How to Do a Mail Merge in Gmail in 2026: Personalized Emails

To do a mail merge in Gmail, click Compose, add your recipients, click Use mail merge at the right of the To line and turn on Mail Merge. Then type @ in the message to insert a tag such as @firstname. Each person gets a separate email with their own name. The built-in feature needs a paid Google Workspace plan such as Business Standard (Google's mail merge help page).

A mail merge is for the moment when one message has to reach a lot of people and still read like it was written to each of them: a client update, an event invitation, a thank-you after a conference. Copying the same email forty times is slow, and Bcc makes it feel like a bulletin. Below: who can use Gmail's own mail merge, the steps with Google Contacts and with Google Sheets, the limits that catch people out, the free routes for a personal gmail.com account, and what keeps merged emails out of spam.

The limits come from Google's help page, the Apps Script quotas and the YAMM and Mailmeteor pricing pages.

What is mail merge in Gmail?

Mail merge in Gmail sends one draft as many separate emails, filling in each recipient's details where you placed merge tags. Every recipient sees only their own address in the To line, and Gmail adds a unique unsubscribe link at the bottom of each message, according to Google's mail merge help page.

That is the real difference from Bcc. A Bcc email is one message with hidden recipients, so it can't greet anyone by name and it often reads as a broadcast. A merged email is one message per person. If you're still deciding between the two for a smaller group, the guide to Cc and Bcc covers when a hidden copy is enough.

Gmail used to offer a similar "multi-send" mode, and mail merge has replaced it. You'll still see the old name in some older guides and in Google's original announcement.

Who can use Gmail mail merge?

Gmail's built-in mail merge works only on eligible Google Workspace plans: Workspace Individual, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus. That list comes from Google's help page; personal @gmail.com accounts and Business Starter aren't on it, and Google's original announcement names them as excluded.

On Google's pricing page, mail merge is listed as a feature of the Standard plan, which is the cheapest business plan that includes it. For a merge a few times a year, upgrading the whole account for it is hard to justify. The Apps Script and add-on routes further down work on a free account.

How to do a mail merge in Gmail with Google Contacts

For a list that already lives in Google Contacts, put the recipients in a contact label first, then add that label to the To line and insert merge tags. Google suggests labels as the way to add many recipients at once. These steps are for Gmail on a computer.

1. In Google Contacts, select the people and apply a label, such as "Q4 client update".
2. In Gmail, click Compose.
3. In the To line, type the label name and pick it, or add recipients one by one.
4. Click Use mail merge at the right side of the To line and turn on Mail Merge.
5. In the message body, type @, pick a merge tag such as @firstname, and press Enter.
6. Write the rest of the email, then send.

With Contacts, the tags are @firstname, @lastname, @fullname and @email. Gmail takes the names from each contact card. For a recipient who isn't in Contacts, it guesses first and last name from what you typed in the To line, which is where odd greetings come from.

Before I merge from Contacts, I open the label and scan the name fields. Contacts saved from an email signature can end up with "Dr. Rivera" in the first-name field or a company name where the person should be, and the merge will greet them exactly that way.

How to do a mail merge in Gmail with Google Sheets

To merge from Google Sheets, click Use mail merge, choose Add from a spreadsheet, pick the sheet, and match its columns to Email, First name and Last name. The email column is required. The whole sheet then appears as one entry in the To line.

Set up the sheet first

• Put the contact list on the first tab. Gmail reads only that one.
• Keep the contact data to text only, which Google requires.
• Use simple column headers without special characters. Google says tags from a spreadsheet match your column headers, and if a header has special characters you have to use the column's position instead, such as @A for column A.
• Check email addresses for stray characters. Gmail treats an address with special characters as invalid.

Connect the sheet and send

1. Click Compose in Gmail.
2. Click Use mail merge and turn on Mail Merge.
3. Click Add from a spreadsheet, select the sheet and click Insert.
4. Choose the column for Email, and optionally First name and Last name.
5. Click Finish.
6. In the message, type @, choose a tag and press Enter.
7. Send.

The first time I connected a sheet exported from a CRM, Gmail kept rejecting it even though the data looked clean. The fix is on Google's own page: make a new sheet, use Edit > Paste special > Values only, and connect that copy instead. Exports carry hidden formatting that you can't see in the cells.

How to write a mail merge email that doesn't read like a mail merge

A good merge email reads as if it went to one person: the name tag where you'd naturally use a name, one clear reason you're writing, and one ask. Gmail merge tags only work in the message body. They can't go in the subject line or inside linked text, per Google's help page.

So the subject has to work for everyone on the list. "Your invitation: product preview, November 18" works for every recipient. "Quick question" from someone writing to hundreds of people does not, and readers can tell.

Here's a version I'd send after an event, with the tag used once, where a person would use it:

Subject: Thanks for coming to the November product preview

Hi @firstname,

Thanks for making time for the preview last week. The recording and slides are in one folder here: [link to Google Drive folder]

If one feature stood out, or one was missing, just reply to this email. Every reply comes straight to me, and I read them all.

Best,
[Your name]

Two things make that work. The tag sits in the greeting and nowhere else, because a name repeated three times reads like software. And it links to a Drive folder instead of attaching files, which matters for storage (more below).

Plan for missing names. If someone on the list has no first name, Gmail shows an error and lets you type a default value, such as "there", so the email opens "Hi there," instead of "Hi ,".

