Features
Everything Premail does
A companion app for Mac, Windows, and Linux that runs quietly in the background, next to whatever email client you already use. No plugins, no Premail account, no servers processing your private data. It watches your inboxes, classifies mail with AI, and handles it the way you would by hand.
How it works
A background companion that handles email the way you would
Premail is not a plugin or extension. It is its own quiet app that watches your inboxes and acts on new mail the moment it arrives, so you can keep using whatever email client you already use.
Works with every email client
Apple Mail, Gmail in the browser, Outlook, Thunderbird, Spark, Superhuman, anything. Premail acts on the inbox itself, so it does not care which app you read your mail in.
Acts the way you would
Each rule answers one question: what would you normally do with this email by hand? Archive the recruiter. Trash the cold pitch. File the receipt. Premail does that, automatically.
Quiet by default
Most mail is handled before you see it. Occasionally your client downloads a message before Premail acts, so it may appear in your inbox for a moment before it disappears.
AI Model
Your AI, your keys, your choice
Premail has no servers processing your private data. Every AI classification call goes directly from your computer to the provider you choose. We never see your API key, your prompts, or the contents of your email.
Ollama (local)
Runs a model directly on your computer. No data leaves your machine, ever. Free to use once installed. Ideal when full privacy is non-negotiable. We recommend the qwen3 model for best results.
Anthropic (Claude)
Bring your own Anthropic API key. Calls go directly from your computer to Anthropic's API. Excellent accuracy with Claude models.
OpenAI (GPT)
Bring your own OpenAI API key. Classification requests travel directly from your computer to OpenAI. Billed to your own account.
No Premail servers processing your private data
Premail is a native desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux with no backend touching your email. Your email credentials, rule settings, and activity log live only on your machine. When cloud AI is used, requests go straight from your computer to the provider. Premail is never a middleman.
Rules
Powerful, adjustable filtering rules
Each rule uses AI confidence scoring. Adjust the threshold per rule to balance aggressiveness vs. false positives. Rules can archive, trash, move to a folder, or quarantine email.
Core filters
Catches unsolicited sales outreach and B2B cold pitches.
Removes low-quality spam that slips past your mail provider.
Silently archives newsletters you signed up for but rarely read.
Filters promotional emails from brands and ecommerce senders.
Advanced filters
Filters headhunter messages and job opportunity outreach.
Detects mass emails disguised with fake personalization.
Handles unsolicited academic and industry conference promotions.
Filters donation solicitations and fundraising campaigns.
Catches commission-driven product recommendation emails.
Inbox organizers
Move transactional mail into dedicated folders rather than deleting it.
Commerce
Receipts and invoices
Shipping
Package tracking
Security Alert
OTPs and login codes
Travel
Flights and bookings
Finance
Bank and investment alerts
Custom Rules
Describe what to filter in plain English
Write a rule the same way you would explain it to a colleague. The AI figures out the rest. Set a confidence threshold and choose the action. Rules apply automatically from that point on.
- + AI generates a title automatically as you type
- + Adjustable confidence threshold per rule
- + Archive, trash, move to folder, or quarantine
- + Optional mark-as-read on match
- + Import and export rules as JSON
Example custom rules
"Emails promoting SaaS tools or software products"
Action: Archive
"Partnership and collaboration requests from people I don't know"
Action: Archive
"Crypto and NFT promotions"
Action: Trash
"Follow-up emails from vendors after a demo"
Action: Archive
Rule Packs
One-tap presets for common scenarios
Rule packs are curated configurations built for specific situations. Apply one or more to instantly tune your filtering without building rules from scratch.
Clean Inbox Basics
All four core filters at conservative thresholds. Good starting point for everyone.
Recruiter Shield
Archives headhunter and job opportunity outreach automatically.
Conference Spam Killer
Silences conference invitations and academic event marketing.
Startup Founder Pack
Filters AI-generated partnership pitches and fundraising solicitations.
Physician Pack
Handles pharma affiliate marketing, conference spam, and recruiter noise.
Commerce Organizer
Moves receipts, invoices, and billing emails to a Commerce folder.
Shipping Organizer
Routes package tracking and delivery updates out of your inbox.
Security Organizer
Keeps OTPs and login verification codes in a dedicated folder.
Travel Organizer
Files flights, hotel bookings, and itineraries in one place.
Finance Organizer
Separates bank alerts and investment notifications from your inbox.
Contacts
Sync your address book so people you know are treated like it
Pull contacts from each connected Gmail, Outlook, or iCloud account. Synced contacts default to Rules Apply: rules still run, but cold-email, spam, recruiter, and similar stranger-detection rules are suppressed because the sender is someone you know. Promote individuals to Allowed to bypass rules entirely, or to Blocked to auto-trash.
- + One toggle per account, manual refresh, no background sync
- + Three-state segmented control per contact: Rules Apply, Allowed, Blocked
- + Search, filter by state, and bulk-update selections
- + Cross-account dedupe with source badges showing where each contact came from
- + Contact data is never sent to any Premail server. Premail has no servers processing your private data. Provider calls go directly from your computer to Google, Microsoft, or Apple.
