API Key does not start with "SG." SendGrid

Question

I am trying to set up SendGrid add-on in my Heroku NodeJS app. I created the API Key and set it as an environment variable.

The whole API key looks something like: SG.actualValue.bbb_cccccc

The first setup I did I set the whole key as as my SENDGRID_API_KEY and I got this error:

API key does not start with SG.

So, I realized the mistake and unset the environment variable and set it again only to the actualValue part of the whole key.

However, I still get the same error. I tried doing the same thing again or restarting the terminal(actually, whole laptop).

This is the test code I am trying to run from the SendGrid setup page:

const sgMail = require('@sendgrid/mail');
sgMail.setApiKey(process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY)
const msg = {
  to: 'test@example.com',
  from: 'test@example.com',
  subject: 'Sending with Twilio SendGrid is Fun',
  text: 'and easy to do anywhere, even with Node.js',
  html: '<strong>and easy to do anywhere, even with Node.js</strong>',
};
sgMail.send(msg);

I tried creating a new key and setting it, but I get the same error. I tried setting it to the whole key, but without ".SG" or just the bbb_ccccc part. Thank you in advance.

I am getting this same error with NextJS and vercel on production but in the local dev environment, it works fine. Does anyone know what can be the issue? — Shadab, Jan 01 '22 at 12:01

Lin Du · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-19T10:20:54.157

API key does not start with SG.

means the API key of SendGrid SHOULD start with SG. So you didn't set the environment variables correctly. You need to check it. Just use console.log print the environment variables. Or, use

$ heroku run bash -a mighty-river-12802

to start a console for your app, and use printenv to print the environment variables.

Running bash on ⬢ mighty-river-12802... up, run.1571 (Free)
~ $ printenv
TERM=xterm-256color
WEB_MEMORY=512
MEMORY_AVAILABLE=512
COLUMNS=367
DYNO=run.1571
PATH=/app/.heroku/node/bin:/app/.heroku/yarn/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/app/bin:/app/node_modules/.bin
WEB_CONCURRENCY=1
_=/usr/bin/printenv
PWD=/app
PS1=\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\] \[\033[01;32m\]$ \[\033[00m\]
NODE_ENV=production
LINES=49
TIMES=5
HOME=/app
SHLVL=2
PORT=6791
NODE_HOME=/app/.heroku/node

TIMES: 5 environment variable is set via heroku config vars:

E.g.

const sgMail = require('@sendgrid/mail');

sgMail.setApiKey(process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY);
const msg = {
  to: 'novaline.dulin@gmail.com',
  from: 'test@example.com',
  subject: 'Sending with Twilio SendGrid is Fun',
  text: 'and easy to do anywhere, even with Node.js',
  html: '<strong>and easy to do anywhere, even with Node.js</strong>',
};
sgMail
  .send(msg)
  .then(() => console.log('send mail success'))
  .catch(console.log);

$ export SENDGRID_API_KEY=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
$ node index.js
send mail success

Received the email as expected:

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 16 '20 at 14:11

10

hello there If you are using node js, make sure you have the require('dotenv').config() inside the file that needs the sendgrid/nodemailer module. Without it, the sendgrid transporter will have an undefined value instead of the api_key. i also encountered the same issue and its solved.

answered Jun 16 '20 at 14:11

Kazeem Erinfolami

101
5

This did it for me. It's the simple things. – monsto Jul 01 '20 at 00:12
`dotenv.config();` must be called before `sgMail.setApiKey(process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY);` – Johar Zaman Mar 06 '22 at 09:08

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 07 '21 at 22:26

5

I'm using SendGrids v3 and dotenv v8.2, on Node.js SendGrid set up an env file SendGrid.env, inside it has export SENDGRID_API_KEY, I renamed the file to .env, removed export and now it works.

At top of my sendEmail file looks like this:

require('dotenv').config();
const sgMail = require('@sendgrid/mail');
const apiKey = `${process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY}`;
console.log("SendGrid key ", apiKey);

my .env file looks like this:

SENDGRID_API_KEY='SG.{left blank}................0EmA'
ANOTHER_API_KEY='ANOTEHERKEY'

edited Jul 07 '21 at 22:26

Sven Eberth

3,057
12
24
29

answered Jul 07 '20 at 19:47

Rogelio Moreno

51
1

Thank you! It worked for me, i was not using dotenv. – trsp Jan 11 '22 at 16:16

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 28 '21 at 22:06

2

I changed the single quote to double quote in .env. That fixed my bug. Here is how my sendgrid.env file looks like:

SENDGRID_API_KEY = "SG.oDXKOMdlT3-nCEQt........"

edited Jul 28 '21 at 22:06

Kelvin Schoofs

8,323
1
12
31

answered Jul 28 '21 at 18:13

Jean Chen

29
1

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 18 '20 at 09:23

1

You need to require('dotenv').config(); at the beginning of your test file, otherwise it won't be able to find your key.

answered Aug 18 '20 at 09:23

luca

126
6

environment variables for production should be set on the server so do not need the dotenv. dotenv is for development not production – Ufenei augustine Feb 01 '22 at 05:37

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 08 '21 at 04:03

1

I had a same problem I removed the export keyword from the .env file and it worked for me

edited Jul 08 '21 at 04:03

Cedric Zoppolo

4,271
6
29
59

answered Jul 06 '21 at 08:09

Touseef Haider

11
2

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 04 '22 at 22:20

I had this problem while running my code in the dev environment. I am also using the env-cmd package. I fixed the problem by changing my package.json file from this:

"dev": "env-cmd -f ./config/dev.env nodemon src/index.js"

to this:

"dev": "env-cmd -f ./config/dev.env nodemon src/emails/account.js"

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 03 '22 at 15:40

i had the same problem in NestJS and the problem was that I am very new in NestJS lol.

SendGrid.setApiKey(this.configService.get<string>('SENDGRID_API_KEY'));

the configureService use the name of the variable to get the value and I thought that I should pass the variable and not the name

score -1 · Answer 9 · edited Oct 28 '22 at 19:22

This problem might occur if you did not restart the server every time you set something on environment variable (dev.env).
For example if you put your key from sendgrid or any value in environmental variable (dev.env) you should restart the server ,In my case I also faced the same issue, then I put process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY in console.log and found undefined in the terminal so what in my case did next was typed ^c in the terminal and hit enter then:

npm run dev

Now see in the terminal you can see the key showing in the terminal, Hope bit solves your problem

API Key does not start with "SG." SendGrid

9 Answers9