Delegate and 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 emails with filters (rules)
  • Keeping a record of correspondence by archiving emails
  • 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 organisation, you can grant the delegation to a group. This allows you to easily manage the delegation through the group membership.

The difference between these accounts or inboxes and collaborative inboxes

A collaborative inbox is a type of group that 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

You can add up to 10 delegates.

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

  • You can add up to 1,000 delegates within your organisation.
  • 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 Settings and then 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 organisation may restrict email delegation. If you can't see this setting, contact your admin.
  5. Enter the email address of the person that you want to add. If you're using Gmail through your work, school or other organisation and your admin allows it, you can enter the email address of a group. This group must have the same domain as your organisation. External members of the group are denied delegation access. 

    Important: If the account that you delegate is a new account or the password has been reset, the admin must turn off the requirement to change password when you first sign in.

    6. Click Next step and then Send email to grant access.

    The person that you've added will receive an email asking them to confirm. The invitation expires after a week.

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

    Note: 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 Settings and then 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 that 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 who 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 organisation, you can only add other people or groups in your organisation as your delegate.

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

I have a delegate and I've been locked out of my account
If multiple people at your organisation are signing in to the same Gmail account from various locations, Gmail might temporarily lock 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 that 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 email 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.

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