The Palos Publishing Company

Follow Us On The X Platform @PalosPublishing
Categories We Write About

Monitor email inbox for specific keywords

To monitor an email inbox for specific keywords, you typically need a script or tool that:

  1. Connects to your email account (via IMAP or an API),

  2. Scans incoming emails,

  3. Checks for specific keywords,

  4. Takes an action (e.g., alerting, tagging, moving the email, etc.).

Here’s a basic example in Python using the imaplib and email libraries:


Python Script to Monitor Email Inbox for Specific Keywords

python
import imaplib import email from email.header import decode_header # Email credentials EMAIL = "youremail@example.com" PASSWORD = "yourpassword" IMAP_SERVER = "imap.gmail.com" # Change based on your provider # Keywords to look for KEYWORDS = ["urgent", "invoice", "payment due", "meeting"] # Connect to the server mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(IMAP_SERVER) mail.login(EMAIL, PASSWORD) mail.select("inbox") # Search for all unread emails status, messages = mail.search(None, 'UNSEEN') # Convert messages to a list of email IDs email_ids = messages[0].split() for email_id in email_ids: status, msg_data = mail.fetch(email_id, "(RFC822)") for response_part in msg_data: if isinstance(response_part, tuple): msg = email.message_from_bytes(response_part[1]) subject = decode_header(msg["subject"])[0][0] if isinstance(subject, bytes): subject = subject.decode() # Get email body (only text/plain parts) body = "" if msg.is_multipart(): for part in msg.walk(): if part.get_content_type() == "text/plain": body = part.get_payload(decode=True).decode() break else: body = msg.get_payload(decode=True).decode() content = subject + " " + body if any(keyword.lower() in content.lower() for keyword in KEYWORDS): print(f"Keyword found in email with subject: {subject}") # You can add more actions here (send alert, move email, etc.) mail.logout()

Notes:

  • If using Gmail, you may need to generate an App Password or enable Less Secure Apps.

  • For production, schedule this script (e.g., via cron or a background service).

  • You can also integrate alerts via SMS, Telegram, Slack, etc.

Let me know if you’d like a version that monitors continuously or stores matches in a database/spreadsheet.

Share this Page your favorite way: Click any app below to share.

Enter your email below to join The Palos Publishing Company Email List

We respect your email privacy

Categories We Write About