Example synchronized contacts
Alex Park
alex@acme.co
Mom
mom@icloud.com
Persistent Recruiter
r@bigfirm.com
Old Vendor
sales@vendor.io
Allowlist and Blocking
Fine-grained sender controls
Rules make broad decisions; sender controls let you override them for specific domains.
Allowlist
Mark trusted domains to always bypass filtering. No matter what the AI thinks, these senders are never touched.
Blocked Domains
Explicitly block senders that slip through the rules. Anything from a blocked domain is trashed immediately.
Unsubscribe Protection
Prevent Premail from auto-unsubscribing from specific senders you actually want to stay subscribed to.
Subscriptions
Find and kill subscriptions in bulk
The Subscriptions tab scans your inbox, groups messages by sender, and lets you unsubscribe from dozens of lists in one pass. Premail clicks the unsubscribe link so you don't have to.
- + AI classifies which emails are subscription-based
- + Grouped by sender list with message counts
- + One-click or bulk unsubscribe
- + Post-unsubscribe action: archive or trash the thread
- + Auto-unsubscribe mode per account
- + Saved scan results so you can continue where you left off
Morning Brew
84 emails
ProductHunt Digest
61 emails
TechCrunch Newsletter
47 emails
Startup Grind Weekly
23 emails
Learning Mode
Watch before you let it act
Every account starts in Learning mode. Premail classifies new mail and shows exactly what it would do, without moving, archiving, or trashing anything. Flip an account to Live when you trust the results.
- + See "Would archive" previews in the Activity log
- + Nothing in your mailbox is touched until you go Live
- + Go Live per account, on your own schedule
- + Premail confirms first, then runs the backlog it previewed
In Learning mode
Inbox Cleaner
Clear your existing backlog
Rules protect you going forward. The Inbox Cleaner handles what is already there. Scan your existing inbox, apply your rules to the backlog, and act on everything in one pass.
- + Scan recent inbox messages in bulk
- + Live classification queue so you can watch it work
- + Applies the same rules as your real-time filter
- + Review results before committing actions
- + Scan state is saved so large runs can be resumed
Example clean run
Dropzone
See exactly what Premail would do with any email
Drop an .eml file onto the Dropzone and Premail immediately tells you what it would do. See which rule matched, why, and what action would have been taken. Useful for debugging rules or verifying a new rule works as expected.
- + Drag and drop any .eml file
- + Full rule trace showing every decision step
- + Shows which rule matched and at what confidence
- + Apply suggested rule changes directly from the result
- +Explain why a rule did or did not match Pro
Drop an .eml file here
Premail will show you exactly what it would do and why
Activity
ProA full audit trail of every action
Premail logs every email it acts on so you always know what happened and why. Nothing is a black box. The full Trace audit trail is included with Premail Pro.
Rule trace
Expand any activity item to see the step-by-step trace of every rule that was evaluated and why it passed or failed.
Action from activity
Allowlist a sender, add a custom rule, or adjust an existing rule directly from the activity log without switching tabs.
Per-account metrics
Each connected account tracks rules matched, actions taken, mark-as-read, blocks, and unsubscribe completions over time.
Analytics
ProSee exactly how much inbox Premail has handled for you
A persistent dashboard of everything Premail has done, with date-range filters, per-action and per-account breakdowns, and an honest estimate of the manual triage time it has saved you. Available with Premail Pro.
Headline KPIs
Emails handled, total time saved, and average time saved per email, on any date range from today to all time.
Activity over time
A stacked bar chart of every action Premail has taken. Buckets shift automatically: hourly for short ranges, daily for medium ones, weekly for longer windows.
By action and by account
Breakdowns show which rule outcomes did the most work and which inbox they happened in. A lifetime card at the bottom keeps running totals you can watch climb.
Accounts
Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud. Multiple accounts.
Premail monitors each connected account continuously and applies your rules the moment new mail arrives, no matter which email client you use to read it. The free plan supports up to 2 personal inboxes. Work and professional inboxes, plus unlimited accounts, are included with Premail Pro.
Gmail (OAuth)
Connect with Google sign-in. Premail requests only the mail permissions it needs and nothing else.
Outlook (OAuth)
Connect personal Microsoft accounts (outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com) with Microsoft sign-in.
iCloud Mail
Connect using an app-specific password generated from your Apple ID. Your Apple password is never entered into Premail.
Multiple accounts
Run personal and professional inboxes side by side. Each account has independent enable/disable and auto-unsubscribe controls.
Privacy
Built private by design
No Premail account required. There is no sign-up, no email address collected (Stripe collects an email for payment receipts if you upgrade to Pro), and no user profile. You download the app and start using it.
Credentials stay on your computer. Your Gmail and Outlook OAuth tokens and iCloud App Password are stored in your local OS keychain. Premail never transmits them anywhere.
Rules and settings are local. Your filtering rules, thresholds, allowlist, and activity log exist only on your machine.
Fully offline with Ollama. Run Ollama locally and not a single byte of your email leaves your machine. No cloud, no API key, no monthly bill.
BYOK for cloud AI. With Anthropic or OpenAI, you supply your own API key. Classification requests go directly from your computer to the provider. Premail is never in the middle and never sees your AI calls.
Open activity log. Every action Premail takes is logged locally so you can audit exactly what happened to any email.