Delegate & collaborate on email

In Gmail, delegated accounts and shared inboxes are the same thing. Use them to grant people or groups (delegates) access to your Gmail account, resulting in an inbox with benefits such as:

• Automatically sorting email with filters (rules)
• Keeping a record of correspondence by archiving email
• Tracking the status of email messages using labels
• Showing or hiding the delegate’s name as the sender

Delegates can read, send, and delete your email messages. They can’t chat with anyone for you or change your Gmail password. When they send a message, their email address appears.

If you're using Gmail through your work, school, or other organization, you can grant the delegation to a group. This allows you to easily manage the delegation through the group membership.

Difference between these accounts or inboxes & Collaborative Inboxes

A Collaborative Inbox is a type of group you create in Google Groups.

• Members can send messages, assign conversations to each other, and track conversations as tasks.
• A Collaborative Inbox has an email address. People can send and receive Collaborative Inbox messages using email clients such as Gmail. For details, visit Send emails from a different address or alias.

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Add or remove a delegate

Add a delegate

Important: Before you can grant delegates access to your account, you need to verify that it's you who requested the change in your Google Account. Learn about Google Account verification for sensitive actions.

You can add up to 10 delegates.

If you're using Gmail through your work, school, or other organization:

• You can add up to 1000 delegates within your organization.
• With typical use, 40 delegates can access a Gmail account at the same time.
• If you use automated processes, such as APIs or browser extensions, a few delegates can access a Gmail account at the same time.

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
   • You can't add delegates from the Gmail app.
2. In the top right, click Settings See all settings.
3. Click the Accounts and Import or Accounts tab.
4. In the "Grant access to your account" section, click Add another account.
   • If you’re using Gmail through your work or school, your organization may restrict email delegation. If you don’t see this setting, contact your admin.
5. Enter the email address of the person you want to add.
   • If you’re using Gmail through your work, school, or other organization, and your admin allows it, you can enter the email address of a group. This group must have the same domain as your organization. External members of the group are denied delegation access.
     
     Important: If the account you delegate is a new account or the password was reset, the admin must turn off the requirement to change password when you first sign in.
     • Learn how an admin can create a user.
     • Learn how an admin can reset passwords.
6. Click Next Step Send email to grant access.

The person you added gets an email asking them to confirm. The invitation expires after a week.

If you added a group, all group members become delegates without having to confirm.

It may take up to 24 hours for the delegation to start taking effect.

Remove a delegate

1. On your computer, open Gmail. You can't set up delegates from the Gmail app.
2. In the top right, click Settings   See all settings.
3. Click the Accounts and Import tab.
4. In the "Grant access to your account" section, click Delete next to the account you want to remove.

Troubleshoot problems

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

If there's a delegate on your account that you didn't add, change your password immediately. Your account may have been accessed by a hacker through phishing or malware.

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."

1. Before delegates can access your account, you need to log in and reset your password.
2. 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.

I can't use a Gmail feature

In delegated accounts, the following features are not supported:

• Spelling and grammar checks
• Autocorrect
• Smart Compose

Related topics

• Delegate email to support staff
• Add filters
• Archive or delete email
• Apply labels
• Manage delegates using an API