Overview: Add additional email addresses for users

Learn about the different types of user accounts and how to add email addresses in an organization. 

About Google Workspace accounts

Google supports two types of accounts: a Google Workspace account for Google Workspace ([e-mail]) and a personal gmail.com account ([e-mail]). Google Workspace accounts are created and controlled by a Google Workspace administrator. Personal gmail.com accounts are created and owned by individuals when they sign up for Gmail. 

When your company or school uses Google Workspace, every user gets a unique email address at your organization. For example, Juan has [e-mail] and Emily has [e-mail]. People use this address to sign in to their Google Workspace account and use Google services. As a Google Workspace administrator, you manage users accounts from your Google Admin console.

Many people also have a personal Gmail address that ends in gmail.com ([e-mail]). This address is a separate account that the person created themself by signing up for Gmail at www.gmail.com. A Google Workspace admin has no control over a personal gmail.com account.

To use email with your organization, people should sign in to their Google Workspace account, not their personal gmail.com account. 

Differences between email alias and delegated email

Sometimes a user in your organization needs more than one email address, or they need to read and send email on another user’s behalf. In these situations, you can either create an alternate email address (also known as an email alias) or delegate email. The following table can help you decide which solution works best for you.

	Alternate email address (email alias)	Delegate email
When to use	Helpful for small organizations where users share more than one role.  A user can send and receive email with another email address, all from their existing inbox.	Helpful for medium to large organizations where a user needs another user to respond to their emails. Use delegation to grant one or more people (delegates) access to someone else’s account, such as a manager. Delegates can read, send, and delete messages for the delegated account.
Example	Juan runs a one-person business and needs a separate email address for business inquiries.  In the Admin console, he adds the alternate email address [e-mail] to his [e-mail] account. Juan can now read and send emails for both addresses from his [e-mail] inbox.	A director needs her administrative assistant to send emails in her name.  The director delegates her assistant, [e-mail], access to her [e-mail] account.
Before you begin	You can assign an email alias to only one person’s account. Only that user can send and receive messages using the alias.  Email aliases are not Google Accounts.  You can't create an alias that's already being used as any address in your organization. For example, if you created a Google Account called [e-mail], you can’t create an alias called [e-mail].	You can’t assign delegates to an email alias because an alias can't be a Google Account. Delegated users can’t chat with anyone in the delegated account, or change the password.
Billing	You can add up to 30 aliases per user for no extra cost.	You can add up to 1,000 delegates to a single user account for no added cost.  For optimal account performance, we recommend no more than 40 delegated users per account.
Instructions	Add or delete an alternate email address (email alias)	Delegate a user's email address

 

Note: If several users want to send and receive email from the same email address, they can use Google Groups.

Related topics

• Add or delete an alternate email address (email alias)
• Delegate a user's email address