# Inbound review (2026): is it worth $9 a month? > Email API for receiving, parsing and replying, with sending Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Inbound is an email API aimed at developers and AI agents. It receives mail on your own domain, parses it to JSON, routes addresses to endpoints and lets code reply in the same thread. Every plan includes unlimited mailboxes, and plans differ by monthly email volume and domain count. - **Category:** Email Sending Services - **Made by:** Exon Enterprise LLC - **Website:** https://inbound.new - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want to try it free, since no free plan or trial is listed. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Inbound is a paid product, starting at $9 per month for 5,000 emails. - **Pricing model:** Paid - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Default | $9 per month for up to 5,000 emails | Basic support, with unlimited mailboxes. | | Pro | $15 per month for up to 50,000 emails | Up to 50 domains. | | Growth | $39 per month for up to 100,000 emails | Up to 300 domains. | | Scale | $79 per month for up to 200,000 emails | Unlimited domains. | Read from https://inbound.new/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Inbound before buying. ## Key features - **Email to webhook:** Point MX records at the service and received mail is delivered as parsed JSON. - **Address routing:** Route specific addresses or a catch-all to different endpoints. - **Threaded replies:** Reply to a received message in the same thread from the API. - **API and CLI:** One API and a command-line tool cover receiving, parsing and replying. - **Spam filtering:** Choose to reject, flag or accept mail marked as spam. - **Failed delivery retries:** Failed webhook deliveries show in logs and can be retried. ## Good for - Developers building support or agent inboxes that need to receive email - Apps that need replies to land in their own code ## Worth knowing - There is no free plan or trial listed. - Extra domains cost $3.50 per domain per month. - Extra capacity is $16 per 50,000 received plus 50,000 sent a month. - The product centers on receiving and replying; the pricing page does not describe bulk or marketing sending. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 1.8 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Inbound is an email API for receiving, parsing and replying, with sending added, from $9 a month for 5,000 emails. There is no free plan or trial, and the pricing page says nothing about bulk or marketing sends. - **Value for money: B.** $9 a month for 5,000 emails is at the edge of the cheaper quarter of email tools. Extra domains are $3.50 each and extra capacity $16 per 50,000. - **Free plan and trial: F.** No free plan and no trial are listed, so every email is paid for from the first one. - **Features: C.** Email to webhook, address routing, threaded replies, API and CLI, spam filtering and retries. It does that narrow job fully, and does not describe bulk sending. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. It is an API and CLI product, so setup means DNS, webhooks and code. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Web dashboard, API and CLI only. No integrations list is shown. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Exon Enterprise LLC's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among email sending services - Inbound's GPA of 1.8 is higher than 4 of the 50 other email sending services we grade, and level with 4. - It stands best on value for money (B, above 25 of 50) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $9 a month, against a middle price of $15 for the category: 10 of the 41 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 8 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/email-sending ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Inbound you would be making mail servers with a good name among inbox providers. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 42 of the 50 other email sending services grade higher. It costs $108 a year. - You could not: Mail servers with a good name among inbox providers. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: An API that other software can build on. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** Transactional email, Public API, AI agents ## Alternatives - [Resend](https://toolgpa.com/tools/resend): Developer email API with React Email templates and a free tier. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/inbound-vs-resend) - [Postmark](https://toolgpa.com/tools/postmark): Transactional email API and SMTP, with broadcasts on a separate stream. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/inbound-vs-postmark) - [Mailgun](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailgun): Email API and SMTP relay for developers, with list validation. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/inbound-vs-mailgun) - [Twilio SendGrid](https://toolgpa.com/tools/sendgrid): Twilio's email API and SMTP service, priced by monthly email volume. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/inbound-vs-sendgrid) - [MailPace](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mailpace): EU-hosted transactional email API and SMTP, without open tracking. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/inbound-vs-mailpace) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://inbound.new/pricing - https://inbound.new - https://inbound.new/terms Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/inbound Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).