AI Labeling settings in Master Inbox: provider choice between OpenAI, Anthropic and OpenRouter, your own API key, model selector, custom prompt and the default labels
AI Labeling

Every reply labeled the moment it lands. Your labels, your key.

Thirteen labels out of the box, or replace them with your own prompt and taxonomy. Runs on your OpenAI, Anthropic or OpenRouter key, so you pay your provider's rate and nothing is marked up.

Free 7-day POC. Unlimited users on every plan. Labels apply to email and LinkedIn alike.

The thirteen default labels

Enough to run a reply desk on day one. Every one can be renamed, recolored, or replaced by your own set.

Positive
Meeting RequestInterestedInformation RequestReferral
Neutral
Not Right NowWrong PersonOOO SequenceAutomated ResponseUnable to Categorise
Negative
Not InterestedSales PitchAngry ResponseAdd to Blocklist

Out-of-office replies get their own label on purpose: they are not a no, and the return date inside them is a follow-up waiting to be scheduled.

Your provider, your key

Bring your own model

Pick OpenAI, Anthropic or OpenRouter, paste the key, choose the model. Tokens are billed by your provider at your rate. The settings page shows exactly how many replies were labeled, how many are pending, and what it cost in tokens.

A custom endpoint option covers teams routing through their own gateway.

Enable AI Labeling

On per workspace, so a client can run its own key and its own taxonomy.

Label old replies

Backfills the history you import, so views and reports are right from day one.

Relabel ongoing conversations

An Interested thread that turns into Not Right Now gets relabeled when the next reply lands.

Use your custom prompt

Replaces the default labels with your own taxonomy. The built-in prompt is shown in full, so you edit it rather than guess at it.

What a label carries

A label is not just a color. Three properties decide how the rest of the inbox treats the reply.

Sentiment

Positive, neutral or negative. Feeds the positive rate in reporting and the client-facing views that show only the good news.

Obligation

Whether your team now owes a reply. Obligations are what the SLA clock, reply coverage and the Needs Reply view are built on.

Origin

Whether the label was applied here or synced from the sequencer. Label sync runs both ways, so Smartlead or Instantly see the same outcome.

Single label per prospect is a switch: on, and a prospect holds one current status; off, and a thread can carry several labels at once.

What the label sets in motion

Labeling is the first step, not the feature. Everything downstream keys off it.

  • Views. Needs Reply, Waiting on me, interested this week: saved views are label queries, so the person covering ten clients sees only their slice.
  • Workflows. Add Label is the most used trigger. Interested lands in Slack, moves to a list and updates the CRM without anyone opening the thread. See workflows.
  • Reply agents. Autonomy is granted per label. Interested can run itself while Angry Response is always held for a human. See reply agents.
  • Reporting. Positive rate, coverage and missed replies are all computed from labels and obligations. See reporting.

Noise stays out before it is labeled

Warm-up mail and forwarded duplicates never reach the queue, so the labeler only sees real replies.

Exclusions in Master Inbox: warm-up code tags hidden from the inbox, a forwarding blocklist that dedupes forwarded emails, and a domain blocklist
  • Warm-up codes. The tags your warm-up tool stamps on messages are listed once and hidden everywhere, with auto detection for new ones.
  • Forwarding blocklist. When a client forwards a thread back in, the duplicate is folded into the original instead of becoming a second conversation.
  • Domain blocklist. Whole sender domains kept out, applied to replies only if you prefer.

Beyond the label: Sales Intelligence

The same key can pull structured facts out of every inbound reply and store them on the prospect.

Sales Intelligence in Master Inbox: extraction packs for contact identity, intent, pricing signals, availability and tool mentions, with extraction counts

Packs decide what is extracted: contact identity and intent always, then pricing and terms, service area and timing, and the tools and vendors a prospect mentions. Phones and LinkedIn URLs found in signatures land on the record, and the Found Phone Number trigger can hand them to a workflow.

Questions we get

Which models can I use?
OpenAI, Anthropic or OpenRouter, on your own API key, with a model selector per workspace and an optional custom endpoint. The default is a small, fast model because labeling does not need a large one.
What does labeling cost?
Your provider's token rate, billed by them. Master Inbox shows the emails labeled, pending and failed, and the total tokens, so the cost is never a surprise.
Can I use my own labels instead of the defaults?
Yes. Turn on your custom prompt and your taxonomy replaces the thirteen defaults. The built-in prompt is shown in full so you can edit it rather than start from a blank box.
Does it label LinkedIn replies?
Yes. LinkedIn conversations from HeyReach, Expandi, Aimfox and native seats are labeled with the same taxonomy, and the prompt can be taught how short LinkedIn replies read.
What happens when a conversation changes direction?
With relabel ongoing conversations on, the next reply re-runs the labeler, so an Interested thread that becomes Not Right Now updates itself, and the reporting follows.
Do labels sync back to Smartlead or Instantly?
Yes. Label sync runs both ways where the sequencer supports it, and the origin property shows which side applied the label. Teams that want one side to win set that in the integration.
What about warm-up emails?
Excluded before labeling. Warm-up code tags are hidden, forwarded duplicates are folded into the original thread, and whole domains can be blocked.

See it on your own inboxes

Book a demo and watch a week of your own replies get labeled while we talk.

Book a demo