Postbox FAQ
Last reviewed
Direct answers about connecting several Gmail accounts to one inbox: what Postbox costs, what it stores, what it cannot do, and how to remove everything.
The short answers
What is Postbox?
Postbox is a free web app that connects several Gmail accounts to one combined inbox. You can read, search, star, archive, reply and send across every connected account from a single page, without signing out of one Google account to check another.
How much does Postbox cost?
Postbox is free and has no paid tier, no trial and no per-mailbox charge. It is an independent project built by one person rather than a funded company, so there is no upgrade to sell you and no limit that unlocks with payment.
How many Gmail accounts can I connect to Postbox?
There is no limit on the number of Gmail accounts you can connect to Postbox. Each mailbox is authorised separately through Google and appears in the combined inbox, colour-coded, with its own Inbox, Starred, Sent and Drafts views.
Does Postbox need my Gmail password?
No. Postbox never asks for a Gmail password and has no field to type one into. You authorise each mailbox on Google’s own consent screen, Google returns an access token, and that token is encrypted before it is stored.
Is Postbox the same as the Postbox email client for Mac and Windows?
No. They are two unrelated products that share a name. The desktop email client by Postbox, Inc. was acquired by eM Client and discontinued in 2024. This Postbox is a separate free web app, built by Anuj Shetty, for reading several Gmail accounts in one inbox.
Privacy, security and limits
What does Postbox store?
Postbox stores your account details, one row per connected mailbox with its encrypted tokens, and an activity feed of message headers — sender, subject and Gmail’s own snippet — capped at the latest 500 entries. Message bodies and attachments are never written to the database.
How are my Gmail tokens protected?
Gmail access and refresh tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before they are written, using a key held only in the server environment and bound to your user id, so a copied database row cannot be read under another account. Decryption happens server-side only, to call Google.
Can Postbox read my email?
Postbox fetches a message from Gmail at the moment you open it, and does not keep the body afterwards. The gmail.modify scope does let the server read on your behalf, so the honest answer is that the running server can read what you open — it just does not record it.
Does Postbox work with Outlook, Yahoo or other IMAP mail?
No. Postbox connects to Gmail and Google Workspace accounts only, through the Gmail API. There is no IMAP or POP support, so Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud and self-hosted mailboxes cannot be added.
Do I need to install anything to use Postbox?
No. Postbox runs in a browser, with nothing to download, no desktop client and no browser extension. It also sets up no forwarding rules in Gmail, so nothing changes inside the accounts you connect.
How do I disconnect a mailbox or delete my data?
Disconnecting a mailbox in Postbox revokes the grant at Google and deletes its stored tokens and activity. Deleting your data removes every mailbox, credential, setting, activity row and log. You can also revoke access yourself at myaccount.google.com/connections. Your Gmail is untouched either way.
Does Postbox use AI to read my mail?
No AI runs over your mail unless you add your own API key. Postbox ships with no AI in the loop by default; summarising is off until you supply a key, and it only runs on the message you ask it to summarise.
Who built Postbox?
Anuj Shetty built Postbox, and maintains it alone. It began as a fix for his own problem of running several Gmail accounts at once — one per client, one for work, one personal — and signing in and out of them all day.
Is Postbox verified by Google?
Not yet. Postbox requests the gmail.modify scope, which Google classes as restricted, so verification plus a third-party CASA security assessment is required. Until that completes a deployment runs in Google’s Testing mode: only listed test users can connect, and access expires every seven days.
What permissions does Postbox request?
One Gmail permission, gmail.modify, which covers reading messages, sending mail and changing labels such as star and archive. It cannot permanently delete mail. Postbox asks for no access to Drive, Calendar or Contacts.
Can I still see all my Gmail accounts inside Gmail itself?
Not as one list on the web. Gmail’s account switcher shows one account at a time, and its POP fetching feature is capped at five addresses and is being withdrawn. The Gmail mobile app does offer an All inboxes view for accounts added to the app.
Does Postbox work on a phone?
Postbox runs in a mobile browser and the layout adapts, but there is no iOS or Android app and no offline access. For heavy phone use the Gmail app remains better; Postbox is aimed at the machine where you actually answer mail.
What happens to my mail if Postbox shuts down?
Nothing. Your mail lives in Gmail and Postbox never holds a copy — message bodies are fetched when you open them and are not stored. If this site disappeared tomorrow, every account would be exactly as it is, and the tokens would stop working.
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