SMS to Email — receive text messages in your inbox

Why route SMS to email

SMS-to-email is the simplest way to receive text messages from a business phone number without writing code or running infrastructure. Customers send a text the way they always do; the message arrives in your inbox the way you already work. No new tool to learn, no API client to build, no webhook server to host. For low- to medium-volume SMS, email forwarding is the most pragmatic delivery option.

Common use cases

• Sales enquiry inbox. Public-facing number on your website routes inbound SMS to sales@yourcompany.com so the team replies from a shared mailbox.
• Support escalation. Customers text a support number; the message arrives in your help-desk system via email-to-ticket auto-import (Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom Inbox).
• 2FA / OTP capture. Receive verification codes from third-party services on a dedicated DIDHub number, forwarded to a shared inbox the team monitors.
• Voicemail-style alerts. Pair a "send us a text" landing page with email forwarding for asynchronous customer contact — lower friction than a phone call.
• Marketing reply tracking. Campaigns include a unique number per channel; replies route to a campaign-specific email for attribution and follow-up.
• Personal sideline number. Sole traders or contractors receive client texts via email without installing yet another messaging app on their phone.
• Number portability research. Test inbound SMS reachability on a new country's DID before committing to a full SIP integration.

How SMS-to-email delivery works

1. Customer sends a text to your DIDHub number from their handset.
2. The originating mobile carrier delivers the SMS via SS7/SMPP to the terminating carrier — DIDHub's upstream provider in that country.
3. DIDHub's inbound SMS service receives the message, parses headers (sender, timestamp, body, MMS attachments), runs spam filtering, and queues it for delivery.
4. The configured email address receives a formatted MIME email within typically 1-3 seconds of the original SMS being sent.
5. The email's Reply-To is set to a non-functional placeholder so a direct reply doesn't accidentally bounce back to the SMS sender. To respond, use the DIDHub dashboard, the REST API, or pair with SMS-to-webhook for two-way flows.

Delivery is best-effort but typically >99.5% successful. If the destination email server bounces a message DIDHub retries with exponential backoff for up to 24 hours; persistent bounces surface in the dashboard so you can correct the address.

What the forwarded email looks like

Each forwarded SMS arrives as a standard MIME email. The body contains the message text; sender, recipient DID, timestamp, and message ID are exposed as X-DIDHub-* headers so downstream automations (auto-routing rules, ticket creators) can parse them reliably.

From: SMS <sms@didhub.io>
To: support@yourcompany.com
Subject: SMS from +1 415 555 0123 (US)
Date: Wed, 7 May 2026 14:32:18 +0000
X-DIDHub-To: +14155550123
X-DIDHub-From: +14155554567
X-DIDHub-MessageID: msg_a4f9c2b1
X-DIDHub-Country: US
X-DIDHub-Type: SMS
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Hi, I'm looking to port 12 numbers from Twilio.
Can someone call me back to discuss?

--
Reply via the DIDHub dashboard, REST API, or wire up SMS-to-webhook
for two-way conversations: https://didhub.io/sms-to-webhook

For MMS, image attachments arrive inline on email clients that support them (Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook); on text-only clients the images appear as signed URLs in the body that auto-expire after 7 days.

Multiple recipients are supported — configure up to 10 email addresses per DID and every inbound SMS fans out to all of them. Useful for shared inboxes where multiple team members watch the same number.

Setup — 90 seconds in the dashboard

1. Sign up and pick a number from any of the 60+ SMS-capable countries.
2. Dashboard → Numbers → pick the DID → Inbound routing tab.
3. Set SMS delivery to Email.
4. Enter one or more email addresses (comma-separated; up to 10).
5. Optional: tick Include MMS attachments inline, Strip HTML signatures from the SMS body, and Forward delivery receipts.
6. Save → send a test SMS to your DID → confirm the email arrives.

To configure programmatically:

PATCH https://api.didhub.io/v1/numbers/$DID_ID/routing
Authorization: Bearer $DIDHUB_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "sms_delivery": "email",
  "sms_email_recipients": ["support@yourcompany.com", "sales@yourcompany.com"],
  "include_mms_inline": true,
  "forward_delivery_receipts": false
}

Country availability

SMS-to-email works on every DID where DIDHub supports inbound SMS. That's most of the catalog — 60+ countries across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, India, Asia-Pacific, and Australia/NZ. A few country-specific gotchas:

The DIDHub catalog tags every DID with its SMS capability before purchase, so you never buy a number expecting SMS only to find it's voice-only.

Pricing

Inbound SMS is free. The forwarding service — including email delivery, MMS handling, signed-URL hosting for images, multi-recipient fan-out, retry queue, and bounce tracking — is included in the monthly DID rental. There are no per-message charges for receiving SMS in any country.

You only pay for the DID rental itself, which starts from $0.50/month on most geographic numbers. See the per-country pricing on each country guide.

If you decide to send SMS replies via the API later, outbound SMS is billed per message at carrier wholesale plus DIDHub markup — typical rates are $0.005 - $0.05 per message depending on country. Inbound never costs anything.

FAQ

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