# The Inbox

Source: https://listplus.ai/en/help/inbox-and-saved/inbox
Last updated: 2026-10-15

The **Inbox** (Eingang) is the place for everything that could become a
contact: a meeting invitation, an email signature, a note from a call, a
participant list, a pasted table, or an email you forward to it. You drop
it in first and sort it out later. Nothing is parsed or converted until you
ask for it.

The Inbox belongs to the **workspace**: every member sees the same entries,
whoever added them, and can recognise and save the people in them. If you
work in several workspaces, each has its own Inbox (see "[What is a
workspace?](https://listplus.ai/en/help/workspaces/what-is-a-workspace)").

## Adding something by hand: Add content

The Inbox shows your entries. To put something in yourself, click **Add
content** at the top right (on a phone: in the list of entries). With an
empty Inbox the input is what you see first.

### The input

The input is only for adding — nothing else is on the page
("Add information."). **Cancel** takes you back to the entries without
adding anything; what you typed stays in the field.

- **Type or paste text.** Write or paste into the large field and click
  **Add to inbox** (or press ⌘/Ctrl + Enter). Calendar invitations (.ics),
  vCards, CSV or JSON snippets and plain notes all work. The microphone
  button lets you **dictate** a note instead of typing it.
- **Add a file.** Drop a file onto the page or click **Choose file**: PDF,
  CSV/Excel, vCard, calendar and e-mail files (text PDFs up to 30 MB — the
  text is read in your browser; only the text is uploaded). Scanned PDFs
  and Excel files aren't read as inbox entries — an Excel file goes
  straight to the list-import wizard instead (see below).
- **Scan business card.** Click **Scan business card** under the file area
  (on a phone it opens the camera) or drop a photo of a card onto the
  page. AI reads the card and adds its details as an entry; the photo
  itself is not stored. Reading the card uses AI and costs credits by
  usage; recognizing the contact from the entry afterwards is the usual
  separate step. Other photos are not read.
- After adding you are **back at the entries with the new one open**, so
  you can recognize its contacts right away.
- You can also **drop a file anywhere on the Inbox** without opening the
  input first.
- **"Try it:"** shows chips for fictional
  examples (email signature, call note, calendar invite, attendee list,
  LinkedIn profile text, business card). A chip only fills the field;
  nothing is added or charged until you click **Add to inbox**.

Adding stores the entry; it does not recognize contacts yet. You do that in
Entries with **Recognize contacts**, when you have time.

### Entries

This is the Inbox itself: the entries with the tabs **All**, **To review**
and **Done** on the left, and the selected entry on the right.

The ways into the Inbox have lines of their own in the left column,
beneath **Inbox** in the **Comes in** group (click **Comes in** to unfold
it): **App events**, **Email forwarding** and **Webhook &
automations**. A pause sign means the way in is paused, an empty circle
that it is not set up yet; one that runs carries no mark. Clicking a line
opens that way in as a page of its own, over the whole width; **Back to
entries** or **Inbox** in the column leads back. The **⋮** at the end of
the **Email forwarding** and **Webhook & automations** lines renews the
address or closes the intake without opening the page — the two share one
address, so either line acts on both. With an empty inbox you
see all of them on one page ("Connect your inbox."): the app events and two cards — **Email forwarding** (**Create address**) and
**Webhook & automations** (**Create webhook**) — each with **Renew
address** and **Close intake** once set up, plus a **Guides** section with
copyable snippets for n8n, Zapier and Shortcuts, and what was received
recently. Above the two cards, a band explains that data for one particular
list is connected to that list directly: open the list → **Set up** (see
below). Setting this up is optional — adding by hand always works.

- **Forward an email.** Forward or send a mail to your address ending
  `@in.listplus.ai` and the body becomes one entry in the workspace's
  Inbox; the first 10 attachments are read, and text PDFs, vCards, calendar
  invites (.ics), CSV, JSON and plain-text files each become their own
  entry. Excel files, images and scanned PDFs are skipped. Keep attachments
  under about **3 MB in total** — larger emails may not arrive. Spam and
  duplicate deliveries are dropped, and ListPlus never replies. Your own
  account address and the address you forward from are never suggested as
  a contact. The address is personal **per workspace**: each member has
  their own, and in another workspace you get a different one.

