Connect WEB.DE to Claude,
and Cursor, ChatGPT, any MCP client
Give your AI agent a real WEB.DE inbox in minutes. Read, search, send, reply, schedule and organize mail with IMAP and your account password, and use the same inbox in every MCP client, not just one.
Claude cannot reach WEB.DE on its own. MCPEmails is a hosted MCP server that connects it over IMAP using your account password, so Claude, Cursor or any MCP client can read, search, send and organize that mail. Setup takes a couple of minutes and one inbox is free.
How WEB.DE connects: IMAP and your account password
WEB.DE connects over IMAP/SMTP, but POP3 and IMAP access is switched off by default. Turn it on in WEB.DE under E-Mail-Einstellungen (email settings), E-Mail empfangen, POP3/IMAP, then connect with your WEB.DE address and password. WEB.DE answers on both standard outgoing transports, implicit TLS on port 465 and STARTTLS on port 587, so the port is almost never the reason a send fails. MCPEmails uses the 465 pair below and falls back to the other on its own.
The exact WEB.DE IMAP and SMTP settings
Copy these into the connect form. MCPEmails prefills them where it can, and retries the other standard transport if the first does not answer.
| Protocol | Server | Port | Security |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMAP (incoming) | imap.web.de | 993 | TLS (implicit) |
| SMTP (outgoing) | smtp.web.de | 465 | TLS (implicit) |
Verified 2026-08-31: imap.web.de answered a TLS connection and identified itself as an IMAP server under that name. It advertises LOGIN, PLAIN authentication.
Sign in with: Your full WEB.DE address, including the domain: name@web.de.
A WEB.DE inbox your agent can actually use
19 action-based MCP tools: send, reply, forward, schedule, and organize. Your agent finishes the job inside WEB.DE.
- 01Read
Read & search mail
List, read and search across folders to find that invoice, summarize a thread, or pull the latest from a sender.
- 02Send
Send, reply & forward
Compose and send real messages, reply in-thread, and forward, directly from your mailbox, not as a draft you finish by hand.
- 03Schedule
Schedule for later
Queue a message to go out at the right time, so your agent can draft now and send on schedule.
- 04Organize
Move, copy, flag, archive, delete
Keep the inbox tidy: file mail into folders, flag what matters, archive the rest, or delete on request.
Connect WEB.DE in four steps
From sign-up to first AI email in a couple of minutes.
Create a free account
Sign up for MCPEmails, no card required. The free plan connects one inbox, forever.
Turn on IMAP access in WEB.DE
In WEB.DE, open E-Mail-Einstellungen (email settings), choose POP3/IMAP under E-Mail empfangen, and move the slider to POP3- und IMAP-Zugriff erlauben (allow POP3 and IMAP access).
Add the mailbox in MCPEmails
Choose IMAP / SMTP, add your WEB.DE address, the hosts above and the password to connect the inbox securely.
Paste the MCP URL into your AI
Drop https://mcpemails.com/api/mcp into Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT, authorize, and your agent has the inbox.
Step-by-step guides: How to connect Claude to your email · Claude IMAP connector guide
Comparing providers first? See the email provider compatibility matrix
Use WEB.DE in ChatGPT
ChatGPT reaches WEB.DE through a custom MCP connector. That needs developer mode, which works on chatgpt.com with Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu.
- Connect WEB.DE to MCPEmails with the steps above.
- In ChatGPT, open Settings, Apps and Connectors, Advanced settings, and turn on Developer mode.
- In Apps and Connectors, click Create, paste
https://mcpemails.com/api/mcpas the Connector URL, choose OAuth and sign in to MCPEmails. - In each new chat, click +, choose Developer mode and select your connector.
What actually goes wrong with WEB.DE
POP3 and IMAP retrieval is switched off until you turn it on
WEB.DE ships every FreeMail mailbox with external retrieval disabled, and it is the reason most WEB.DE client setups fail on the first attempt. Sign in at web.de, click the circle with your initials in the top bar, open E-Mail-Einstellungen, and under E-Mail empfangen choose POP3/IMAP. Move the slider to POP3- und IMAP-Zugriff erlauben and solve the small puzzle WEB.DE shows, where you drag two symbols on top of each other. Until that slider is on, imap.web.de refuses every login with an authentication failure, which is indistinguishable from a wrong password.
