Grafana text alerts: email-to-SMS setup
Grafana’s alerting already evaluates your dashboards — the email contact point just needs a destination. Point one at your EmailToTxt address and firing alerts arrive as texts.
What you’ll need
- An EmailToTxt account and an endpoint (created in step 1).
- A mailbox for the device to send from — a free Gmail/Outlook account with an app password works.
- Access to your Grafana settings (web interface, app, or local console).
- The phone number(s) that should receive the texts.
- 1
Create your EmailToTxt endpoint
In your EmailToTxt dashboard, add an endpoint and choose the “generic” template. EmailToTxt generates a unique inbound address for it, like
server-room-a1b2c@alerts.emailtotxt.com. - 2
Set up an email account to send from
EmailToTxt receives your alert emails, but your device still needs a mailbox to send from. The simplest option is a free, dedicated Gmail or Outlook account with an app password — most NVRs can’t do modern sign-in, and an app password works around that. You only set this up once and can reuse the same sending account across every recorder and endpoint.
Provider SMTP server SSL port STARTTLS port Gmail smtp.gmail.com 465 587 Outlook.com smtp-mail.outlook.com — 587 Microsoft 365 smtp.office365.com — 587 Yahoo Mail smtp.mail.yahoo.com 465 587 Tip: turn on 2-Step Verification for the account, then generate an app password and use that 16-character value as the SMTP password — typed without the spaces Google shows (they’re display-only, and some recorders reject them). Use the account’s full email address as the user name. - 3
Configure Grafana email (SMTP) settings
Configure SMTP in grafana.ini (or env vars) under the [smtp] section: enabled = true, host, user, password (app password), from_address.
- Grafana Cloud has SMTP preconfigured; self-hosted needs the [smtp] block set with your sending mailbox.
- Restart Grafana after editing grafana.ini for SMTP changes to take effect.
- 4
Turn on email for the events you want texted
Alerting → Contact points → add an Email contact point with your EmailToTxt endpoint address, then reference it from a Notification policy so the alerts you care about route to it.
- Keep the email template short, or set the notification to summary form, so the text stays a single clean line.
- Scope the policy to high-severity alerts so flapping panels don’t consume texts — EmailToTxt’s cooldown also suppresses rapid repeats.
- 5
Set the recipient to your EmailToTxt address and send a test
Set the device’s recipient/receiver to your EmailToTxt endpoint address, then use the built-in Test button (or trigger a test event). The email should reach EmailToTxt within seconds — you’ll see it appear in your Activity log.
- 6
Add phone numbers and confirm delivery
In EmailToTxt, open the endpoint and add the phone numbers that should receive alerts in E.164 format (for example
+15555550123). Trigger a real event and watch the Activity tab — each alert is logged as received → parsed → sent. Recipients can reply STOP to opt out anytime.
What the text looks like
EmailToTxt reads the alert emails Grafana sends and pulls out the event and key details, so your phone gets a single clean line instead of a full email.
The alert email
Subject: [FIRING:1] High CPU (web-01)
Alert: High CPU Host: web-01 Value: 96% Status: firing
The text you receive
EmailToTxt
Delivered · now
Grafana text alerts: FAQ
- Why route Grafana alerts through email instead of a webhook?
- The email contact point is built in and needs no receiving service to host — you just point it at an EmailToTxt address. A webhook-to-SMS path means writing and hosting glue plus managing an SMS API and A2P registration.
Other setup guides
Ready to text your Grafana alerts?
Create an endpoint, paste the address into your recorder, add your number.