# Schedule recurring emails and reminders > Send an email now, at a set time, or every day, week or month through your own SMTP, with timezones and unsubscribe links. Plus cron and GitHub Actions. Source: https://formsmtp.com/guides/schedule-recurring-emails · Last updated November 3, 2026 ## Three ways to schedule an email | Way | Best for | Schedules | | --- | --- | --- | | **Dashboard** (*Emails*, Pro plan) | Reminders, newsletters and updates to people in your contacts | Now, once at a set time, or daily, weekly or monthly | | **Your AI assistant** (MCP) | “Send this every Monday at 9” in plain words | Same as the dashboard | | **Cron + send API** | Any other rhythm, or emails built from your own data | Whatever your cron can express | ## 1. Create a FormSMTP project [Sign up free](https://app.formsmtp.com/#/signup) and add a project. Pick your email provider so the SMTP host and port fill in, enter your login, and click *Test connection*. Gmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho, Amazon SES, Brevo, SendGrid, Resend, Mailgun and any other SMTP server work. Personal Outlook.com and Hotmail addresses don’t, because Microsoft only allows OAuth sign-in for them. ## 2. Design the email Open *Templates* and build the email in the visual builder, or paste HTML. Use variables to personalise it: `{{first_name|there}}` fills in each contact’s first name, with “there” as the fallback. A contact’s `name`, `email` and custom fields are filled in automatically, and you can set extra variables, such as a link, that are the same for everyone. ## 3. Choose who gets it Scheduled emails go to contacts. In *Emails*, pick everyone who’s subscribed, one or more tags, or type in addresses (up to 500; they’re added as contacts). For a reminder to yourself, type your own address. To build a list, add people in *Contacts*, import a CSV (an `email`, `name` and `tags` column are recognised; other columns become custom fields), or collect them with a signup form, as in the [waitlist guide](https://formsmtp.com/guides/waitlist-form). ## 4. Pick when it sends Under **When to send**, choose: - **Send now**: goes out right after you confirm. - **Schedule**: one send at the date and time you pick. - **Repeat**: daily, weekly or monthly from the first send, with an optional **Stop after** date. Times are in your browser’s timezone, and repeats keep the same local time, so a 9:00 weekly email stays at 9:00 when the clocks change. A monthly email set for the 31st goes out on the last day of shorter months. You can stop a scheduled or repeating email at any time; it goes back to being a draft. ## Unsubscribe links, handled Each person gets their own copy, with a personal unsubscribe link. If your template doesn’t include `{{unsubscribe_url}}`, FormSMTP adds a small link at the bottom. Every email also carries `List-Unsubscribe` headers for one-click unsubscribe in mail apps. People who unsubscribe are skipped in every later send, and their page lets them subscribe again if it was a mistake. ## Limits to know - Scheduled emails count toward your plan’s monthly limit (50,000 a month on Pro). Once it’s reached, the rest of that run fails and shows in *Logs*. - If the project has **Allowed recipients** set, contacts outside that list are skipped. Send list email from a separate project with Allowed recipients left empty, rather than clearing it on a project whose API key or AI connections send other mail: with the list empty, that key can email anyone. - Your SMTP provider’s own daily limits still apply. For lists of more than a few hundred, use an account built for bulk email, such as Amazon SES, Brevo or Mailgun. ## Or ask your AI assistant Connect FormSMTP to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor (see the [MCP setup guide](https://formsmtp.com/guides/mcp-email-server)) and say what you want: Send the “Weekly digest” template to everyone tagged team every Monday at 9am Asia/Kolkata until the end of March. The assistant uses the `schedule_email` tool, which takes the same options as the dashboard: template, audience, first send time, timezone, repeat and an end date. It should confirm the audience and timing with you before scheduling, and `cancel_scheduled_email` stops it later. ## Custom schedules: cron and the send API FormSMTP’s HTTP API sends immediately; it doesn’t take a schedule. When you need a rhythm the dashboard doesn’t offer, such as weekdays only or the first Monday of the month, or an email built from your own data, run a cron job that calls `POST /api/v1/send`. Use the project’s API key (`fs_…`), keep it in an environment variable, and leave *Allowed websites* empty, since the request comes from a server. ```bash # crontab -e FORMSMTP_KEY=fs_your_api_key # 08:30 on weekdays, in the server's timezone 30 8 * * 1-5 curl -s -X POST https://app.formsmtp.com/api/v1/send \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $FORMSMTP_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"to":"you@example.com","subject":"Daily standup in 30 minutes","text":"Notes doc: https://example.com/notes"}' ``` The same in Node.js 18 or later, with a saved template: ```js // remind.mjs: run with node remind.mjs const res = await fetch("https://app.formsmtp.com/api/v1/send", { method: "POST", headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FORMSMTP_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json", }, body: JSON.stringify({ to: "team@example.com", template: "Weekly report", variables: { week: new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10) }, }), }); const data = await res.json(); if (!data.success) throw new Error(data.error); ``` ### No server? Use GitHub Actions A scheduled workflow runs for free on GitHub’s machines. Save your key as a repository secret named `FORMSMTP_KEY` and add: ```yaml # .github/workflows/reminder.yml name: Weekly reminder on: schedule: - cron: "0 9 * * 1" timezone: "Europe/London" workflow_dispatch: jobs: send: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - run: | curl -s -X POST https://app.formsmtp.com/api/v1/send \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.FORMSMTP_KEY }}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"to":"you@example.com","subject":"Weekly review","text":"Time for the weekly review."}' ``` GitHub runs schedules on the default branch, no more often than every 5 minutes, and runs can be delayed when Actions is busy. In public repositories, scheduled workflows are switched off after 60 days without activity. Without a `timezone`, the cron time is UTC. Emails from the send API don’t get unsubscribe links added. For anything that goes to a list, use the Emails scheduler, which handles unsubscribes for you. ## FAQ ### Can I send recurring emails for free? Yes, with a cron job or a GitHub Actions schedule that calls the send API: that works on the Free plan, which covers 1,000 emails a month through your own SMTP account. Scheduling and repeating sends in the dashboard (or by asking your AI) is part of Pro, $5/month for 50,000 emails. ### Can I schedule an email reminder to myself? Yes. Create a template, open Emails, type your own address as the recipient and choose Schedule for one reminder or Repeat for a daily, weekly or monthly one. ### Which timezone are scheduled emails sent in? The dashboard uses your browser’s timezone. AI assistants can pass any IANA timezone, such as Asia/Kolkata or America/New_York. Repeats keep the same local time across daylight saving changes. ### Can I schedule through the API? The HTTP API sends straight away and has no schedule option. Use a cron job or a GitHub Actions schedule that calls POST /api/v1/send, or schedule from the dashboard or an AI assistant. ## More guides - [Can Claude send emails? Connect it to your SMTP](https://formsmtp.com/guides/claude-send-email) - [MCP email server: send email from Cursor, ChatGPT & more](https://formsmtp.com/guides/mcp-email-server) - [How to send email from a static website (no backend)](https://formsmtp.com/guides/send-email-from-static-website) - [HTML contact form that emails you (copy-paste, no backend)](https://formsmtp.com/guides/html-contact-form)