GuideUpdated October 17, 2026

Connect Gmail to Claude: built-in connector or Command Mail

Claude has a built-in Gmail connector, and for most people with a single Gmail account it is the right choice: go to Customize → Connectors, pick Gmail, sign in with Google, and Claude can search, draft and, after asking you, send. Choose Command Mail instead when Claude should work across several addresses, including ones outside Google, or when you want to set separately what the agent may change in each mailbox and whether it may send.

Command Mail is our product. Both routes are described in full below, including their limits.

Updated: Fact-checked: About 8 min readAs Markdown

Contents
  1. The result
  2. How the two routes compare
  3. Prerequisites
  4. Route 1: Steps for the built-in Gmail connector
  5. What the Gmail connector does well, and its limits
  6. Route 2: Steps for Gmail through Command Mail
  7. Check that it worked
  8. Troubleshooting
  9. When Command Mail is the wrong choice
  10. Next steps
  11. Frequently asked questions
  12. Sources

01The result

With the built-in connector, Claude works directly in your Gmail account. It can search and read mail in plain language, format drafts, manage labels and threads, list saved drafts, and send, reply and forward once you approve.[1]

With Command Mail, Claude works in a separate inbox that receives a copy of your Gmail through forwarding and can hold your other addresses too. You approve scopes when you connect, and set an autonomy level for each mailbox.[8]

02How the two routes compare

If you have one Gmail account and the default approval prompts are enough, use the built-in connector. If you need several addresses or separate rules for sending, use Command Mail.

Claude's Gmail connectorCommand Mail
Accountsthe Google account you connected; check multi-account support in your own Claude appseveral addresses from different providers, up to ten on Pro
Setupa few clicks and a Google sign-inaccount, Gmail forwarding, connector
What Claude works onyour Gmail mailbox itselfforwarded copies, nothing synced back
Sendingasks before each send by defaultnot on Free; from Pro, approval of the reviewed revision or independent sending with a daily limit
Controlapproval prompts; tool permissions set by owners on Team and Enterprisescopes at connection, autonomy per mailbox, activity log; undo for supported sorting actions
Priceavailable to all users, per AnthropicFree; Pro €19 (first 100 paying accounts) or €29 per month

Sources for the table: Anthropic's help pages[1][2] and Command Mail's published details.[8][9]

03Prerequisites

For the built-in connector you need a Claude account on any plan and a Google account with Gmail. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner enables the Google connectors for the organization before anyone can sign in.[1] If your Gmail is a Google Workspace account, your Google admin may also have to trust Claude; the fix is under Troubleshooting.

For Command Mail you also need a Command Mail account and access to your Gmail settings. Free covers one address and the last 90 days, without sending. Pro adds up to ten mailboxes, full history and sending; on 2026-10-17 it costs €19 per month for the first 100 paying Pro accounts and €29 after that, with a 7-day trial for €1.[8]

04Route 1: Steps for the built-in Gmail connector

  1. Open Claude on the web or Claude Desktop.
  2. Go to Customize → Connectors and click the + button next to Connectors.[2]
  3. Find Gmail in the list and review its description and capabilities.
  4. Click Connect and sign in to the Google account whose mail Claude should use.[2]
  5. Google's consent screen mentions permission to send email. That is expected: Claude can send, reply and forward, and asks for your approval first by default.[1] Allow access.
  6. Turn Gmail on in a chat: click + in the lower left (or type /), hover over Connectors, and switch Gmail on.[2]
  7. Ask something you can verify, such as "Which emails from this week still need a reply?" Claude cites the emails it used, with links to the originals when available.[1]

On Team and Enterprise plans, the owner adds the connector in Organization settings → Connectors → Browse connectors → Add to your team, and each member then signs in individually.[2] Owners can also decide, organization-wide, which tools are always allowed, need approval or are blocked, for example allowing search and summaries while blocking sending.[2]

