`email`

The Python email package allows for managing email messages, including creating, parsing, and manipulating email messages in MIME and other RFC 5322-based message formats. It provides a comprehensive API for handling email content, headers, and attachments.

Here’s a quick example:

Python
      
        
      
    
>>> from email.message import EmailMessage
>>> msg = EmailMessage()
>>> msg["Subject"] = "Hello"
>>> msg.set_content("This is a test email.")
>>> print(msg)
Subject: Hello
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
MIME-Version: 1.0

This is a test email.

Key Features

Creates and manipulates email messages
Parses email messages from strings or files
Supports MIME and other RFC 5322-based formats
Manages email headers and attachments

Frequently Used Classes and Functions

Object	Type	Description
`EmailMessage`	Class	Represents an email message
`message_from_string()`	Function	Parses a string into an email message
`message_from_bytes()`	Function	Parses bytes into an email message
`Header`	Class	Represents an email header

Examples

Creating and manipulating email messages:

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>>> from email.message import EmailMessage
>>> msg = EmailMessage()
>>> msg["From"] = "sender@example.com"
>>> msg["To"] = "recipient@example.com"
>>> msg["Subject"] = "Test Email"
>>> msg.set_content("This is a plain text email.")
>>> print(msg.as_string())
From: sender@example.com
To: recipient@example.com
Subject: Test Email
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
MIME-Version: 1.0

This is a plain text email.

Parsing an email from a string:

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>>> from email import message_from_string
>>> raw_email = "Subject: Test\n\nThis is a test email."
>>> msg = message_from_string(raw_email)
>>> print(msg["Subject"])
Test

Common Use Cases

Creating and sending email messages programmatically
Parsing email messages received from a server
Extracting and modifying email headers and content

Real-World Example

Suppose you need to create an email with an attachment and send it using an SMTP server. Here’s a toy example of how you could do it. Note that the example is just demonstrative:

Python
      
    
import os
import smtplib
from email.message import EmailMessage
from email.utils import formataddr

# Email configuration
address = os.getenv("EMAIL_USER")
password = os.getenv("EMAIL_PASS")
if not address or not password:
    raise RuntimeError(
        "EMAIL_USER or EMAIL_PASS environment variables not set"
    )

# Create the email
msg = EmailMessage()
msg["Subject"] = "Monthly Report - June 2025"
msg["From"] = formataddr(("John Doe", address))
msg["To"] = "client@example.com"
msg.set_content(
    "Hi,\n\nPlease find attached the report for June 2025.\n\nBests,\nJohn Doe"
)

# Attach the PDF
with open("monthly_report.pdf", "rb") as file:
    file_data = file.read()
    msg.add_attachment(
        file_data,
        maintype="application",
        subtype="pdf",
        filename="monthly_report.pdf"
    )

# Send the email
with smtplib.SMTP_SSL("smtp.example.com", 465) as smtp:
    smtp.login(address, password)
    smtp.send_message(msg)

In this example, the email package is used to create an email with an attachment, and the smtplib module is used to send it over SMTP, showcasing the interoperability of Python’s standard library modules.

Tutorial

Sending Emails With Python

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to send emails using Python. Find out how to send plain-text and HTML messages, add files as attachments, and send personalized emails to multiple people.

intermediate web-dev

For additional information on related topics, take a look at the following resources: