IMAP Email in n8n: Email Trigger vs IMAP Community Nodes

n8n has one built-in IMAP node, the Email Trigger (IMAP), which starts a workflow when an email arrives. It doesn’t list, search, move or flag emails in a mailbox; for that, n8n users install an IMAP community node. This guide covers the built-in trigger and its credential (from n8n’s documentation) and the IMAP community packages on our hub (from the descriptions and READMEs their authors publish on npm, and our own download data).

Quick comparison

The Email Trigger (IMAP) node

Its one operation is Receive an email. You set:

• Mailbox Name: the mailbox to watch.
• Action: None leaves new emails unread, Mark as Read marks them as read.
• Download Attachments: n8n’s documentation advises turning it on only if needed, since it adds processing.
• Format: RAW (the full message, base64url encoded), Resolved (all data resolved, attachments as binary data) or Simple (the full email, not for inline attachments).

Two options: Custom Email Rules, search criteria in the format of the node-imap library that decide which emails are fetched, and Force Reconnect Every Minutes, an interval after which n8n reconnects.

The IMAP credential

You need the email address as User, a Password (your own or an app password, whichever your provider asks for), the Host (often imap.<provider>.com) and the Port, by default 993, plus whether to use SSL/TLS and allow self-signed certificates. For Gmail, n8n’s Gmail IMAP guide says to turn on 2-step Verification, generate an app password, and enter it with the host imap.gmail.com and port 993. The documentation has similar guides for Outlook.com and Yahoo.

IMAP community nodes

Our IMAP email hub lists 16 packages that pass our quality rule, with 2,140 npm downloads a week between them. The most downloaded, with the description each author gives on npm (weekly npm downloads as of 28 October 2026):

Versions and dates come from the npm registry.

n8n-nodes-imap

The most installed IMAP package by far. Its README lists:

• Mailbox: list mailboxes with their status, get a mailbox’s status, create and rename a mailbox (deleting one is disabled on purpose).
• Email: list emails with a limit, download attachments, delete permanently, move, copy, set or remove flags (seen, answered, flagged, deleted, draft) and create a draft.

It reuses the credential of n8n’s built-in IMAP trigger and supports only username and password, not OAuth2. For troubleshooting, the README describes a debug mode: set N8N_LOG_LEVEL=debug and N8N_NODES_DEBUG_ENABLED=true, restart n8n, and the node gets an extra debug output. The README also says the package can’t be verified for n8n Cloud under n8n’s current rules, because verified packages may not have external dependencies and it needs imapflow, mailparser and nodemailer, so it is meant for self-hosted n8n.

Other IMAP packages

• n8n-nodes-imap-enhanced: returns the body as text, Markdown and HTML, and can search several mailboxes, or all of them, in one operation.
• n8n-nodes-imap-agent: written for use as an AI Agent tool, with descriptions aimed at language models and search criteria as separate fields. It supports passwords and OAuth2 (XOAUTH2), though per its README it doesn’t refresh tokens itself. Its trigger only emits mail that arrives after activation and reconnects with backoff when the connection drops.
• n8n-nodes-imap-advanced: Message, Thread and Mailbox nodes with threading from email headers, custom keywords, attachments as binary data, and a trigger that can use IMAP IDLE or polling. It reuses n8n’s IMAP credential.
• n8n-nodes-imap-ai: list, get, search (simple or advanced, run on the server), move, mark as read or unread, and delete, with AI agent support; last released in June 2025.

Check each node page here for the latest release and, where it has one, its GitHub repository for open issues before you build on a package.

How to choose

• Start a workflow when an email arrives: the built-in Email Trigger (IMAP).
• Move, flag, copy or delete emails, or manage mailboxes: n8n-nodes-imap, the most used package.
• Email bodies as Markdown, or searches across mailboxes: n8n-nodes-imap-enhanced.
• An AI agent that works in a mailbox: n8n-nodes-imap-agent.
• Gmail or Outlook with their own APIs instead of IMAP: n8n’s built-in Gmail and Microsoft Outlook nodes.

To install a package on a self-hosted instance, an owner or admin enters its npm name in Settings > Community Nodes; full steps are in How to Install n8n Community Nodes. On n8n Cloud only verified community nodes can be installed, see Verified vs Unverified n8n Community Nodes. To work with PDF attachments, see PDF in n8n.

FAQ

Does n8n have an IMAP node?

Yes, the Email Trigger (IMAP), which receives emails and starts a workflow. Operations such as moving or flagging emails come from community nodes like n8n-nodes-imap.

What can I check when the IMAP trigger doesn’t work?

From n8n’s documentation: the credential’s host and port (993 by default) and the SSL/TLS setting, and whether your provider wants an app password; Gmail does, after you turn on 2-step Verification. The trigger also has a Force Reconnect Every Minutes option that reconnects on a fixed interval.

Can I use n8n-nodes-imap on n8n Cloud?

Its README says no: it can’t be verified under n8n’s current rules because it needs external libraries, so it is meant for self-hosted n8n.

What is the most used IMAP community node?

n8n-nodes-imap, with 1,969 weekly npm downloads on 28 October 2026.