What is an AI email assistant?
The short answer
An AI email assistant reads, summarizes, drafts, and organizes your email so you spend less time in your inbox. Airbox is an AI email assistant that works inside the inbox you already use: instead of switching apps, you forward or auto-forward mail to a private address, your own AI model handles it, and the result comes back as email. You bring your own model and pay your provider directly — no app to adopt, no per-seat markup.
How Airbox works as your assistant
You get a private, unguessable address like c4f8xxxx@airbox.fyi and connect an AI provider key — Claude, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and more. Forward an email (or set a filter to auto-forward), optionally with a one-line instruction, and Airbox routes the content to your model and emails the answer back.
Because it's email-native, it works on every device and every client without an extension or a new app — and because it's bring-your-own-AI, you choose the model, control the cost, and keep your provider relationship.
What an AI email assistant can do
The most common jobs people hand to Airbox:
Summarize threads
Decisions, owners, deadlines, and open questions from long mail.
Draft replies
Ready-to-edit responses in your voice, without leaving your inbox.
Write new emails
Email a prompt, get a polished, ready-to-send draft back.
Triage your inbox
Sort, label, and surface what actually needs you first.
Digest newsletters
One AI briefing instead of a pile of unread issues.
Extract tasks
Turn threads into a checklist with owners and due dates.
Why Airbox vs an AI email client
Most AI email assistants are apps you switch to. Airbox is a layer over what you have:
- Keep Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail — no new app to learn
- Bring your own AI model and switch any time, no lock-in
- Pay your AI provider directly — no per-seat premium
- AI sees only the mail you forward, with allowlist + untrusted-content quarantine
Compare the alternatives
Get started in minutes
- Create a free Airbox account and get your private address.
- Connect your AI provider key and set an inbox default.
- Forward an email — or set an auto-forward rule — and watch the reply come back.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Airbox an email client?
- No. Airbox is an AI assistant that works with the email client you already use. You forward mail to it and the AI's reply comes back into your normal inbox, so there's no app to switch to.
- Which AI models can it use?
- Claude, ChatGPT / OpenAI, Gemini, Perplexity, Mistral, Kimi, OpenRouter, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. You bring your own key and can route different inboxes to different models.
- Do I have to forward each email by hand?
- No. Forward or BCC manually when you want, or set an auto-forwarding rule in Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail so matching mail reaches your Airbox address automatically and runs through your AI with no extra steps.
- How much does it cost?
- Airbox has a free plan to get started. You bring your own AI provider API key, so you pay the provider directly for the tokens you use — there is no AI markup from Airbox.
- Is it safe to point Airbox at my real email?
- Yes — that's exactly what Airbox is designed for. Airbox only acts on mail from senders you allow, and it only treats the subject and first body line (or a (* … *) block) as instructions. Everything else in a forwarded email is quarantined as untrusted content and never obeyed for your own security and privacy. Your API keys stay fully encrypted.
Ready to try it?
Get your private Airbox address and send your first AI-routed email in minutes. Free to start — bring your own AI.