How to Set Up Brevo SMTP in 5 Minutes

In this guide we will set up Brevo SMTP for transactional email in under 5 minutes - from creating the API key to sending your first test email from a Node.js script.

Step 1 - Create your Brevo account

Sign up at brevo.com. The free plan supports up to 300 transactional emails per day, no credit card required.

Step 2 - Grab your SMTP credentials

Open the dashboard → SMTP & API → SMTP. You will see a host, port, login and a master password. Copy them to your .env file.

env
SMTP_HOST=smtp-relay.brevo.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=your@email.com
SMTP_PASS=xkeysib-...

Step 3 - Send your first email

js
import nodemailer from "nodemailer";

const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
  host: process.env.SMTP_HOST,
  port: Number(process.env.SMTP_PORT),
  auth: { user: process.env.SMTP_USER, pass: process.env.SMTP_PASS },
});

await transporter.sendMail({
  from: "hello@yourdomain.com",
  to: "recipient@example.com",
  subject: "Hello from Brevo SMTP",
  text: "It works!",
});

Step 4 - Authenticate your sender domain

Add SPF and DKIM records from the Senders & IP section. This dramatically improves deliverability and is required by Gmail and Yahoo for high-volume senders.

That is it - your transactional pipeline is live. Hook this into your password resets, receipts and system alerts.