05What the Gmail connector does well, and its limits

For one account, the connector covers daily email work: natural-language search, reading, drafting with context, sending with approval, and tidying labels and threads.[1]

Anthropic lists these current limitations: attachment content is not accessible (metadata only), some advanced Gmail filters may not be supported, complex queries may need several API calls, Google's API quotas apply, and performance may vary for large mailboxes.[1]

Claude can only access the Google account you connected; Anthropic does not state a maximum number of accounts.[1] An open user issue from March 2026 reports that connecting a second Gmail account requires disconnecting the first.[5] Check whether your Claude interface offers another account. Another open issue, filed in October 2026, asks for a way to save a forward as a draft, because the connector's forward tool sends rather than preparing a draft for review.[6]

On data handling, Anthropic says data retrieved through connectors is stored with the chat on its servers and is deleted when you delete the chat. It does not train its models on Gmail connector data. On consumer plans, if you allow training on your chats, content you copy and paste from Gmail may be used, and so may copied Claude responses that include specific information from the connector. The data the connector retrieves directly is not used for training.[1]

06Route 2: Steps for Gmail through Command Mail

Here Claude never touches your Google account. Gmail forwards new mail to a private intake address, and Claude works in Command Mail.

  1. Sign up. On commandmail.app choose Start free. Google sign-in shares only your name, email address, profile picture link and account ID, and gives no Gmail access.[9]
  2. Add your Gmail address as a mailbox. In Connect a mailbox, enter your Gmail address. Command Mail shows an intake address that belongs to this mailbox only. Copy it.[9]
  3. Add the intake address in Gmail. Settings (top right) → See all settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP (or just Forwarding) → Add a forwarding address. Paste the intake address and click Next → Proceed → OK.[7]
  4. Verify. Gmail sends a verification link to the intake address. Open that message in Command Mail and click the link.[7]
  5. Turn forwarding on. Refresh Gmail's settings, select Forward a copy of incoming mail to, choose Keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox, and click Save Changes.[7] Your Gmail stays complete.
  6. Connect Claude. Open Command Mail in the Claude directory and choose Connect.[4] The listing carries the Community label, which means it passed automated checks but is not verified by Anthropic.[4] You can also add it as a custom connector: Customize → Connectors → Add → Custom → Web, enter a name such as Command Mail and the URL https://commandmail.app/mcp, then Continue. Review the detected authentication settings and click Continue again. Under Authentication choose Sign in now, and keep the recommended OAuth client option, Use Claude's published identity; no API key or request header is needed. Click Add, then sign in to Command Mail. On Claude's free plan you can add only one custom connector.[2][3]
  7. Approve permissions. On Command Mail's authorization page, start with mail:read and mail:draft. Grant sending later and on purpose: mail:send-approved sends exactly the revision you approved, while mail:send lets the agent send on its own, with a unique send key per email and a daily limit of 50 by default.[9]
  8. Set autonomy. Under Automation & rules → How much may your agent do?, a new mailbox starts at auto. The agent then carries out sorting actions without asking each time whenever it works; scheduled runs are set up in the agent itself. Archiving, spam, trash, category changes and filing into folders can be undone from the activity log; label changes and sent emails cannot.[10] suggest is the more careful start: supported sorting actions such as archiving, spam and trash wait as suggestions for your decision.[9] This level does not limit sending, and with mail:read and mail:send together the REST API currently allows permanent deletion even under suggest. Do not give an agent that should only sort mail:send.

Command Mail treats email content as untrusted data and flags suspected prompt injection. When an agent replies to a message recognized as automated, for example by Auto-Submitted or mailing-list headers, Command Mail blocks the send.[8] This is not a general block on every message sent to automated addresses.

