--- "@context": https://schema.org "@type": TechArticle "@id": https://www.twilio.com/docs/sendgrid/for-developers/sending-email/quickstart-python#article headline: "Email API Quickstart: How to Send Email with Python" description: Sending your first email using the SendGrid REST API and Python. url: https://www.twilio.com/docs/sendgrid/for-developers/sending-email/quickstart-python inLanguage: en dateModified: 2026-08-14T19:01:57.000Z author: "@type": Organization name: Twilio Developer Education Team publisher: "@type": Organization name: Twilio --- # Email API Quickstart: How to Send Email with Python Send your first email using the [Twilio SendGrid Mail Send API][] and [Python][]. ## Complete the prerequisites ### Complete the Twilio prerequisites 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][twilio-account]. 2. Enable [two-factor authentication][2fa]. 3. Create and store a [Twilio SendGrid API Key][tsg-api-key] with **Mail Send** > **Full Access** permissions. 4. Complete [Domain Authentication][domain-auth]. ### Complete the language prerequisites * [Install Python 3.10 or later][install-py]. * Install the [Twilio SendGrid Python Helper Library][twsg-py]. Using [pip][], run the following command: ```bash pip install sendgrid ``` ## Send an API email using Python 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/`. ```python 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. ```python import os ``` 3. Import the library's `Mail`, `Email`, `To`, and `Content` classes. ```python 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. ```python 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`][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. ```python from_email = Email("test@example.com") # Change to your verified sender to_email = To("test@example.com") # Change to your recipient subject = "Sending with Twilio SendGrid is Fun" 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. ```python # Create and assign a Mail constructor to a variable 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. ```python # Get a JSON-ready representation of the Mail object 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. ```python # Send an HTTP POST request to /mail/send response = sg.client.mail.send.post(request_body=mail_json) print(response.status_code) print(response.headers) ``` 7. From your command line, run your `app.py` file. This sends your email message. ```shell python app.py ``` If you receive a [`202` status code][202] 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. #### View the complete Python code example ```python import sendgrid import os from sendgrid.helpers.mail import Mail, Email, To, Content sg = sendgrid.SendGridAPIClient(api_key=os.environ.get('SENDGRID_API_KEY')) from_email = Email("test@example.com") # Change to your verified sender to_email = To("test@example.com") # Change to your recipient subject = "Sending with Twilio SendGrid is Fun" content = Content("text/plain", "and easy to do anywhere, even with Python") # Pass the data for the email message in a Mail constructor mail = Mail(from_email, to_email, subject, content) # Get a JSON-ready representation of the Mail object mail_json = mail.get() # Send an HTTP POST request to /mail/send with the Mail object response = sg.client.mail.send.post(request_body=mail_json) print(response.status_code) print(response.headers) ``` ## Troubleshooting 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. ## Next Steps 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][] [2fa]: /docs/sendgrid/for-developers/sending-email/authentication#two-factor-authentication [202]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/202 [API Reference]: /docs/sendgrid/api-reference [content-type headers]: /docs/sendgrid/api-reference/how-to-use-the-sendgrid-v3-api/responses#content-type-header [domain-auth]: /docs/sendgrid/ui/account-and-settings/how-to-set-up-domain-authentication [Getting Started with the Event Webhook]: /docs/sendgrid/for-developers/tracking-events/getting-started-event-webhook [install-py]: https://www.python.org/downloads [pagination]: /docs/sendgrid/api-reference/how-to-use-the-sendgrid-v3-api/responses#pagination [personalizations]: /docs/sendgrid/for-developers/sending-email/personalizations [pip]: https://pypi.org/project/pip [Python]: https://www.python.org [response codes]: /docs/sendgrid/api-reference/how-to-use-the-sendgrid-v3-api/responses#status-codes [response message documentation]: /docs/sendgrid/api-reference/how-to-use-the-sendgrid-v3-api/responses#status-codes [Sender Authentication]: /docs/sendgrid/ui/account-and-settings/how-to-set-up-domain-authentication [Sending Email with Dynamic Transactional Templates]: /docs/sendgrid/ui/sending-email/how-to-send-an-email-with-dynamic-templates [The Email Activity Feed]: /docs/sendgrid/ui/analytics-and-reporting/email-activity-feed [tsg-api-key]: /docs/sendgrid/ui/account-and-settings/api-keys [Twilio SendGrid Mail Send API]: /docs/sendgrid/api-reference/mail-send/mail-send [Twilio SendGrid SDK for Python]: https://github.com/sendgrid/sendgrid-python [twilio-account]: https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio [twsg-py]: https://github.com/sendgrid/sendgrid-python