---
title: Role Accounts
description: What makes an address a role account, why the field describes the local part rather than the domain, and what it implies about who is behind the address.
---

A role account is an address that stands for a function rather than a person: `support@`, `admin@`, `billing@`, `info@`, `sales@`. Mail sent to one usually lands in a shared inbox that several people read, and the address outlives whoever happens to staff it.

`role_account` is `true` when the local part of the address, the part before the `@`, is one of these. It describes the address rather than the domain, so it is returned by the [email endpoint](/docs/api/email-endpoint) only, and is available in Gates as `email.role_account`.

## What counts as a role account

The recognized set is broader than the handful of obvious ones. Alongside `support` and `admin` it covers functions like `billing`, `careers`, `compliance`, `hr`, `it`, `legal`, `mail`, `marketing`, `noreply`, `office`, `orders`, and many more.

Common variants are recognized as well, as the examples below show: a subaddress tag or a suffix like `-eu` does not hide the role, while a word that merely starts with a role name, like `supporter`, is not one.

## Examples

| Address | `role_account` | Why |
|---------|----------------|-----|
| `support@github.com`     | `true`  | A function, not a person |
| `support-eu@github.com`  | `true`  | A variant of `support` |
| `support+urgent@github.com` | `true` | The tag does not hide the role |
| `supporter@github.com`   | `false` | A different word, not a variant of `support` |
| `jane@github.com`        | `false` | An individual's address |
| `admin@gmail.com`        | `true`  | Only the local part is matched, on any domain |

## Reading the field

A role account is a legitimate, working address. Organizations publish them deliberately and read the mail sent to them. What the field tells you is that the address is not tied to one individual: it may be read by a team and handled by different people over time.