WP Mail SMTP: Setting Up SMTP in WordPress and What to Check When Emails Fail to Send

WordPress SMTP is a setting that sends the emails your site generates, such as password resets and contact notifications, through a mail service like Gmail so they reach the inbox instead of falling into the spam folder. This guide installs the WP Mail SMTP plugin, follows the setup steps on screen, and covers where to check when emails do not arrive.

By default, WordPress sends mail with the server's PHP mail function, and the SMTP setting replaces that route with the SMTP server of an external sending service. This check was done by installing WP Mail SMTP 4.10.2 on a WordPress 7.1.3 site.

Every email the site sends, including comment notifications, goes through the same [wp_mail] function, so this one setting applies to all of them.

When you send through SMTP, the sender address is determined by the account used for sending, and sending from a free Gmail account makes it that account's @gmail.com address. To send from your site's domain address (such as admin@example.com), the mail has to go through hosting mail, a domain-connected Google Workspace, or a sending service that has verified the domain.

1️⃣ How WordPress sends email: the PHP mail function and spam classification

WordPress has no mail server of its own, so notification emails passed on by the PHP mail function are sent on its behalf by the hosting server's mail transfer program.

Unless you set one separately, the sender address is also assigned automatically in the form wordpress@domain. The receiving server checks the sending server's credentials against the domain's SPF and DKIM records, so mail sent from a hosting server that is not in those records is classified as spam or rejected.

2️⃣ Installing WP Mail SMTP: adding the plugin and the first screen

On the WordPress.org plugin directory, the plugin has more than 4 million active installations and a rating of 4.8 based on 5,206 reviews (checked on October 19, 2026). Version 4.10.2, released on October 8, 2026, requires WordPress 5.5 and PHP 7.4 or higher.

If your hosting offers an SMTP add-on, connect it at the server level; in environments where you cannot change server settings, such as shared hosting, you change the sending route in the plugin instead. Search for WP Mail SMTP under Plugins › Add Plugin, then install and activate it.

The first search result is the WP Mail SMTP by WPForms card, and on a site where it is already installed and activated, the button on the right shows [Active] instead of [Install Now], as in the screenshot.

A WP Mail SMTP item is added to the admin menu, and the WP Mail SMTP › Settings screen shows a notice box saying that no mailer has been set up yet.

Under WP Mail SMTP in the left menu, submenus such as Settings and Tools open. Some menu names, such as [Setup Checklist] and [Dashboard], are shown in English when the admin language has no translation for them.

The first screen that opens after activation is a 6-step setup wizard, and in step 1, choosing an SMTP mailer, the recommended mailer SendLayer is shown at the top with a note that the first 200 emails are free. If you skip the wizard and fill in the same items directly on the settings screen, the result is the same, so this guide follows the order of the settings screen. You can reopen the wizard with [Launch Setup Wizard] in the primary connection box.

3️⃣ Choosing a mailer: 15 free ones and 3 Pro-only ones

The Mailer field has 19 options, including the default (none). Amazon SES, 365 / Outlook and Zoho Mail can be chosen only on the Pro plans. The default (none) keeps sending through PHP mail as it is, so the screen also carries the notice [won't improve email deliverability].

To send with a mail account you already use, choose Google / Gmail or Other SMTP. The Google / Gmail mailer sends through the Gmail API instead of SMTP, and you enter the Client ID and Client Secret of a Google web application and then authorize the account.

Connecting a Gmail account costs nothing, but Gmail replaces the sender address with the address of the authorized account when it sends. A free Gmail account is therefore not suitable for a site that has to keep its domain as the sender address.

Sites that send a large volume of email choose the mailer of a dedicated sending service, for example SendLayer, Brevo, SendGrid or a similar one. Other SMTP is easier to set up than the API methods, but the provider may limit bulk sending.

4️⃣ Other SMTP setup steps: from From Email to the password

Under WP Mail SMTP › Settings › General, in the primary connection, enter the SMTP account address in From Email and the site name in From Name. Leave [Force From Email] and [Return Path] turned on.

If you use a mail provider such as Yahoo or Outlook.com, the From Email must be the same as that account's address. [Force From Email] is the item that stops other plugins from changing the sender address.

Under the [Launch Setup Wizard] button, the primary connection lists From Email, [Force From Email], From Name, [Force From Name] and [Return Path] in that order.

When you choose Other SMTP in Mailer, input fields open below. Fill in SMTP Host, Encryption, SMTP Username and SMTP Password, leave Authentication turned on, and click [Save Settings]. For Gmail, enter smtp.gmail.com as the host, TLS as the encryption, your Gmail address as the username, and the 16-character app password as the password.

The SMTP port changes automatically when you choose the encryption: 25 for None, 465 for SSL and 587 for TLS, and when you choose TLS the Auto TLS row disappears from the screen.

On most servers you choose TLS for encryption. Gmail rejects SMTP logins made with the account password, so you have to turn on 2-Step Verification for the Google account and issue an app password, and the 16 characters issued are entered without spaces. The app password page does not open for an account with 2-Step Verification turned off.

Below the password field there is a note recommending that you keep the password in the WordPress configuration file instead of the database. In [wp-config.php], define the [WPMS_ON] constant as true and the [WPMS_SMTP_PASS] constant as the app password, and those values are applied instead of the password field on the screen.

5️⃣ Testing WordPress SMTP: what to check when emails do not arrive

After saving, go to the Email Test tab under WP Mail SMTP › Tools, enter the address in Send To, and click [Send Email]. The Send To field is pre-filled with the email of the logged-in account, and the HTML toggle is on by default.

If the test fails, check the values you entered and the account status first rather than reinstalling the plugin. With Gmail, entering the account password is rejected with the [Application-specific password required] error, so issue the app password again and enter it. Also check that the From Email and the SMTP Username belong to the same account.

If the connection itself drops, set the encryption and port combination to TLS and 587, and if the result is the same, ask your hosting support whether the host blocks external SMTP ports. If sending is rejected because another plugin changes the sender address, check that [Force From Email] is turned on.

If the test passes but the email is not in the inbox, look in the spam folder first, then check whether the SPF and DKIM records required by the sending service have been added to the domain's DNS. To check whether the records are in effect, use the WHOIS domain lookup to search for the TXT records.

The error details of a failed send are recorded in the Debug Events tab under Tools.

On this tab, [Email Sending Errors] is always on even in Lite, and [Debug Email Sending], which records the whole sending process, is off by default.

6️⃣ WP Mail SMTP Pro differences: email log, backup connection and pricing

The free Lite version includes 15 mailers (including Other SMTP) and the email test. The email log and reports that keep sent mail, the backup connection that sends through another connection when the primary connection fails, and failure alerts are included from Pro. Lite is enough for a site that only needs mail to go out, and a store or membership site that has to keep a record of whether mail was sent would choose Pro.

Pricing is an annual subscription, the first-year price in the table below is a discounted price, and renewals are billed at the regular price. Elite is a plan that adds done-for-you setup and priority support to all the Pro features.

The values in the table were checked on October 16, 2026 on the wpmailsmtp.com pricing page and the WordPress.org plugin page, and a refund is possible within 14 days of payment.

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