AI Acquisition
Cold Email Agent

Connect Existing Instantly Accounts to the Cold Email Agent

This guide walks you through connecting your Instantly.ai account to the AI Acquisition platform. Once connected, Instantly serves as the cold email sending engine for all your campaigns in the Cold Email Agent.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  • An active Instantly.ai account (sign up at instantly.ai if you don't have one)

  • Access to your Instantly.ai API key with proper permissions

  • Access to the AI Acquisition platform

You only need to connect Instantly once. After connection, it will handle email sending for all campaigns you create in the Cold Email Agent.

Step 1: Get your Instantly API key

You'll need to generate an API key from your Instantly account:

  1. Log in to app.instantly.ai

  2. Navigate to Settings → Integrations → API keys

  3. Click Create new key

  4. Name your key (e.g., "AI Acquisition Platform")

  5. Select the all:all scope to ensure full access for campaigns, emails, and webhooks

  6. Click Create and copy your new API key

Keep your API key secure. Anyone with this key can access your Instantly account through the API. Don't share it publicly or commit it to version control.

Step 2: Connect Instantly to the platform

Once you have your API key, connect it to the AI Acquisition platform:

  1. Go to Dashboard → Cold Email Agent

  2. Click the Connect Instantly.ai option

  3. In the connection modal, paste your API key into the API Key field

  4. Optionally configure advanced settings

  5. Click Connect Account

You'll see a success message when the connection is established. The platform status will update to show "Connected".

Once connected, Instantly will automatically handle email sending for all your cold email campaigns.

Troubleshooting

"No campaigns found" error

If you see this error after entering your API key, try these solutions:

  • Verify your API key is correct - Copy it again from Instantly and make sure there are no extra spaces

  • Check your API key scope - Ensure you selected "all:all" when creating the key

  • Create a campaign in Instantly first - Your Instantly account needs at least one campaign set up

"Invalid API key" error

This means the API key couldn't be validated. Common causes include:

  • The key was copied incorrectly (check for missing characters)

  • The key has been deleted or revoked in your Instantly account

  • The key hasn't been saved properly in Instantly yet (wait a moment and try again)

If you continue experiencing issues, generate a new API key in Instantly with the "all:all" scope and try connecting again. You can delete the old key once the new one works.

Next steps

After connecting your Instantly account:

  • Create cold email campaigns in the Cold Email Agent

  • Add leads and email content to your campaigns

  • Launch campaigns to start sending through Instantly

  • Monitor performance, replies, and engagement data in real-time

Additional resources

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