EMAIL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR AI AGENTS
The open-source email API for AI agents.
Send transactional email, give agents real two-way inboxes, and keep people in control. Use e2a as a hosted service or run the Apache-2.0 stack yourself.
What e2a provides
An agent-owned address
A real address that belongs to the agent, not a human mailbox it happens to read.
A two-way channel
Receive mail with domain-authentication evidence and send replies that stay in the same conversation.
A safer action boundary
Hold outbound mail for human approval and pass sender evidence into the agent.
THE OPTIONS
Ways to give an AI agent its own email address.
The main options are a dedicated email gateway, connecting an existing Gmail or Outlook account, direct IMAP access, or forwarding mail into an AI integration. A dedicated gateway is the only option purpose-built to give the agent its own real address with sending, receiving, and threading built in — e2a is one such gateway.
| Option | How it works | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated email gateway | The agent owns a real address and inbox with sending, receiving, and threading built in. | e2a, AgentMail |
| Connect an existing account | Programmatic access to a personal Gmail or Outlook mailbox through provider APIs. | Gmail API, Microsoft Graph |
| Direct IMAP access | Read and send through the mail server protocol directly; you manage auth and parsing. | IMAP client libraries |
| Forward into an AI integration | Point an existing address at an AI service that reads and replies for you. | Easy-Peasy, Carly |
START WITH A WORKFLOW
Build the agent your work needs.
Support →
Answer customer requests, retrieve context, and escalate sensitive cases.
Reception →
Route inquiries and hand conversations to the right person or team.
Scheduling →
Coordinate participants and preserve state across every reply.
Ecommerce →
Answer order questions and route returns, refunds, and changes to a human.
Sales and GTM →
Start approved conversations, receive replies, qualify interest, and hand off opportunities.
Procurement →
Chase purchase orders and manage supplier conversations over multiple days.
Use the runtime you already have.
Connect an agent over the hosted MCP server, Python or TypeScript SDK, signed webhooks, WebSocket, REST, or the CLI. e2a is the email layer; your agent framework remains yours.
Email API for AI agents: FAQ
What are the main ways to give an AI agent its own email address?+
The main options are a dedicated email API, connecting an existing Gmail or Outlook account, direct IMAP access, and forwarding mail into an AI integration. A dedicated email API such as e2a gives the agent its own two-way address rather than access to a person's mailbox.
What is an email API for AI agents?+
An email API for AI agents lets software send transactional email and gives agents the programmatic ability to receive, send, and reply to messages. e2a adds structured inbound domain evidence, in-thread replies, multiple integration surfaces, and an optional human approval gate for outbound actions.
What is the difference between e2a and a transactional email API?+
e2a includes transactional sending and adds a two-way inbox for each agent. An agent can receive requests, preserve conversation threads, reply from its own address, and hand sensitive actions to a human for approval through the same API.
What can I build with an AI agent email API?+
Developers use e2a to build support agents, AI receptionists, scheduling agents, ecommerce agents, sales and follow-up agents, recruiting agents, voice follow-up agents, and procurement agents that work through persistent email conversations.
How does e2a authenticate inbound email?+
e2a evaluates SPF, DKIM, and DMARC on inbound messages and delivers the results as structured domain evidence. That evidence applies to the From domain, not a person, mailbox, or message content. Webhook deliveries are signed so the receiving service can verify that the event came from e2a before invoking an agent.
Give your agent an inbox.
Start free, use the framework you already know, and build from a real workflow.
Start building →