How to Connect Gmail to Claude (in 2 Minutes, No Code)

To connect Gmail to Claude, you do two things: connect your Gmail inbox once in the MCP Emails dashboard with a Google app password, then paste a single endpoint URL into Claude's connector settings and approve a sign-in. That's the whole job: no code, no SDK, no API key. It takes about two minutes, and Claude never stores your email: every read and send goes to Gmail live and is discarded the moment Claude has it.

This is the focused, Gmail-only walkthrough. If you run several mailboxes or a non-Gmail provider, the connect any email in under two minutes guide covers Outlook, iCloud, Fastmail, and IMAP too.

What you'll need

• A Gmail or Google Workspace account.
• A version of Claude that supports custom connectors: claude.ai on a paid plan, or Claude Desktop. (Connectors are how Claude talks to MCP servers.)
• A free MCP Emails account. No credit card, one connected inbox, forever. Start free and keep this tab open.

MCP Emails is the bridge in the middle: it speaks the Model Context Protocol to Claude on one side and talks to Gmail on the other, over IMAP by default or through the Gmail API if you sign in with Google. If you want the background on what that means, see what an MCP email server actually is.

Step 1: Connect your Gmail inbox

In the MCP Emails dashboard, open Inboxes → Connect Inbox and choose Gmail. Gmail connects with a Google app password by default:

1. Turn on 2-Step Verification in your Google account if it is not on already. Google only offers app passwords on accounts that have it.
2. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and create one. It is 16 lowercase letters in four groups, and the spaces do not matter.
3. Back in MCP Emails, enter your full Gmail address, paste the app password, and click Connect inbox. The connection is tested against Gmail before it is saved. Done.

Your normal Google password is never used. The app password is a separate credential, MCP Emails encrypts it with AES-256-GCM, and you can revoke it from the same Google page at any time. Underneath, the inbox connects over IMAP and SMTP (imap.gmail.com).

Prefer to sign in with Google?

The connect window also offers a second route: open Prefer to sign in with Google? and click Connect with Google. You pick your account on Google's own page and approve read and send access. Google shows a warning screen first, because Google has not verified the app. To continue, click Advanced, then Go to mcpemails.com.

Which route to choose

Both routes keep working, and the choice decides what Claude can do afterwards:

• App password (IMAP): Gmail labels appear as folders, search uses IMAP text search, and Claude can copy messages and delete them permanently.
• Sign in with Google (Gmail API): Claude works with real Gmail labels and can search with Gmail operators such as from:, is:unread and after:. Deleting moves mail to Trash.

On a Google Workspace account, an administrator can switch app passwords off for the whole domain, or block third-party apps on the Google sign-in route. If one route is blocked, try the other, or ask your admin.

Step 2: Add MCP Emails to Claude

Now point Claude at the same endpoint. Because Claude is an OAuth client, you don't need an API key at all: you paste one URL and approve a sign-in.

1. In claude.ai or Claude Desktop, open Settings → Connectors.
2. Click Add custom connector.
3. Paste this as the connector URL, then click Add:

https://mcpemails.com/api/mcp

4. Click Connect, sign in with your MCP Emails account, and approve the scopes you want: read:email, send:email, or both.

That's the entire client side. The connection is scoped to exactly what you approved, and you can revoke it from the dashboard in one click. If you'd rather understand the API-key path (for clients without built-in OAuth, like Cline or a custom script), read OAuth vs API keys for AI email access.

Step 3: Ask Claude your first prompt

Test it with something small. Ask Claude:

"Summarize my three most recent unread emails."

Behind the scenes Claude calls inbox_list to discover your connected Gmail, then email_read to list and read the messages. If it answers, your connection is live. From there, try:

• "Find the invoice from Stripe last month and tell me the amount."
• "Draft a polite reply to the last email from my landlord, but don't send it yet."
• "Archive every newsletter in my inbox from this week."
• "What did I agree to in my email thread with Acme?"

For a deeper set of patterns (daily triage, auto-summaries, and clean-up routines), see the best ways to let Claude manage your inbox and the triage-and-summarize playbook.

What Claude can do with your Gmail

Once connected, Claude works through a small set of consolidated tools, so it can do far more than read:

• Read & search: email_read (list, read, full-text search, with Gmail operators if you connected with Google sign-in).
• Send & reply: email_compose (send, reply, forward). Messages go out through Gmail as normal mail from your own address, so your domain reputation stays yours.
• Organize: email_organize (move, flag, archive, and labels on the Google sign-in route).
• Drafts, folders, scheduling, contacts: draft, folder, schedule, and contact_search round out the set.

One thing to expect up front: MCP Emails is poll-based. There are no push webhooks, so Claude reacts to new mail when you ask it to check, not the instant a message arrives. For almost every assistant workflow, that's exactly the right model.

Is it safe to connect Gmail to Claude?

Short version: yes, and the design is built around it.

• Your email is never stored. Bodies, subjects, and attachments are fetched live on each call, handed to Claude, and dropped immediately. The only thing persisted per inbox is the encrypted credential: your app password, or the OAuth token if you signed in with Google. Here's why "email is never stored" actually matters.
• You control scope. Approve read-only and Claude literally cannot send. Approve both and you can still revoke either at any time.
• No password sharing. Your normal Google password never reaches MCP Emails. An app password is a separate credential you can revoke at myaccount.google.com/apppasswords, Google sign-in uses OAuth, and you can disconnect the inbox from the dashboard either way.

The full threat model (what's encrypted, what an attacker would and wouldn't see) is laid out in is it safe to give an AI agent email access?

FAQ

Do I need an API key to connect Gmail to Claude? No. Claude supports OAuth, so you paste the endpoint URL and approve a sign-in. API keys are only for clients without built-in OAuth.

Does Claude store my Gmail messages? No. Email is fetched live from Gmail on every request and discarded right after Claude reads it. Nothing is retained except your encrypted credential (the app password, or the access token if you signed in with Google).

Can Claude send email from my Gmail? Yes, if you grant the send:email scope. Sends go out through Gmail as normal messages from your own account. Grant read-only if you'd rather Claude never send.

Does this work with the free Claude plan? Custom connectors require a Claude plan that supports them (claude.ai paid or Claude Desktop). The MCP Emails side is free with no card.

Will MCP Emails see my Google password? No. You paste an app password, a separate credential that Google generates and you can revoke, or you sign in with Google over OAuth. Your normal Google password is never entered anywhere in MCP Emails.

Wrap-up

That's the whole thing: one Google app password, one endpoint URL, and Claude can read, search, and send your real mail, without ever storing it. The Free tier costs nothing, needs no card, and connects one inbox; Personal is $9/month for up to three inboxes, and Pro connects every mailbox you own (see pricing).

Ready? Connect your Gmail free, paste the endpoint into Claude, and ask it to summarize your unread mail.