Skip to main content
Give your chatbot its own email address. When customers write to it, the chatbot answers in the same email thread from your content. You choose for each address whether the AI sends its replies on its own, or writes drafts that your team checks and sends. To answer the email that reaches your current support address too, forward that address to the new one. Email conversations show in Chat History. Your team replies there, and the reply goes out as an email in the same thread. Email is an add-on. The chatbot owner buys it on the Billing page as AI Email Support (Addon), with one inbox for each email address. The add-on is priced per inbox. For the price, see sitegpt.ai/pricing.

​
Before you start

  • The chatbot owner has a SiteGPT subscription, on any plan. See Plans and limits.
  • The chatbot owner has the AI Email Support (Addon), and it covers more inboxes than are in use now. See Buy the email add-on.
  • You have the Manager, Admin, or Super Admin role on the chatbot.
  • To forward your current support address: access to the settings of that mailbox, for example in Gmail or Outlook.
  • Your chatbot is not in a HIPAA workspace. Email is not available there. See HIPAA.

​
Buy the email add-on

Only the chatbot owner can buy the add-on, because the add-on belongs to the owner’s account. Each email address is one inbox. The inboxes count across all chatbots that you own. For example, to give two chatbots one address each, set the add-on to 2 inboxes. For the limit, see Email limits.
1

Open the Email card

In SiteGPT, go to Advanced > Integrations > All Integrations. The Email card is the first card. Without the add-on, the owner selects Get Started to go to the Billing page. Other team members see Learn more, and the page tells them: “The account owner adds it from the Billing page.”
2

Set the number of inboxes

On the Billing page, find AI Email Support (Addon). Use the minus and plus buttons to set the number of inboxes, then select Subscribe.
3

Confirm

The dialog Add AI email support? shows the charge and when you are charged. Select Subscribe in the dialog.
AI replies by email use your plan’s monthly message allowance, like messages on your website. Each AI answer counts when the AI writes it, also a draft that your team later discards. See How messages are counted. To add or remove inboxes later, change the number on the same card and select Add inboxes or Remove inboxes. You cannot set fewer inboxes than are in use. The card shows them, for example “1 of 2 in use.” See Manage your plan and billing.

​
Create the email address

1

Open the Email page

Go to Advanced > Integrations > All Integrations. On the Email card, select Get Started. If the chatbot already has an address, the card shows Manage instead.
2

Choose the address

Under Email address, enter the name before the @ and your email name after it. The form fills in support before the @ and a suggested email name. The suggestion comes from your chatbot’s website in Allowed Domains first, then from the domain of the chatbot owner’s work email, then from the chatbot name. For example, www.yourcompany.com gives yourcompany. Change them if you like. The page shows the full address, for example support@yourcompany.sitegpt.email.The email name after the @ is fixed. You cannot change it later. Use lowercase letters, numbers, and single hyphens, with no hyphen at the start or end. Names that are reserved, contain “sitegpt”, or belong to a well-known brand are refused. See Email limits.
3

Choose how replies go out

Under Replies, select Drafts for approval or Automatic replies. See Choose drafts or automatic replies. Drafts for approval is selected by default.
4

Add your current support address (optional)

In Your current support address (optional), enter the address that your customers already write to, for example support@yourcompany.com. The forwarding steps then name that address. With your own sending domain, replies use it as the reply address. See Send from your own domain.
5

Create the address

Select Create email address.
SiteGPT sets up the address for you. You do not change any DNS records. The page shows each step, for example Creating your email address and Checking DNS (this can take a few minutes). Setup usually finishes within two minutes, and the page updates by itself. When the address is ready, its badge shows Ready, and the Email card on the Integrations page shows Active. While setup runs, the card shows Setting up. If setup stops with an error, the card shows Setup stopped. If the email name is taken, you see “This email name is taken. Choose another.” If the name breaks a rule, the message says which rule, for example “This name is reserved. Choose another.” or “This name belongs to a well-known brand. Choose your own name.” Try a different name. If the name before the @ breaks a rule, you see “Use up to 30 lowercase letters, numbers, dots, hyphens or underscores for the address.” If every inbox of your add-on is in use, a notice shows instead of Create email address, for example “All 2 inboxes on your account are in use. Add more on the Billing page, or remove one from another chatbot.” Other team members are told that the account owner can add more on the Billing page.

