## Prerequisites

Before you start, you'll need:

- A Resend [API key](/guides/get-started-create-an-api-key)
- A [verified domain](/guides/get-started-add-a-domain)
- Install `virtualenv` by running `pip install virtualenv`

## Guide

::::steps
:::step{title="Setup your environment"}
Create and activate your new virtualenv.

```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"vesper"}}
virtualenv venv
source venv/bin/activate
```

Install dependencies.

```sh theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"vesper"}}
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

Set your `RESEND_API_KEY` environment variable by running.

```sh theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"vesper"}}
export RESEND_API_KEY="re_xxxxxxxxx"
```
:::

:::step{title="Send email using Django's SMTP EmailMessage"}
Set the necessary attributes in your `settings.py` file.

```py theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"vesper"}}
EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend'
RESEND_SMTP_PORT = 587
RESEND_SMTP_USERNAME = 'resend'
RESEND_SMTP_HOST = 'smtp.resend.com'
```

Use Django's `get_connection` and `EmailMessage`

```py theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"vesper"}}
import os
from django.conf import settings
from django.http import JsonResponse
from django.core.mail import EmailMessage, get_connection

# Sample Django view
def index(request):

    subject = "Hello from Django SMTP"
    recipient_list = ["delivered@resend.dev"]
    from_email = "onboarding@resend.dev"
    message = "<strong>it works!</strong>"

    with get_connection(
        host=settings.RESEND_SMTP_HOST,
        port=settings.RESEND_SMTP_PORT,
        username=settings.RESEND_SMTP_USERNAME,
        password=os.environ["RESEND_API_KEY"],
        use_tls=True,
        ) as connection:
            r = EmailMessage(
                  subject=subject,
                  body=message,
                  to=recipient_list,
                  from_email=from_email,
                  connection=connection).send()
    return JsonResponse({"status": "ok"})
```
:::
::::

## Examples

:::card{title="Django SMTP Example" href="https://github.com/resend/resend-django-smtp-example" icon="arrow-up-right-from-square"}
See the full source code.
:::

## Related pages

- [Send emails with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-smtp.md)
- [Send Auth0 transactional emails with Resend](./get-started-send-with-auth0.md)
- [Send emails using Customer.io with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-customer-io-smtp.md)
- [Send emails using Laravel with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-laravel-smtp.md)
- [Send emails using Liferay with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-liferay-smtp.md)
- [Send emails using Nodemailer with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-nodemailer-smtp.md)
- [Send emails using PHPMailer with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-phpmailer-smtp.md)
- [Send emails using Rails with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-rails-smtp.md)
- [Send emails using Retool with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-retool-smtp.md)
- [Send emails using Supabase with SMTP](./get-started-send-with-supabase-smtp.md)

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