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Frequently Asked Questions

What can Arsel send?​

Four channels — email, SMS, WhatsApp and push notifications — each with a transactional endpoint and a campaign lifecycle, plus contacts to target and custom events to trigger automations. See the introduction for the full picture.

What regions does SMS support?​

SMS is currently available for Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Egypt. All recipients in a single API call must be in the same country.

What is the rate limit?​

The API allows 1,000 requests per 60-second window per organization (about 16 requests per second on average), shared across all of the organization's API keys. It is a fixed window, so the full budget can be spent at any point within the 60 seconds. Rate limit headers are included on successful responses. See Rate Limiting for details.

Can I use SMTP instead of the API?​

Yes. Arsel provides a standard SMTP server at smtp.arsel.sa:465 with implicit TLS. This lets you send emails from any language or framework that supports SMTP, without changing your existing email code. Status and per-recipient tracking still come from the REST API. See SMTP Integration.

How do I track delivery status?​

Use the status endpoints to check delivery progress:

Push delivery and engagement are reported by the client SDK on the device and surface in push analytics.

What happens when I send an email?​

Sending is asynchronous. The API returns 202 Accepted immediately, meaning the message is queued. It is then validated, rendered (if using a template), and delivered through the sending infrastructure. Delivery events are tracked and available through the status endpoints.

How are credentials stored?​

API keys and SMTP passwords are stored as hashes and are shown to you exactly once, at creation. Neither can be retrieved afterwards — if one is lost, rotate it. All API and SMTP traffic is encrypted with TLS.