# Send email through Amazon SES

Connect your own Amazon SES account as a sender, with its SMTP credentials, and send its bounces and complaints back through an SNS topic.

With an Amazon SES sender, mail goes out through your own AWS account, from an
identity you verified there. SES reports bounces and complaints to an SNS topic,
and BuildBase reads them from it, so the [sending
limits](/email/deliverability#bounce-and-complaint-limits) protect this sender
too.

> **Note:**
  An AWS account with the domain or address verified in SES, bring-your-own SMTP
  on your BuildBase plan, and a console role that can create email senders.
  [Connect a sender](/email/connect-a-sender) shows the Sender accounts page.

## 1. Verify the identity in SES

In the AWS console, open SES, then **Identities**, and check that the domain or
address you will send from reads **Verified**. An account still in the SES
sandbox sends only to verified addresses: ask AWS for production access first.

## 2. Create SMTP credentials

In SES, open **SMTP settings** and create SMTP credentials. These are not your
AWS access keys: SES shows an SMTP user name and password once. Keep both.

## 3. Make a topic for bounces and complaints

In SNS, create a topic, and copy its ARN (`arn:aws:sns:<region>:<account>:<name>`).
In SES, publish the **Bounce**, **Complaint** and **Delivery delay** events of
your configuration set (or of the identity) to that topic.

## 4. Open Add new sender

[Open Sender accounts in the console](https://console.buildbase.app/dashboard/admin/emails/senders)

In the left rail choose **Messaging**, then **Sender accounts**. Press **Add
new sender** and choose **Amazon SES**.

## 5. Fill in SES

Fill **Name**, **From address** (`Name <address>` on your verified identity),
**AWS region** (such as `eu-west-1`), **SES SMTP username**, **SES SMTP
password**, **Configuration set (optional)** and **SNS topic ARN for bounces and
complaints**. Press **Connect Amazon SES**.

BuildBase signs in to SES with those credentials before it saves anything: a
wrong user name, password or region is refused and nothing is stored.

![The Amazon SES tab: Name Acme newsletter (SES), From address, AWS region eu-west-1, the SES SMTP username and password, Configuration set acme-news, the SNS topic ARN, and the Connect Amazon SES button highlighted as step 5](/images/email/amazon-ses/form.webp)

## 6. Subscribe BuildBase to the topic

Once connected, the dialog says **Last step** and shows the **SNS subscription
endpoint**, `https://api.console.buildbase.app/api/webhooks/email/<orgId>/ses`.
Copy it and press **Done**. In SNS, add an HTTPS subscription to your topic with
that endpoint. BuildBase confirms the subscription itself, and accepts messages
only from the topic you entered.

## 7. Find it in Email senders

The sender is listed under **Email senders** with the others. Press **Make
default** on it to send your sign-in mail through SES too ([make it the
default](/email/connect-a-sender#9-make-it-the-default)).

## Check it works

Press **Edit** on the sender, then **Send test email**. Then send to the SES
mailbox simulator's bounce address, `bounce@simulator.amazonses.com`, and see the
bounce under **Messaging**, then **Email history**.

## Things to watch out for

- **SES SMTP credentials are not AWS access keys.** Create them under SES, **SMTP settings**.
- **The SMTP user name is 16 to 128 characters, the password 16 to 256.** The region and the topic ARN must be in AWS's own format.
- **Without the SNS topic, bounces and complaints are not recorded,** and the sending health checks cannot protect this sender.
- **An account in the SES sandbox sends only to verified addresses.**

## Next Steps

- [Connect a sender](/email/connect-a-sender) - test, share and make a sender the default.
- [Deliverability](/email/deliverability) - DMARC, bounces and the sending limits.