How to Configure AWS SES SMTP Server with Laravel Mailer

Setting up Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) to send emails from your Laravel application is a highly scalable, robust, and cost-effective approach. Laravel integrates natively with AWS SES using two methods: SMTP Relay or the AWS SES API Driver.

This guide covers the quick setup for SMTP routing, configuring your mailer settings in Laravel 10/11, and updating environment variables.

1. Generating SMTP Credentials in AWS SES

To authenticate your application with the AWS SMTP servers, you must generate a set of IAM credentials specifically for SMTP:

1. Open the AWS SES Console.
2. Click on SMTP settings in the left sidebar.
3. Click the Create SMTP credentials button.
4. AWS will create a new IAM user for your account. Accept the default user name and click Create.
5. Copy your SMTP Username and SMTP Password. Note: These are different from your regular AWS access key ID and secret access key.

2. Configuration Settings in .env

Once you have your credentials, update your application's environment configuration .env file:

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=AKIAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
MAIL_PASSWORD=BpXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=notifications@yourdomain.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="Solidrix Send"

[!WARNING] Ensure that MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS is a verified email address or verified domain in your AWS SES console. Sending from an unverified address will throw a 554 Message rejected: Email address is not verified error.

3. Optimizing Configuration files

Verify your config/mail.php has the standard SMTP mailer driver configuration. Laravel has this configured by default:

'mailers' => [
    'smtp' => [
        'transport' => 'smtp',
        'host' => env('MAIL_HOST', 'mailpit'),
        'port' => env('MAIL_PORT', 1025),
        'encryption' => env('MAIL_ENCRYPTION', 'tls'),
        'username' => env('MAIL_USERNAME'),
        'password' => env('MAIL_PASSWORD'),
        'timeout' => null,
        'local_domain' => env('MAIL_EHLO_DOMAIN'),
    ],
],

Run the config clear command to apply changes:

php artisan config:clear

Now, your Laravel app is fully prepared to deliver all transactional emails, register notifications, and password resets securely via AWS SES SMTP servers.