Set up inbound email

This guide connects a subdomain of your domain to Emailit so it can receive email. It takes one DNS record and doesn’t change how mail to your main domain is delivered.

Before you begin

• A verified sending domain in your workspace, for example acme.com. Inbound only works on verified domains. If you haven’t added one yet, follow Add a domain.
• Access to the DNS settings for that domain.
• Available credits. Each received message costs 1 credit.
• Domains are created with incoming mail enabled (the incoming field is true by default). Leave it that way; there’s no dashboard switch for it.

Choose the inbound subdomain

Emailit accepts mail for one subdomain per domain. By default it’s inbound, so the addresses look like anything@inbound.acme.com. You can see the current value on the domain page under Custom Subdomains > Inbound Subdomain. The field is read-only in the dashboard.

To use a different subdomain, set inbound_key with Update a domain. The value can contain lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, can be 1 to 63 characters long, and can’t start or end with a hyphen.

curl -X POST https://api.emailit.com/v2/domains/dom_2xGk5Pz8QwR1mT4vLsB7nY3cK9a \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EMAILIT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"inbound_key": "mail"}'

With "inbound_key": "mail", the addresses become anything@mail.acme.com and the MX record moves to mail.acme.com. Changing the key resets the inbound record’s status to pending, and mail sent to the old subdomain is no longer accepted. Set inbound_key to null to go back to inbound.

Add the MX record

1. Open the domain. In the dashboard, go to Email API›Domains, select your domain and open the DNS Setup tab.

2. Find the inbound record. It’s the optional MX record whose name is inbound (or your custom subdomain) and whose value is inbound.emailitmail.com. Use the copy buttons to avoid typos.

3. Create the record at your DNS provider. Add a new record with these values:

   Field	Value
   Type	MX
   Name / Host	inbound (some providers want the full name, inbound.acme.com)
   Mail server / Value	inbound.emailitmail.com
   Priority	10
   TTL	Auto, or your provider’s default

   Don’t change the MX records on the root domain (acme.com). They keep routing your normal mail to your mailbox provider.

   If your domain uses Cloudflare one-click setup, you can select the Inbound record in the setup dialog instead of adding it by hand.

4. Check DNS. Back on the domain page, select Check DNS. The inbound record shows OK when an MX record with priority 10 points to inbound.emailitmail.com. Most providers publish records within minutes, but it can take up to 48 hours.

   You can also check from a terminal:

   Terminal

   dig MX inbound.acme.com +short
   # 10 inbound.emailitmail.com.

Send a test message

From any personal mailbox, send an email to an address on the subdomain, for example test@inbound.acme.com.

Verify it worked

• Dashboard: go to Email API›Emails and open the Incoming tab. The message appears with status Received within seconds. Open it to see its headers, content and attachments.

• Events: Email API›Events shows an email.received event. Its payload contains the email ID.

• API: list inbound messages with List emails:

  Terminal

  curl "https://api.emailit.com/v2/emails?type=inbound" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $EMAILIT_API_KEY"

Next, process received mail with a webhook or forward it with an automation.

Troubleshooting

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