Receive Emails with Resend

---
name: resend-inbound
description: Use when receiving emails with Resend - setting up inbound domains, processing email.received webhooks, retrieving email content/attachments, or forwarding received emails.
---

# Receive Emails with Resend

## Overview

Resend processes incoming emails for your domain and sends webhook events to your endpoint. **Webhooks contain metadata only** - you must call separate APIs to retrieve email body and attachments.

## Quick Start

1. **Configure receiving domain** - Use Resend's `.resend.app` domain or add MX record for custom domain
2. **Set up webhook** - Subscribe to `email.received` event
3. **Retrieve content** - Call Receiving API for body, Attachments API for files

## Domain Setup

### Option 1: Resend-Managed Domain (Fastest)

Use your auto-generated address: `<anything>@<your-id>.resend.app`

No DNS configuration needed. Find your address in Dashboard → Emails → Receiving → "Receiving address".

### Option 2: Custom Domain

Add MX record to receive at `<anything>@yourdomain.com`.

| Setting | Value |
|---------|-------|
| **Type** | MX |
| **Host** | Your domain or subdomain |
| **Value** | Provided in Resend dashboard |
| **Priority** | 10 (**lowest number** wins a conflict, but typically only multiples of 10 are used) |

**Critical:** Your MX record must have the lowest priority value, or emails won't route to Resend.

### Subdomain Recommendation

If you already have MX records (e.g., Google Workspace, Microsoft 365):

| Approach | Result |
|----------|--------|
| **Use subdomain** (recommended) | `support.acme.com` → Resend, `acme.com` → existing provider |
| **Use root domain** | All email routes to Resend (breaks existing email) |

```
# Example: receive at support.acme.com without affecting acme.com
support.acme.com.  MX  10  <resend-mx-value>
```

If you set up Resend to receive email on a root domain, *all* traffic will be routed to Resend, not to any other mailbox. It's crucial, then, to use a subdomain with inbound emails.

## Webhook Setup

### Subscribe to `email.received`

Dashboard → Webhooks → Add Webhook → Select `email.received`

For local development, use tunneling (ngrok, VS Code Port Forwarding):
```bash
ngrok http 3000
# Use https://abc123.ngrok.io/api/webhook as endpoint
```

### Webhook Payload Structure

**Important:** Payload contains metadata only, not email body or attachment content.

```json
{
  "type": "email.received",
  "created_at": "2024-02-22T23:41:12.126Z",
  "data": {
    "email_id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
    "from": "sender@example.com",
    "to": ["support@acme.com"],
    "cc": [],
    "bcc": [],
    "subject": "Question about my order",
    "attachments": [
      {
        "id": "att_abc123",
        "filename": "receipt.pdf",
        "content_type": "application/pdf"
      }
    ]
  }
}
```

### Verify Webhook Signatures

Always verify signatures to prevent spoofed events:

```typescript
import { Resend } from 'resend';

const resend = new Resend(process.env.RESEND_API_KEY);

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const payload = await req.text();

  const event = resend.webhooks.verify({
    payload,
    headers: {
      'svix-id': req.headers.get('svix-id'),
      'svix-timestamp': req.headers.get('svix-timestamp'),
      'svix-signature': req.headers.get('svix-signature'),
    },
    secret: process.env.RESEND_WEBHOOK_SECRET,
  });

  if (event.type === 'email.received') {
    // Process the email
  }

  return new Response('OK', { status: 200 });
}
```

## Retrieving Email Content

Webhooks exclude email body and headers. Call the Receiving API to get them:

```typescript
if (event.type === 'email.received') {
  const { data: email } = await resend.emails.receiving.get(
    event.data.email_id
  );

  console.log(email.html);    // HTML body
  console.log(email.text);    // Plain text body
  console.log(email.headers); // Email headers
}
```

**Why this design?** Serverless environments have request body size limits. Separating content retrieval supports large emails and attachments.

## Handling Attachments

### Get Attachment Metadata and Download URLs

```typescript
const { data: attachments } = await resend.emails.receiving.attachments.list({
  emailId: event.data.email_id,
});

for (const attachment of attachments) {
  console.log(attachment.filename);
  console.log(attachment.download_url);  // Valid for 1 hour
  console.log(attachment.expires_at);
}
```

### Download Attachment Content

```typescript
const response = await fetch(attachment.download_url);
const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer();

// Save to storage, process, etc.
await saveToStorage(attachment.filename, buffer);
```

**Important:** `download_url` expires after 1 hour. Call the API again for a fresh URL if needed.

## Forwarding Emails

Complete workflow to receive and forward an email with attachments:

```typescript
import { Resend } from 'resend';

const resend = new Resend(process.env.RESEND_API_KEY);

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const payload = await req.text();
  const event = resend.webhooks.verify({ /* ... */ });

  if (event.type === 'email.received') {
    // 1. Get email content
    const { data: email } = await resend.emails.receiving.get(
      event.data.email_id
    );

    // 2. Get attachments (if any)
    const { data: attachmentList } = await resend.emails.receiving.attachments.list({
      emailId: event.data.email_id,
    });

    // 3. Download and encode attachments
    const attachments = await Promise.all(
      attachmentList.map(async (att) => {
        const res = await fetch(att.download_url);
        const buffer = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());
        return {
          filename: att.filename,
          content: buffer.toString('base64'),
        };
      })
    );

    // 4. Forward the email
    await resend.emails.send({
      from: 'Support System <system@acme.com>',
      to: ['team@acme.com'],
      subject: `Fwd: ${email.subject}`,
      html: email.html,
      text: email.text,
      attachments,
    });
  }

  return new Response('OK', { status: 200 });
}
```

## Routing by Recipient

All emails to your domain arrive at the same webhook. Route based on the `to` field:

```typescript
if (event.type === 'email.received') {
  const recipient = event.data.to[0];

  if (recipient.includes('support@')) {
    await handleSupportEmail(event.data);
  } else if (recipient.includes('billing@')) {
    await handleBillingEmail(event.data);
  } else {
    await handleUnknownEmail(event.data);
  }
}
```

## Common Mistakes

| Mistake | Fix |
|---------|-----|
| Expecting body in webhook payload | Webhook has metadata only - call `resend.emails.receiving.get()` for body |
| MX record not lowest priority | Ensure Resend's MX has lowest number (highest priority) |
| Adding MX to root domain with existing email | Use subdomain to avoid breaking existing email service |
| Using expired download_url | URLs expire after 1 hour - call attachments API again for fresh URL |
| Not verifying webhook signatures | Always verify - attackers can send fake events |
| Forgetting to return 200 OK | Resend retries on non-200 responses |

## Storage Note

Resend stores received emails even if:
- Webhook isn't configured yet
- Webhook endpoint is down

View all received emails in Dashboard → Emails → Receiving tab.