# Receive your first inbound email

> Add the inbound MX record, send a test message to your inbound subdomain, find it in the dashboard, and process it with an email.received webhook and the API.

This quickstart sets up a domain to receive email, so your app can handle replies, support requests or forwarded messages. You'll add one DNS record, send a test message, and then receive it with a webhook and fetch its full content from the API.

## Before you begin

- A verified sending domain, such as `acme.com`. Inbound email only works on domains that are verified in your workspace. See [Add a domain](/docs/domains/add-a-domain/).
- Credits in the workspace. Each received email costs 1 credit.

## How inbound addresses work

Emailit receives mail on a subdomain of your sending domain, by default `inbound`. Any address on that subdomain works, so `support@inbound.acme.com` and `reply-4821@inbound.acme.com` both arrive in the same workspace. Your main domain's MX records, for example for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, stay as they are.

## Add the inbound MX record

1. **Open the domain.** Go to **Email API → Domains** and open `acme.com`. The MX record for `inbound.acme.com` is listed with the other DNS records. It's optional, so the domain stays verified without it.

2. **Add the record at your DNS provider.**

   | Type | Name | Value | Priority |
   | --- | --- | --- | --- |
   | MX | `inbound.acme.com` | `inbound.emailitmail.com` | 10 |

   Some DNS providers want only `inbound` in the name field. Others want the full name.

3. **Check DNS.** Select **Check DNS** on the domain page and wait until the inbound record shows **OK**. DNS changes usually take a few minutes, but can take up to 48 hours.

To receive on a different subdomain, such as `replies.acme.com`, set `inbound_key` to `replies` when you [create](/docs/api-reference/domains/create/) or [update](/docs/api-reference/domains/update/) the domain with the API, then publish the MX record for that name instead. The dashboard shows the inbound subdomain but doesn't let you change it.

## Send a test email

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

Go to **Email API → Emails** and open the **Incoming** tab. The message appears with the status **received**. Open it to see the sender, the headers, the content and any attachments.

If it doesn't arrive, check that the MX record shows **OK** and that the domain is verified. If the workspace has no credits left, Emailit refuses the message with a temporary error, and the sender's server tries again later.

## Get notified with a webhook

To process inbound email in your app, subscribe to the `email.received` event.

1. **Create the webhook.** Go to **Email API → Webhooks**, select **Add webhook**, and enter a name and your HTTPS endpoint, for example `https://acme.com/webhooks/emailit`. Copy the webhook secret. You need it to verify signatures.

2. **Choose the event.** A new webhook receives every event. Open the webhook's **Settings** tab and select only `email.received`, or keep all events and filter in your code.

3. **Send another test email** to `hello@inbound.acme.com`.

Emailit sends a signed `POST` to your endpoint. The body is a JSON array, because one request can carry up to 100 events:

```json
[
  {
    "event_id": "evt_2pXb7Lw9QmKc4RtN8yVd3Hs",
    "type": "email.received",
    "data": {
      "object": {
        "id": "em_2pXb7Kq4NvL8mWc3RtB9yZd",
        "object": "email",
        "from": "ada@example.com",
        "to": "hello@inbound.acme.com",
        "subject": "Question about my order",
        "created_at": "2026-10-01T09:30:12.418Z"
      }
    }
  }
]
```

The event has the sender, the recipient and the subject, but not the body. Verify the `X-Emailit-Signature` header before you trust the request. See [Request signature](/docs/webhooks/request-signature/).

## Fetch the full email

Use the `id` from the event to fetch the message with a **Full Access** API key:

```bash
curl https://api.emailit.com/v2/emails/em_2pXb7Kq4NvL8mWc3RtB9yZd \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EMAILIT_API_KEY"
```

The response includes the parsed headers, the text and HTML body, and the attachments:

```json
{
  "object": "email",
  "id": "em_2pXb7Kq4NvL8mWc3RtB9yZd",
  "type": "inbound",
  "from": "ada@example.com",
  "to": "hello@inbound.acme.com",
  "subject": "Question about my order",
  "status": "received",
  "headers": { "...": "..." },
  "body": {
    "text": "Hi, where is my order #1042?",
    "html": "<p>Hi, where is my order #1042?</p>"
  },
  "attachments": []
}
```

To get the original message instead, call [`GET /emails/{id}/raw`](/docs/api-reference/emails/raw/). Message content is kept for your plan's retention period, so fetch it soon after the event arrives. See [Data retention](/docs/data-retention/).

## Pricing

Each received email costs 1 credit, the same as sending one. See [Credits](/docs/billing/credits/).

## Next steps

  - [Process inbound email with webhooks](/docs/inbound/process-with-webhooks/): Route replies, parse attachments and match threads.
  - [Forward with automations](/docs/inbound/forward-with-automations/): Forward received email to a mailbox without code.
  - [Set up inbound](/docs/inbound/set-up/): Custom subdomains and DNS in detail.
  - [email.received](/docs/webhooks/events/email/received/): The full event reference.

---
Source: https://emailit.com/docs/quickstart/inbound/