Airtable automation trigger: When email received

Last updated: September 25, 2026

Plan availability

Business and Enterprise Scale plans only with varying limitations

Permissions

  • Owner / Creator - Create, delete, duplicate, configure, or rename an automation and edit an automation's description.

  • Editor - View an automation's configuration or copy an automation's URL.

Platform(s)

Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app

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Learn how to use the "When email received" trigger to trigger an automation to run when an email is email is received by the automation.

Creating an email received automation

  1. Open your Airtable home screen.

  2. Open the base where you want to create an automation.

  3. Click Automations.

  4. Click + Create new.

  5. Click + Create automation.

  6. Click + Add trigger.

    1. Once clicked, the available triggers will display for you to choose from.

  7. Select the When email received option.

  8. To continue the setup process, you may now send an email to the email address generated in the previous step.

    1. After sending the email you may click the “Test Trigger” button to confirm that the email was received and that the parsed output matched what you sent

  9. Again, be sure to test all of the steps in the automation that you are building. Once every part of the automation has tested successfully, you’ll likely be ready to turn the automation on. Find the red colored “OFF” toggle and click it so the automation now appears as “ON” in green.

FAQs

Can I send a reply to emails received via this automation?

Yes, you can use our Gmail: Send Email or Send Email automation actions to reply to the sender of the email by including the “Email ID” field from the trigger in the “In reply to” input of the Send Email actions.

Can I receive attachments via this automation?

Yes, attachments will be received and made available via an expiringDownloadUrl that is available for 2 hours after the email is received.

If you would like to keep the attachment for longer, you may write the expiringDownloadUrl into an Attachment Field in your base to save the attachment.

Are there any limits on the size of the email that can be sent?

Yes, we currently do not support emails larger than a total of 30MB in size including attachments.

Why doesn't my trigger fire for some forwarded or redirected emails?

Airtable checks sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) on incoming emails to prevent spoofing. Emails that fail these checks are dropped before the trigger fires, so they don't appear in the automation's run history.

  • Forwarding, redirecting, or copying an email to your automation address with a mail rule (for example a Gmail compliance rule or a Microsoft Exchange mail flow rule) can make it fail these checks. The copy is re-sent by your mail server rather than the original sender's, and email security gateways that rewrite links or add banners can break the sender's signature.

  • Mail sent from your own domain (for example your team's notifications or forms) can be relayed this way reliably. Add the automation address as a To, CC, or BCC recipient in your mail rule.

  • Mail from outside senders that reaches a shared inbox and is then forwarded or copied to the automation address is delivered on a best-effort basis, and some messages may not trigger the automation. To improve delivery, exclude the copy sent to the automation address from link rewriting and message modification, or ask senders to email the automation address directly.

If specific emails don't trigger your automation, contact Airtable Support with the sender's address, the approximate time each email was sent, and your automation's email address.