When you set up Zendesk Support, you have one related email address: support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com. Emails received at this address become tickets.
For each support address you add, the from address will match the support address the ticket is sent to. For example, tickets sent to help@acme.zendesk.com will reply from help@acme.zendesk.com.
Understanding the support address end-user experience
When you add a support address, a preview pane shows you exactly what end-users will see in their email in-boxes so you understand the end-user experience.
What end-users see as the from address depends on whether you are using a Zendesk address or an external email address to receive support requests. Also, using personalized replies changes the way the Reply From looks to end-users.
Using Zendesk email addresses as support addresses
If you are using Zendesk email addresses, the following table shows what the Sent To and Reply From addresses might look like when users email one of your known support addresses.
Sent to (address the user sends email to) | Reply from (address the user sees in the reply email) | Example |
---|---|---|
support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com | Support address name <support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com> | Acme Support <support@acme.zendesk.com> Note: If the support address
does not have a name, the Reply From looks like this:
<support@acme.zendesk.com>
|
help@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com | Support address name <help@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com> | Acme Help <help@acme.zendesk.com> |
sales@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com | Support address name <sales@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com> | Acme Sales <sales@acme.zendesk.com> |
Using external email addresses as support addresses
Sent to (address the user sends email to) |
Reply from (address the user sees in the reply email) |
Example |
---|---|---|
support@mycompany.com | Support address name <support@mycompany.com> | Acme Support <support@acme.com> Note: If the support address does not
have a name, the Reply From looks like this:
<support@acme.com>
|
help@mycompany.com | Support address name <help@mycompany.com> | Acme Support <help@acme.com> |
sales@mycompany.com | Support address name <sales@mycompany.com> | Acme Support <sales@acme.com> |
Using personalized replies with support addresses
When personalized replies is enabled, the Reply From address will match the support address it was sent to and it will also include the replying agent or end user's name.
For information about using personalized replies, see Enabling personalized email replies.
The following table shows what the Sent To and Reply From addresses might look like when you have personalized replies enabled, and users email one of your known support addresses.
Sent to (address the user sends email to) |
Reply from (address the user sees in the reply email) |
Example |
---|---|---|
support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com | User Name (Support address name) <support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com> | Claire Grenier (Acme Support) <support@acme.zendesk.com> Note: If the
support address does not have a name, the Reply From looks like this: Claire
Grenier <support@acme.zendesk.com>
|
sales@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com | User Name (Support address name) <sales@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com> | Ben Gunther (Acme Sales) <sales@acme.zendesk.com> |
support@mycompany.com | User Name(Support address name) <support@mycompany.com> | Claire Grenier (Acme Support) <support@acme.com> |
sales@mycompany.com | User Name (Support address name) <sales@mycompany.com> | Ben Gunther (Acme Sales) <sales@acme.com> |
Adding support addresses
- Connect external address Use this option to add an existing external email addresses.
- Create new Zendesk address Use this option to add variations of your Zendesk
email address.Note: There is also a Connect Other option for adding support addresses that should be used cautiously. For more information, see this support tech note.
Your original system support address always appears at the top of your list of support addresses, followed by your default support address, if it's not the same as your system support address. Every time a ticket is created from an email that was sent to one of your support addresses, the verification timestamp for the support address is updated.
This section covers the following topics
Adding a Zendesk support address
Zendesk addresses are variations of your original support address, support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com. For example, help@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com. You can add as many support addresses as needed.
The following video gives you an overview of how to create custom email addresses:
Creating custom email addresses [0:50]
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
- In the Support addresses section, click Add address, then select Create
new Zendesk address.
- Enter an address you'd like to use for receiving support requests.
- Click Create now.
The email address is added to your list of support addresses.
Adding an external support address
External email addresses are owned and maintained by you, outside of your Zendesk. For example, support@mycompany.com. If you add an external email address, additional steps are required to set up email forwarding from your email server to Zendesk.
It is not recommended that you use a distribution group email or an email alias as an external support address.
The following video gives you an overview of how to connect your existing support email:
Connecting your existing email account [1:39]
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
- In the Support addresses section, click Add address, then select Connect
external address.
- Enter your existing support email address, then click Go.
