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Pidgeon vs AgentMail
Both give an AI agent its own inbox through an API. Here is where they differ — on price, on protocols, and on what happens when a person needs to step in.
The short version
AgentMail and Pidgeon both give an AI agent an email address it owns, through an API. Either will receive mail, thread it, store it and tell your code when something arrives.
The difference is what sits around the inbox. AgentMail is an inbox API: software creates inboxes and reads them through REST, webhooks and WebSockets. Pidgeon is a mailbox: the same address is reachable over the API, over MCP, and over IMAP and SMTP from any mail client — so a person can open the agent's mail in Apple Mail, take a thread over, and hand it back.
Choose AgentMail if you want the most established option and a long list of framework integrations. Choose Pidgeon if a human will ever need to read along, step in, or own part of the conversation — or if you want your own domain on the free plan.
At a glance
Prices and limits as published on 16 October 2026. AgentMail prices in US dollars, Pidgeon in euros.
| Pidgeon | AgentMail | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 3 mailboxes, 1 custom domain, 100 messages a day | 3 inboxes, 3,000 emails a month; custom domain in beta for new accounts |
| First paid plan | €20 a month: 10 mailboxes, 10 domains, 1,000 a day | $20 a month: 10 inboxes, 10 domains, 10,000 a month |
| Next plan | €200 a month: 150 mailboxes, 150 domains | $200 a month: 150 inboxes |
| API, SDKs, CLI | REST, TypeScript and Python SDKs, CLI | REST, TypeScript and Python SDKs, CLI |
| MCP server | Hosted (pidgeon.ai/api/mcp) and npm | Yes |
| Agent signs itself up | Yes — two calls and a code from a human | Yes — and a human claims the inbox |
| IMAP and SMTP for mail clients | Every plan | No — REST and WebSocket first |
| Real-time events | Signed webhooks, event stream | Webhooks, WebSockets |
| Threads with an owner (human, agent, automation) | Yes, with assignment events | Drafts for review |
| Per-address permissions | Send and receive rules; keys that can only mint narrower keys | Allow and block lists |
| Multi-tenant grouping | Pods and tenants | Pods |
| Calendar | Every mailbox | Yes |
| "Sent via" footer on free mail | Yes | Yes |
Where Pidgeon is different
An agent's mailbox is also a person's mailbox
Every Pidgeon address speaks IMAP and SMTP on every plan, with an app password rather than your API key. The inbox your agent works in opens in Apple Mail, Outlook, Superhuman or anything else that reads mail — no console, no export. A person and a program can share one address, or each have their own on the same domain, in one account with one log and one bill.
That matters the first time a customer replies with something the agent should not answer.
Hand-off is state, not a workaround
A Pidgeon thread has an owner — human, agent or automation — and changing it is one call. thread.assigned and thread.updated tell your agent the moment a person takes a conversation, so it stops replying; handing it back clears the name and the agent picks up where it left off. The hand-off guide walks through all five steps.
Permissions that narrow and never widen
An API key can be scoped to one address and one level of access, and a key can create a narrower key but never a wider one. Revoking a key revokes everything it created. Send rules decide who an address may write to — "only to people at acme.com" is a rule, not code in your agent.
Your domain, on the free plan
One custom domain is part of Free, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC written for you. If your registrar supports Domain Connect, connecting it is one click. On AgentMail a custom domain on the free plan is a beta for new accounts.
Receiving is never metered
Mail arriving at a Pidgeon address does not count towards anything. Sending is capped by plan and by a trust score that rises with use; receiving is free because charging for the thing that makes an inbox worth having would be the wrong business.
Where AgentMail is ahead
Worth knowing before you decide, because a comparison that only lists our strengths is not a comparison.
- Time in market. AgentMail launched in 2025, is backed by Y Combinator and General Catalyst, and names over a dozen production customers. Pidgeon launched in October 2026.
- Integrations. AgentMail has packages or guides for LangChain, the Vercel AI SDK, the OpenAI Agents SDK, Google ADK, LiveKit and the Vercel Marketplace. Pidgeon has its SDKs, CLI, MCP server and agent skill; framework packages are being built now.
- WebSockets. If your agent wants a socket rather than a webhook or an event stream, AgentMail has one.
- EU data residency. AgentMail offers inboxes hosted in Frankfurt on request.
Which should you choose?
- An agent that only ever talks to other software, at scale, with no person in the loop: either works. AgentMail's monthly allowance is larger at each price; compare it with how much you expect to send.
- An agent whose conversations a person has to read, review or take over: Pidgeon. IMAP, thread ownership and hand-off are what it is built around.
- A product that gives each of its own customers an address: both have tenant grouping. Pidgeon's keys that can only narrow make it safe to hand a customer a key of their own.
- You want to try it on your real domain before paying: Pidgeon's free plan includes it.
Moving from AgentMail
The concepts map one to one: an inbox is an address, a pod is a pod, a webhook is a webhook. Create the addresses through the API or let your agent do it, point your domain's MX records at Pidgeon, and keep AgentMail running until the last thread in flight has finished. The quickstart is about five minutes; the MCP guide covers Claude Code, Cursor and Codex.
Or paste one line into your coding agent and let it do the rest:
Read pidgeon.ai/skill.md and get yourself an email address.
Checked against AgentMail's own pricing page, documentation and blog on 16 October 2026. We re-check this page every month. If something here is out of date, write to support@pidgeon.ai and we will fix it.