Quick Start

This guide walks you from zero to a working transactional email in under 5 minutes.

Steps

Get your API key

Open Developer → API Keys in the dashboard and create a new key. Copy the sk_live_... value — you'll need it for every request.

Add a sending domain

Go to Domains and add the domain you want to send from (e.g. yourdomain.com). Follow the DNS instructions to add the required DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records, then click Verify.

DNS propagation can take a few minutes. Sendbound will re-check automatically when you trigger verification.

Send your first email

curl -X POST https://api.sendbound.com/v1/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "you@example.com",
    "from": "hello@yourdomain.com",
    "fromName": "Your App",
    "subject": "Hello from Sendbound",
    "html": "<p>This is your first transactional email. Welcome aboard.</p>"
  }'

A successful response looks like:

{
  "emailId": "em_01HV3KXYZ..."
}

Add a contact

curl -X POST https://api.sendbound.com/v1/contacts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "email": "user@example.com",
    "firstName": "Jane",
    "lastName": "Smith"
  }'

Create a campaign

Build a draft campaign targeting all subscribers:

curl -X POST https://api.sendbound.com/v1/campaigns \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Monthly newsletter",
    "subject": "What'\''s new in April",
    "from": "hello@yourdomain.com",
    "fromName": "Your App",
    "htmlBody": "<h1>April update</h1><p>Here'\''s what happened this month...</p>"
  }'

Send immediately by POSTing to /v1/campaigns/{id}/send.

What's next?

API Reference — full endpoint documentation
Webhooks — get notified on delivery events
SDKs — use an official client library