Brevo SMTP with WordPress: Setup Guide and Free Plan Limits

To send WordPress email through Brevo, you authenticate your domain in Brevo, generate an SMTP key under Settings > SMTP & API, and enter Brevo's SMTP details (smtp-relay.brevo.com, port 587) in an SMTP plugin, or connect through Brevo's API or its own WordPress plugin. Brevo's free plan allows 300 emails a day with no time limit, which covers most small business sites. Test a contact form, a password reset and, on a store, an order email before you rely on it.

This guide covers each step, the settings to enter, the choice between a general SMTP plugin and Brevo's own plugin, and what happens when you reach the free plan's daily limit. Brevo was called Sendinblue until 2023, so older guides and plugin screens may still use that name.

#Is Brevo the right choice?

Brevo suits small sites and stores that want a free starting point and may later use the same account for newsletters. Its free 300 emails a day is generous next to Mailgun's 100 a day or Postmark's 100 a month. It is less suited to a busy store that can pass 300 emails on a sale day, unless you move to a paid plan. My comparison of transactional email providers shows where Brevo sits against SES, Postmark and others.

#The setup at a glance

#Step 1: Authenticate your domain

Domain authentication proves to Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo that Brevo is allowed to send for you. Brevo will not authenticate free addresses such as @gmail.com, so you need your own domain.

1. In Brevo, open the account menu and go to Settings > Senders, Domains, IPs > Domains.
2. Choose Add a domain and enter the part of your email after the @, for example example.com.
3. Choose Authenticate the domain automatically if Brevo supports your DNS provider. You sign in to the provider from Brevo and it adds the records for you.
4. If automatic setup is not available, choose manual authentication and copy each record into your DNS settings.
5. Back in Brevo, check that the domain shows as authenticated.

These are the records Brevo asks for:

Keep only one DMARC record on the domain. If you already have one, Brevo's help centre says to add its reporting tag to your existing record rather than create a second. If the words DKIM and DMARC are new to you, my guide to domain and business email setup explains them in plain terms.

#Step 2: Add the sender address

Add the exact address WordPress will send from, such as noreply@example.com or orders@example.com, under Senders in the same settings area. Brevo's developer docs warn that the sender must match an authenticated Brevo sender, and a mismatch is a common reason test emails fail.

#Step 3: Generate an SMTP key

1. Go to Settings > SMTP & API and open the SMTP tab.
2. Note the SMTP login shown on the page.
3. Choose Generate SMTP key, give it a name such as "WordPress site", and copy the key straight away.

Brevo's docs are clear that the SMTP relay only accepts SMTP keys, not API keys. Using the wrong one gives an authentication error. If you choose the API route in the next step, create an API key on the API keys tab of the same page instead.

#Step 4: Choose how WordPress connects

You have three routes, and all of them send through the same Brevo account.

WP Mail SMTP lists Brevo among its free mailers, and FluentSMTP includes a Brevo API connection and email logs in its free plugin. Brevo's own plugin on WordPress.org has an option to use Brevo's SMTP service for all transactional emails, alongside signup forms and contact lists. If you only want order and form emails delivered, a dedicated SMTP plugin is the lighter choice. My guide to the best WordPress SMTP plugins compares the plugins.

For the SMTP route, enter these settings:

Turn on the plugin's "force from address" option if it has one, so a form plugin cannot send from a visitor's address and fail authentication.

#Step 5: Test before you rely on it

1. Send a test email from the plugin to a Gmail and an Outlook address.
2. In Gmail, open Show original and check SPF, DKIM and DMARC all show "pass".
3. Submit your contact form, request a password reset, and on WooCommerce place a test order.
4. Check the transactional logs in Brevo to confirm each message shows as delivered.
5. If anything fails, check the plugin's error message first: an authentication error usually means the API key was used in place of the SMTP key, or the sender is not authenticated. My guide to SMTP errors explains the common error codes, and WordPress not sending emails covers form and plugin causes.

#What the free plan's daily limit means

Brevo's help centre says the free plan includes 300 email sends a day, the limit resets every day, and unused sends do not roll over. For transactional email, once you reach the limit, up to 1,000 more emails are held in a retry queue; anything beyond that is not delivered. The free plan has no time limit, and its emails carry a "Sent with Brevo" sticker.

emails a day on the free plan

300

extra transactional emails held in the retry queue

1,000

contacts you can store on the free plan

100,000

For a contact form, 300 a day is plenty. For a store, count your busiest day: order confirmation, shipping update, account and admin notification emails add up quickly. Upgrading to a Starter, Standard, Professional or Enterprise plan raises the daily limit straight away. Prices change, so check Brevo's pricing page (opens in a new tab) for the current figures. Brevo also notes that its SMTP relay does not support batch sending, so newsletters belong in Brevo's campaign tools, not WordPress.

#When to get help

Brevo is one of the easier providers to set up, but a few situations are worth handing over:

• Your domain already sends through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and you are unsure how to add Brevo's records without breaking them.
• Emails pass the plugin test but real customers still report spam folders or missing emails.
• You run a WooCommerce store that may pass the free plan's daily limit.
• You need logs, alerts or a fallback provider so a failure is noticed quickly.

My SMTP and transactional email setup service covers Brevo setup, DNS and testing end to end, and the email deliverability service handles spam and blocklist problems. If you are choosing a store platform as well, my WooCommerce development page covers store builds.