AI Email Assistant n8n Workflow: Sort & Draft Replies
A busy business inbox loses customers quietly: a sales lead sits under twenty newsletters, an urgent client email waits until Monday. An AI email assistant built on n8n can read every incoming email, sort and label it, alert you to what matters and draft the replies — while nothing goes out without your approval. This guide walks through how that workflow should behave, how it connects to Gmail or any IMAP mailbox, what it costs, and whether to build it yourself or start from the AI Email Assistant PRO template.
Ready-made template: AI Email Assistant PRO (n8n) · From $99View →What the workflow does
The core loop is simple: read a new email, decide what it is, act on it. The AI Email Assistant PRO sorts each email into categories you can change — Customer enquiry, Sales lead, Support request, Orders & bookings, Invoices & billing and more. On Gmail it adds a label (for example AI/Sales lead) and stars urgent emails. It alerts you right away about urgent emails and VIP senders (a boss, a big client, or a whole company domain), writes a reply draft for every email that needs an answer using your website, FAQ and facts you teach it, and sends a daily digest of what came in, what's urgent and what's waiting. It never replies to newsletters, notifications, no-reply senders or spam.
Approval-first, not auto-pilot
The safest AI email setup is one where nothing is sent without your OK. Each draft comes to you with ✅ Send, ❌ Reject or ✏️ Edit buttons in Telegram, or as a private Review & send link by email. If you trust it for simple cases, you can turn on auto-reply for specific categories only (for example simple enquiries) — it is off by default. You can run it from your phone with commands like /test, /learn and /learnurl to teach it, /vip, /autoreply, /pending, /digest, /pause and /health.
Who it is for
Clinics, agencies, consultants, shops, coaching centres, real estate agents and freelancers — anyone who loses time and customers in a busy business inbox. If you get a few emails a day, Gmail filters may be enough. The assistant earns its keep when the volume is high enough that important emails get buried.
Gmail or any other mailbox
Gmail and Google Workspace are the recommended route: you connect through Google's official sign-in (OAuth) inside n8n, so your password is never typed in the wizard, and you get the full feature set including Gmail labels and threaded replies. Any other email — Zoho, Hostinger, Titan, GoDaddy Professional Email, Yahoo, Namecheap, cPanel hosting and more — works over IMAP and SMTP with your email password or an app password, with ready-made server settings for the popular hosts. Gmail labels are Gmail-only; everything else works.
Privacy and running costs
Email text goes only to the AI provider you choose; nothing passes through Content Rewardz servers. Your keys are saved encrypted inside your own n8n, and old logs are deleted automatically after 90 days (you can change this). The template has no running cost. Groq is the free default and its free tier covers a typical small-business inbox; Gemini, ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude, OpenRouter and Ollama also work, with a backup AI if the main one fails. Paid providers bill you per use on your own account.
Build it yourself or buy the template?
n8n has Gmail, IMAP and AI nodes, so a basic 'classify and label' workflow is very buildable. The work grows with the details: skipping newsletters and no-reply senders, VIP rules, drafts grounded in your own knowledge, an approval flow with Send/Reject/Edit, a digest, log cleanup and updates that keep your settings. The AI Email Assistant PRO is $99 (Basic) with a 5-step setup wizard, a setup guide and free updates, or $199 (Done-for-you), where the team installs it, connects your mailbox, loads your website, FAQ and key facts, and runs a live test on a real email within 1–2 working days. It is a final sale, so confirm your mailbox type first.
Step-by-step: Email + n8n
- 1Run n8n 2.x (self-hosted or n8n Cloud); use an https:// address if you want Telegram approvals.
- 2Create an AI key — Groq is free and the default.
- 3Connect Gmail / Google Workspace via OAuth in n8n, or have your IMAP and SMTP details ready for any other mailbox.
- 4Import the workflow, click Start and complete the 5-step wizard; it tests your key, creates credentials and tables, and learns your website.
- 5Optionally create a free Telegram bot for one-tap approvals, then send yourself a test email with /test.
- 6Add VIP senders and teach it extra facts with /learn before relying on its drafts.
FAQ
Will it send emails without me checking?
No. It is approval-first: no email reaches a customer unless you approve it, unless you switch on auto-reply for a specific category yourself. Auto-reply is off by default.
Does it work with Zoho, Hostinger or other non-Gmail email?
Any mailbox with IMAP and SMTP access works, including Zoho, Hostinger, Titan, GoDaddy Professional Email, Yahoo, Namecheap and cPanel hosting. Gmail-style labels are only available on Gmail and Google Workspace.
Does my email go through Content Rewardz?
No. Email text goes only to the AI provider you choose, and your keys are stored encrypted inside your own n8n.
Do I need Telegram?
No. Telegram is optional for one-tap approvals; approvals can also come by email using a private Review & send link.
What does it cost to run?
The template has no running cost. Groq's free tier covers a typical small-business inbox; if you pick a paid AI provider, you pay that provider per use.
AI Email Assistant PRO (n8n)
Your inbox, sorted and answered. AI labels every email, alerts you to what matters and drafts replies you approve with one tap.
From $99
See the template