Connect Gmail to your digital life with IFTTT's Gmail automations

Gmail is where a large portion of your life ends up at some point, from receipts, meeting notes, files people send you, to replies you keep meaning to write. Managing all of that by hand is a real time killer, and Gmail's built-in tools can only take you so far before you're back to doing things manually.

Gmail automation with IFTTT closes that gap without asking you to write a single line of code. In this guide, you'll find the most useful Gmail automations available today and exactly how to set each one up.

What is Gmail automation (and why should you use it)?

Gmail automation just means letting something else handle the repetitive parts of email for you, like saving attachments, sending replies, generating a summary, or firing off messages based on something happening elsewhere in your day.

Gmail's own tools (filters, canned responses, the vacation responder) handle a few of these cases inside Gmail itself. What they can't do is connect to anything outside Gmail, which completely changes the game. That's the gap IFTTT fills: we connect Gmail to over 1,000 other apps and services, so your email stops being an island and starts working with everything else you already use.

How to connect Gmail with IFTTT

Connecting Gmail takes under two minutes, and is doable by anybody, even those with zero technical background. Here are the steps:

1. Go to ifttt.com and create a free account.
2. Search for "Gmail" in the Explore page, or head straight to the Gmail page on IFTTT.
3. Click Connect and sign in with your Google account.
4. Grant the permissions IFTTT requests. You're only granting access to what a specific Applet actually needs, and IFTTT never sells or shares your data with any third party.
5. Choose a ready-made Applet, or build your own from a trigger and an action.

Building your own Applet is the best way to gain full control over your custom automation. Luckily, it's super easy with our logic-based builder. For a walkthrough on all things Applets, check out our setup guide here.

Browse all Gmail Applets on IFTTT

A note on using Gmail as a trigger on IFTTT

One thing worth knowing is that Gmail can currently only be used as an action on IFTTT. A few years ago, Google tightened API access to Gmail inboxes, and therefore IFTTT can no longer have direct access to this data.

What still works without any hitch is IFTTT's separate Email service: a dedicated forwarding address that triggers an automation whenever you send or forward a message to it, tags in the subject line included. It covers most of the same ground for attachments, tagged requests, and anything else you'd want to hand off from your inbox on purpose.

To learn more about setting up a general Email-based automation and see real-world examples, see our article here.

How to automate emails with the most useful IFTTT workflows

Save attachments to Google Drive automatically

Attachments get buried in Gmail fast, and searching for one weeks later rarely works if you can't remember who sent it. Forward or send a file to IFTTT's Email address, and it's saved straight to a Google Drive folder automatically without you digging through your inbox later.

Automated emails from outside triggers

With IFTTT, almost anything can trigger Gmail to send an email. An RSS feed can trigger a daily digest email. A new row in a spreadsheet can trigger a notification email to a client. A scheduled time each morning can trigger a reminder email to yourself. These are all useful on thier own, and can be customized to your liking with message title, body, and a mail send delay.

Auto-reply to emails with ChatGPT

Forward or send an email to IFTTT with a specific tag in the subject line, and IFTTT can pass it to ChatGPT and send you back a drafted response by email. You choose which emails get this treatment simply by tagging them, so it never touches anything you didn't flag yourself.

Email AI meeting summaries from Google Docs notes

Drop your raw meeting notes into a Google Doc, and IFTTT can generate an AI summary, complete with takeaways and action items, and email it to you automatically. If you are sick of retyping notes into a clean summary after every call, this is the automation for you.

Is Gmail automation free?

Yes. IFTTT's free plan includes two Gmail Applets and unlimited runs, with no credit card required to start. If you want faster Applet execution or a higher number of active Applets running at once, paid plans are available, but nothing in this guide requires one to get started.

Email automations for all sorts of users with IFTTT

Our services don't end at just Gmail. IFTTT offers integrations with all of the biggest mail providers, as well as many niche options to make sure that you can achieve the exact automation you are dreaming of. We're also constantly adding new services, so if your service of choice isn't yet added, it might be on it's way!

Better email management with IFTTT

Gmail automation doesn't require code, any expensive tools, or programming knowledge. Gmail with IFTTT is still one of the most useful actions on our platform, and combined with IFTTT's Email forwarding address, we cover what people actually want: saving attachments, getting AI-drafted replies, and sending emails automatically from everything else in your day.

If you'd like to get started with IFTTT or just take a look around our site, click the button below.