How to Set Up Gmail Delegation in 2026 (No Password Sharing)

The short answer

On the web, open Gmail Settings, click See all settings, click the Accounts and Import tab (or Accounts on Workspace), scroll to Grant access to your account, click Add another account, type the delegate’s Gmail address, and click Next step then Send email to grant access. The delegate accepts the invite, then opens their own Gmail, clicks their profile picture, and picks your account from the list. They can read, send, and manage your mail without knowing your password.

Gmail delegation lets someone else manage your inbox without you ever sharing a password, without them needing an app password, and without any third-party tool. Executives use it for assistants, small teams use it for shared support inboxes, and families use it to help an elderly parent manage email. This guide walks you through setting up Gmail delegation, what the delegate can and cannot do, and the fix for the two mistakes that break delegate access.

Set up Gmail delegation from the owner’s account

You (the account owner) do this once, from the web version of Gmail. The invite you send is valid for 7 days, after which the delegate needs a fresh invite.

1. Go to mail.google.com and sign in with the account you want to delegate.
2. Click the gear icon at the top right.
3. Click See all settings.
4. Click the Accounts and Import tab (Google Workspace accounts see this as Accounts).
5. Scroll down to the Grant access to your account section.
6. Click Add another account.
7. In the popup, type the Gmail address of the person you want to delegate access to. Click Next step.
8. Click Send email to grant access.
9. Decide between Mark conversation as read when opened by others and Leave conversation unread when opened by others, and whether emails from the delegate should show as sent by you or by the delegate on your behalf. Click Save Changes.

Google sends a verification email to the delegate. You can grant access to up to 10 delegates on a free Gmail account, or up to 25 delegates on a Google Workspace account.

Accept the delegation invite (delegate side)

The delegate gets an email with a confirmation link. They must accept within 7 days or the invite expires and the owner has to resend.

1. Open the email titled [Owner’s address] has granted you access to their Gmail account.
2. Click the Accept the request link inside the email.
3. A browser tab opens on Google asking the delegate to confirm. Click Confirm.
4. Allow up to 30 minutes for the delegation to activate (Google caches the authorization).

Open the delegated inbox (delegate side)

Once the delegation is active, the delegate can switch to the owner’s inbox from their own Gmail.

1. In the delegate’s own Gmail, click their profile picture at the top right.
2. The delegated account appears in the list under their own account, marked (delegated).
3. Click the delegated account to open the owner’s inbox in a new browser tab.
4. The tab opens with the owner’s email address in the URL path and in the top-right corner, so the delegate can clearly see which inbox they are working in.

The delegate can now read, reply, forward, label, archive, delete, and search the owner’s mail. Switching back to their own inbox is a matter of closing the tab or clicking their own profile picture in the switcher.

What a Gmail delegate can and cannot do

Delegation is designed to let someone handle email without giving them full account control. The permissions have clear limits.

What delegates CAN do:

• Read, send, reply, forward any email.
• Compose new emails on behalf of the owner.
• Archive, delete, label, star, snooze email.
• Change filter rules and labels.
• Search the full inbox.
• Manage the owner’s drafts.

What delegates CANNOT do:

• Change the owner’s password or security settings.
• Chat in Google Chat on behalf of the owner.
• Access the owner’s Google Drive, Calendar, Photos, or other Google services.
• Set up new delegates on the owner’s behalf.
• Change the owner’s recovery email or phone number.
• Receive email on their own device from the owner’s push notifications (they must actively check).

Every email the delegate sends can be configured to show the delegate’s name in parentheses after the owner’s name, so recipients can see the message was sent by an assistant and not the owner directly. This setting lives in the same Accounts and Import tab where you set up the delegation.

Remove a Gmail delegate

Delegation does not expire on its own. When the assistant leaves or the arrangement ends, revoke access manually.

1. Go to Settings, See all settings, Accounts and Import.
2. Find the delegate in the Grant access to your account list.
3. Click delete next to their name.
4. Confirm the removal in the popup.

The delegate loses access immediately. Any browser tabs they have open on your inbox will stop loading new mail and ask them to sign in again. For extra peace of mind, change your password after removing a long-standing delegate even though the delegation itself does not share the password. This revokes any browser sessions that might still be cached.

Troubleshoot Gmail delegation problems

Three common issues and the fixes.

Cause 1: the Accounts and Import tab has no Grant access to your account section. This happens on some Google Workspace accounts where the admin has disabled user-level delegation. Ask the Workspace admin to enable Mail delegation under Admin Console, Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, User settings.

Cause 2: the delegate accepted the invite but the delegated account does not appear in their switcher. Wait 30 minutes after they click Confirm (Google caches the authorization). If still not appearing after an hour, have the delegate sign out of all Google accounts and sign back in. That forces a fresh token pull.

Cause 3: the delegate can read email but cannot send. The owner needs to tick Allow delegates to send emails on behalf of this account in the Accounts and Import tab under the Grant access section. Without that, delegates are read-only.

We are hoping this setup makes handing off inbox duties painless. If you are rolling delegation out across a team of 5 or 10 people and hit a bulk-setup problem, drop the detail in the comments and we will add a team-level section to the next revision.

Caren Bautista

Technical Writer at PIES IT Solution

Responsible for crafting clear, well-structured, and beginner-friendly content across the platform. Handles the writing, proofreading, and editorial review of tutorials, guides, and documentation to ensure every article is accurate, readable, and easy to follow.

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