Save by email

How it works

Every collection can have its own email address. Anything sent to that address is saved to the collection as a document and processed like a saved web page, so you can read, search, and Ask AI about it.

Use it for mail that has no web page to save: newsletters, competitor and pricing emails, alerts, and messages a teammate forwards to you.

Find your address

• For a collection: open the collection. The Save by email card shows its address. The first time, choose Create email address.
• Your own address: your account page has Your save address, which saves to your own collection.

Use Copy to copy the address. You need a paid seat and permission to edit the collection (Can edit or Can manage) to see an address. Anyone with that access shares the same address, so a team's forwards land in one place.

Each address is a readable name followed by a long random part, so it can't be guessed. Treat an address like a password: anyone who has it can send mail into the collection.

Forward an email

Forward the message to the address from any mail app. Permanent Record unwraps the forward, so the document shows the original sender, date, and content, with the subject as its title. Anything you write above the forwarded message is kept as the document's note, labeled with who forwarded it. If a forward can't be unwrapped, it's saved as it arrived.

Subscribe to a newsletter

Sign up for the newsletter with the address instead of your own. Issues then arrive in the collection on their own.

Most newsletters send a confirmation email first. It's saved like any other email. Open it and click the confirmation link — links in a saved email open in a new tab. Confirmation links also appear in the document's Links section.

Forward automatically from Gmail

1. In Gmail, open Settings → See all settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
2. Choose Add a forwarding address, paste your address, and continue.
3. Gmail sends a confirmation email to the address. Permanent Record usually confirms it for you, and the saved confirmation shows Gmail confirmed this forwarding address.
4. Back in Gmail, create a filter (Filters and Blocked Addresses → Create a new filter) for the mail you want saved and choose Forward it to your address. You can forward all mail instead, but every email saved uses a credit.

If the confirmation says We couldn't verify automatic confirmation, use Open confirmation link to finish the step in Gmail yourself. While the confirmation is the newest email in the collection, the address card also shows whether Gmail forwarding was confirmed.

Forward automatically from Outlook

If your Outlook account allows forwarding to outside addresses, you can create a rule that forwards the mail you want saved to your address, or turn on forwarding in the mail settings. The exact steps depend on your Outlook version.

Work accounts

Many workplaces block automatic forwarding to outside addresses, in both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. If your forwards never arrive, ask your mail admin, or forward messages one at a time instead.

What gets saved

• The email itself: text, layout, and images. Images are fetched when the email is saved and kept in the saved copy, so reading it later never contacts the sender. Images that can't be fetched are left out.
• Tracking: hidden tracking images and known tracking services are skipped. Fetching the other images when the email is saved can still count as an "open" for the sender. Links may go through the sender's tracking redirect when you click them.
• The original message: kept with the document.
• Duplicates: the same email delivered twice to one address is saved once. Two people forwarding the same newsletter make two documents.

Saved emails are marked Email in your library, and the Type filter beside search can show only emails.

Credits, waiting, and limits

Each saved email uses 1 credit, the same as a saved web page. See credits.

When your organization runs out of credits, new emails aren't lost. They wait, up to 1,000 per organization, and are saved automatically when credits come back.

• Owners see a notice with Manage billing. Admins see the waiting count. Members see it on the address card.
• Owners and admins get an email when emails start waiting, and another if the limit is reached.
• Only owners can change billing. See plans & trial.

Senders get a bounce, and the email is not saved, when:

• the waiting limit is reached;
• the organization's plan has ended (the owner sees Choose plan on the card);
• the organization has already accepted 500 emails that day (UTC), including emails waiting for credits. Duplicates and retries don't count twice;
• the organization is out of storage, or the email is larger than 25 MiB;
• the address is turned off or replaced, or no member with a paid seat can edit the collection.

Rarely, an email is accepted and then refused later without a bounce — for example, if Permanent Record was briefly unavailable when it arrived, or a limit was reached or the address changed just before it was saved.

Turn off or replace an address

People who can manage the collection see Turn off and Replace address on the card.

• Turn off refuses new emails.
• Replace address gives the collection a new address and stops the old one for good. Old addresses are never reused. Re-subscribe your newsletters and update any forwarding rules to the new address.

Emails already waiting for credits are still saved after either change.

Deleting

A saved email is a normal document. Deleting it works like deleting any document — it can be restored, and the original message is kept with it until the document is permanently removed. See Documents. Deleting a collection turns off its address and cancels any emails still waiting to be saved.