If you have a Gmail address, and expect low volume, you can instead create tickets automatically from emails received in your Gmail inbox.
- Complete the on-screen steps to set up forwarding on your email server.
This is done outside of your Zendesk, and the exact steps depend on your mail server.
For help, see Forwarding incoming email to Zendesk Support.
- After you set up email forwarding on your server, click Yes, I finished, then
click Verify.
A test email is sent to that address to verify that you've set up forwarding properly. If successful, a message indicates the address is verified.
If the test fails, you are alerted. After resolving issues, you must perform the verification again.
If you resolve the forwarding issue, but do not retry the forwarding check, email sent to the email address will create tickets, but will not send Zendesk Support notification emails.
After you set up forwarding, you should add an SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record to verify that Zendesk can send outgoing email on behalf of your email server. This is optional, but recommended.
Accepting wildcard email addresses for support requests
As an alternative to, or in addition to, using support addresses, you can enable end-users to send email to any variation of your Zendesk address, regardless of whether it's as a known support address. For example, if a customer misspelled your support email address (for example, biling@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com) the email can be accepted and a ticket created. These types of variations are referred to as wildcards. This option can be used as an alternative to, or in addition to, support addresses.
For example, you don't need to explicitly declare any of these email variations in your Zendesk.
Wildcard email addresses use your default support address as the Reply From address. So any email sent to a variation of your Zendesk Support email address that is not a known support address, will use your default support address as the Reply From. If you have multiple brands, the default support address for your default brand will be used as the Reply From.
To enable wildcard email addresses
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
- Click Enable for Accept wildcard emails.
- Click Save.
Removing a support address
You can remove any support address, except the original system support address (support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com), your Gmail connector address (if any), or your current default support address. If you selected another support address as your default (other than your system support address) you can delete that support address if you make another support address the default first.
When you delete a support address, outgoing email notifications will no longer be sent from that address. Any tickets using the deleted support address will be given to the default address.
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
- In Support addresses, hover over the address you want to remove, then click
Delete.
You cannot delete your original system support address (support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com) or your Gmail connector address, if any. You also cannot delete your current default support address while it is the default (if you selected a support address other than your system support address as your default). To delete that support address, make another support address the default first.
- In the confirmation, click Delete address.
Alternatively, if you do not want to delete the address, close the confirmation box to cancel the action.
The support address is removed from your list.
Setting a default support address
Remember, when you created your Zendesk, one email address was set up for you: support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com. This system support address is used as your default support address, unless you change the default.
Your default support address is used as the sending address for notifications when a ticket is created manually, when a ticket is sent directly to your default support address, or when a ticket is created through a channel other than email.
Additionally, the default support address is used as the Reply From address in replies to users when you have the wildcard emails option enabled, and an end-user sends email to an address that is not a known support address.

You can change the default support address at any time. The option to make a support address the default will only appear if the address has been verified (see Adding support addresses).
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
- In Support addresses, hover over the address you want to make the default, then
click Make default.
The label (default) appears beside your new default address, and that address moves up under your system support address in your support addresses list.
Editing support addresses
You can edit the name of an existing support address, but you cannot edit the email address for an existing support address. If you need to edit the email address itself, delete the support address and add it again.
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
- In Support addresses, click Edit beside the support address you want to edit.
- Add, change, or remove the support address name.
- Click Save.
The updates to your address appear in the support addresses list.
Receiving email at your support addresses
Emails sent to any of your known support addresses become tickets in your Zendesk. And, if you have enabled wildcard emails (see Accepting wildcard email addresses for support requests), then emails sent to any variation of your Zendesk address, regardless of whether it's a known support address, become tickets in your Zendesk.
For tickets received via email, you can see which address it was sent to at the top of the ticket.
You can set up business rules, views, and SLA policies for tickets sent to your support address by using the "Ticket: received at" condition.
If you have set up multibrand, then the ticket receives the brand associated with the support address the email was sent to (see Adding email support addresses for multiple brands).
3 Comments
Hi, Is it possible to reduce the 65000 character limit for the "Receiving email at your support address" ?
There's no way to adjust this character limit since this is hard-coded into the software.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
It may be worth taking a look at our App Marketplace to see if there's a 3rd party integration that can help accomplish what you're looking for.
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