PHP mail() Function

PHP mail() sends an email directly from your PHP script. You can use it for contact forms, welcome emails, password reset links and similar things.

The mail() function does not send the email by itself. It hands over the message to the mail system of your server (like sendmail), and that system delivers it.

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Syntax

mail(
    string $to,
    string $subject,
    string $message,
    array|string $additional_headers = [],
    string $additional_params = ""
): bool

Parameters

Parameter	Description
to	Required. Email address of the receiver. Many receivers can be separated by comma
subject	Required. Subject of the email. It must not contain new line characters
message	Required. Body of the email. Each line should not be longer than 70 characters, use wordwrap() for long text
additional_headers	Optional. Extra headers like From, Reply-To, Cc and Content-Type. Array format is supported from PHP 7.2
additional_params	Optional. Extra command line options for the mail program

Return value: true if the mail was accepted for delivery, otherwise false.

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Examples

Example #1: Send a simple email

<?php
$to = "student@example.com";
$subject = "Welcome to Tutorials Class";
$message = "Hello, thanks for joining us.";

if (mail($to, $subject, $message)) {
    echo "Email accepted for delivery.";
} else {
    echo "Email sending failed.";
}
?>

Output:

On a local computer (like XAMPP) without a mail server you will usually see “Email sending failed”.

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Example #2: Add From and Reply-To headers

Headers can be passed as an array. This format works from PHP 7.2 and it is easy to read.

<?php
$to = "student@example.com";
$subject = "Welcome to Tutorials Class";
$message = "Hello, thanks for joining us.";

$headers = [
    "From" => "hello@yourdomain.com",
    "Reply-To" => "support@yourdomain.com",
    "X-Mailer" => "PHP/" . phpversion()
];

if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) {
    echo "Email accepted for delivery.";
}
?>

Output:

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Example #3: Send an HTML email

To send HTML, set the Content-Type header to text/html.

<?php
$to = "student@example.com";
$subject = "Welcome to Tutorials Class";

$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\r\n";
$headers .= "From: hello@yourdomain.com\r\n";

$message = "<h1>Welcome</h1><p>Thanks for joining <b>Tutorials Class</b>.</p>";

if (mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)) {
    echo "HTML email accepted for delivery.";
} else {
    echo "Email sending failed.";
}
?>

Output:

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Example #4: Validate email before sending

Never put user input directly in mail headers. A bad user can add new lines and send spam from your site (this is called header injection). Validate the email first with filter_var().

<?php
$email = filter_var($_POST["email"] ?? "", FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

if (!$email) {
    echo "Invalid email address.";
    exit;
}

mail("admin@yourdomain.com", "New enquiry", "Reply to: " . $email, ["Reply-To" => $email]);
?>

Result: If the email is empty or wrong, the script prints “Invalid email address.” and stops. See exit() for more.

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Why mail() does not work?

• No mail server. Local servers and many cloud servers do not have sendmail configured.
• Hosting restrictions. Some hosts block or limit the mail() function.
• Goes to spam. Emails without proper From address, SPF or DKIM records are often marked as spam.
• Wrong headers. Use \r\n between header lines and no extra spaces.

For real projects, most developers prefer a library like PHPMailer with SMTP, because it is more reliable. You can also read our PHP Send Mail chapter.

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Summary

• mail() sends an email through the mail system of the server.
• It returns true when the mail is accepted, not when it is delivered.
• Use headers for From, Reply-To and HTML content.
• Always validate user input before using it in headers.

• Previous Page

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