Email solution tiers
MX Plan
Included with Web Hosting plans or available separately. Provides standard IMAP/POP/SMTP email accounts with webmail access. Best for personal use or small teams with basic email needs.
Email Pro
Professional email addresses starting from 1 account. Includes anti-spam, large mailbox quotas, and collaboration features. Best for small businesses needing a professional email presence.
Hosted Exchange
Full Microsoft Exchange hosted by OVHcloud. Includes shared calendars, contacts, shared mailboxes, resource booking, and ActiveSync for mobile devices. Best for teams requiring full collaboration features.
Creating email accounts
MX Plan
- In the OVHcloud Control Panel, go to Web Cloud > MX Plan and select your service.
- Click the Email accounts tab.
- Click Add account.
- Fill in:
- Email account: the local part before the
@(e.g.,firstname.lastname) - First name and Name: display in the From header
- Password: minimum 9 characters, maximum 30 characters, no accents
- Email account: the local part before the
- Click Next, verify the summary, and click Confirm.
Email Pro
- Go to Web Cloud > Email Pro and select your platform.
- Before creating accounts, add your domain name via the Associated domains tab if you have not already done so.
- Click the Email accounts tab, then Add account.
- Enter the account name, display name, and password, then confirm.
Email Pro requires your domain’s MX records to point to OVHcloud mail servers. When you add a domain in the Control Panel, OVHcloud shows you the required DNS changes and can apply them automatically if the domain is managed by OVHcloud.
Hosted Exchange
- Go to Web Cloud > Microsoft > Exchange and select your platform.
- Click Email accounts > Add account.
- Assign a licence type and fill in the account details.
Configuring email clients
Use the settings below to configure any standard IMAP/SMTP email client with your MX Plan or Email Pro account.- IMAP (recommended)
- POP3
- Outlook
- Thunderbird
- Apple Mail
IMAP keeps messages on the server and synchronises across all devices. Use this for most setups.Incoming server (IMAP):
Outgoing server (SMTP):
| Setting | Europe | Americas / Asia-Pacific |
|---|---|---|
| Server | imap.mail.ovh.net | imap.mail.ovh.ca |
| Port | 993 | 993 |
| Encryption | SSL/TLS | SSL/TLS |
| Authentication | Password (normal) | Password (normal) |
| Setting | Europe | Americas / Asia-Pacific |
|---|---|---|
| Server | smtp.mail.ovh.net | smtp.mail.ovh.ca |
| Port | 587 | 587 |
| Encryption | STARTTLS | STARTTLS |
| Authentication | Password (normal) | Password (normal) |
For outgoing mail, port
465 with SSL/TLS is also supported as an alternative to port 587 with STARTTLS. The server also responds on the legacy hostname ssl0.ovh.net for both incoming and outgoing connections.Webmail access
OVHcloud provides browser-based webmail for all email solutions.- MX Plan (Zimbra): log in at https://www.ovh.com/mail/ using your full email address and password.
- MX Plan (OWA): log in at the same URL; the interface differs depending on which webmail technology your plan uses.
- Email Pro: log in at https://www.ovh.com/mail/.
- Hosted Exchange: log in at https://www.ovh.com/mail/ (Outlook Web App interface).
Auto-reply
MX Plan
- Log in to webmail and go to Settings > Automatic replies.
- Enable Send automatic replies, set start/end dates if needed, and compose your reply message.
- Save the settings.
Email Pro and Exchange
- Log in to webmail (OWA).
- Click the Settings gear > Automatic replies.
- Toggle Send automatic replies and configure the message for internal and external senders separately.
Email aliases
An alias lets you receive email sent to a different address in the same mailbox (e.g.,[email protected] delivered to [email protected]).
- In the Control Panel, go to your email service and select Email accounts.
- Click the
...menu next to the account and select Manage aliases. - Click Add an alias, enter the alias address, and confirm.
Anti-spam and security
OVHcloud applies server-level anti-spam filtering on all incoming mail. You can configure additional filters from webmail:- Spam filters: in webmail settings, set rules to move or delete messages based on spam score.
- Blocked senders: add domains or addresses to a blocklist to reject their messages.
- SPF, DKIM, DMARC: these DNS records protect your domain from spoofing. When you configure your domain in the Email Pro or Exchange Control Panel, OVHcloud adds the required DNS records automatically for OVHcloud-managed domains.
| Record | Purpose | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| SPF (TXT) | Authorises OVHcloud servers to send for your domain | v=spf1 include:mx.ovh.com ~all |
| MX | Routes inbound mail to OVHcloud servers | mx1.mail.ovh.net (priority 1) |
| DKIM | Cryptographic signature on outgoing mail | Generated automatically in Control Panel |
| DMARC | Policy for handling SPF/DKIM failures | v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected] |
Migrating email from another provider
OVHcloud provides a migration tool in the Control Panel to import existing email from another IMAP server.- Go to your email service in the Control Panel and click Migrate accounts (available on Email Pro and Exchange).
- Enter the source IMAP server, port, and credentials for each account.
- Map source accounts to destination accounts on your OVHcloud service.
- Start the migration. Messages are copied in the background; existing mail in the source account is not deleted.
Shared mailboxes and delegated access
Exchange — shared mailboxes
- In the Control Panel, go to Microsoft > Exchange > Shared accounts.
- Click Add a shared account, set the display name and email address.
- Go to the Delegation tab of the shared account and add the users who should access it.
- Users can open the shared mailbox from OWA via Open another mailbox.
Exchange — full access delegation
- In the Exchange Control Panel, select an account and click Manage delegations.
- Grant Send as, Send on behalf, or Full access permissions to another account.
Email Pro — delegation
- In the Control Panel, go to Email Pro > Email accounts > select the account > Delegation.
- Add the accounts that should be able to send on behalf of this account.
Troubleshooting
Cannot send email (SMTP authentication failure)
Cannot send email (SMTP authentication failure)
Verify that SMTP authentication is enabled in your email client’s outgoing server settings. Use port
587 with STARTTLS or port 465 with SSL/TLS. Confirm the password is correct — reset it from the Control Panel if needed.Email client cannot connect (IMAP)
Email client cannot connect (IMAP)
Check the server address (
imap.mail.ovh.net for Europe), port (993), and that SSL/TLS is selected. Confirm the full email address is used as the username, not just the local part.Email is marked as spam by recipients
Email is marked as spam by recipients
Ensure SPF and DKIM records are correctly configured in your DNS zone. Add a DMARC record to signal your authentication policy to receiving servers. Avoid sending bulk mail from MX Plan accounts, which are not designed for high-volume sending.
MX Plan quota exceeded
MX Plan quota exceeded
Log in to webmail and delete or archive old messages. Empty the Trash and Spam folders. If your storage needs exceed the MX Plan quota, consider upgrading to Email Pro, which offers larger mailbox sizes.
Webmail shows incorrect time on emails
Webmail shows incorrect time on emails
On first login to OWA webmail, set your time zone under Settings > General > Region and time zone. Zimbra users can set the time zone in Preferences > General.