Test before you send to everyone

Send yourself a preview before the merge goes to everyone. Google's announcement of merge tags says you can send a preview to yourself, filled in with the first recipient's details, and it's the cheapest insurance you'll get.

I send the preview to myself and read it on my phone, because that's where I read most of my own email. Then I check four things:

• Does the greeting show a real name, not an email address or a company?
• Do the links open, including the Drive folder for someone outside my organization?
• Does the subject line make sense for every person on the list?
• Is the unsubscribe link at the bottom? Gmail always adds it, so if a message shouldn't carry one, mail merge is the wrong route for it.

One more check I never skip: put yourself on the sheet as the first row, with your own first name. Then the preview is literally what a recipient sees.

Gmail mail merge limits

Gmail mail merge allows up to 1,500 recipients per message and 1,500 merge recipients per day, counted together with your regular email. Once you hit 1,500 sends in a day, merges stop until the quota resets, and the remaining 500 of the 2,000 daily sends on a Workspace account stay reserved for normal email. Those numbers are from Google's mail merge page.

The scheduling gap surprises people. You can't write a merge on Friday and schedule it for Monday at 9 a.m., so send it when you want it read, or use an add-on that schedules.

Attachments are the other trap. Google's own example: a 10 MB file sent to 500 people uses about 5 GB of storage, because each sent copy keeps its own attachment. When I invite past clients to something, the deck goes in Google Drive and the email carries a link.

Merged messages show a "Sent with mail merge" banner in your Sent folder, so you can find them later.

How to do a mail merge with a free gmail.com account

A personal gmail.com account can't use the built-in feature, but it can still send personalized mass email two ways: Google's free Apps Script mail merge sample, or a mail merge add-on with a free plan. Both send from your own Gmail address.

Option 1: Google's Apps Script sample (free)

Google publishes a ready-made Gmail and Sheets mail merge script. It reads a Google Sheet and sends one email per row, based on a Gmail draft you write as the template.

1. Open the sample page and click Make a copy of the spreadsheet. The script comes with it.
2. Fill in the Recipient column with addresses, and add any columns you want to use, such as First name.
3. In Gmail, write a draft and put placeholders in double curly braces that match the column headers exactly, such as {{First name}}. They're case sensitive.
4. Copy the draft's subject line.
5. In the sheet, open Mail Merge > Send Emails (refresh the page if the menu isn't there) and approve the permissions.
6. Run Mail Merge > Send Emails again, paste the subject line and click OK.

The script writes a timestamp in the Email Sent column for each row it sends and skips rows that already have one, so you can stop and rerun without emailing anyone twice. The ceiling is the catch: Apps Script lets a consumer account email 100 recipients a day, and a Workspace account 1,500, per Google's quota page.

Option 2: A mail merge add-on

Mail merge add-ons work inside Gmail and Google Sheets and add the things Gmail's built-in merge lacks: personalized subject lines, scheduling and open tracking.

• Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM): 20 recipients a day free, 400 a day on Pro for gmail.com and 1,500 for Workspace. Its pricing page lists scheduling, tracking and personalized subject lines on every plan, with prices that vary by country.
• Mailmeteor: 50 emails a day free, then from $5.99 a month for 250 a day, per its pricing page. Scheduling, tracking and attachments come with every plan; automatic follow-ups start on Premium.
• GMass: aimed at outreach, with automatic follow-up sequences on its Premium and Professional plans and a free trial, according to its pricing page.

An add-on can't lift Gmail's own sending limits. It sends through your account, so the 500-a-day ceiling that Google sets for a personal Gmail account still applies, whatever the add-on's plan says.

How to keep mail merge emails out of spam

Merge emails land in spam for the same reasons any email does: an unauthenticated domain, recipients who didn't expect to hear from you, and too many people marking it as spam. Google asks every sender to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3% and to set up SPF or DKIM, in its email sender guidelines.

• Email people who know you. A merge to existing clients, attendees or colleagues is welcome. A merge to a bought list is how a domain gets a bad name.
• Authenticate your domain. On a custom domain, ask whoever runs it to confirm SPF and DKIM are set up. Google's stricter rules for senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail addresses add DMARC and one-click unsubscribe.
• Leave the unsubscribe link alone. Gmail adds it to every merge email. You get an email notification when someone unsubscribes, and they're skipped in your later merges, though you can't download the full list.
• Keep the formatting plain. A short note with one link looks like a personal email because it is one. Heavy images and many links look like a newsletter.
• Send in batches when the list is new. I start a new list with the people most likely to reply, and send the rest a day or two later once the first replies have come in.

If the sending address itself is the problem, a free Gmail address for business mail is a weak start; this walkthrough on getting an address on your own domain covers the options and costs.

When not to use mail merge

Mail merge is the right tool for one message to many people who each get the same content. It's the wrong tool for a regular newsletter, for anything that needs a follow-up sequence, or for a handful of emails that each need a different paragraph.

For a monthly newsletter to subscribers, use an email marketing service built for sign-ups, list hygiene and reporting. For sales outreach with follow-ups, a tool like GMass or a CRM sequence does what a single merge can't. And for ten people who each deserve a real line of their own, write ten emails. A merge with only the name changed is still a form letter, and the people who matter most notice.

For repetitive inbox work that isn't a mass send, such as auto-replies and filters, the post on Gmail automation ideas covers what Gmail does on its own.