Contacts from the Inbox never go into a list by themselves: you recognize
them, check them and add them. For records that should land in a list
automatically, give that list its own webhook or form (see below).

Each entry holds up to 256 KB and a workspace's Inbox keeps up to 500 live
entries; older ones expire on their own.

## App events: straight from a tool you use

In the Flows column, under **Comes in**, click **App events** (with an
empty Inbox it is also the first card of the Inbox page): choose an app
and an event — a message in a Slack channel, a new Gmail message with a
label — and each one arrives as an Inbox entry, without an address to set
up. See "[App events: let a tool you use fill a list or the Inbox](https://listplus.ai/en/help/lists-and-import/app-events)".

## Lists with their own way in

Records that belong in one particular list — form answers, bookings, leads
reported in Slack — don't need to pass through the Inbox: connect the app
to the list itself (in the list: **Set up** → **App events**), or, for
automations you build yourself with Zapier, Make or n8n,
give the list its own webhook and they land in its columns directly. A
list's own webhook, form or app event is set up in the list: open it →
**Set up** (see "[List webhooks: receive records from forms and tools](https://listplus.ai/en/help/lists-and-import/list-webhooks)").

The Inbox is a page of **Flows**: the column at the left is the same as on
the Flows overview and the Pipelines page. **To do** at the top collects
what waits for you. Under **Comes in** it shows **Inbox** (everything), its
ways in and **AI research** (new hits of your research runs); under **Lists with their own way in** every list
with a webhook or an app event of its own, with the number of records
waiting for you. Click a list
to see only its entries and, on the right, its app events and its webhook
page with the URL, setup guides, mapping and recent calls; **Open list** jumps to the list. On a
phone these lines sit above the tabs, under the heading **Lists**.

A list webhook writes every record into its list by default. Some records
are **held back** for you instead: contacts on your workspace's Block
list, records the list can't take (for example because the plan's record
limit is reached), and — only if you ticked a **Hold back** option on
that webhook — invalid, disposable and test addresses or spam and test
entries. They appear as an entry
named after the list, marked "n to review", in **All** and **To review**.
Open it, read the **Reason** per record and click **Add anyway** or
**Discard**; the list is already set. These entries need no recognition
and cost nothing. Everything unstructured — forwarded emails, PDFs,
pasted notes — still belongs in the Inbox itself.

## Big tables go to the list import, not recognition

If an entry — pasted text, something sent from a tool, or an email
attachment — is a table (more than 10 rows and at least 3 columns of CSV,
TSV or JSON), ListPlus shows "Table with N rows and M columns detected"
and offers **Import as list**, which opens the New List wizard with the
table pre-loaded (preview, column mapping, every row) instead of contact
recognition. Tables of 50 rows or fewer can still be recognised here with
**Recognize here anyway**. After an import finishes, the entry is marked
**Done** and shows "This table was imported as a list" with a button to
open that list. Dropping or attaching an Excel file, or a CSV/TSV/JSON
file that is such a table, directly in the Inbox skips the entry step and
opens the import wizard right away.

## Recognising contacts

Open an entry and click **Recognize contacts**. ListPlus splits it into
people and companies — attendees of an invitation, rows of a table, names in
a note — and for each one shows what it understood, the evidence from your
text, and, for entries with up to 5 people, matching LinkedIn profiles found
on the web (for bigger entries, click **Find person** on a row, free). For
material from
a document (a brochure, a forwarded newsletter), the result also opens with
a header naming the organisation the material is from or about and a
one-sentence summary, when that's clear from the text. A row marked
**Please check** might be a placeholder or test entry, or has only an
abbreviated first name; entries with such rows collect under the **To
review** tab. A person you already saved shows **Already saved** and is
linked, not duplicated. You are never offered as a contact — your account
email address and, for forwarded mail, the sender's address are excluded
automatically.

