How to connect ChatGPT to your email inbox

What you need

• A ChatGPT account that can add custom connectors. OpenAI decides which plans can do this, and it changes from time to time, so check their help pages if you cannot find the option.
• A Spaces account. Your trial starts when you connect a chat account, with no card needed.
• The Email account your customers already message you on.
• A short note about your business: what you sell, prices, opening hours and the things you never want promised. You will paste it into ChatGPT later.
• About ten minutes for the setup, and a little longer to try it on a few real messages.

Step 1: connect your Email account to Spaces

You sign in to Gmail or Outlook through a secure link and approve the connection, or enter your mail server details for any other mailbox. Your account stays yours, and you keep using it on your phone as normal.

Once it is connected, the account shows in your Spaces dashboard. Connecting does not send anything. It only means Spaces can read and send on that account when an AI agent you have added asks it to.

Connect the address your customers already write to, such as hello@ or your own business address. ChatGPT will be able to read the emails in that mailbox, so if your business and personal mail share one inbox, think about whether a separate business address would be tidier.

Step 2: add Spaces to ChatGPT

1. In ChatGPT, open Settings, then Apps & Connectors, then Advanced, and turn on Developer mode.
2. Create a connector named Spaces with the URL https://api.spacesos.com/mcp, and choose OAuth.
3. Sign in to Spaces and approve access, then turn the connector on in a chat.
4. Menu names and which plans can add connectors change from time to time. OpenAI’s help page has the current steps.

To check it worked: The connector page lists the Spaces tools.

You sign in on Spaces' own page during this step, so ChatGPT never sees your Email login or your Spaces password. If Spaces does not show up:

• Open a new chat and check the Spaces connector is turned on in it.
• Sign in to Spaces again from the connector, in case the first sign-in did not finish.
• Remove the connector and add it again, checking the address is exactly https://api.spacesos.com/mcp.
• If it still does not appear, OpenAI's help pages have their current steps, and our ChatGPT setup page has ours.

Step 3: try it

Open a new chat in ChatGPT, make sure Spaces is turned on, and ask in plain words:

• Which enquiry emails from this week have not had a reply yet?
• Summarise the email from the Hendersons in five bullet points, including what they did not tell us.
• Draft a reply to the Hendersons that asks for the missing details, and save it as a draft.
• List the emails from the last month that have photos attached.

Start with a question that only reads, like the first one. It shows you that ChatGPT can see your Email messages before you let it send anything. Then try a draft, read it carefully, and only then let it send.

Good to know

ChatGPT acts when you ask it to in a chat. It does not watch your inbox on its own. For replies around the clock, use an agent that runs all the time, such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw or Hermes, or set up a Spaces routine that sends set replies to set questions.

In practice, treat ChatGPT as a quick helper you sit down with a few times a day: first thing, at lunchtime and before you close. Each time, ask what came in, check its drafts and let it send the ones you are happy with. Customers who message in between wait until your next session, just as they would if you were answering by hand.

A Spaces routine is not an AI. It sends a reply you wrote in advance when something happens, such as a new message or a keyword. That makes it a good way to send "Thanks for your message, we will reply first thing tomorrow" after hours, while ChatGPT writes the real answers in your next session.

Ask ChatGPT to save replies as drafts in your mailbox while you are getting started. They appear in your drafts folder in Gmail or Outlook, and you read and send them yourself.

What Spaces lets ChatGPT do with email

• List and read the emails in the mailbox you connected, including their attachments.
• Reply on an existing thread, so the customer sees one tidy conversation.
• Send one new email to one person, with up to four people in cc.
• Save a draft in your mailbox for you to check and send yourself.
• Look in your folders, so it can find the thread you mean.

Spaces does not send bulk email, bcc or open tracking, and it refuses to reply to someone who has asked not to be emailed. A new chat here is a new email thread. A reply to an email that arrived in the last week is never held back by the daily limits. Spaces sends one email at a time to one person, never bulk email.

A worked example: three garden enquiries

Here is how a session might go for a small garden design and landscaping business that quotes by email. Names and details are examples.

ChatGPT knew the April start, the site visit fee and the maintenance answer only because they were in the owner's notes. The Hendersons' photos were useful context, but ChatGPT did not guess a price from them, because the notes say prices come from the owner.

Turn long enquiries into quick quotes

A long first email often leaves out the one thing you need. Instead of asking ChatGPT to answer straight away, ask it to read the email against a short checklist and tell you what is missing. That turns a ten-minute read into a one-minute decision.

Keep the checklist in your notes so every enquiry is read the same way. When the customer replies with the details, ask ChatGPT to put the whole thread together into a short brief you can quote from.

