widely listed as free SMTP servers, but none has a free plan that renews indefinitely. They’re still worth knowing about because 2 of them are among the lowest-priced options available.
8. SendLayer
Best for: the cheapest step up once a free tier runs out.
SendLayer’s free offering is a trial, not a plan. With 200 emails in total, rather than per month.
I’ll be straight about where that leaves us in a free SMTP comparison. On free volume alone, Brevo, Mailjet, and SMTP2GO all beat SendLayer. It wouldn’t be honest to rank it above them here.
Where SendLayer does win is the price of the first paid tier. It’s $5 a month for 1,000 emails, against $15 at Postmark and SMTP2GO and $17 at Mailjet. Expect to outgrow a free plan? That’s the cheapest soft landing on this list.
Key features:
- 200-email free trial
- SMTP relay plus a REST API
- Official WordPress plugin and 1,000+ platform integrations
- DNS-based domain authentication during setup
- Delivery, bounce, and open event tracking
The catch? No permanent free plan. If you need to send free indefinitely, pick Brevo or Mailjet instead.
Pricing: 200-email free trial. Paid plans from $5 a month for 1,000 emails.
Best for: WordPress sites and small apps that want a cheap paid plan rather than a free ceiling.
9. Google Workspace (Gmail SMTP)
Best for: teams already paying for Gmail.
Google Workspace is a 14-day trial rather than a free SMTP server. Google’s admin documentation caps trial accounts at 500 messages a day.
People often mean something different by “free Gmail SMTP.” They mean relaying through a personal @gmail.com account. That works for a hobby project, but Gmail is built for person-to-person mail. It applies daily limits, gives you no delivery analytics, and can flag automated sending.
Key features:
- 500 messages a day on trial accounts
- Familiar Gmail interface
- Works with most plugins and frameworks
- No dedicated transactional email tooling
The downside is that it isn’t a transactional email service. There’s no bounce webhook, no sending reputation you control, and no analytics.
Pricing: 14-day trial. Paid plans start at $6 a month per user.
Best for: internal notifications from a team already on Workspace.
10. SendGrid
Best for: a 60-day trial before you commit.
SendGrid gives you 100 emails a day for 60 days, then asks you to pay. Its Email API plans list a Free Trial at “$0/mo for 60 days” with “No credit card, no commitment.”
The permanent free plan is gone. Twilio retired it on May 27, 2025, warning that sending “will be paused for accounts on all free plans” after a 60-day transition. What replaced it is a genuine trial, not a plan you can sit on.
Note the jump when the trial ends. Essentials starts at $19.95 a month, which is the steepest entry price in this comparison. Pro starts at $89.95 a month.
Key features:
- 100 emails a day for 60 days, no credit card
- Mature API and SDKs
- Marketing campaigns alongside transactional sending
- Analytics and deliverability optimization on every tier
- Dedicated IPs from the Pro plan up
The downside is the cliff at day 60. You’ll pay $19.95 a month to keep sending, against $5 at SendLayer or nothing at all at Brevo.
Pricing: Free trial for 60 days at 100 a day. Essentials from $19.95 a month for 50,000 to 100,000 emails. Pro from $89.95 a month.
Best for: teams who want a long, no-card trial and expect to pay afterwards.
11. Amazon SES
Best for: high volume at the lowest per-email cost.
Amazon SES no longer has a free tier for new customers. AWS discontinued it on July 21, 2026. It now offers “up to $200 in credits during your first six months” instead. Existing free-tier users keep their benefits for the rest of their 12-month period.
SES is still the cheapest option at scale. Its Essentials pricing works out at $0.16 per 1,000 emails. That’s a fraction of what per-plan providers charge at volume.
Key features:
- Pay-as-you-go from $0.16 per 1,000 emails
- Deep AWS integration
- Very high sending ceilings
- Configuration sets and event publishing
The catch? SES is infrastructure, not a product. You get no template editor and a bare console. You also must request production access before sending to unverified addresses.
Pricing: No free tier for new accounts. $200 in credits over 6 months, then $0.16 per 1,000.
Best for: engineering teams already on AWS sending high volume.
Can you use a free SMTP server for business email?
Yes for low-volume, non-urgent mail. No for anything that affects revenue.
Free tiers work well for a contact form, an internal alert, or a staging environment. The risk isn’t quality, because the same infrastructure carries paid mail. The risk is the ceiling and the lack of guarantees.
Three things to sort out before you rely on one:
- Authenticate your domain. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Skip this, and your mail lands in spam, no matter which provider you use. Our guide to email authentication walks through each record.
- Monitor delivery. Free plans often limit log retention. SMTP2GO’s free tier keeps 5 days, which is a short window for diagnosing a problem.
- Have a paid plan picked out. Know the price before you hit the limit, not after your password resets stop.
Sending order confirmations or password resets? A $5 to $15 monthly plan removes the ceiling entirely. That’s usually cheaper than one lost customer.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are answers to some of the top questions about choosing the best free SMTP server.
Does Gmail have free SMTP?
Yes, you can relay through a personal Gmail account at no cost. It isn’t a transactional email service, though. Gmail applies daily sending limits and gives you no delivery analytics or bounce handling. Google Workspace, the business version, is a 14-day trial capped at 500 messages a day for trial accounts.
What is the cheapest SMTP service?
Amazon SES is cheapest at high volume, at roughly $0.16 per 1,000 emails. For small volumes, SendLayer’s $5/month for 1,000 emails is the lowest entry price among the providers here. If free is the requirement, Brevo’s 300-email-a-day plan costs nothing permanently.
Is SMTP2GO free?
Yes, SMTP2GO offers a permanent free plan for up to 1,000 emails per month, with no credit card required. Free accounts are capped at 200 emails a day. You also get 5 days of reporting, 1 webhook, and 2 team members. Paid plans start at $15 a month for 10,000 emails.
Can you use a free SMTP server for a business?
Yes, for low-stakes mail like contact forms and internal alerts. Avoid it for password resets or order confirmations. Most free plans stop sending when you hit the cap, and time-sensitive mail is exactly what you can’t afford to lose. Authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC either way.
That’s it! You now know which free SMTP servers still have a free plan and what each one allows.
Choosing a paid plan next? Our comparison of the best transactional email services covers what changes once you’re paying.