Every recognition run costs **a base amount of credits** — this applies to
every kind of entry, including calendar invites, vCards and tables. Long
free text (an email body, a pasted note) also adds the actual AI cost at
double the standard rate. The **Recognize contacts** button shows the price
before you click: an exact number for invitations, vCards and
tables, or a "~" upper bound for free text (the real charge is usually
lower than that bound). All prices are in "[Price list: what every action
costs](https://listplus.ai/en/help/plans-credits-billing/price-list)". In a
workspace, the credits come from the owner's balance. If the balance is too
low for that estimate, the button is replaced by **Top up
credits**. Recognition never looks up emails or phone numbers itself — that
happens later, from a list or from the Watchlist. If you edit an entry's text or
delete it while a recognition run is still in flight, any credits spent on
that run are refunded automatically. **Recognize again** re-runs the same
process — you're charged again each time — and keeps your earlier decisions
on any candidate whose text didn't change.

## What to do with a recognised person

Each person is a row with a checkbox you tick. You can correct the fields
directly, or open the profile to load the LinkedIn and company basics (which
cost credits). If several LinkedIn profiles matched, the row stays
locked until you pick the right one under "Is this the right person?" (or
**None of these**). Then, for the ticked rows:

- **Add to list** (the primary action, shown in the button when rows are
  ticked): sends the people into an existing or new list. Rows already sent
  show **In list · name**.
- **Save**: puts the people on the Watchlist without spending anything, so you
  can decide on a list later. Opening a person's profile also saves them
  automatically. A person already saved stays ticked and selectable — you
  can still send them to a list from here — but Save itself only acts on
  people you haven't saved yet; someone recognised by the same email or
  LinkedIn profile as an existing saved contact is linked to it, not saved
  twice.
- **Don't save** hides a wrong match.

## Done and expiry

Entries whose people are all handled (saved, listed or dismissed) move to
the **Done** tab automatically; you can also click **Done** on an entry by
hand, or **Reopen** to bring it back to "All". Marking an entry Done only
hides it from "All" — it doesn't delete it or reset its countdown. Every
raw entry is deleted automatically **14 days** after it arrives, and each
entry shows its own days-left count (or "Expires today"); the **Expiring
soon** filter lists the ones with under 3 days left. People you saved or
added to a list from an entry are not affected.

## FAQ

### What is the Inbox for?

For everything that could become a contact but is not one yet: meeting invitations, email signatures, call notes, participant lists, pasted tables, or emails you forward to it. You drop it into the Inbox first and recognise the people later, when you have time. Nothing is converted automatically.

### How do I get something into the Inbox?

Click Add content at the top right of the Inbox, type or paste your text and click Add to inbox, or drop a text PDF, CSV, JSON or similar file onto the page; the new entry opens. To receive things automatically, click Email forwarding or Webhook & automations beneath Inbox in the left column and set it up there (n8n, Zapier, Make, an iPhone Shortcut or a script). Images, scanned PDFs and Excel files aren't read as inbox entries — Excel goes straight to the list import instead.

### How does "Recognize contacts" work and what does it cost?

It splits the entry into people and companies, shows what it understood with the evidence from your text, and finds matching LinkedIn profiles on the web. Every run costs a base amount of credits — including invitations, vCards and tables — plus, for long free text, the actual AI cost at double rate (shown as an upper bound on the button before you click). If your balance is too low, a Top up credits button appears instead of letting the click fail, and any charge is refunded automatically if you edit or delete the entry while a run is still in progress.

### What do Verified, Plausible and Review mean?

In the current app these words aren't shown as labels. A recognised person who needs a look is marked Please check — it might be a placeholder or test entry, or the first name is only abbreviated — and such entries collect under the To review tab. Someone you already saved shows Already saved and is linked instead of saved twice.

### Why can't I tick a person in the Inbox?

Because several LinkedIn profiles matched and ListPlus doesn't want to guess. Choose the right one under "Is this the right person?", or None of these, and the checkbox unlocks.

