What Gmail templates are
- You can save an email's wording as a Gmail template and insert it into later messages.
- If you've used Gmail templates in the past, you might also know them by the name canned responses.
- You can use templates only in Gmail on a computer, not in the Gmail app on Android or iPhone.
- Templates reuse wording, while Gmail Layouts adds a logo, images, colors, and fonts.
How to create and use a Gmail template
First, turn on templates in Gmail:
Click Settings at the top right of Gmail.
Click See all settings.
Open Advanced.
Find Templates.
Select Enable.
Click Save Changes to turn the feature on.
To save an email as a new template, follow these steps:
Click Compose at the top left of Gmail.
Write the subject and message you want to reuse, leaving out the recipient's name, dates, and anything else that changes per person.
Before saving your draft as a template, delete your signature.
Open More options at the bottom of the compose window.
Open Templates.
Choose Save draft as template.
Choose Save as new template to create a new template.
Type a name that says what the email is for, such as "Appointment directions", replacing Gmail's suggested name from the subject if needed.
Click Save.
Avoid a second signature
When you insert a template, Gmail adds your usual signature if you've set a default signature. If you saved your signature in the template too, you'll see two signatures in the email.
To insert a template into a new email or a reply:
Click Compose for a new email, or open the reply you want to write.
Click in the message where you want the template's text to go. Gmail keeps what you've already typed.
Open More options at the bottom of the compose window.
Open Templates.
Choose your template under Insert template.
Add the recipient if you're writing a new email.
Add this person's name, dates, and any wording needed for their situation.
What a template keeps
| Part of the email | What happens when you insert a template |
|---|---|
| Subject line | The template's name fills out the email's subject line if it's empty. If you've already typed a subject, it remains unchanged. Type the subject you want before sending. |
| Message text | The template's text is added to the email. |
| Formatting and links | Bold text and links stay as you saved them. |
| Recipients | Recipients aren't saved in a template, so you add them to each email. |
| Attachments | The template doesn't keep file attachments, so you add the files to each email. |
Subject line
- What happens when you insert a template
- The template's name fills out the email's subject line if it's empty. If you've already typed a subject, it remains unchanged. Type the subject you want before sending.
Message text
- What happens when you insert a template
- The template's text is added to the email.
Formatting and links
- What happens when you insert a template
- Bold text and links stay as you saved them.
Recipients
- What happens when you insert a template
- Recipients aren't saved in a template, so you add them to each email.
Attachments
- What happens when you insert a template
- The template doesn't keep file attachments, so you add the files to each email.
How to edit or delete a Gmail template
To edit a Gmail template:
Click Compose to open a new email, because you update a template by saving an email over the old version.
Open More options at the bottom of the compose window.
Open Templates.
Choose the template under Insert template.
Change the wording in the email.
Open More options again.
Open Templates.
Choose Save draft as template.
Select the original template under Overwrite Template, checking its name so you don't replace a different one.
Click Save to replace the template with your updated email.
To delete a Gmail template:
Click Compose to open a new email.
Open More options at the bottom of the compose window.
Open Templates.
Choose Delete template.
Select the template you want to remove, remembering that you can't recover a deleted template.
Click Delete to remove that template.
If you can't find Templates in Gmail
Check that Templates is enabled in Settings, and if it isn't, follow the turn-on steps above.
Check that you're using Gmail on a computer, because the phone app doesn't offer templates.
If you've already saved a template, click Compose and look under More options and Templates, because saved templates don't appear in Drafts or Gmail search.
What types of emails should be templates?
Look through emails you've sent for messages you've written several times with only small changes. Pick the ones where you keep typing the same paragraphs.
- Answers to questions people ask you often
- Meeting or appointment confirmations with directions
- A thank-you after a call
- A request for documents
Send the same email to many people with their own names
If you're writing to a few people, insert your template into a separate email for each recipient and add their name. If you're writing for a large list of people, Gmail mail merge might be the feature you need if it's available on your Google Workspace plan. Mail merge fills in each person's name from a spreadsheet and sends each person their own email.
Personalize a list with Gmail mail merge
Mail merge is included with these plans:
- Google Workspace Individual
- Business Standard and Business Plus
- Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus
- Education Standard and Education Plus
Before you start, check these limits. Mail merge works only in a new email, not a reply or forward. A mail merge can go to at most 1,500 recipients, with every email sent from your account that day counting toward that number. To start a mail merge from a Google Sheet, do the following:
Open a new email.
Select Use mail merge beside To.
Turn mail merge on.
Select Add from a spreadsheet.
Choose your Google Sheet.
Select Insert.
Match Email and First name to their spreadsheet columns, and Last name if your greeting uses it.
Select Finish to add the spreadsheet's recipients.
Write your greeting in the message, not the subject line, using @firstname or another spreadsheet column's tag, which Gmail replaces with each person's detail.
Write the rest of your email, pasting your template's text here if you want to reuse it.
Optionally, check each merged email with the mail merge previewer, which flags empty fields, such as a missing first name, and broken tags.
- Download your spreadsheet as a CSV file.
- Paste the CSV and your email text into the previewer.
- Fix any flagged cells in the spreadsheet or broken tags in your email text.
Send the merged email to everyone in the spreadsheet.
Share Gmail templates with a team
You can't share a Gmail template with another account. If you need to maintain a set of templates across a team, keep an email draft in a shared Google Doc, where coworkers can edit it together before opening it in Gmail.
To prepare and send a shared draft:
Open Insert in a Google Doc.
Choose Building blocks.
Choose Email draft.
Write the email in the draft.
Have your coworkers edit the wording in the shared doc.
Click Preview in Gmail beside the draft.
Check the sender and recipients, because Gmail sends the email from the Google Account you're currently logged into.
Make any final edits in Gmail.
Click Send.
If Preview in Gmail is missing, check your Google Account language, because the button appears only when the language is English. If you don't see that button, copy the draft's text from the doc into a new Gmail email instead.
Send a template automatically
You can configure your Gmail to automatically answer certain emails with templates. For example, you can automatically answer emails with the subject "Appointment directions" using a template that gives your address and arrival instructions. All you need is a filter to send your template whenever an incoming email matches.
Open Show search options in the search box at the top of Gmail.
Enter the criteria to match, such as the subject "Appointment directions".
Click Create filter.
Select Send template.
Choose the template you want Gmail to send.
Click Create filter to start sending the template to matching emails from then on.
A filter answers only the emails that match it. If you'll be away from email for a day or more, Vacation responder is a separate feature that replies to people who write during the dates you set with its own message, not a template.
Gmail templates vs. Help me write
Help me write is Gmail's AI writing tool that generates a new draft or refines an existing one for tone and clarity.
Templates are appropriate to use when you've already written and checked wording you'll send again. By comparison, Help me write fits an email you haven't written yet or a draft you want to revise.
In supported languages, Help me write is available to personal Google Accounts in the US. Everywhere else, Help me write requires an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan.
dreamif.ai
Draft emails with dreamif.ai
After you connect Gmail, dreamif.ai drafts each email for the person you’re writing to, using the thread, your earlier emails with that person, and saved contact notes. You review each draft in Gmail Drafts and send it yourself.