Email API Quickstart: How to Send Email with Python

Complete the following prerequisites before starting this tutorial. You can skip ahead if you've already completed these tasks.

1. Create a Twilio account in the legacy Console.
2. Enable two-factor authentication.
3. Create and store a Twilio SendGrid API Key with Mail Send > Full Access permissions.
4. Complete Domain Authentication.

• Install Python 3.10 or later.
• Install the Twilio SendGrid Python Helper Library. Using pip, run the following command:
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  pip install sendgrid

An API call requires a resource and an authentication method. To send an email message, the Twilio SendGrid Mail API sends a POST request to the Twilio SendGrid API endpoint and authenticates it with an API key.

To send an email message using Python, build a Python app.

1. Create a file in your project directory. For this guide, name the file app.py.

2. Import the required Python libraries and classes.

   1. Import the Twilio SendGrid Python library. The library sets the host: https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/.
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      import sendgrid

   2. Import the Python OS library. As you stored your API key in an environment variable, you need to import the Python os library.
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      import os

   3. Import the library's Mail, Email, To, and Content classes.
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      from sendgrid.helpers.mail import Mail, Email, To, Content

   4. Import the API key from the local environmental variable. Assign the key to a variable named sg using the SDK's SendGridAPIClient() method. The SDK passes your API key to the v3 API in an Authorization header using Bearer token authentication.
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      sg = sendgrid.SendGridAPIClient(api_key = os.environ.get('SENDGRID_API_KEY'))

3. Define the values for the To and From email addresses and the subject and body of your email message.

   • Assign these values to the from_email, to_email, subject, and content variables.
   • To properly format your email message, the imported constructors can accept and pass the data to a personalizations object that the Python SDK creates. Assign the to_email to an email address with an inbox that you can access.
   • The Content() helper takes two arguments: the content type and the content itself. Accepted values for the first parameter, content type, include text/plain or text/html. The second parameter takes the plain text or HTML content you wish to send.
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   from_email = Email("test@example.com")  # Change to your verified sender
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   to_email = To("test@example.com")       # Change to your recipient
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   subject = "Sending with Twilio SendGrid is Fun"
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   content = Content("text/plain", "and easy to do anywhere, even with Python")

4. Assign a Twilio SendGrid Python SDK Mail constructor to a variable called mail. Pass each of the previous variables into this Mail constructor.

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   # Create and assign a Mail constructor to a variable
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   mail = Mail(from_email, to_email, subject, content)

5. Retrieve a JSON-ready representation of the Mail object with the Mail constructor's get() method.

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   # Get a JSON-ready representation of the Mail object
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   mail_json = mail.get()

6. To deliver your message, make a POST request to the Twilio SendGrid Mail Send API. This request passes the mail_json value to the Mail Send resource.

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   # Send an HTTP POST request to /mail/send
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   response = sg.client.mail.send.post(request_body=mail_json)
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   print(response.status_code)
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   print(response.headers)

7. From your command line, run your app.py file. This sends your email message.

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   python app.py

   If you receive a 202 status code printed to the command line, Twilio SendGrid succeeded in sending your message.

8. Check the inbox of the to_email address.

   • Check the inbox of the to_email address, and you should see your demo message.
   • If you don't see the email, check your spam folder.

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import sendgrid
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import os
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from sendgrid.helpers.mail import Mail, Email, To, Content
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sg = sendgrid.SendGridAPIClient(api_key=os.environ.get('SENDGRID_API_KEY'))
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from_email = Email("test@example.com")  # Change to your verified sender
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to_email = To("test@example.com")       # Change to your recipient
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subject = "Sending with Twilio SendGrid is Fun"
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content = Content("text/plain", "and easy to do anywhere, even with Python")
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# Pass the data for the email message in a Mail constructor
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mail = Mail(from_email, to_email, subject, content)
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# Get a JSON-ready representation of the Mail object
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mail_json = mail.get()
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# Send an HTTP POST request to /mail/send with the Mail object
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response = sg.client.mail.send.post(request_body=mail_json)
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print(response.status_code)
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print(response.headers)

If you receive an error message, see the Twilio response message documentation for clues about what may have gone wrong.

Twilio SendGrid returns all responses in JSON format. To specify this format, add the Content-Type header. To interpret the responses to your API requests, the Twilio SendGrid API v3 provides a selection of response codes, content-type headers, and pagination options.

To do more with the Twilio SendGrid APIs, see the following resources.

• API Reference
• Sending Email with Dynamic Transactional Templates
• Getting Started with the Event Webhook
• The Email Activity Feed
• Sender Authentication
• Twilio SendGrid SDK for Python