Shared inbox or personal mailbox: which email should your AI agent answer from?

The question to answer first

Ask yourself where customers write to today, and which address you want them to see in replies. Those two answers usually decide it.

The kinds of address, in plain words

Email providers offer several ways to make an address like info@ work. They look the same to customers, but they behave very differently for an AI agent.

For most small businesses, a separate mailbox for the address customers use is the simplest route. It has its own history, its own sent mail, and nothing in it is personal.

How Spaces connects a mailbox

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. Each mailbox you connect is its own account in Spaces, with its own limits and warm-up, and each counts towards your plan.

Once connected, the agent can list and read emails, reply on a thread, send one email to one person, save drafts, move emails between folders, mark them read or unread, and open attachments. It is not a bulk-email tool: each email has one person in the to line, at most four in cc, and no bcc or tracking.

Why a personal mailbox is harder

• It holds things the agent should never answer: your bank, your family, your accountant.
• Every rule in the agent's notes has to say what to leave alone, and one missed rule is one awkward reply.
• If you are away, nobody else can easily see what the agent did.
• Customers learn your personal address, which makes it harder to hand the business on later.

If you do connect your own mailbox, start by asking the agent to hold every reply as a draft. Nothing goes out until you approve it, and you quickly learn which emails it should be answering.

Sharing one mailbox between a team and an agent

Email has no chat-style hand-over in Spaces, so a team sharing a mailbox with an agent needs a simple system. Folders and the read mark do the job well.

Create the folders in Gmail or Outlook yourself, then tell the agent their names in its notes. In Gmail these are labels, which many tools show as folders. A short end-of-day check of the "For a person" folder is usually all the coordination a small team needs.

Making the shared address trustworthy

Whichever address the agent uses, it needs to reach inboxes rather than spam. Three records on your domain prove your email is really from you. In plain words:

• SPF is a list of the servers allowed to send email for your domain.
• DKIM is a signature on each email that shows it was not changed on the way.
• DMARC tells other providers what to do with email that fails those checks, and where to send reports.

Your email provider gives you the exact records to add. If info@ is on the same domain as the rest of your email, the same records cover it. Our guide to email deliverability basics walks through setting them up.

The limits that apply to each mailbox

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.

This is published provider guidance, written in our own words and last updated on 28 Aug 2026. It is advice, not a promise from the platform, and the platform can change what it watches for at any time.

• Gmail allows up to 500 emails a day, but the recommendation is 50 to 100 a day, or 100 to 150 on Google Workspace.
• Start a new mailbox at 20 to 50 emails a day and build up slowly.
• Outlook and other mailboxes should follow the same recommendations as Gmail.
• Spread emails out over the day instead of sending them in bursts.

Example: a shared hello@ mailbox

Names and details are examples.

The reply comes from the address Fiona wrote to, signed by the team rather than an individual. The refund goes to a person, and anyone on the team can see it in the folder.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Connecting your personal mailbox when customers write to info@, so replies come from an address they do not recognise.
• Using a group address, so the agent and a colleague both reply to the same email.
• Assuming an alias sends as the alias. Send a test first.
• Not telling the agent which folders to use, so nobody can tell what has been dealt with.
• Using the mailbox for newsletters. Spaces sends one email to one person at a time; use a newsletter service for campaigns.

Notes to give your AI agent

Email (hello@):
- Answer customer questions from the facts below. Sign off as "the Tyne Valley Larder team".
- After replying, move the email to "Answered by agent".
- Refunds, complaints, invoices and anything unusual: do not reply. Move to "For a person".
- Never email anyone who has not written to us, unless I ask.
- One person in "to". Never use bcc.
- If Spaces says to wait, wait.

Who you message

Summing up

Let your AI agent answer from the address customers already write to, ideally a separate mailbox with its own sign-in. Aliases and group addresses can work but need testing and more care. Use folders so your team can see what the agent did, keep personal email out of it, and make sure your domain's SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are in place.

Pricing

Plans from $19 a month

Should my AI agent reply from info@ or my own address?

Usually from info@, or whichever address customers already write to. A separate mailbox keeps personal email out of reach and lets your team see what the agent did.

Can I connect an alias like info@ that lands in my inbox?

You connect the mailbox it lands in. Replies may then go from your main address unless your provider is set up to send as the alias, so send a test email before relying on it.

Can I connect a Microsoft 365 shared mailbox?

It depends on how your email is set up. Check with whoever manages your Microsoft 365 account. A separate mailbox with its own sign-in is the simplest option to connect.

How does my team know which emails the agent answered?

Use folders. The agent moves emails it has answered to one folder and emails that need a person to another, and your team works from those.

Is there a hand-over for email like there is for chats?

Email has no chats, so chat hand-over does not apply. Folders do the same job: the agent moves anything it should not answer to a folder for a person, and leaves it alone.

Do I need SPF, DKIM and DMARC for info@?

If info@ is on your own domain, the same records that cover the rest of your email cover it. Your provider gives you the records, and our deliverability guide explains them.

Does each mailbox have its own limits?

Yes. Each connected mailbox has its own warm-up and limits, up to 100 emails a day, at least 30 seconds apart. Each counts towards your plan.

Can the agent cc my colleague?

Yes, up to four people in cc on an email, with one person in the to line. Spaces does not allow bcc or tracking.