Route emails

Route incoming emails sent to your domain to existing mailboxes, Workers for processing, or other destinations.

Note

You must be using Cloudflare DNS to use Email Service.

Prerequisites

1. Sign up for a Cloudflare account ↗.
2. Install Node.js ↗.

Node.js version manager

Use a Node version manager like Volta ↗ or nvm ↗ to avoid permission issues and change Node.js versions. Wrangler, discussed later in this guide, requires a Node version of 16.17.0 or later.

Set up your domain

Before using Email Routing, you need to configure your domain.

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to Email Routing.

   Go to Email Routing

2. Select Onboard Domain.

3. Choose a domain from your Cloudflare account.

4. Select Continue to proceed with DNS configuration.

5. Select Add records and onboard. This will add the following DNS records to your root domain:

   • MX records to route incoming emails to Cloudflare.
   • TXT record for SPF to authorize email routing.
   • TXT record for DKIM to provide authentication for routed emails.

DNS Propagation

DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate globally, but usually complete within 5-15 minutes for domains using Cloudflare DNS.

Once your domain is onboarded, you can start routing emails.

Route your first email

You can route your first email by setting up forwarding rules in the dashboard, or by processing emails with Workers.

Route to email

The simplest way to route emails is forwarding them to existing email addresses.

Create a forwarding rule

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to Email Routing.

   Go to Email Routing

2. Select the domain you want to create an email address for.

3. Select the Routing Rules tab.

4. Select Create Address.

5. Configure your first rule (for instance, forwarding emails to support@yourdomain.com to your personal email address):

   • Custom address: Enter the local part of the email (for example, support for support@yourdomain.com)
   • Action: Send to an email
   • Destination: Your personal email address (for example, your-email@gmail.com)

6. Select Save.

Test your forwarding rule

Verify that your routing rule is working:

1. Send an email from another email account to your newly created address (for example, support@yourdomain.com).

2. Check the destination inbox for the forwarded email.

3. If you do not see the email right away, check your spam folder.

Route to Workers

Use Workers to process emails with custom logic before forwarding or responding.

Create an email processing Worker

1. Create a new Worker project:

   npm create cloudflare@latest email-processor

   When prompted, select "Hello World" Worker as the template. Then navigate to the project directory:

   cd email-processor

2. Install the required package for creating email replies:

   npm install mimetext

3. Add the nodejs_compat compatibility flag to your Wrangler configuration file. This is required for the mimetext package:

   wrangler.jsonc

   JSONC

   {
     "$schema": "./node_modules/wrangler/config-schema.json",
     "compatibility_flags": [
       "nodejs_compat"
     ]
   }

   wrangler.toml

   TOML

   compatibility_flags = ["nodejs_compat"]

4. Create your email handler in src/index.ts:

   TypeScript

   import { EmailMessage } from "cloudflare:email";
   import { createMimeMessage } from "mimetext";
   
   // ============================================
   // Configuration - Update these values
   // ============================================
   const YOUR_DOMAIN = "yourdomain.com"; // Replace with your verified domain
   const FORWARD_TO_EMAIL = "your-team@company.com"; // Replace with where you want emails forwarded
   
   export default {
     async email(message, env, ctx): Promise<void> {
       const sender = message.from;
       const recipient = message.to;
       const subject = message.headers.get("subject") || "";
   
       console.log(
         `Processing email from ${sender} to ${recipient} with subject ${subject}`,
       );
   
       // Route based on recipient
       if (recipient.includes("support@")) {
         // Send auto-reply
         const msg = createMimeMessage();
         const messageId = message.headers.get("Message-ID");
         if (messageId) {
           msg.setHeader("In-Reply-To", messageId);
         }
         msg.setSender({
           name: "Support Team",
           addr: `support@${YOUR_DOMAIN}`,
         });
         msg.setRecipient(message.from);
         msg.setSubject("We received your message");
   
         // Add plain text version
         msg.addMessage({
           contentType: "text/plain",
           data: "Thank you for contacting support. Your ticket number is 123.\n\nA member of our support team will get back to you shortly.",
         });
   
         // Add HTML version
         msg.addMessage({
           contentType: "text/html",
           data: "<p>Thank you for contacting support. Your ticket number is <strong>123</strong>.</p><p>A member of our support team will get back to you shortly.</p>",
         });
   
         const replyMessage = new EmailMessage(
           `support@${YOUR_DOMAIN}`,
           message.from,
           msg.asRaw(),
         );
   
         await message.reply(replyMessage);
   
         // Forward to support team
         await message.forward(FORWARD_TO_EMAIL);
       } else {
         // Default: forward to admin
         await message.forward(FORWARD_TO_EMAIL);
       }
     },
   } satisfies ExportedHandler<Env>;

   Explain Code

   Update configuration

   Before deploying, update the constants at the top of the file:

   • YOUR_DOMAIN: Your verified domain from the Cloudflare dashboard
   • FORWARD_TO_EMAIL: The email address where you want to receive forwarded emails

5. Deploy your Worker:

   npm run deploy

Configure routing to Worker

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to Email Routing.

   Go to Email Routing

2. Select the domain you want to configure routing for.

3. Select the Routing Rules tab.

4. Select Create Address.

5. Configure Worker routing:

   • Custom address: Enter the local part of the email (for example, support for support@yourdomain.com)
   • Action: Send to a Worker
   • Worker: Select your email-processor Worker

6. Select Save.

Test your email routing

After configuring the routing rule, test that it works:

1. Send an email from your personal email account to the address you configured (for example, support@yourdomain.com).

2. Check your FORWARD_TO_EMAIL inbox for the forwarded email.

3. If the recipient email was support@, you should also receive an auto-reply at your personal email address.

Next steps

Now that you can route emails, explore advanced features:

• Send outbound emails - Send emails from your applications
• API reference - Complete routing API documentation
• Examples - Real-world routing patterns