### What is the difference between Save and Add to list?

Add to list sends the ticked people straight into an existing or new list; Save puts them on the Watchlist (formerly Saved) without spending anything, so they wait there until you decide on a list. A person you already saved stays selectable so you can still add them to a list later, but Save itself only applies to people who aren't saved yet. Both actions are free.

### How long do entries stay in the Inbox?

Raw entries are deleted automatically 14 days after they arrive; each entry shows its own days-left count. People you saved or added to a list from an entry are unaffected — only the raw entry disappears. Marking an entry Done just moves it out of the "All" tab; it still expires on the same 14-day schedule, and Reopen brings it back.

### What happens when I paste or forward a big table?

Anything with more than 10 rows and at least 3 columns (CSV, TSV or JSON) is offered as "Table with N rows and M columns detected" with an Import as list button that opens the New List wizard instead of contact recognition. Tables of 50 rows or fewer can still be recognised in the Inbox directly with Recognize here anyway.

### Is my intake address safe?

Both your forwarding email address and your webhook URL are private: anyone who knows either can send content into your workspace's Inbox, nothing else. Don't publish them — if one leaks, click Renew address and both the old email address and the old URL stop working immediately, and sending stays rate-limited so a leak can't flood your Inbox. Forwarded mail passes through an inbound e-mail service on its way in — see "[Who processes your data (subprocessors)](https://listplus.ai/en/help/data-sources-privacy-legal/subprocessors)".

### Can my colleagues see what's in my Inbox?

Yes. The Inbox belongs to the workspace, so every member sees the same entries — including emails you forwarded and entries from your tools — and can recognise and save the people in them. Each workspace has its own Inbox, so switch workspaces to see another one.

### Does everyone in the workspace share one forwarding address?

No. Each member gets their own personal address per workspace ("Your personal address for this workspace"), but whatever arrives at any member's address lands in the same shared Inbox of that workspace. In a different workspace you get a different address, so forward to the one of the workspace the contacts belong to.

### What are the example chips under the Inbox text field?

In the input (Add content), under "Try it:", you'll find chips for fictional samples such as an email signature, a call note, a calendar invite, an attendee list, LinkedIn profile text and a business card. Clicking one only fills the text field so you can see what the Inbox handles; nothing is added or charged until you click Add to inbox and later Recognize contacts.

### What does "Add content" in the Inbox do?

It opens the manual input: a large text field and a file card. Add to inbox stores what you entered and takes you back to the entries with the new one open; Cancel takes you back without adding. The entries are the Inbox itself with the tabs All, To review and Done; with no entry selected, the right side shows a short hint and View setup, which opens the connect page (the Email forwarding and Webhook & automations cards and the setup guides).

### Can the Inbox add recognized contacts to a list automatically?

Not the Inbox itself: there you recognize contacts, check them and add them to a list yourself. What can do it is an app event set up in a list — for example a Slack channel in which leads are reported: each message is read, and a contact with an e-mail address, a LinkedIn profile or a name with a company is added to that list by itself (see "[App events: let a tool you use fill a list or the Inbox](https://listplus.ai/en/help/lists-and-import/app-events)"). For finished records, a list's webhook or form writes straight into its columns.

### Why does my Inbox show a list of lists on the left?

Because at least one of your lists has its own webhook or app event. In the left column, Inbox stands under Comes in, and under Lists with their own way in every list with a webhook or app event and the number of records waiting for a decision. Click a list to see its entries and its webhook page, or Inbox to see everything again.

### What is the Inbox entry named after one of my lists, marked "to review"?

Those are records the list's webhook held back instead of adding them to the list: contacts on your Block list, records the list couldn't take (such as "Plan's record limit reached"), or what you chose to hold back on that webhook (invalid addresses, spam and test entries). Open the entry, check the Reason per record and click Add anyway or Discard; the list is already set, and no recognition or credits are needed. See "[List webhooks: receive records from forms and tools](https://listplus.ai/en/help/lists-and-import/list-webhooks)" for the Hold back options.