How to Convert MBOX to JSON for Email Analysis

Want to know who you email most, when you're busiest, or how many newsletters you never read? Your Gmail Takeout has the answers, but MBOX is awkward to parse. JSON drops straight into pandas, a notebook or a quick Node script.

Output shape

[
  {
    "subject": "Your receipt #1042",
    "from": [{ "name": "Stripe", "address": "receipts@stripe.com" }],
    "to": [{ "name": "", "address": "you@gmail.com" }],
    "cc": [],
    "date": "2024-03-18T09:12:00.000Z",
    "text": "Amount paid: $49.00…",
    "html": "<table>…</table>",
    "attachments": [{ "name": "receipt.pdf", "type": "application/pdf", "size": 30720 }]
  }
]

How to convert MBOX to JSON with ZapMorph

1. Open the converter

Go to the MBOX to JSON converter.

2. Add your mailbox

Drop in the .mbox file.

3. Convert and download

Click Convert to JSON.

A quick analysis in Python

import json, collections
emails = json.load(open("Inbox.json"))
senders = collections.Counter(e["from"][0]["address"] for e in emails if e["from"])
print(senders.most_common(10))

That's your top ten senders in four lines.

More questions your email can answer

When are you busiest? (pandas)

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_json("Inbox.json")
df["date"] = pd.to_datetime(df["date"])
print(df["date"].dt.day_name().value_counts())   # emails per weekday
print(df["date"].dt.hour.value_counts().sort_index())  # emails per hour (UTC)

How many newsletters?

news = [e for e in emails if "unsubscribe" in (e["text"] or "").lower()]
print(len(news), "emails mention unsubscribe")

Biggest attachments:

files = [(a["size"], a["name"], e["subject"]) for e in emails for a in e["attachments"]]
for size, name, subject in sorted(files, reverse=True)[:10]:
    print(f"{size/1e6:.1f} MB  {name}  ({subject})")

Tips

• Huge Takeout? Use a streaming parser like ijson so you don't load gigabytes into memory.
• Local AI: feed the text field into a local model or a vector database to search your mail by meaning.
• Privacy: your mailbox never leaves your device during conversion. Keep the JSON somewhere safe too.

Related

• MBOX to CSV if you'd rather use a spreadsheet.
• JSON viewer to explore the output.
• MBOX counter for quick stats without code.

Summary

The MBOX to JSON converter turns a mailbox into structured data that's ready for analysis.