Resend inbox: where do received emails go?
Resend can receive email on your domain, but it is built for developers: mail arrives as a webhook event and sits in the dashboard for 30 days. If you want to open a thread and hit reply, you need an inbox on top.
Short answer: Resend receives mail, but it is not a mailbox
Resend is email infrastructure. Sending goes through the API; receiving works by adding an MX record (or using a Resend-managed *.resend.app address), after which every incoming message fires an email.received webhook. You can view received messages in the dashboard, but there is no reply button, no threads, no folders, and content expires after the retention window.
What the Resend dashboard shows for received email
- Emails → Receiving tab: a list of received messages with sender, recipient, subject, and id
- Message view: Preview, Plain Text, HTML, and Raw formats
- Attachments: metadata and temporary download links through the Receiving API, MCP server, or CLI
- Export: admins can export filtered lists to CSV
Missing: a reply button, conversation threads, search across your history, multiple mailboxes per person, and long-term storage. Resend lists 30 days of data retention on Free, Pro, and Scale. Replies are documented as an API call that sets the In-Reply-To header to the received message_id.
4 ways to read email sent to your Resend domain
1. Read it in the Resend dashboard
Fine for checking that receiving works. Not workable as a daily inbox: nothing threads, you cannot reply, and messages disappear after the retention period.
2. Build your own inbox on webhooks
Handle email.received, call the Receiving API for the body and attachments, store everything in your database, and build a UI with threading and replies. Flexible, but it is a product in itself. Our guide covers the moving parts: how to receive emails with Resend.
3. Use Resend Inboxes
Resend's own Inboxes product creates shared inboxes aimed at AI agents and teams, with an API for threads and replies. If your use case is agent automation inside the Resend ecosystem, start there.
4. Connect an inbox app for Resend
Use a client that sits on top of your Resend account (Inboxes, or the open-source inboxes.net if you want to self-host; see our comparison). Inboxes connects with your API key, registers the webhook for you, and gives you a Gmail-like inbox for your domain: hello@, support@, and any other address, with threads, compose and reply from your domain, search, labels, rules, and delivery status for sent mail. Mail is kept after Resend's 30 days.
Set up a Resend inbox in a few minutes
- Create an account at Inboxes
- Connect Resend with an API key that has Full access
- Pick your domain and add mailboxes like
hello@andsupport@ - Install the webhook (one click) so delivery events and received mail sync in real time
- Turn on Receiving for the domain in Resend and add the MX record it shows. Every address on the domain is received automatically.
Already use Mailgun as well? Connect both; each mailbox sends through its own provider. See the Inboxes docs or the Mailgun webmail guide.
Frequently asked questions
Not a classic one. Resend is an email API. Received messages show up read-only under Emails → Receiving in the dashboard, and replies are sent with the API by setting the In-Reply-To header. Resend also offers a separate Inboxes product aimed at AI agents and shared team inboxes. For a Gmail-like inbox on your own domain, connect Resend to a webmail client such as Inboxes.
No. The dashboard shows the message in Preview, Plain Text, HTML, and Raw formats, but there is no reply button. Resend documents replying through the send API with the In-Reply-To and References headers.
Resend lists 30 days of data retention on the Free, Pro, and Scale plans (Enterprise is flexible). Inboxes keeps its own synced copy, so your mail stays searchable after Resend expires it.
Yes. Inbound email is available on all plans and each received message counts toward your plan quota, the same as a sent email. The free plan allows 3,000 emails per month with a 100 per day limit.
No. Inboxes (inboxes.pro) is an independent webmail client that works with your Resend or Mailgun account. Resend Inboxes is a product by Resend for agent and team inboxes. Inboxes is not affiliated with Resend.