Connect email
Contents
The email channel lets customers reach you by email. Incoming emails turn into support tickets in PostHog. Your replies go back as emails, so the whole conversation stays threaded in both places.
- Email to PostHog – Incoming emails get forwarded to PostHog as support tickets.
- PostHog to email – Your replies in PostHog are sent as emails back to the customer.
Connect an email address
- Go to Support > Settings > Email channel.
- Click Add email address.
- Enter the email customers will contact you at, like
support@company.com, and a display name. - You'll get a forwarding address – set this up in your email provider:
- Gmail – Settings > Forwarding > Add a forwarding address
- Outlook – Settings > Mail > Forwarding > Enable forwarding
- Add the SPF and DKIM DNS records shown to your domain – this lets PostHog send replies on your behalf.
- Click Verify domain once DNS records are in place.
You can connect up to 10 email addresses per project (e.g. support@, billing@, sales@).
All connected email addresses feed into the same Support inbox. Use the sender address shown on each ticket to tell which address the customer contacted.
Verify your domain
Your domain must be verified before PostHog can send replies. Verification checks that the required SPF and DKIM DNS records are set up correctly.
If you already have an SPF record (e.g. v=spf1 include:someservice.com ~all), don't create a second one – merge them:
Use Send test email after verification to confirm everything works.
How it works
Inbound – customer to you
When a customer sends an email to your connected address, it's forwarded to PostHog and:
- A new ticket is created with the email subject, sender name, and sender email
- The email body appears as the first message on the ticket
- Attachments (images and files, up to 10 MB each, max 20 per email) are included in the message
- If the customer replies to an existing thread, the message is added to the same ticket
Tickets from email show email as the channel source in the inbox and can be filtered by it.
Outbound – you to customer
When you reply to an email ticket in PostHog:
- Your reply is sent as an email back to the customer
- The email uses your configured display name and sending address
- Standard email threading headers are set, so the reply appears in the same thread in the customer's inbox
- Rich text formatting (bold, links, images, etc.) is preserved in the email
Private notes are never sent to the customer.
Threading
Email threads are tracked automatically. Replies from the customer land on the same ticket, and your replies appear in the customer's email thread. This works across email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.).
Start a new email ticket
You can email a customer first, without an incoming email or chat. PostHog creates a ticket and sends your message as the first email.
- Go to Support > Tickets.
- Click New ticket.
- In From, select the address to send from. Only addresses with a verified domain show. Your primary address is selected by default.
- In To, enter the customer's email address.
- Add a Subject (optional) and your Message.
- Click Send.
PostHog opens the new ticket with the status open. When the customer replies, the reply goes to the same ticket.
You need at least one connected email address with a verified domain, and editor access to tickets.
Start a ticket with the API
To start tickets from your own systems, send a request to POST /api/projects/:project_id/conversations/tickets/compose/. Use a personal API key with the ticket:write scope.
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
recipient_email | Yes | The customer's email address |
email_config_id | Yes | The ID of the connected email address to send from |
message | Yes | The message, in Markdown |
email_subject | No | The email subject |
recipient_distinct_id | No | Links the ticket to a person in PostHog |
See the Conversations API reference for the full request and response.
View email tickets
Email-sourced tickets appear in your inbox alongside widget and Slack tickets. Each email ticket shows:
- An email icon indicating the channel source
- The sender's name and email address on messages
You can filter the ticket list by channel source to see only email tickets.
Workflows
Email tickets work with workflow automation like widget and Slack tickets. You can set SLAs, auto-assign, auto-tag, and change status based on any ticket event.
The channel_source property is email for email-sourced tickets, so you can build channel-specific Workflows. For example, set a different SLA for email tickets or route them to a specific team.
Disconnect an email address
To remove a connected email address:
- Go to Support > Settings > Email channel
- Click Disconnect on the email address you want to remove
Existing tickets from that address are not affected – they remain in your inbox.