Inbound API
Programmable intake
Receive each email as JSON and trigger workflows the moment a message arrives.
Use an inbound email API that delivers webhook events instantly
MailSlurp provisions real inboxes and streams inbound messages to your systems as webhook events. Capture replies, extract attachments, and route invoice, order, claim, or support traffic without running your own mail servers.
Attachments
File extraction
Download attachments reliably and route them into storage, pipelines, or ticketing.
Programmable inboxes
Instant provisioning
Create inboxes per customer, form, job, or integration and control lifecycle in code.
Policy controls
Rules + routing
Apply allow/deny filters, forwarding, and auto-replies to keep inbox flows predictable.
Core capabilities
What teams need when email workflows matter
Provision programmable inboxes per workflow and environment
Create inboxes for forms, support, operations, and QA. Use pools, aliases, or custom domains to keep routing clean.
- Custom domains
- Bulk create
- Inbox pools
Stream inbound email API events to your webhooks
Push new messages, bounces, and delivery events directly into your application without polling or cron jobs.
- Webhooks
- Retries
- Delivery events
Extract attachments, headers, HTML, and text safely
Parse MIME payloads, handle multi-part email, and normalize message content so downstream services stay simple.
- MIME parsing
- Attachment APIs
- Safe decoding
Control routing, compliance, and fallback with rulesets
Define routing, filtering, and auto-reply policies so teams can evolve workflows without fragile mailbox glue code.
- Rulesets
- Forwarding
- Fallback lanes
Team use cases
How engineering, QA, and operations teams use MailSlurp
Finance + back office
Invoice, receipt, and vendor-email ingestion
Convert inbound finance email and attachments into structured events for AP review, spreadsheets, or ERP handoff.
- Reduce manual copy and re-key work
- Route documents to the right downstream system automatically
- Improve auditability with consistent event metadata
Product engineering
Customer reply capture and threaded workflows
Assign inboxes per tenant or workflow so replies map to the right customer context automatically.
- Simplify reply-to handling and threading
- Avoid mailbox sprawl and shared inbox contention
- Keep customer communication workflows deterministic
Operations + automation
Claims, order, and support intake workflows
Send inbound email into webhook-driven intake paths that can parse attachments, classify messages, and preserve review queues when automation is uncertain.
- Reduce manual triage and forwarding chains
- Handle attachments and routing logic in one pipeline
- Keep exception handling visible to operators
Getting started
Get this working quickly, then build on it
Day 1
Ship a working inbound webhook prototype
Set up one inbox and one webhook endpoint so stakeholders can validate ingestion speed and payload structure.
- Create an inbox and webhook subscription
- Receive and parse a real inbound message
- Route extracted fields into your service or queue
Week 1
Add routing rules and attachment handling
Make workflows production-ready by adding filtering, attachment processing, and retry-aware webhook patterns.
- Apply allow/deny rules or forwarding policies
- Process attachments into storage or downstream services
- Add retry-safe webhook handlers with idempotency
Week 2+
Scale inbox provisioning and monitoring
Expand to multiple workflows and add visibility so support and ops can manage exceptions confidently.
- Provision inboxes per workflow/customer segment
- Monitor webhook delivery and failures
- Add alerts for workflow-level error rates
Team fit
How different teams get value
Backend engineers
Challenge: Inbound email infrastructure is complex, stateful, and fragile to maintain.
What improves: Ship an event-driven inbox integration without owning mail servers.
Ops and automation owners
Challenge: Manual handling of inbound email creates bottlenecks and inconsistent outcomes.
What improves: Route inbound messages into automated workflows with clear policy controls.
Finance and back-office teams
Challenge: Document-heavy inbox workflows create manual extraction work and slow handoffs.
What improves: Use inbound email webhooks as the intake layer for structured downstream processing.
Customer outcomes
What gets better once MailSlurp is in place
Less infrastructure to own
No mail servers, queues, or bespoke parsers required to get a production inbox integration running.
Faster time to value
Teams can validate ingestion and routing patterns quickly, then expand to production workflows.
Consistent message handling
Normalize email payloads and apply routing rules so downstream services stay predictable.
Clear path to scale
Provision inboxes per workflow and monitor delivery to keep operations and support confident.
Ready to try this with your own workflow?
FAQ
Questions people ask before they start
How is this different from a generic inbound email API?
MailSlurp pairs programmable inboxes with webhook delivery, attachment handling, rulesets, and fallback controls so teams can run production intake workflows instead of only reading raw messages.
Can we use webhooks and also pull messages via API?
Yes. Many teams start with webhooks for event-driven flows and use APIs for inspection, replay, or backfill when needed.
Does this support attachments and multi-part messages?
Yes. MailSlurp handles MIME parsing and gives you attachment APIs so you can process files reliably.
Can we isolate inboxes per customer or service?
Yes. You can create inboxes per tenant, per workflow, or per environment and control lifecycle programmatically.
Do you support policy controls like forwarding and auto replies?
Yes. Rulesets and automation controls let you implement routing, filtering, forwarding, and auto-reply policies.