​
Forward your current support address

Customers can write to the new address directly. To answer the email that reaches your current support address too, forward that mailbox to the new address. On the inbox card, select Forward your support address here to see these steps with your address filled in.
  1. In Gmail, open Settings, then See all settings, then Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
  2. Choose Add a forwarding address and enter the new address.
  3. Gmail sends a confirmation code to the new address. Within a minute, the inbox card shows Gmail sent a forwarding confirmation with the code and a link. Enter the code in Gmail, or select Open Gmail’s confirmation link. Then select Done, hide this to remove the notice from the card.
  4. Select Forward a copy of incoming mail, then Save Changes.
SiteGPT does not answer the Gmail confirmation email itself. If you do not hide the notice, it hides by itself after some days. See Email limits.

​
Choose drafts or automatic replies

Each address has its own setting. You can change it at any time on the inbox card. The change saves at once. SiteGPT verifies a sender when the sender’s email provider vouches for the address in the From line. Emails that fail this check could be forged, so a person checks the reply first. Replies that the AI wrote end with a footer. By default, the footer is “Answered by the” and your chatbot name, followed by “AI assistant. Reply to this email to continue.” This also applies to a draft that your team sends without changes. To use your own words, for example in your customers’ language, see Change the AI footer. Each reply comes from your chatbot name and the email address. The subject is the subject of the customer’s first email, with “Re:” in front unless it already starts with a reply prefix. An email with no subject gets “Re: Your message”. Each address has its own footer under the replies that the AI writes. Write it in any language, for example in the language of your customers.
  1. On the inbox card, select AI footer.
  2. Enter the text. Until you type, the box shows the default footer.
  3. Select Save footer.
To use the default footer again, clear the text and select Save footer. For the length limit, see Email limits. The footer shows under automatic replies and under drafts that your team sends without changes. An edited draft and a reply from your team have no footer. An automatic reply keeps the footer that the address had when the AI wrote it. A draft keeps the footer that the address had when someone first selected Send.

​
Add more inboxes

A chatbot can have more than one address on its email name, for example support@ and sales@. Each address counts as one inbox of your add-on.
  1. On the Email page, select Add another inbox.
  2. Enter the name before the @, and choose Drafts for approval or Automatic replies.
  3. Select Add inbox.
The page shows how many inboxes your account uses, for example “2 of 3 inboxes in use on your account”. When all inboxes of the add-on are in use, Add another inbox is replaced by a notice that says so and points to the Billing page.

​
Set rules for some emails

Rules decide what happens to emails that match a text that you choose. Each address has its own rules.
1

Open the rules

On the inbox card, select Rules.
2

Add a rule

Select Add rule. Choose what to match: Sender contains, Subject contains, or To contains. Enter the text, for example @yourcompany.com. The match ignores upper and lower case.
3

Choose the action

4

Save

Select Save rules. Changes do not apply until you save.
The first rule that matches decides. To ignore one sender or a whole domain, add Sender contains with the address or the domain, and Ignore.

​
Emails that SiteGPT does not answer

SiteGPT skips some emails before any rule. It does not answer them, and it does not create a conversation for them. They do not show in Chat History. To see them, select Not answered on the inbox card. See See the emails that the AI did not answer.
  • Automatic replies, out-of-office replies, and bounce messages.
  • Email from addresses such as noreply@ or mailer-daemon@.
  • Newsletters and mailing list email.
  • Email that the email service marks as spam.
  • Email with no new text after SiteGPT removes the quoted earlier messages and the signature.
  • Email from a sender who wrote too many emails in a short time, or a conversation with too many emails in a day. See Email limits.
  • Email that SiteGPT itself sent. These emails do not show under Not answered.

​
See the emails that the AI did not answer

On the inbox card, select Not answered. The list shows the newest emails that the AI did not answer, newest first, with the sender, the time, the subject, and the reason. For example:
  • “It was an out-of-office reply.”
  • “It came from an automatic address, such as noreply.”
  • “A rule of this inbox ignores emails like it.”
  • “The account did not have the AI Email Support add-on.”
If there are none, the list shows “No emails to show.” Emails that started no conversation stay in the list for a limited time. For how many emails the list shows and for how long, see Email limits. Team members with the Manager, Admin, or Super Admin role see the list.

