> For the complete user guide index, see [llms.txt](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/llms.txt).

# Portrait by email

[Canonical page](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/integrations/portrait-email/)

## Applicability

- **Task:** Connect a Portrait identity and use Easel by email
- **Access:** Linked Portrait account with full Easel access, or separately approved email-only trial; any required organization setup
- **Audience:** Portrait users and admins configuring a connected surface
- **Surfaces:** email
- **Availability:** Production with surface-specific setup
- **Content type:** how-to
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-09-22

Email a research request to [easel@portraitresearch.com](mailto:easel@portraitresearch.com) from the address linked to your Portrait account. A response can use supported sources available to that account and include citations where source and licence permit.

Use email to ask Easel a question and continue it by replying. The linked account's [usage limits](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/more/usage/) and data access apply. A conversation can expire, so keep essential context in the question when returning to old work.

> [!IMPORTANT] Using a linked Portrait product account by email requires full Easel access. The separate email-only trial below has different access and limits. If Portrait replies that your account is not enabled for the email assistant yet, [contact the team](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/more/contact-us/).

## Email-only trial

Approved senders can use a separate [email-only trial](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/integrations/email-trial/) without app access. If your reply says access is being confirmed, wait for the answer in that thread; normally there is no need to resend. The trial has a five-message allowance, and reconnecting does not reset it. Results must be usable in the email body or delivered attachments; My Library and app sign-in are not recovery paths for this identity.

The account-linking instructions below apply to existing Portrait product accounts.

## Connect your Portrait account

1. **Send a question to [easel@portraitresearch.com](mailto:easel@portraitresearch.com)** from the email address on your Portrait account. For your first test, send it directly without other recipients or attachments.
2. **Open the Connect Portrait link** in the reply. Check the address shown on the connection page, then select **Continue to Portrait sign-in**.
3. **Sign in to the Portrait account that owns that address.** If your browser is signed in to a different account, switch to the correct account before completing the connection.
4. **Check for Connected.** When the page says your question is on its way, return to your inbox: the original question is submitted automatically and the answer arrives on the same thread. Follow the page's instruction to reply if it asks you to continue by email.

The sign-in link is single-use and expires after one hour. If you see **Link expired**, or sign-in fails, send another email to obtain a new link. This is separate from an established account connection: if that connection expires or is revoked, Portrait asks you to reconnect when you next email.

## Ask a question

Put the research question in the body; use the subject to identify the work. For example: “Summarize Microsoft's most recent quarterly earnings release and cite the source.” Specify a company, period, and any sources you want used.

Write follow-up instructions above the quoted email history. Wait for the answer before sending the next follow-up so the conversation follows your intended order.

This channel accepts research questions from the linked person. Automated replies, delivery reports, mail from infrastructure senders, and messages marked `Auto-Submitted` with a value other than `no` are discarded without a response. Messages that fail transport authentication are also discarded. For agent or scheduled-system integration, use a provisioned programmatic surface such as the [Portrait CLI](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/integrations/portrait-cli/); do not use email delivery as an execution API.

**Reply on the thread to keep going.** The thread continues one conversation, so follow-ups use its retained context. Quoted history from your reply is stripped, so Portrait works from your new words rather than re-reading the conversation. **A new email starts a fresh session when Portrait accepts its first research turn.**

**Forward relevant context.** When you forward something, the forwarded material is passed to Portrait along with whatever you wrote above it. Keep long source material in attachments: the extracted email body is limited to 50,000 characters, so text beyond that limit is omitted.

**Completed answers can include addresses you copied.** When Easel is visibly addressed in **To** or **Cc**, the completed answer replies to the sender and up to 10 other **To/Cc** addresses. When Easel was Bcc'd, the answer goes only to the sender. The cap counts addresses, not the people behind a group or distribution-list address. Do not include a group address—or anyone else—unless every recipient may receive account-entitled output.

If the message carries mailing-list or bulk-delivery signals, a linked owner's question can still run, but the completed answer goes only to the sender. Copying another person does not make them the session owner or grant them access to linked Portrait items.

Answers are formatted replies. Available source links open either the Portrait item or the originating website; display, linking, and access remain subject to the source and licence.

Email replies contain formatted answers and available links. Where attachment delivery is enabled, eligible PNG charts, PDF, CSV, plain-text, JSON, Excel, and Word files can also arrive in the reply. A generated file is not guaranteed to arrive as an attachment. Product-account users can use its Portrait link; email-only trial users should request a supported attachment or the content in the email body. Input and output formats have different limits; see [Research outputs and file formats](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/reference/output-formats/).

