How to set up Amazon SES SMTP in Laravel?

Laravel SMTP Setup Documentation (Using Amazon SES)

This documentation explains how to configure Amazon SES as your SMTP server in a Laravel application.

Step 1: Create and Verify Domain or Email in Amazon SES

  • Go to Amazon SES Console
  • In the SES dashboard, choose either:
  • Email Addresses → Verify an email address (easiest for testing)
  • OR Domains → Verify a domain (better for production)
  • Once verified, your sender will be authorized to send emails.

For sandbox accounts, you can only send to verified addresses unless you request production access.

Step 2: Generate SMTP Credentials

  • In SES Console, go to SMTP Settings → Click on Create My SMTP Credentials
  • Choose a name like laravel-smtp-user
  • After creating, download/save:
  • SMTP Username
  • SMTP Password (auto-generated, not your AWS secret key)

Step 3: Add SMTP Details to File in Laravel

Update your .env file with the following:

MAIL_MAILER=smtp MAIL_HOST=email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com # Region-specific MAIL_PORT=587 MAIL_USERNAME=your_smtp_username MAIL_PASSWORD=your_smtp_password MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=your_verified_email@example.com MAIL_FROM_NAME="Your App Name"

📌 Replace:

  • your_smtp_username → The SMTP username from SES
  • your_smtp_password → The generated SMTP password
  • your_verified_email@example.com → The verified sender email
  • Region Note: Update MAIL_HOST Based on your SES region:


RegionSMTP EndpointUS East (N. Virginia)email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.comUS West (Oregon)email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.comEU (Ireland)email-smtp.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com

👉 Full list of endpoints: SES Regions & Endpoints

Step 4: Clear Laravel Config Cache

After updating .env, run:

php artisan config:clear php
artisan config:cache

Step 5: Test Email Sending in Laravel

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

Mail::raw('Test email from Amazon SES SMTP.', function ($message) { $message->to('receiver@example.com') ->subject('Amazon SES SMTP Test'); });

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