​
How email conversations work

​
What the AI reads

The AI answers the new text of each email from your content, like on your website. SiteGPT removes the quoted earlier messages, reply headers, and the signature first. The first email of a conversation also gives the AI its subject. The AI does not read attachments. It sees only their names, types, and sizes. SiteGPT keeps the files, up to a size limit, and your team can download them in Chat History. Emails with attachments always wait as drafts. Replies that SiteGPT sends have no attachments.

​
Conversations

A reply to one of the chatbot’s emails continues the same conversation, if it comes from the customer’s address and the conversation is not resolved. Every other email starts a new conversation, also a reply to a resolved conversation. The customer’s email address and name are saved with the conversation. In Chat History, these conversations show the source Email. See Review conversations.

​
Working hours and hand-off

  • Working hours apply to email. With Your team answers later, a customer who writes outside your hours gets your away message by email, one time. With Drafts for approval, the away message also waits as a draft.
  • With Let the Visitor Choose, email conversations start with the AI. Email has no buttons.
  • The AI can hand the conversation to your team when human support is on. Its reply is sent or drafted like any other answer. The conversation then goes to your team, and the AI no longer answers in it.
  • The chatbot does not show lead forms by email. The customer’s email address is already saved with the conversation.

​
Work with drafts

Open the conversation in Chat History. A draft shows above the reply box with the badge Draft reply, the customer’s address, and the subject that the reply goes out with. In the conversation, the AI’s answer shows with a dashed outline and the line “Draft: not sent yet.”
  • Select Send to send the draft as the AI wrote it. It goes out with the AI footer at the end.
  • Select Edit, change the text, then select Send edited reply. The edited reply goes out from your team, without the AI footer. It shows in the conversation as a reply from you, and the AI’s original answer shows “Not sent as written: it was edited before sending.”
  • Select Discard to drop the draft. Nothing is sent.
Sending a draft does not move the conversation to human mode. The AI answers the customer’s next email. A draft does not expire. It closes when the customer writes again, because the AI then answers the newer email, or when a reply from your team goes out first. When you resolve the conversation, its drafts are hidden and can no longer be sent. The line under the AI’s answer then shows “Not sent: the conversation was resolved.” If you select Mark as Unresolved, the draft shows again. Every team role can send, edit, and discard drafts. With API v2, use the drafts endpoints of a conversation: list the drafts, send one (optionally with your own text in message), or discard one. See the API reference.

​
Reply from Chat History

Replies that you write in the reply box of an email conversation go to the customer as an email in the same thread. They come from the chatbot’s address that received the conversation, or from your own domain when it is verified, with your chatbot name. Your reply moves the conversation to human mode, so the AI stops answering the customer’s next emails. To give it back, select Release to AI. See Reply to and take over conversations. Replies from ChatGPT, Claude, or another AI assistant through the MCP server, and replies sent with API v2, also go out by email. If a reply cannot go out, it stays in the conversation and the dashboard says why. For example: “Saved to the transcript, but the email inbox of this conversation was removed, so nothing was emailed.” If the email service refuses a draft that you send, the message says why, for example “The email service refused this email (firewall). It was not sent.” The draft then closes. To try again, write a new reply. In an email conversation, SiteGPT does not send the separate “New reply from” email that website visitors get. Your reply is the email.

​
See what happened to each reply

In an email conversation, each message that went out, or should have, shows a line under it. The line says what happened to that email. Messages that the customer never received show with a dashed outline. The AI does not read answers that the customer never received. When it answers the next email, it leaves out drafts, discarded and replaced replies, and emails that bounced or were not sent. The customer’s own messages stay. The conversation in Chat History still shows everything. Below the conversation header, a bar shows the subject, the customer’s address and your address, and the reply setting. If some emails did not reach the customer, it shows how many, for example 1 not delivered. An email that was delivered and then marked as spam does not count. Select Email history to see each email that came in or went out, with its status and attachments. The status matches the line under the message, in fewer words, for example Emailed, Delivered, Bounced, or Not sent.

