MCP server
Gmail MCP server
Google's own Gmail MCP server lets AI search and read threads, manage labels and create drafts. It has no send tool.
- Official server
- Communication
At a glance
- Maintained by
- Google (Google Workspace)
- Tools exposed
- 10 listed below
- Reviewed
- September 24, 2026
Why it matters
What it does and why it matters
Email is still where most business requests arrive. Google now hosts a Gmail MCP server that lets an assistant search threads, read messages, list and create drafts and manage labels. It cannot send email, which is a sensible design: the assistant prepares, and a person sends.
That makes it a strong foundation for inbox triage: reading new messages, labeling them by topic and urgency, and drafting replies for review.
At review time, the server is part of Google's Workspace developer preview program, which requires membership. It signs in with your Google account and sees what your mailbox sees. For shared inboxes, we connect a dedicated account rather than a personal one.
Use cases
Best business use cases
Draft replies
Find past emails
Thread summaries
Label clean-up
Tools
Available tools
Tool names as published by the maintainer at review time. Versions change, so check the repository for the current list.
Read and write: Read mail and write drafts and labels only; there is no send tool.
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search_threadsFind email threads that match a query.
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get_threadGet a full conversation thread.
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get_messageGet a single message.
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list_draftsList saved drafts.
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create_draftCreate a new draft email.
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list_labelsList all labels.
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create_labelCreate a new label.
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label_threadAdd a label to a thread.
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unlabel_threadRemove a label from a thread.
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label_messageAdd a label to a message.
Workflows
Example workflows
Morning inbox triage
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1
The assistant searches unread mail.
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2
It labels each thread by topic and urgency.
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3
It drafts replies to routine questions.
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4
You review the drafts.
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5
You send the ones that are right.
Catch up on a customer
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1
Ask about a customer before a call.
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2
The assistant searches their threads.
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3
It summarizes recent requests and promises.
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4
It lists open questions.
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5
You go into the call prepared.
Prompts
Example prompts
“Label all unread emails from today by topic and mark urgent ones.”
“Summarize my last five threads with Harbor Group.”
“Draft a polite reply to this invoice question, but do not send it.”
Setup
Installation and configuration
Examples for Claude Desktop and Claude Code. Replace the placeholder values with your own keys, and store secrets outside version control.
Claude Code: terminal
claude mcp add --transport http --client-id YOUR_CLIENT_ID --client-secret --callback-port 8080 gmail https://gmailmcp.googleapis.com/mcp/v1- Hosted server: https://gmailmcp.googleapis.com/mcp/v1.
- Needs: OAuth 2.0 with your own Google Cloud project and OAuth client; Developer Preview Program membership required..
- Claude Desktop: Settings > Connectors > Add custom connector with URL https://gmailmcp.googleapis.com/mcp/v1 and your OAuth Client ID and Secret under Advanced settings.
Security
Security considerations
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Approve outgoing messages
Require a person to approve messages to customers until a workflow is proven.
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Limit channels
Give access only to the channels, mailboxes or numbers a task needs.
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Untrusted messages
Incoming messages can contain text meant to mislead an AI. Treat them as data.
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Keep a log
Keep a record of labels changed and drafts created.
Related servers
Servers that pair well with it
Google Drive
Google's own Drive MCP server lets AI search, read and create files in Google Drive, with your Google Workspace sign-in.
Google Calendar
Google's own Calendar MCP server lets AI list calendars and events, create, update and delete events, respond to invites and suggest times.
Slack
Slack's own hosted MCP server lets AI search messages, read channels and threads, look up people, draft or send messages and create canvases.
Keep exploring
Solutions and services that use it
Related services
View all related services- MCP integration Connect AI assistants to your CRM, files, databases and tools through Model Context Protocol servers, with safe permissions.
- AI workflows Step-by-step automations where AI handles the reading, sorting and drafting inside a process you control.
- Third-party integrations Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, accounting, shipping and marketing tools connected to your own software.
