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Gmail SMTP Credentials: Setup Guide for Inflowave (2026)

Gmail SMTP Credentials: Setup Guide for Inflowave (2026)

Author:
Matt Kielbasa
Matt Kielbasa
|6 min read|
Gmail SMTP Credentials: Setup Guide for Inflowave (2026)
Matt KielbasaMatt Kielbasa••6 min read

Personal Gmail SMTP is fine for testing or very low-volume sends from your own address. It maxes out at 500 recipients per day (per Google's official Workspace limits documentation), so it is unsuitable for cold outreach or marketing campaigns. If you need higher throughput from a Google address, see the Google Workspace SMTP Relay guide.

Gmail SMTP values
SMTP host
smtp.gmail.com
Port
587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SSL)
Username
your full Gmail address (e.g. jane@gmail.com)
Password
App Password (16-digit code, NOT your login password)
Encryption
STARTTLS on 587, implicit SSL on 465

Prerequisite: 2-Step Verification must be on

Google removed support for "Less secure app access" in 2022. The only way to authenticate an SMTP client against Gmail today is via App Password, and App Passwords only exist on accounts with 2-Step Verification (2SV) enabled.

  1. Open myaccount.google.com and sign in.
  2. Left sidebar, click Security.
  3. Under "How you sign in to Google", verify that 2-Step Verification is ON. If it is off, click into it and complete the setup wizard (you will need a phone number or a security key).

Create your Gmail App Password

  1. Visit myaccount.google.com/apppasswords directly, or search "App passwords" from the search bar at the top of myaccount.google.com.
  2. Type a name for the password - e.g. Inflowave. The name is for your reference; Google does not show it to anyone else.
  3. Click Create.
  4. Google shows a 16-digit passcode in a yellow box. Copy it without the spaces.
  5. Click Done.

Auto-revoke note: Any time you change your Google Account password, all App Passwords are revoked automatically. You will need to regenerate the one used for Inflowave and update Settings.

If "App passwords" does not appear, one of these is true:

  • 2SV is configured only with a security key (Google hides App Passwords in this case - add a phone-based factor to unlock the menu).
  • Your account has Advanced Protection enabled (Advanced Protection disables App Passwords; switching to Workspace SMTP Relay is the workaround).
  • You are signed in to a Google Workspace tenant whose admin has disabled App Passwords org-wide.

Connect Gmail SMTP to Inflowave

  1. Inflowave → Settings → Email → Add sending domain.
  2. Choose Custom SMTP.
  3. Host: smtp.gmail.com
  4. Port: 587
  5. Username: your full Gmail address
  6. Password: the 16-digit App Password (no spaces, no quotes)
  7. Click Save. Inflowave will run a handshake; expect a 250 OK in 2-3 seconds.
  8. Send a test email from the linked domain card to confirm delivery.

Troubleshooting Gmail SMTP errors

"535-5.7.8 Username and Password not accepted"

You either pasted the wrong password (use the App Password, not your regular Google login) or the App Password has been revoked. Generate a fresh App Password and paste it in clean - no spaces, no trailing newline.

"534-5.7.9 Application-specific password required"

2SV is on but you are still trying to use your regular password. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and generate a 16-digit App Password.

"530-5.5.1 Authentication Required"

You connected to smtp.gmail.com but did not send credentials. Check the username field in Inflowave is populated.

"Connection timed out" on port 465 or 587

Your egress network blocks the port. Try the other port (587 if 465 fails, or vice versa). Port 25 is blocked by most ISPs and AWS by default - never use it.

Mail sends but lands in spam

SMTP succeeded but receiver placed your email in the spam folder. This is about reputation, not SMTP config - make sure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are set up for your sending domain. See the DNS records section in the main SMTP guide.

Gmail send limits and rate caps

  • 500 recipients per day for free personal Gmail accounts (cumulative - a single email to 50 people counts as 50 against the cap).
  • ~100 emails per hour soft cap on personal Gmail (Google's published number is "an unspecified rate", but practical observation puts this around 100/hour before Gmail begins throttling).
  • If you hit the cap, Gmail returns 550-5.4.5 Daily user sending quota exceeded and the account is blocked from outbound for 24 hours.
  • Recipients on the same domain count toward your quota, even for transactional sends.

For higher volume, use Google Workspace SMTP Relay (10,000/user/day) or a dedicated sending provider like SendGrid or Amazon SES.

When NOT to use Gmail for sending

Personal Gmail is the wrong choice for:

  • Cold outreach. Gmail will throttle you fast, and the gmail.com From address signals "unprofessional" to recipients.
  • Marketing campaigns. The 500/day cap kills any meaningful campaign and Google does not allow you to raise it.
  • Sending from a custom domain. Gmail SMTP forces the From address to be your gmail.com - you cannot send as hello@yourbusiness.com from smtp.gmail.com unless you configure that address as a Gmail alias first.
  • Anything above 100 recipients per send. Even within the daily cap, Gmail's hourly soft-cap will rate-limit you.

Official sources

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Ready to send from your Gmail address?

Open Inflowave → Settings → Email → Add sending domain → paste the values below.

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