​
Replies to your team’s emails on website conversations

When your team replies to a website conversation and the visitor has left, SiteGPT can email the reply to the visitor. See When SiteGPT emails your reply to the visitor. Outside HIPAA workspaces, the visitor’s answer to such an email shows in the conversation, with or without an email address. If your chatbot has an email address that answers, the answer goes back through it. See When the visitor answers the email.

​
Send from your own domain (optional)

After the address is ready, replies can come from your own domain, for example support@yourcompany.com, instead of the sitegpt.email address.
1

Add the domain

On the Email page, under Send from your own domain (optional), enter your domain, for example yourcompany.com. Select Add domain.
2

Add the DNS records

The page shows two CNAME records under Add these records in yourcompany.com’s DNS, with your domain. Add them in the DNS settings of your domain.
3

Wait for the check

The domain shows Waiting for DNS until SiteGPT finds the records, then Verified.
After the domain is verified, every address of the chatbot sends from your domain with its own name before the @. For example, sales@yourcompany.sitegpt.email sends as sales@yourcompany.com. Customers’ emails still reach the chatbot through forwarding to the sitegpt.email address. If you entered your current support address when you created the first address, replies use it as the reply address, so that mailbox must forward to the chatbot. Otherwise, the reply address is the sitegpt.email address. A chatbot can have one own domain. To use a different domain, select Remove domain and confirm first. Replies then go out from the sitegpt.email address again.

​
Check that it works

  1. From a personal mailbox, send an email with a question to the new address.
  2. In Chat History, open the new conversation with the source Email.
  3. With Drafts for approval, select Send on the draft. With Automatic replies, the reply goes out on its own.
  4. The reply arrives in your personal mailbox in the same thread. In Chat History, the line under the reply shows “Emailed.” and then “Emailed and delivered.”

​
Remove an address or email

  • Remove one address: on the inbox card, select Remove and confirm. The address stops receiving email at once. You can create it again later.
  • Remove email from the chatbot: at the bottom of the Email page, select Remove email and confirm. Every address on the email name stops receiving email, and the email name becomes free.
Removing the last address also removes email from the chatbot. Your conversations stay in Chat History, and their email history stays with the label Inbox removed. The stored copies of the received emails and their attachments are deleted, so attachments can no longer be downloaded. Replies from Chat History in these conversations are saved but not emailed. When you delete the chatbot, SiteGPT removes its email too.

​
If an inbox is not covered

An address stops answering when your add-on does not cover it. This happens when the add-on ends, for example when your subscription ends. It also happens when more inboxes are in use than your add-on covers, for example after a chatbot transfer. The inboxes that became yours first keep answering. The newer inboxes pause. An inbox that came to you with a chatbot transfer counts as your newest inbox at the time of the transfer. A paused address stays set up. SiteGPT does not answer new emails to it, and they do not show in Chat History. They show under Not answered on the inbox card. Drafts stay, but you cannot send them, and replies from Chat History are saved but not emailed. On the Integrations page, the Email card shows Not answering, or for example 1 not answering. The inbox card says why, for example “Not answering: the account no longer has the AI Email Support add-on.” To start again, add inboxes on the Billing page, or remove an address that you do not need.

​
Troubleshooting

The chatbot owner does not have the email add-on. Buy it on the Billing page. See Buy the email add-on.
The page updates by itself while SiteGPT sets up the address. If the page or the Email card on the Integrations page shows Setup stopped, read the message and select Try again. For example: “A setup step failed. Try again, or contact support if this keeps happening.” If it keeps stopping, contact support. If the message has a code in parentheses, give it to support.
  • Check the Email card. If it shows Not answering, open the Email page to see why. See If an inbox is not covered.
  • Check whether the address uses Drafts for approval. Then the answer waits as a draft in Chat History.
  • Check your rules. A rule with Ignore or Send to the team stops the AI.
  • On the inbox card, select Not answered. If the email is in the list, the list says why the AI did not answer it. See See the emails that the AI did not answer.
  • Check that the conversation is not in human mode. Release it to AI, or resolve it.
  • If you forward your support address, check the forwarding in that mailbox.
SiteGPT could not verify the sender, or the email has attachments, or a rule with Write a draft matched. Send the draft yourself.
The customer did not get this email. Read the reason in the line. For a bounced address, check the address with the customer in another way. To try again, write a new reply.