The email channel turns a support address into a Chatonio channel: outgoing replies are sent from it, and incoming mail lands in the same inbox as your web chat and Telegram conversations — answered by the AI first, with operators taking over whenever needed.
The email channel is available from the Advanced plan.
Two ways to send
When you connect the channel you choose the address your customers will see. The two options differ only in who owns the domain and how much setup there is:
- Use a Chatonio address. We create one for you — something like support@yourcompany-3tl7m6.chatonio.email. Nothing to configure, ready in about a minute, and you don't need access to your DNS.
- Use my own domain. Send from support@yourcompany.com. You'll add a few DNS records first to prove the domain is yours.
Your own domain is the better long-term choice: customers recognise it, and a domain you have been sending from for years usually reaches the inbox more reliably than a brand-new one. Choose a Chatonio address when you want the channel working today, or when the DNS is managed by someone you can't reach. You can move between the two later without losing any conversations.
Create the channel
- Go to Projects → your project → Channels and click Add channel.
- Pick the Email type, give the channel a name, and create it.
- Open the channel settings and choose a Sending address. Fill in From name — the name customers see beside the address, e.g. "Acme Support" — and, if you picked your own domain, the From email itself. Then click Connect.
Sending from a Chatonio address
There is nothing to set up. After you click Connect the channel shows Setting up your sending address for about a minute while the DNS is configured on our side. You don't have to do anything, and the page updates itself when it's done. Replies won't send until it's ready — that's expected, not an error.
The address lives on a subdomain of chatonio.email that belongs to your project and no one else's. The random-looking part of it is deliberate: it keeps the subdomain yours alone, and it stops the address being convincing to anyone who might try to impersonate a well-known brand with it.
Your customers see the From name you set, so most of them will read this as mail from your company rather than noticing the domain. If you would rather they saw your own address, move to your own domain whenever you're ready — see Changing the sending address later below.
Sending from your own domain
Before anything is sent from your address, you prove that your project owns the domain. The channel page shows everything in two steps:
- Step 1 — Prove ownership. Add the TXT record shown to your DNS. The record is a random, unbranded value — it doesn't reveal to anyone which platform you use.
- Step 2 — Email delivery records. Add the sending records (DKIM/SPF) exactly as listed, so mail from your domain is authenticated and doesn't land in spam folders.
Both groups have to be in your DNS before verification passes — adding only the ownership record is the usual reason a first attempt fails. Then click Verify domain. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate (most providers apply them within minutes), and you can retry verification at any time. Once it passes, the channel shows Connected and is ready to send. Verification is remembered for your project — a second email channel on the same domain skips the DNS steps.
If you get this far and discover you can't edit your DNS after all, you don't have to abandon the channel: the button at the foot of the same card switches it to a Chatonio address, and the channel works straight away.
Receive incoming mail
Every connected channel — whichever address it sends from — has a unique Inbound address ending in @chatonio.email. Add a forwarding rule in your existing mailbox (Google Workspace, Outlook or any other provider) so incoming support mail is forwarded to that address. The address is unique to this channel. Your mailbox keeps working as before, and every customer email also becomes a conversation in Chatonio.
If you set this channel up before late September 2026, your forwarding rule points at an address ending in @in.chatonio.com. That keeps working and needs no change — the page simply shows the newer domain now.
Receiving directly at your real address
Instead of forwarding, your domain's mail routing (MX records) can point at Chatonio, so messages sent to your real support address arrive directly — no mailbox or forwarding hop in between. The address you send from doubles as the receiving address, and extra alias addresses on the same verified domain can be attached to the channel. Keep in mind that MX records take over all incoming mail for a domain, so direct receiving is usually set up on a dedicated subdomain (for example support.yourcompany.com). Want to use it? Message us in the support chat and we'll provide the exact records and set up any aliases.
Changing the sending address later
The choice you make at setup isn't permanent, and none of these options delete conversations, contacts or history.
- Still adding DNS records, and you'd rather not. Use the button at the foot of the DNS card. Nothing is live on the channel yet, so there is nothing to lose.
- Already sending from your own domain, and it has stopped working. Open Change sending address at the foot of the channel card and confirm. Treat this as a fallback rather than a convenience: your customers will suddenly see replies from a Chatonio address instead of yours, and a brand-new address has no sending history, so delivery can be less reliable at first than an established domain.
- On a Chatonio address and ready to move to your own domain. This is the upgrade worth making. Click Disconnect, then connect the channel again choosing Use my own domain, and add the DNS records. Existing conversations are untouched, and replies to older threads keep arriving while you switch.
Replies and threading
- Customer replies are matched to the right conversation using standard email threading headers, with subject matching as a fallback (stacked "Re:" / "Fwd:" prefixes are ignored).
- A fresh email with a new subject always starts a new conversation — it is never merged into an unrelated open thread.
- If a customer replies inside an old thread after the conversation was closed, the same conversation reopens (and the AI picks it up again) instead of creating a duplicate.
Attachments
Attachments work in both directions. Files up to 50 MB each are accepted, and every file type is allowed except executables. Images, PDFs and videos preview inline in the dashboard; other types are delivered as downloads. Admins can restrict which file categories customers may send in the project's Security & abuse controls section (Admin → your project → Security). If an incoming attachment can't be accepted (too large or a blocked type), the email itself still arrives — operators see a note about the rejected file inside the message.
Spam filtering
Inbound mail is filtered automatically — there is nothing to configure. Newsletters, automated no-reply notifications, spam and duplicate deliveries are dropped before they become conversations, so your inbox only receives real human mail. Everything that was filtered is kept for 7 days in the Email quarantine (Admin → your project → Security → Email quarantine), where you can inspect any dropped email, recover a false positive as a normal conversation in one click, or permanently block a sender.
Monthly email quotas
Every email Chatonio sends on your behalf — replies and client notifications — counts toward a monthly plan quota:
- Advanced — 2,000 emails per month
- Pro — 7,500 emails per month
- Ultimate — 20,000 emails per month
Incoming mail is not counted. If you need more in a busy month, email packages can be added from your Billing page. Marketing campaigns are billed separately per email and never touch this quota — they also need their own dedicated sending domain, which a Chatonio address cannot be used for.