diff --git a/app/controllers/inbox_controller.rb b/app/controllers/inbox_controller.rb
index 19c6a70d..48cc5675 100644
--- a/app/controllers/inbox_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/inbox_controller.rb
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 class InboxController < ApplicationController
   before_action :authenticate_user!
 
+  after_action :mark_inbox_entries_as_read, only: %i[show]
+
   def show
     find_author
     find_inbox_entries
@@ -77,4 +79,9 @@ class InboxController < ApplicationController
       .joins(:question)
       .where(questions: { user: @author_user, author_is_anonymous: false })
   end
+
+  def mark_inbox_entries_as_read
+    # using .dup to not modify @inbox -- useful in tests
+    @inbox&.dup&.update_all(new: false) # rubocop:disable Rails/SkipsModelValidations
+  end
 end
diff --git a/app/views/layouts/inbox.html.haml b/app/views/layouts/inbox.html.haml
index b54b82b5..cb931773 100644
--- a/app/views/layouts/inbox.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/layouts/inbox.html.haml
@@ -9,6 +9,5 @@
 = render 'shared/links'
 
 :ruby
-  @inbox.update_all(new: false)
   provide(:title, generate_title('Inbox'))
   parent_layout 'base'
diff --git a/spec/controllers/inbox_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/inbox_controller_spec.rb
index 6cb2e128..bc0ba2ad 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/inbox_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/inbox_controller_spec.rb
@@ -58,6 +58,10 @@ describe InboxController, type: :controller do
           end
         end
 
+        it "updates the inbox entry status" do
+          expect { subject }.to change { inbox_entry.reload.new? }.from(true).to(false)
+        end
+
         context "when requested the turbo stream format" do
           subject { get :show, format: :turbo_stream }