WEB.DE switches the access back off again if nothing connects for a while
This one catches people months later. WEB.DE documents that if you do not use the program or app for an extended period, retrieval over POP3 and IMAP is automatically switched off again. So a connection that worked perfectly all year can start failing after a quiet spell, with no notification and no change at your end. If an inbox that used to work suddenly stops, check the slider before you touch the password. An agent that reads the mailbox regularly keeps the access alive on its own.
Turning on two-factor authentication retires your password for mail clients
WEB.DE files its app password under two-factor authentication and describes it as the password for external mail programs over POP3 and IMAP. Once 2FA protects your account, create one in a browser: click your initials, then Account verwalten, then Login & Sicherheit, then App-Passwörter (für externe Apps), then Neues App-Passwort erstellen. Name it, for example MCPEmails, and copy it at once, because WEB.DE shows it only once. Paste it into MCPEmails instead of your normal password, and keep the normal password for the website. Without 2FA, the account password is the right credential.
Both SMTP ports work, so a send failure is rarely the port
WEB.DE's help lists smtp.web.de on port 587 with STARTTLS, with port 465 and SSL as the alternative, and accepts only TLS 1.2 or 1.3. Both ports work, and our probe completed a TLS handshake on 465 with the server offering PLAIN and LOGIN, so cycling between them is wasted effort. If sending is refused, the cause is the retrieval slider, the missing app password, or the From address: WEB.DE asks you to send only from addresses that verifiably belong to your mailbox.
Known limits with WEB.DE
- MCPEmails connects the WEB.DE mailbox only. WEB.DE Online-Speicher, the address book and the calendar are separate products and are not exposed to your AI client.
- The POP3/IMAP slider is WEB.DE's to control, not ours. If WEB.DE deactivates retrieval after a long idle period, the connection has to be re-enabled in WEB.DE before it works again.
- WEB.DE is a consumer mailbox with its own anti-abuse sending limits. Use it for ordinary correspondence, not for bulk or campaign sending.
WEB.DE and AI: common questions
Does Claude work with WEB.DE?
Not on its own. Claude has no built-in WEB.DE connector. Pointing an MCP server such as MCPEmails at your WEB.DE mailbox over IMAP gives Claude read, search, send, reply, schedule and organize access to it, and the same connection then works from Cursor, ChatGPT and other MCP clients rather than only one.
What are the WEB.DE IMAP and SMTP settings?
IMAP is imap.web.de on port 993 with SSL. SMTP is smtp.web.de, on port 587 with STARTTLS as WEB.DE documents it, or on port 465 with SSL, which is what MCPEmails uses. The username is your complete WEB.DE address including the domain. Both hosts were confirmed from a live TLS connection on the date shown on this page.
How do I enable IMAP in WEB.DE?
Sign in at web.de, click your initials in the top bar and open E-Mail-Einstellungen. Under E-Mail empfangen choose POP3/IMAP, then move the slider to POP3- und IMAP-Zugriff erlauben and complete the drag puzzle WEB.DE shows. Retrieval is off by default on every mailbox, so this step is required before any client can log in.
Why is my WEB.DE password rejected?
Almost always one of two things. Either POP3 and IMAP retrieval is switched off in your WEB.DE settings, which produces a plain authentication failure with no hint of the real cause, or you have two-factor authentication enabled and need an application-specific password instead of your account password. Check the slider first, because it is the more common of the two.
Does WEB.DE need an app password?
Only if you have two-factor authentication turned on. With 2FA off, your normal WEB.DE password authenticates mail clients once retrieval is enabled. With 2FA on, create an App-Passwort under Account verwalten, Login & Sicherheit, App-Passwörter (für externe Apps), and use that in MCPEmails. WEB.DE shows it only once; if you lose it, delete it and create a new one.
Is my WEB.DE mail stored on your servers?
No. Messages are fetched live from WEB.DE over IMAP for each request and handed to your AI client. Credentials are encrypted at rest and message bodies are not retained.
Can ChatGPT read my WEB.DE mail?
Yes, once WEB.DE is connected to MCPEmails. In ChatGPT, add a custom MCP connector with the URL https://mcpemails.com/api/mcp and OAuth sign-in. Custom connectors need developer mode, which works on chatgpt.com with Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu. ChatGPT gets only the access you approve, and your mail is fetched live, never stored.
Give your AI a WEB.DE inbox
Connect WEB.DE in minutes. One inbox free forever, no card required.