SMTP guides
Metabase
Send Metabase alerts and dashboard subscriptions through usend.
Metabase uses SMTP for alerts, dashboard subscriptions and password resets. Reference: Send with SMTP.
Before you start
- Verify the domain you want Metabase to send from.
- Create a
sending_accessAPI key for it.
Configure in the admin UI
Open Admin settings → Settings → Email and choose Set up SMTP (or edit the existing settings):
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| SMTP host | smtp.usend.et |
| SMTP port | 587 |
| SMTP security | STARTTLS (use SSL/TLS with port 465) |
| SMTP username | usend |
| SMTP password | Your usend API key |
| From address | An address on your verified domain, for example [email protected] |
| From name | Optional |
Save, then use Send test email.
With environment variables
Self-hosted Metabase can read the same values from its environment, which keeps the key out of the database:
MB_EMAIL_SMTP_HOST=smtp.usend.et
MB_EMAIL_SMTP_PORT=587
MB_EMAIL_SMTP_SECURITY=starttls
MB_EMAIL_SMTP_USERNAME=usend
MB_EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD=us_123456789
[email protected]Check Metabase's own documentation for the exact names in your version.
Tips
- Metabase subscriptions can have many recipients. usend accepts up to 50 recipients per message and 10 messages per second per key; larger subscriptions are split by Metabase or refused with a
452, so use a list address for big groups. - Attachments (CSV or XLSX exports) count toward the 40 MB message limit.
- Alerts to people outside your organization need production access: Production approval.
- Failed sends show in Metabase's logs with usend's error text. See the SMTP error table.