Delegate & collaborate on email

You can grant one or more delegates access to your Gmail account. A delegate is someone who can read, send, and delete emails in your account for you. When a delegate sends a message from your account, their email address appears.

A delegate can’t chat with anyone or change your password.

Learn about delegated accounts

Depending on your account, you can:
- Personal @gmail.com account: Add up to 10 delegates.
- Work or school account: Add up to 1,000 delegates.
  - With typical use, 40 delegates can access a Gmail account at the same time. Above-average use by one or more delegates might reduce this number.
  - Automated processes that frequently access Gmail might also reduce the number of delegates who can access an account at the same time. These processes include APIs or browser extensions.
After you add a delegate, they get an invitation email. The invitation expires after a week.
It can take up to 24 hours before a delegate can use your account.
You can’t add delegates to an alternate email address or alias because it’s not a Google Account. Learn how to send emails from a different alias or address.

Learn which features aren’t available for delegated accounts

Important: When you delegate access to your inbox, you grant permission to manage your email only. For your security and privacy, features that integrate with non-email services or sensitive Google Account settings aren’t available to delegates.

Access to Google Account settings
Add attachments to Drive
Add photos and videos from Google Photos
Add to Tasks
Autocomplete
Autocorrect
Chat in Gmail
Client-side encryption
Emoji reactions
Gemini in Gmail
Meet in Gmail
Smart Compose
Smart Reply
Spelling and grammar checks

In addition, the features below aren’t available in Gmail for Android, iPhone, and iPad:

Background sync for messages
Conversation summaries
Custom emojis
Dynamic email
Image settings like “Ask before displaying external images��
Manage blocked users in Chat
Notification settings
Nudges
Smart features and personalization settings

Add a delegate

Important: Before you can add delegates, verify your identity. This confirms you requested the change in your Google Account. Learn how to verify it’s you when you complete a sensitive action.

On your computer, open Gmail.
- You can't add delegates from the Gmail app.
In the top right, click Settings See all settings.
Click the Accounts and Import or Accounts tab.
In the "Grant access to your account" section, click Add another account.
Enter the email address of the person you want to add.
Click Next Step Send email to grant access.

Remove a delegate

On your computer, open Gmail.
In the top right, click Settings See all settings.
Click the Accounts and Import tab.
In the "Grant access to your account" section, click Delete next to the account you want to remove.

Access a delegated account

After an account owner grants you access, you can access a delegated account.

Step 1: Accept the invitation

Important: You must accept the invitation within a week or it expires.

On your computer, open Gmail.
Check your inbox for an invitation email with the subject line: "[Owner's name] has granted you access to their Gmail account."
Open the email.
Click the confirmation link.

Step 2: Open the delegated inbox

On your computer, sign in to your Gmail account.
At the top right, click your Profile picture .
In the menu, find the account that’s marked as "Delegated."
Click the delegated account's name.
- A new tab opens that shows the owner’s inbox.
To confirm if you’re in the correct account, at the top, check the email address.

Step 3: Switch back to your account

Close the new browser tab for the delegated account.
You can also:
1. At the top right, click your Profile picture .
2. In the menu, select your email address.

Tips:

Do not bookmark the delegated inbox directly. The access link can change.
To ensure reliable access, use the account switcher menu in your Gmail.

Fix issues with delegated accounts

Expand all | Collapse all

There's a delegate on my account that I didn't add

Important: If you have a work or school account, your admin can delegate access to your account. To check if they created delegates for your account, contact your admin.

If there's a delegate on your account that you didn't add, change your password right away.

I can't add a delegate

If you're adding a delegate at your work, school, or other organization, you can only add other people or groups in your organization as your delegate.

If the person is in your organization but you can't add them, check with your admin to make sure delegation is turned on for your organization.

I have a delegate, and got locked out of my account

If you have multiple people at your organization signing in to the same Gmail account from various locations, Gmail might temporarily lock down your account.

The bookmark to access your delegated account is no longer valid

To access a delegated account, you can use the account switcher to switch between your account and other delegated accounts that you have access to.

For best results, delete any saved bookmarks.

A delegate I added can't access my account

If a delegate can't access your account and gets an error instead, check if your delegated account is set to "Require user to change password at next sign-in."

Before delegates can access your account, you need to log in and reset your password.
Make sure your account has "Require user to change password at next sign-in" disabled.

Note: It can take some time, usually up to an hour, before delegates can access your account.

If you can't access a delegated account using a Google Workspace domain, learn how to turn mail delegation on or off.

A delegate is accessing an account with an expired password

If a user account has added a delegated user, the delegated user can still access the account, even if the account password has expired. To prevent ongoing access, either reset the account password, or remove the delegated user.