---
title: "Connect an email inbox to your bot"
description: "Connect Gmail, Outlook or another email account so your bot can search, read, send, reply to and organise email with four power-ups."
canonical_url: "https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/email-inbox"
last_updated: "2026-09-25"
---

# Connect an email inbox to your bot

**Available on:** Basic, Standard, Pro, Enterprise plans.

Connect an email account and add the email power-ups so your bot can work with a real inbox: search and read messages, send and reply, and mark or move messages.

**Who can do this:** [team owners and admins](https://chatthing.ai/docs/account/teams#what-each-role-can-do).

> **Only need to send notifications?**
>
> If your bot just needs to email you or a few fixed addresses (lead capture, contact requests), use [Send email](https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/send-email) instead. It needs no inbox connection and has no extra cost.

## The four email power-ups

| Power-up | What the bot can do |
| --- | --- |
| **Email: Get Messages** | Search the inbox and read messages. It can filter by sender, recipient, folder and date range, and page through results. It returns up to 10 messages at a time unless it asks for more. |
| **Email: Send Message** | Send an email from the connected account, with CC recipients, or as a reply to an existing message. |
| **Email: Get Folders** | List the account's folders and labels, so the bot can filter or move messages by folder. |
| **Email: Update Message** | Mark a message as read or unread, star or unstar it, or move it to folders. |

Add only the ones you need. A bot that summarises new mail only needs **Email: Get Messages**. A bot that files messages needs **Get Messages**, **Get Folders** and **Update Message**.

## Pricing

Each connected email account is a paid add-on to your subscription:

- **Monthly plans:** $10 per month per connected account
- **Yearly plans:** $120 per year per connected account

Your subscription updates automatically when you connect an account. You can connect several accounts to the same team, and each one is billed separately. See [Add-ons](https://chatthing.ai/docs/account/add-ons).

## Steps

1. Open your bot, go to the **Power-ups** tab and click **New power-up**.
2. Search for "Email", choose one of the email power-ups and click **Create power-up**.
3. Under **Email provider**, click **Connect email**. A dialog explains the charge. Click **Connect** to continue.
   ![The Connect an email provider dialog explaining the $10 per month or $120 per year charge, with Cancel and Connect buttons](https://res.cloudinary.com/djyjvrw5u/image/upload/c_crop,x_740,y_450,w_1100,h_710/v1776428891/docs/email-power-ups/docs/email-power-ups/connect-nylas-modal.png)
4. A pop-up opens. Sign in to your email provider (Gmail, Outlook and others) and allow access. If no pop-up appears, check that your browser isn't blocking pop-ups.
5. When the pop-up closes, choose the account from the **Email provider** dropdown.
6. Edit the **Power-up name** and **Description**. Say what kinds of requests the bot should handle, for example "Search the inbox for emails matching the user's request. You can filter by sender, date range and folder."
   ![Email: Send Message settings with the default description asking for HTML-formatted email bodies, and the Email provider dropdown](https://res.cloudinary.com/djyjvrw5u/image/upload/c_crop,x_520,y_110,w_2040,h_1490/v1776428889/docs/email-power-ups/docs/email-power-ups/email-send-message-settings.png)
7. Click **Save**.
8. Repeat for any other email power-ups you want, choosing the same account in **Email provider**.
   ![All four email power-ups enabled on a bot's Power-ups tab](https://res.cloudinary.com/djyjvrw5u/image/upload/c_crop,x_520,y_110,w_2040,h_1370/v1776428885/docs/email-power-ups/docs/email-power-ups/email-power-ups-list.png)

Once an account is connected, other email power-ups can use it without connecting again. To connect a second account, click **Connect another email**.

## Examples

- "Show me unread emails from today": the bot uses **Email: Get Messages** with a date filter and summarises them.
- "Show me emails in my Promotions folder": the bot uses **Email: Get Folders** to find the folder, then **Email: Get Messages** filtered to it.
- "Mark all emails from Alex as read": the bot finds the messages with **Email: Get Messages**, then updates each one with **Email: Update Message**.
- "Reply to Sam and say we'll call tomorrow": the bot finds the message, then uses **Email: Send Message** as a reply.

## Tips

- **Ask for HTML emails.** The default **Email: Send Message** description tells the bot to format email bodies as HTML, so line breaks render properly in every email client. Keep that instruction if you rewrite the description.
- **Use different accounts for different power-ups.** Each power-up has its own **Email provider**, so one bot can work with more than one inbox.
- **Be careful with public bots.** Anyone who can chat with the bot can ask it to read or send email from the connected account. Only add inbox power-ups to bots that trusted people use, such as an internal Slack bot.

## Check it works

1. Chat with your bot while signed in and ask "What are my three most recent emails?"
2. Open **View details** on the power-up call and check the result lists your messages.

## Troubleshooting

### A new email or folder doesn't show up yet

The connected account syncs with your email provider, so newly received messages and new folders can take a few minutes to appear.

### The bot can't find messages in a folder

Folder IDs are different for every provider. Add **Email: Get Folders** so the bot can look up the right folder ID instead of guessing.

### Sent emails lose their line breaks

Tell the bot in the **Description** to always format email bodies as HTML, using `<p>` and `<br>` tags.

## Related

- [Send an email notification from your bot](https://chatthing.ai/docs/power-ups/send-email): Let your bot email up to three fixed addresses with a visitor's details and message, for lead capture or contact requests. No inbox connection needed.
- [Add more tokens, bots or seats with add-ons](https://chatthing.ai/docs/account/add-ons): Raise one limit on your paid plan without upgrading - extra message tokens, storage tokens, bots, data sources, team members or custom domains.