- AI agents AI that takes actions in your systems, such as qualifying leads or processing requests, with people checking the results.
- Voice AI Speech to text, call summaries and voice assistants that take bookings or answer routine calls.
- Internal tools Custom software for your own team: trackers, approval flows and back-office systems that replace spreadsheets.
Solutions
View all solutions- Email triage Sort a shared inbox by topic and urgency, pull out the key details and draft replies for a person to send.
- AI support agent An assistant that answers routine questions from your own content, checks orders and hands anything else to a person.
- AI lead qualification Score, research and route every new inquiry so your team talks to the best leads first.
- Approval workflows Requests, approvals and reminders in one place, with clear owners and deadlines instead of long email threads.
- Scheduling automation Let customers book, change and confirm appointments themselves, by web, chat or phone, with reminders that cut no-shows.
- Invoice processing Read supplier invoices, match them to orders and push approved ones into accounting, with exceptions flagged for review.
Industries
View all industries- Real estate Listing sites, lead handling, CRM automation and document workflows for agencies, brokers and developers.
- Vacation rentals Booking websites, owner and guest portals, turnover scheduling and guest messaging for rental operators.
- Property management Tenant portals, maintenance tracking, owner statements and inbox automation for property managers.
- Tax and compliance services Client portals, document checklists, case queues and deadline tracking for tax preparers and compliance firms.
- Recruiting and staffing Candidate screening assistants, ATS integrations, interview notes and onboarding automation for recruiters and staffing firms.
- Hospitality and travel Booking sites, guest messaging, review analysis and multilingual content for hotels, tour operators and travel businesses.
Case studies
View all case studiesGuides and articles
View all guides and articles- What can AI do for a small business? Practical AI uses for small businesses, from inboxes and documents to customer support, with costs and first steps.
- AI automation vs traditional automation How rule-based automation and AI automation differ, where each fits and how to combine them.
- How to measure the ROI of AI automation Measure the return on AI automation with a baseline, the right metrics and honest accounting of costs.
- How to build an AI workflow with MCP servers Plan, connect and test an AI workflow that uses MCP servers, from a single task to a reliable process.
- AI chatbot vs AI agent What separates a chatbot that answers from an agent that acts, and when you need each.
AI models
View all ai models- Claude Haiku 4.5 Anthropic's fastest and lowest-cost Claude model, with near-frontier intelligence for high-volume and real-time work.
- Deepgram Nova-3 and Flux Deepgram's speech-to-text models: Nova-3 for general transcription in 60+ languages, and Flux for voice agents with built-in end-of-turn detection.
- GPT Transcribe OpenAI's current speech-to-text model, replacing Whisper and the GPT-4o transcribe models, with streaming and keyword or language hints.
- General purpose All-round language models for writing, summarizing, support, extraction and most everyday business tasks.
- Speech Speech-to-text and text-to-speech models for transcription, call analysis and voice assistants.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Google's lowest-cost current Gemini model for high-throughput work such as sub-agent tasks and document parsing.
Glossary terms
View all glossary terms- Natural language processing Natural language processing is the field of AI that deals with understanding and generating human language, in text or speech.
- Workflow automation Workflow automation uses software to move work through a series of steps, such as routing, approvals and notifications, based on rules and events.
- Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence is the broad field of building software that performs tasks that normally need human judgment, such as understanding language or images.
- Zero-shot classification Zero-shot classification is sorting text or images into categories an AI model was not specifically trained on, using only the category names or descriptions.
- AI agent An AI agent is software that uses a language model to plan steps, call tools and act toward a goal, instead of only answering one question.
- Automation Automation is using software to perform a task or process with little or no human effort each time it runs.
FAQ
Questions people ask us
Have a question that is not here? Ask us directly.
No. It can create drafts, and a person sends them.
Yes. Google hosts it, through its Workspace developer preview program at review time.
Connect the account that owns the shared mailbox, with care about access.