Notes to give ChatGPT for email

Keep these in a document on your computer and paste them at the start of each chat, or keep them wherever ChatGPT lets you save instructions:

About us: Greenline Gardens, garden design and landscaping, within 20 miles of Leeds.
We do: design, patios, paths, fencing, planting. We do not do regular maintenance.
Booking: new projects from April. Site visit £60, taken off the final bill.
Quote checklist: rough measurements, budget range, postcode, photos, preferred start.
Prices: never give a price for a project. Say we will quote after a site visit.
Tone: friendly and clear, short paragraphs, sign off "Best wishes, Dan".
Always: reply on the existing thread. Save as a draft unless I say send.
Never: book a date, promise a finish date, or reply to complaints. Tell me instead.

When you change a line, such as the month you are booking from, change it in the note before your next session. ChatGPT uses whatever the note says.

Gmail, Outlook and other mailboxes

You sign in to Gmail or Outlook through a secure link and approve the connection, or enter your mail server details for any other mailbox. Once the mailbox is connected, ChatGPT works with it the same way whichever provider you use, so the prompts in this guide work for all of them.

Google and Microsoft set their own limits on how many emails an account can send, and they can suspend sending from accounts that send spam or bulk mail. Spaces stays well inside those by sending one email at a time to one person, at the pace in the table further down.

What if...

• A customer sends a quote request to two of your addresses? Connect the one most customers use, and ask ChatGPT to tell you when the same person appears twice.
• Someone replies "please stop emailing me"? Spaces refuses to reply to them again, whatever ChatGPT is asked to do.
• You want to copy in your partner on a quote? Ask ChatGPT to add them in cc. Up to four people can be copied in, and bcc is not available.
• A draft is nearly right? Edit it in Gmail or Outlook and send it from there, then tell ChatGPT what you changed so the note gets better.
• You are away for a week? ChatGPT will not answer while you are not chatting with it. Set your mail provider's own out-of-office reply as usual.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Letting ChatGPT give a price from photos. Keep prices with you until you have seen the job.
• Using it to send an announcement to past customers. Spaces is for one-to-one email, and a mailing tool is the right place for lists.
• Starting new threads with people who never wrote to you. Keep to replies and to people who expect your email.
• Forgetting the drafts. Check your drafts folder before you finish for the day.
• Leaving out the sign-off and tone, so replies sound unlike you.

Summing up

With Spaces, ChatGPT can read your inbox, save drafts in your mailbox and reply on the thread in Gmail, Outlook or any other mailbox, one email at a time. Give it a note with your checklist and your never-say list, start with drafts you send yourself, and use it to turn long enquiries into short questions you can answer quickly.

How Spaces keeps your account safe

Whatever you ask, Spaces keeps your Email account inside safe limits: at least 30 seconds between messages, up to 100 a day, and 40 new conversations a day at most, with a gentler start for a newly connected account. If the agent tries to go faster, Spaces holds the message and says when it can try again.

New conversations warm up over the first weeks after you connect:

A new chat here is a new email thread. A reply to an email that arrived in the last week is never held back by the daily limits. Spaces sends one email at a time to one person, never bulk email.

These are Spaces' own limits. They lower the risk of a restriction, but they cannot remove it, because Email makes its own decisions about accounts. Read the note at the top of this page before you connect.

Pricing

Plans from $19 a month

Does ChatGPT see my email password?

No. For Gmail and Outlook you sign in on Spaces' secure link, and ChatGPT signs in to Spaces, so it never sees your email login. For other mailboxes you enter the mail server details in Spaces, not in ChatGPT.

Which ChatGPT plans can do this?

Adding a custom connector can need a paid ChatGPT plan, and OpenAI changes which plans can do it from time to time. OpenAI's help page on custom MCP servers has the current position.

Can ChatGPT save drafts instead of sending?

Yes. Ask it to save drafts, and they appear in your mailbox's drafts folder for you to check and send yourself. Most owners work this way for the first week or two.

Can ChatGPT read attachments such as photos or PDFs?

Spaces can fetch attachments from your emails for ChatGPT. What ChatGPT makes of them depends on ChatGPT and the kind of file, so check its reading of anything important.

Will ChatGPT answer emails while I am out on a job?

No. ChatGPT acts when you ask it in a chat and does not watch your inbox on its own. For replies while you are away, an always-on agent such as Codex or Claude Code can run on a schedule.

Can I use it for a newsletter?

No. Spaces sends one email to one person at a time, with no bcc and no tracking. Use a mailing tool for newsletters and lists.

How many emails can it send in a day?

Up to 100 a day once the mailbox has settled in, at least 30 seconds apart. Replies to emails that arrived in the last week are never held back by the daily limits.

Can I connect more than one mailbox?

Yes. Each mailbox is its own account in Spaces, with its own limits. Tell ChatGPT which one you mean when you ask, such as "the hello@ inbox".