SendPulse API + MCP (2026): one token, every channel

SendPulse ships an unversioned REST API at api.sendpulse.com, one OAuth 2.0 client_credentials token that unlocks every channel it sells, and — unusually for a mid-market ESP — an official Model Context Protocol server at mcp.sendpulse.com/mcp, live since November 26, 2025. One credential drives bulk email, SMTP transactional, SMS, web push, CRM, Courses and seven chatbot channels, and an AI client can drive most of it without glue code.

The counterweight is depth: six thin SDKs with low commit velocity, none covering the chatbot, CRM or Courses endpoints, and a reference split service by service. On ergonomics alone, Brevo and MailerLite document better. On breadth per credential and MCP readiness, SendPulse leads its price bracket.

At a glance

MCP integration in 2026

Model Context Protocol lets an AI client call a vendor’s API as typed tools instead of you hand-rolling a wrapper. Most ESPs are still at the community-wrapper stage. SendPulse is not: it runs a first-party server, and it separately acts as an MCP client inside its chatbot builder — a different capability that the same search query surfaces.

Available MCP servers

Two official surfaces plus third-party wrappers that predate them. The community entries were not functionally verified and none match the official coverage — narrow fallbacks, not alternatives. Further listings on mcpmarket and LobeHub exist but show placeholder slugs and no maintenance signal.

SendPulse API essentials

The API is not versioned at the root. Most resources sit directly under the domain — /smtp/emails, /addressbooks, /campaigns — while a few newer ones carry an inline segment such as /v2/email-service/smtp/sender_domains. There is no global /v1 prefix and no version header. Machine-readable OpenAPI specs are published per service, the fastest route to an accurate client where the HTML docs are thin.

16 documented REST surfaces sit behind that one base URL: bulk email, SMTP transactional, SMS, web push, chatbots plus WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, Viber, LiveChat and TikTok individually, CRM, Automation 360, email verification and Courses. What changes between them is the path prefix and the spec file, not the authentication — you integrate once and gain channels without renegotiating credentials.

Authentication methods

Three credential systems exist, and confusing them is the most common integration failure. Two are API credentials; the third is the SMTP relay login, unrelated to the API.

OAuth 2.0 client_credentials

Collect client_id and client_secret from Account settings › API, then POST /oauth/access_token with grant_type=client_credentials. The response carries an access_token valid 1 hour, sent as Authorization: Bearer <token> on every later request on every channel. There is no refresh token — re-run the same exchange.

Static API key as Bearer

SendPulse also accepts a static API key in the same Authorization: Bearer header, skipping the exchange. Simpler for a script, worse for anything long-lived — a static key cannot expire itself out of a leak.

SMTP relay credentials

The relay at smtp-pulse.com on ports 465, 587 and 2525 authenticates with your SendPulse login email plus a dedicated SMTP password generated under SMTP settings › General — a separate credential pair from client_id/client_secret. Full walkthrough on the SendPulse SMTP settings tab.

Rate limits

Limits land in two unrelated places: the HTTP API has request-rate ceilings by plan tier, and the sending path has its own throughput and deliverability throttles. Exceeding the API ceiling returns HTTP 429.

The workarounds are boring and effective. Honour 429 with exponential backoff from one second, and batch where an endpoint allows it — one POST /smtp/emails/info covering 500 addresses replaces 500 single lookups. Hourly speed is a plan attribute: more quota does not make you faster, you move up a tier. And since the bounce throttle runs on a rolling 15-minute window, list hygiene is a throughput control, not only a deliverability one — poll GET /smtp/bounces/day and pause the queue when the ratio climbs.

Official SDKs

Six client libraries under the sendpulse GitHub org, all thin wrappers over the same OAuth 2.0 flow rather than generated clients. Only PHP has real adoption.

Notable community SDKs

No community library has adoption worth naming. The SMTP feature page also advertises Objective-C, though no repository is surfaced. For any uncovered language, generate a client from the OpenAPI YAML at /.well-known/openapi/{service}.yaml rather than adopting an unmaintained wrapper — the specs are the most current artefact SendPulse publishes.

Endpoints reference

15 of the most-used paths, verified against the published docs and the chatbot Swagger reference. Full per-service specs sit at the OpenAPI index; the readable entry point is sendpulse.com/integrations/api.

Code examples

Every call starts with the token exchange. These use plain HTTP rather than an SDK, because that is what the chatbot, CRM and Courses surfaces require anyway.

Get an access token

curl -X POST https://api.sendpulse.com/oauth/access_token \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"grant_type":"client_credentials",
       "client_id":"YOUR_API_ID",
       "client_secret":"YOUR_API_SECRET"}'

# {"access_token":"...","token_type":"Bearer","expires_in":3600}
# Cache it. Re-fetch at ~55 minutes, not on the first 401.

Send a transactional email (Python)

import base64, requests

BASE = "https://api.sendpulse.com"

token = requests.post(f"{BASE}/oauth/access_token", json={
    "grant_type": "client_credentials",
    "client_id": "YOUR_API_ID",
    "client_secret": "YOUR_API_SECRET",
}).json()["access_token"]          # valid for 1 hour

body = "<h1>HTML body</h1>"

r = requests.post(f"{BASE}/smtp/emails",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"},
    json={"email": {
        "subject": "Hello from the SendPulse API",
        "html": base64.b64encode(body.encode()).decode(),  # base64 REQUIRED
        "text": "Plain text body",
        "from": {"name": "You", "email": "you@yourdomain.com"},  # confirmed
        "to": [{"name": "Recipient", "email": "recipient@example.com"}],
    }})
print(r.status_code, r.json())

The html field is base64, not raw markup — passing HTML directly is the most frequent first-request failure. from.email must already be a confirmed sender on an authenticated domain, or the send is rejected regardless of quota.

Send a transactional email (Node.js)

// token obtained from /oauth/access_token as above
await fetch("https://api.sendpulse.com/smtp/emails", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${access_token}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    email: {
      subject: "Hello from the SendPulse API",
      html: Buffer.from("<h1>HTML body</h1>").toString("base64"),
      text: "Plain text body",
      from: { name: "You", email: "you@yourdomain.com" },
      to: [{ name: "Recipient", email: "recipient@example.com" }],
    },
  }),
});

Connect the official MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sendpulse": { "url": "https://mcp.sendpulse.com/mcp" }
  }
}
# Auth on first connect: browser login, or OAuth 2.0 with the
# Client ID / Secret from Account settings > API.

Common gotchas

Deprecations and changelog

SendPulse ships small, frequent updates, published on its official updates page. No API deprecations were announced in the window below.

• August 3, 2026 — WhatsApp chatbots gained voice call support, inbound and outbound, inside the 24-hour customer service window.
• July 31, 2026 — Chatbots Public API added bulk variable deletion via POST /contacts/deleteVariable.
• July 30, 2026 — WhatsApp API gained template management: GET /whatsapp/templates, POST to create and submit for Meta review, DELETE to remove.
• July 29, 2026 — The GPT-5.6 model family landed in the AI bot builder, with web search, file search and MCP server connections supported on every model.
• November 26, 2025 — Official SendPulse MCP server launched, initially scoped to chatbots and CRM. Coverage has since expanded to email, SMTP and Courses.

Frequently asked questions