PHP cURL method for sending automated emails through Mailgun API

Other Questions Mailgun
1

I need help with implementing email delivery through Mailgun’s API using PHP and cURL requests. I’m working on a web application that needs to send automated emails like password resets, order confirmations, and user notifications.

I’ve been trying to figure out the proper way to structure the cURL request and handle the API authentication, but I keep running into issues. The Mailgun documentation shows examples but I’m having trouble adapting them to my specific use case.

Has anyone successfully implemented this before? I would really appreciate if someone could share a working example or point me in the right direction. Any code samples or tips about common mistakes to avoid would be super helpful for me and other developers facing the same challenge.

2

Been working with Mailgun’s cURL lately and hit some issues that their docs don’t mention. Biggest thing - wrap your curl_exec calls in proper exception handling. Network timeouts will silently kill your app otherwise. Set CURLOPT_TIMEOUT to 30 seconds max. SSL verification also screwed me over on certain hosts. You might need CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER set to false for testing, but don’t forget to remove it before going live. For automated emails, don’t send them directly from web requests. Users shouldn’t wait around for API calls to finish. I just throw emails into a database table and run them through a cron job. Way more reliable when Mailgun acts up.

3

mailgun can be tricky at first, but it’s simple once you get the hang of it. make sure ur domain key is correct from the dashboard - lots of folks mess that up. also, check ur endpoint for the right region (us/eu). start with a basic msg to test, then try addin more features!

4

Been there with Mailgun integration headaches. Authentication trips up most people - you’ve got to base64 encode your API key right.

Here’s what works:

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://api.mailgun.net/v3/your-domain.com/messages');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, 'api:your-api-key-here');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'from' => '[email protected]',
    'to' => $recipient,
    'subject' => $subject,
    'text' => $message
]);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

CURLOPT_USERPWD handles auth automatically. Skip the header mess.

Honestly though, cURL for email gets ugly fast once you need error handling, retries, and scaling. I ditched it and automated the whole email flow instead.

Latenode connects straight to Mailgun and handles auth, errors, and retries automatically. Just drag and drop your triggers and templates. Way cleaner than maintaining cURL.

5

Check your Mailgun domain verification status first - mine sat unverified for weeks while I wondered why nothing worked lol. Also watch the trailing slash in your endpoint URL. Mailgun’s picky about that and throws weird errors without it.

6

Had the same Mailgun headaches last year building a notification system. Content-Type header was the biggest pain - Mailgun wants application/x-www-form-urlencoded, not JSON like most APIs. Also, you’ve got to set CURLOPT_POST to true explicitly. Some PHP setups won’t treat it as POST even with POSTFIELDS unless you add that flag. For errors, check both curl_error() and Mailgun’s HTTP response. Their API spits out helpful JSON error messages that’ll save you tons of debugging time. Start with their sandbox domain - trust me on this. Saved me from spamming real users with test emails while I figured things out. Watch out for rate limits if you’re doing bulk sends. Add some basic throttling or you’ll slam into their walls fast.