C# send mail

last modified July 5, 2023

C# send email tutorial shows how to send simple emails in C# with System.Net.Mail and Mailkit.

SMTP

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and clients use SMTP to send and receive mail messages.

In C#, we can use System.Net.Mail and Mailkit to send emails. The built-in System.Net.Mail can be used for simple solutions, while Mailkit is better suited for complex tasks.

Note: Gmail is not ideal for testing mails. We should use an online service such as Mailtrap or Mailgun, or use an SMTP server provided by a webhosting company.

In this article we are going to use Maitrap service to test our examples. Mailtrap offers a free plan for personal testing.

C# simple mail example

In the first example, we send a simple message.

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Net;

var from = "from@example.com";
var to = "to@example.com";
var subject = "Test mail";
var body = "Test body";

var username = "username"; // get from Mailtrap
var password = "password"; // get from Mailtrap

var host = "smtp.mailtrap.io";
var port = 2525;

var client = new SmtpClient(host, port)
{
    Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password),
    EnableSsl = true
};

client.Send(from, to, subject, body);

Console.WriteLine("Email sent");

An email is sent with SmtpClient.

var from = "from@example.com";
var to = "to@example.com";
var subject = "Test mail";
var body = "Test body";

These are the email details.

var username = "username"; // get from Mailtrap
var password = "password"; // get from Mailtrap

We use the username and password that we get from the Mailtrap service.

var host = "smtp.mailtrap.io";
var port = 2525;

This is the SMTP host and port.

var client = new SmtpClient(host, port)
{
    Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password),
    EnableSsl = true
};

An SmtpClient is created through which we send the email.

client.Send(from, to, subject, body);

The Send method sends the specified email message to an SMTP server for delivery. The message sender, recipients, subject, and message body are string values.

C# email JSON config

In the next example, we show how to read the email details from a JSON config file.

$ dotnet add package Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json

We add the Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json package.

{
    "Smtp": {
      "Host": "smtp.mailtrap.io",
      "Port": 2525,
      "Username": "username",
      "Password": "password"
    }
  }

This is the JSON config file.

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Net;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;

var from = "from@example.com";
var to = "to@example.com";
var subject = "Test mail";
var body = "Test body";

var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
    .SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
    .AddJsonFile("email.json");
var config = builder.Build();

var host = config["Smtp:Host"];
var port = Convert.ToInt32(config["Smtp:Port"]);
var username = config["Smtp:Username"];
var password = config["Smtp:Password"];

var client = new SmtpClient(host, port);
client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);
client.EnableSsl = true;

client.Send(from, to, subject, body);

Console.WriteLine("Email sent");

In the example, the host, port, username, and passowrd are read from a JSON config file.

C# HTML email

In the next example, we send an HTML email.

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Net;

var from = new MailAddress("from@example.com");
var to = new MailAddress("to@example.com");
var subject = "HTML email";
var body = "<p>An old <b>falcon</b> in the sky.</p>";

var username = "username"; // get from Mailtrap
var password = "password"; // get from Mailtrap

var host = "smtp.mailtrap.io";
var port = 2525;

var client = new SmtpClient(host, port);
client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, passowrd);
client.EnableSsl = true;

var mail = new MailMessage();
mail.Subject = subject;
mail.From = from;
mail.To.Add(to);
mail.Body = body;
mail.IsBodyHtml = true;

client.Send(mail);

Console.WriteLine("Email sent");

We use MailMessage to send HTML emails.

var mail = new MailMessage();
mail.Subject = subject;
mail.From = from;
mail.To.Add(to);
mail.Body = body;
mail.IsBodyHtml = true;

client.Send(mail);

Now the email details are set to MailMessage. The IsBodyHtml indicates that the body is in HTML.

C# email attachment

In the next example, we attach a text file to the email.

sky
blud
rock
water
poem

We send this text file in the attachment.

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Net;

var from = new MailAddress("from@example.com");
var to = new MailAddress("to@example.com");
var subject = "Email with attachment";
var body = "Email body";

var username = "username"; // get from Mailtrap
var password = "password"; // get from Mailtrap

var host = "smtp.mailtrap.io";
var port = 2525;

var client = new SmtpClient(host, port);
client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, passowrd);
client.EnableSsl = true;

var mail = new MailMessage();
mail.Subject = subject;
mail.From = from;
mail.To.Add(to);
mail.Body = body;

var attachment = new Attachment("words.txt");
mail.Attachments.Add(attachment);

client.Send(mail);

Console.WriteLine("Email sent");

We use the Attachments property and the Attachment class to send an attachment with the email.

C# send simple mail with Mailkit

Now we use the Mailkit library to send a simple mail.

$ dotnet add package Mailkit

We add the Mailkit package to the project.

using MailKit.Net.Smtp;
using MailKit.Security;
using MimeKit;

var host = "smtp.mailtrap.io";
var port = 2525;

var username = "username"; // get from Mailtrap
var password = "password"; // get from Mailtrap

var message = new MimeMessage();

message.From.Add(new MailboxAddress("John Doe", "john.doe@example.com"));
message.To.Add(new MailboxAddress("Jane Doe", "jane.doe@example.com"));
message.Subject = "Test subject";

var bodyBuilder = new BodyBuilder();
bodyBuilder.TextBody = "Test body";
message.Body = bodyBuilder.ToMessageBody();

var client = new SmtpClient();

client.Connect(host, port, SecureSocketOptions.Auto);
client.Authenticate(username, password);

client.Send(message);
client.Disconnect(true);

Console.WriteLine("Email sent");

We use MimeMessage, BodyBuilder, and SmtpClient classes to generate email. The email is sent with Send.

C# HTML email with Mailkit

In the next example, we send an HTML email.

using MailKit.Net.Smtp;
using MailKit.Security;
using MimeKit;

var host = "smtp.mailtrap.io";
var port = 2525;

var username = "username"; // get from Mailtrap
var password = "password"; // get from Mailtrap

var message = new MimeMessage();

message.From.Add(new MailboxAddress("John Doe", "john.doe@example.com"));
message.To.Add(new MailboxAddress("Jane Doe", "jane.doe@example.com"));
message.Subject = "Test subject";

var bodyBuilder = new BodyBuilder();
bodyBuilder.HtmlBody = "<p>An old <b>falcon</b> in the sky.</p>";
message.Body = bodyBuilder.ToMessageBody();

var client = new SmtpClient();

client.Connect(host, port, SecureSocketOptions.Auto);
client.Authenticate(username, password);

client.Send(message);
client.Disconnect(true);

Console.WriteLine("Email sent");

The HTML body is added with the HtmlBody attribute.

Source

System.Net Namespace

In this article we have sent simple emails in C#.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar and I am a passionate programmer with many years of programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. So far, I have written over 1400 articles and 8 e-books. I have over eight years of experience in teaching programming.

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