How to Extract OTP Codes with AI Agents in 2026

The Problem

AI agents like OpenClaw, Browser Use, and custom LangChain agents need to sign up for services, verify accounts, and extract one-time passwords. But email verification is the last manual step in an otherwise automated pipeline.

The traditional approach — polling a Gmail inbox with IMAP, parsing HTML, and extracting codes with regex — is fragile, slow, and doesn't scale. You need a purpose-built API.

The Solution: 3 Lines of Code

With SandMail, your agent creates a disposable inbox, waits for the verification email, and extracts the OTP — all in one API call:

import { SandMail } from 'sandmail';
const client = new SandMail('sk_live_your_key');

// 1. Create a disposable inbox
const inbox = await client.createInbox({ domain: 'tempyx.com' });

// 2. Use the email to sign up for a service
await signUpForService(inbox.email);

// 3. Wait for the OTP (blocks until email arrives)
const otp = await client.waitForOTP(inbox.email, { timeout: 30 });

console.log(otp.code);       // "847291"
console.log(otp.confidence); // "high"
console.log(otp.type);       // "numeric_6"

// 4. Clean up
await client.deleteInbox(inbox.email);

Python Version

from sandmail import SandMail

client = SandMail("sk_live_your_key")

inbox = client.create_inbox(domain="tempyx.com")
otp = client.wait_for_otp(inbox.email, timeout=30)

print(f"Code: {otp.code}")        # "847291"
print(f"Confidence: {otp.confidence}")  # "high"

How OTP Extraction Works

SandMail's OTP extractor analyzes the email subject and body using pattern matching across 15 languages:

• Numeric codes (4-8 digits): "Your code is 847291", "OTP: 4829", "PIN: 123456"
• Alphanumeric codes: "Your code is A3B-7K2"
• Verification links: Magic links containing /verify, /confirm, /activate
• Multi-language: English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and more

Each result includes a confidence level:

• high: Code found near explicit keywords like "verification code", "OTP", "PIN"
• medium: Code found near general trigger words within 80 characters

Real-time with Webhooks

For production pipelines, use webhooks instead of long-polling. SandMail POSTs the email data (with extracted OTP) to your URL as soon as it arrives:

// Register a webhook
const wh = await client.createWebhook('https://myapp.com/webhook');

// Your server receives:
{
  "event": "message.received",
  "data": {
    "recipient": "agent_x7k@tempyx.com",
    "has_otp": true,
    "otp": {
      "code": "847291",
      "confidence": "high",
      "type": "numeric_6"
    }
  }
}

With MCP (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf)

If your agent runs inside Claude Code or Cursor, install the MCP server:

npm install -g sandmail-mcp

Then ask your AI: "Create a temporary email and get me the verification code from Twitter." The agent handles everything automatically.

Pricing

SandMail offers a free tier (500 requests/month) to get started. No credit card required. See pricing plans.