Glossary

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)

MIME is a standard that allows email messages to include content beyond simple plain text, such as HTML, attachments, images, audio, and video. It works by encoding different parts of an email into separate “MIME parts,” each with its own content type (e.g., text/plain, text/html, application/pdf, etc.). 

MIME is not a protocol on its own; it’s an extension of SMTP and is used by most modern email clients and servers to: 

  • Send HTML emails 
  • Attach files to messages 
  • Embed images inline 
  • Support multiple content versions (e.g., plaintext + HTML in one email) 

Every email you send with Mailgun that includes HTML formatting, file attachments, or inline images uses MIME behind the scenes. 

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