Getting started

Sign in

Sign in with Google, or with your email address: MailCheap emails you a code to type in. Each code works once, for 5 minutes, so there's no password to remember. Codes only go to addresses that can receive email: a misspelled one like gmail.co gets the right spelling back, and throwaway inboxes can't open an account.

Set up your newsletter

The first time you sign in, MailCheap asks four things:

• Your newsletter's name.
• What it's about, in one line, under its name on your signup form and website. You can skip it.
• Who it's from: the name your readers see in their inbox.
• Whether you have subscribers already, and where they are now, so MailCheap can suggest the plan that fits one issue a week.

You can change all of it later in the newsletter's settings.

Before you pick a plan

Without a plan, you can still set up your newsletter, write and preview drafts, upload pictures, and add up to 3 contacts a day by hand. Sending, test emails, imports, your own domain, API keys and AI assistants start with a plan. See Plans and billing.

Send your first issue

Until they're done, a list of these steps sits at the bottom right of the dashboard, for the newsletter that's open: its issues and subscribers count for it alone, while your domain and AI agent count for all your newsletters. Close the list and it stays closed for that newsletter, on every device. Your other newsletters, and the ones you add later, keep theirs. With a plan, that corner then offers an email from MailCheap to reply to, so its next emails reach your inbox. Getting MailCheap's emails in your inbox

1. Write your first issue. Start a draft from the Campaigns page. It saves as you type. Writing an issue
2. Add your subscribers. Import a CSV file from the platform you're leaving, or add people one by one on the Contacts page. Importing contacts
3. Send from your domain, if you want to. Until then, each newsletter sends from its shared address, like hello@your-newsletter.mailcheap.ai. Sender addresses and domains
4. Send your first issue. Open your draft, send yourself a test, then send it now or schedule it. Sending and scheduling
5. Connect your AI agent, if you use one. ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex or Grok Bot can write, test and schedule issues for you. API and AI assistants

The sidebar

The sidebar lists your newsletter's pages, then your account's, like the Domains page. The button next to MailCheap at its top folds it down to its icons, for more room on the page. Folded, it opens over the page while your mouse is on it and folds back when you move away. To keep it open, click that button again, or the MailCheap logo on a touch screen. Your browser remembers your choice.

While you edit a campaign, the sidebar also folds down on its own to leave the issue more room. The next page shows it open again, unless you folded it yourself.