Access your Gmail.com Account with IMAP, SMTP or POP3 with these setup instructions from February 2026

We recommend the settings below if you use IMAP to read your Gmail messages in another email client, like Outlook, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird. Outlook Open Outlook.

If you're sending email through Apple Mail and you currently have 'smtp.gmail.com:username@gmail.com' in the 'Outgoing Mail Server:' field of your settings, try …

You can add Gmail to other email clients, like Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, or Mozilla Thunderbird. When you add Gmail, your messages and labels are synced with the email client. Changes to Gmail

To make Gmail work smoothly you need to apply proper settings for IMAP, POP and SMTP incoming and outgoing servers under Gmail configuration.

Use the table below to update your client with the correct information. For help updating your settings, search your email client's Help Center for instructions on setting up IMAP.

Fancy using your own email client rather than Gmail? Here's how to set up Google's email service for IMAP to give you extra flexibility.

To receive Gmail messages through an email client (such as Outlook), you'll need to know how to configure the POP settings correctly.

The service: "gmail" option is a convenient shortcut that automatically configures Gmail's SMTP server settings. See Well-Known Services for more details and a full list of supported providers.

Learn how you can set up & configure Microsoft Outlook to connect to Gmail - both POP3 and IMAP access using auto-configure or manual settings.