## Send attachments

Attach supported files and explain what to do with them in the email body. Portrait saves the attachments before using the available readable content in your question. Attachments are saved to an **Email attachments** folder in [My Library](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/documents/my-library/), so they stay available for later work in the app.

Up to **10 attachments** per email, each up to **20 MiB**. Oversized files and files beyond the saved-attachment limit are skipped; the reply identifies skipped or failed files. Your mail provider may impose a lower total message limit. If uploads are disabled for your account, attachments are not saved.

**Images are the exception.** An image pasted into the body of your email is ignored, and an attached image file is saved to My Library but Portrait usually cannot read what is in it. Send the numbers or text you want analyzed in the email itself, or attach a PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, HTML, or plain-text file.

## Good to know

* **Only the thread's owner can ask.** Replies from anyone else do not run a question, so nobody's research usage is charged to the wrong account.
* **A conversation can be open in one place at a time.** If Portrait says the conversation is currently open in the Portrait app, close it there and reply again.
* **Files and charts can arrive in the email where delivery is enabled.** Eligible PNG charts up to 1 MiB can appear inline in the HTML reply. Larger charts and supported files can arrive as attachments, with limits of 10 MiB per item, 12 MiB combined, and 10 items per turn. The plain-text reply and items that cannot be attached retain Portrait links. Previously delivered files may not be attached again in later replies.
* **An expired conversation can lose its earlier context.** If the reply says the previous conversation expired and is starting fresh, restate the context needed for your question. If Portrait asks you to start a new email, do so.

## Verify the connection

1. Send a low-risk question from the connected address, such as the public-company example above.
2. Confirm that the answer arrives on the same thread, then reply with a short follow-up and check the response.
3. Open an available citation and confirm that it supports the answer. If you attached a file, check the reply's saved-file link and **Email attachments** in My Library; a saved file is not proof that its content was successfully read.

## If no reply arrives

Start with these checks:

1. Confirm that you sent a new message directly to **easel@portraitresearch.com** from the address on your Portrait account, rather than from an alias or shared mailbox associated with another identity.
2. Look for both the connection email and the answer in spam, deleted items, and quarantine. For provider-specific help, see [Gmail missing messages](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7015314?hl=en) or [Microsoft 365 quarantined messages](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-office-365/quarantine-end-user). Your mail administrator may need to review or release a quarantined message.
3. If the message passed through a forwarding service or automated system, ask your mail administrator to check delivery and sender authentication. Automated messages and authentication failures can be discarded without a reply; do not remove protective headers to bypass that check.
4. If connection succeeded but the question remains unanswered, try one short follow-up without attachments. Avoid repeated retries while a question may still be running.

If a message or connection page explains the failure, use the matching recovery:

| What you see | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| **Link expired** | Send another email and use its new connection link. An already-used link cannot complete another sign-in. |
| **Linking failed** because the account does not own the email address | Switch to the Portrait account that owns the sender address, then request a fresh link. |
| **Linking not completed**, or sign-in could not be completed or verified | Request a fresh link and complete sign-in. If it fails again, contact support with the message shown. |
| **Something went wrong on our side** on the connection page | Contact Portrait support; changing your email client will not resolve this connection error. |
| Linked Portrait account not enabled for the email assistant | Ask your Portrait administrator or support to confirm full Easel access. For an email-only trial, follow its admission or allowance notice in the same email thread instead. |
| Connection expired or revoked | Use the new **Connect Portrait** link in the reply. |
| Thread runs as another user's Portrait account | Start your own new email. Being copied on a thread does not let you ask through its owner's account. |
| Conversation currently open in the Portrait app | Close that conversation in the app, then reply again. |
| Conversation expired | Follow the reply's instruction to start a new email, or restate context if it says it has started fresh. |
| Usage exhausted | Check [Usage and limits](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/more/usage/) and your account's allowance before retrying. |
| Capacity temporarily unavailable or too many requests | Wait briefly and retry once. If it persists, contact support. |
| Attachment skipped, not saved, or not readable | Check the reply's file-specific note, upload access, size, and format. Send readable text or a supported document when an image cannot be read. |
| Answer arrives without a generated attachment | For an email-only trial, reply and request the content in the body or a supported attachment. For a product account, open the file's Portrait link. If the link itself fails, check access from the connected account and contact support if needed. |

If these checks do not resolve the issue, [contact Portrait support](https://portraitresearch.com/documentation/more/contact-us/) with the send time and timezone, sender domain, mail provider, the error shown, and whether the failure occurs before or after **Connected**. Do not send sign-in links, credentials, or private research content. Describe the subject without including sensitive details.