07Check that it worked

Route 1: Ask Claude to find an email you know exists, for example "Find the last invoice from my phone provider." If it comes back with a source link, the connector works. Ask for a reply draft and then to send it; Claude should ask for your approval first.[1]

Route 2: Send yourself a test message from another account. A few minutes later it should be in Command Mail as well. Then ask Claude: "What can you do in Command Mail, and which mailboxes do you see?" It calls capabilities first and lists your scopes and each mailbox with its autonomy level.[10]

08Troubleshooting

"Please try again. You may need to reconnect with your Google Drive account." Go to Customize → Connectors, open the Google connector, click Disconnect and confirm. The next time you use it, Claude sends you to Google to sign in again. If that fails, remove the connection at myaccount.google.com/connections with Delete all connections.[1]

"Access blocked: your institution's admin needs to review Claude for Google Drive." A Google Workspace admin has to trust Claude: admin.google.com → Security → Access and data control → API controls → Manage third-party app access → Add app → OAuth App Name, search for Claude and set it to Trusted. The change takes about 15 minutes.[1]

Claude answers without looking at your mail. The connector is off for this chat. Click + → Connectors and switch it on.[2]

The Gmail verification message is not in Command Mail. Check that you pasted the whole intake address and that the mailbox is connected.

Spam and older mail are missing in Command Mail. Gmail forwards all new messages except spam.[7] Older mail comes over once from an MBOX export, such as one from Google Takeout, with commandmail import; it is a one-time copy with no ongoing sync.[9]

Archiving in Command Mail did not change Gmail. That is how it works: Command Mail holds copies and does not write back to Gmail.[9]

09When Command Mail is the wrong choice

If you have one Gmail account and want Claude to archive and label inside Gmail itself, the built-in connector is shorter and changes your real mailbox. If you do not want copies of your mail with another provider, note that Command Mail is operated by FYN Labs LLC in the United States, with hosting and database at Cloudflare and attachments stored in Cloudflare's EU region.[11] And if Claude should send mail for you, Command Mail's free plan will not do it.

10Next steps

If you also use Outlook or your own domain, Use multiple email accounts with Claude or ChatGPT shows how to bring every address together. Commands for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents are on For agents; scopes, autonomy and the CLI are in the documentation.

Start Command Mail free with your Gmail address, then connect it to Claude.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Gmail connector free in Claude?

Anthropic lists no extra charge. Its help page says the Google Workspace connectors for Gmail, Calendar and Drive are available for all users on Claude and Claude Desktop. On Team and Enterprise, an owner has to enable them for the organization first.

Will Claude send an email without asking me?

Not by default. Claude asks for approval before each send, reply or forward. On Team and Enterprise plans, owners decide whether members may let these actions run without asking.

Can Claude read Gmail attachments?

Not through the Gmail connector. Anthropic lists attachment content as a current limitation: Claude sees attachment metadata only.

Can I connect two Gmail accounts to Claude?

Anthropic documents access to the one Google account you connected and no multi-account option. An open user issue from March 2026 reports that connecting a second account means disconnecting the first. Check whether your Claude interface offers another account; otherwise forward both accounts into one mailbox if Claude should see them together.

Does Command Mail get access to my Google account?

No. It only receives the messages Gmail forwards to your private intake address. Signing in with Google shares your name, email address, profile picture link and account ID, nothing from Gmail.

Sources

  1. Anthropic: Use Google Workspace connectors support.claude.com, accessed
  2. Anthropic: Use connectors to extend Claude's capabilities support.claude.com, accessed
  3. Anthropic: Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP support.claude.com, accessed
  4. Claude directory: Command Mail claude.ai, accessed
  5. GitHub issue anthropics/claude-code #36024: Support multiple Gmail accounts in MCP integration github.com, accessed
  6. GitHub issue anthropics/claude-code #100177: Gmail connector: let forward create a draft instead of sending github.com, accessed
  7. Google: Automatically forward Gmail messages to another account support.google.com, accessed
  8. Command Mail: llms.txt with plans, scopes and connection options commandmail.app, accessed
  9. Command Mail: Documentation commandmail.app, accessed
  10. Command Mail: For agents commandmail.app, accessed
  11. Command Mail: Privacy policy commandmail.app, accessed
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