How to connect Claude to your business email

Claude can read, search and draft replies in a shared business mailbox once that mailbox is behind an MCP server. Apavin is that server: it holds the mailbox credentials, decides what Claude may see, and keeps every outgoing email waiting until a person approves it.

What you need

• A business mailbox on Gmail or Google Workspace, Outlook or Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail, Yahoo, or any host that offers IMAP and SMTP.
• An app password for that mailbox. Gmail and Outlook issue these under the account's security settings once two-step verification is on.
• Claude on the web, Claude Desktop or Claude Code. Cursor, VS Code and other MCP clients work the same way.

Step 1: connect the mailbox to Apavin

Create a free workspace, open Settings, Channels, choose Email, and enter the address and app password. New mail is fetched every few minutes and again whenever your agent searches.

Step 2: add Apavin to Claude

In Claude, open the connector settings, add a custom connector and paste https://apavin.com/api/mcp. In Claude Code, run:

claude mcp add --transport http apavin https://apavin.com/api/mcp

Claude opens Apavin in your browser. Sign in, look at the list of permissions, and choose Allow. You can narrow or revoke it later under Settings, MCP.

Step 3: ask for something real

Try "who has emailed sales@ this week and not had a reply?" Claude calls get_reply_queue and lists the threads, oldest first. Then ask it to draft a reply. The draft also appears in the mailbox's Drafts folder, so you can finish it in Gmail or Outlook if you prefer.

Does Claude send email on its own?

No. On every plan, a send request becomes a pending approval in Apavin with the recipient, the account it goes from and the full text. Someone on your team approves or declines it. Only a Growth workspace admin can write an auto-send rule, and that rule has a daily cap and a switch that turns it off.

Can Claude read my whole mailbox?

Only the accounts you connected, and only through the tools the client was allowed. Message content reaches Claude marked as untrusted, so an email that says "ignore your instructions" is treated as text from a stranger.

What does it cost?

The Free plan covers one mailbox, 5,000 tool calls a month and email sending after approval. Standard adds WhatsApp. See pricing.