How to Connect HubSpot to Gmail in 2026: Extension and Inbox

To integrate HubSpot with Gmail, install the free HubSpot Sales extension from the Chrome Web Store, then connect your Gmail inbox in HubSpot under Settings, General, Email. The extension puts tracking, logging, templates and contact details inside Gmail. The connected inbox lets HubSpot send and log email from your address.

Most people only do half of this and then wonder why replies aren't showing up on contact records, or why the Sequences button is greyed out. The two pieces do different jobs, and a few settings decide whether your CRM ends up accurate or full of noise. This guide covers both setups step by step, what each feature needs, and the settings I'd change before you send your first tracked email.

The two ways HubSpot connects to Gmail

HubSpot connects to Gmail in two separate ways: the HubSpot Sales Chrome extension, which works inside Gmail in your browser, and a connected inbox, which links your Gmail account to HubSpot itself. You can use the extension alone, but some tools only work once the inbox is connected too.

My advice: do both. The extension takes two minutes and the inbox connection five, and together they cover email you write in Gmail and email you write in HubSpot.

How to install the HubSpot Sales extension for Gmail

You install the HubSpot Sales extension from the Chrome Web Store while signed in to the Gmail account you use for work. HubSpot's install guide says it works with Gmail in Chrome on a Mac or PC, and doesn't need a connected inbox to install. HubSpot lists it as available on all products and plans, including the free one.

1. In Chrome, open the Chrome Web Store and search for HubSpot Sales.
2. Check that the Gmail account shown at the top right is your work account.
3. Click Add to Chrome and confirm in the dialog.
4. Log in to your HubSpot account when it asks.
5. Open Gmail and refresh. You'll see Track and Log checkboxes in the compose window and a HubSpot sprocket icon in the right side panel.

Installing it for a whole team

If you're the Google Workspace admin, you don't have to walk everyone through the steps. HubSpot's install guide links to Google's instructions for pushing a Chrome extension to every user automatically. Say Rosa runs sales operations at an 80-person software company in Columbus and is rolling HubSpot out to 14 reps on Monday. Pushing the extension from the Google Admin console means every rep opens Gmail that morning with it already installed, instead of half of them forgetting.

How to connect your Gmail inbox to HubSpot

You connect Gmail to HubSpot from Settings, General, Email by clicking Connect email account and signing in with Google. These are the steps in HubSpot's inbox guide:

1. In HubSpot, click the settings (gear) icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar, click General, then open the Email tab.
3. Click Connect email account.
4. Leave Turn on inbox automation unchecked unless you want it, then click Connect your inbox.
5. Enter your Gmail address and click Next.
6. Click Connect to Google. If HubSpot doesn't detect Gmail, choose I want to choose my email provider myself and pick Google.
7. Read the disclosure, click Continue, sign in to the right Google account and click Allow.

Once it's connected, HubSpot can send one-to-one emails from your address, log them, send sequence emails and schedule sends. You can connect more than one work address if you need to.

Why the Connect button might be missing or fail

• You don't have Personal email access. It's a user permission; a HubSpot admin turns it on.
• You have a View-Only seat. View-Only users can't connect an inbox.
• Your Google account uses Advanced Protection. HubSpot doesn't support Gmail accounts enrolled in Google's Advanced Protection Program.
• The address is already a team inbox in HubSpot. One address can't be both. Disconnect it as a team email first.

How to track and log Gmail emails in HubSpot

To track an email, check Track before you send; to save it to the contact's record, check Log. Tracking tells you when someone opens it, and logging puts the email on their timeline in HubSpot. Both checkboxes sit in the Gmail compose window once the extension is installed, per HubSpot's tracking guide.

1. In Gmail, click Compose and add the recipient, subject and message.
2. Check Track to get a notification when it's opened.
3. Check Log to save it to HubSpot. If the person is already a contact, you'll see the HubSpot sprocket next to their address.
4. To choose which records it's logged to, click the dropdown next to Log and tick or untick records.
5. If the recipient isn't a contact yet, decide whether to keep the box ticked under Create as new contacts.
6. Click Send.

Opens show up in your HubSpot activity feed and on the contact's timeline, and you'll get a desktop pop-up when it happens. If your account has data privacy settings turned on, HubSpot only tracks opens for contacts with a legal basis for processing recorded, and the Track box is greyed out for everyone else.

Here's how that plays out. Say Lauren is an account executive at a 25-person HVAC parts distributor in Chicago. She sends a quote to a facilities manager at 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday with Track and Log checked. At 3:40 p.m. she gets a pop-up that he's opened it for the third time. That's her cue to call, not to send another email.

Use the never-log list

Add your own company's domain, your personal email and anyone whose emails shouldn't sit in a shared CRM. Otherwise every internal thread you write with Log checked lands on a contact record your whole team can read. Say Megan in HR is emailing a job candidate who also happens to be a customer contact. That thread belongs nowhere near a shared CRM.

Limits worth knowing

• Tracking and logging don't work if you use a customized Gmail layout.
• Attachments over 50 MB aren't logged, though the email itself still is.
• Turning on logging doesn't go back and log emails you sent before.

How to use HubSpot templates, meetings and sequences in Gmail

Once the extension is installed, a HubSpot sales toolbar appears in Gmail's compose window with Templates, Sequences, Meetings and a More menu for Documents and Snippets. HubSpot's sales tools guide lists what each one needs:

Templates

To insert a template, open a new email, add the recipient, click Templates in the toolbar and pick one. If you add the recipient after inserting it, HubSpot fills in the personalization fields once you do. To turn an email you've already sent into a template, open it in Gmail, click the save icon at the top and choose Save template.

Here's a before-and-after from Lauren's week. Her first follow-up template read like this:

Hi,

Just following up on my last email. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Lauren

It gives the reader nothing to do. The rewrite names the quote, makes one ask and puts the booking link in:

Hi {{contact.firstname}},

The quote I sent Tuesday for the rooftop unit parts holds until Friday, November 6. If you'd like to walk through the lead times, here's a 15-minute slot that works for you: [meeting link]

If the timing has changed, just reply with a new date and I'll hold the price.

Lauren

Meetings and Google Calendar

The Meetings button only works once your calendar is connected. In HubSpot, go to Settings, General, Calendar, click Connect your Calendar, choose Google / Gmail and allow access, per HubSpot's calendar guide. You can connect one calendar, and HubSpot then stops people from booking over your existing events. Without it, your booking page runs in offline mode: people can request a time, but it doesn't land on your calendar.

Sequences

Sequences are HubSpot's automated follow-ups, and they're the feature most often missing for people on lower plans. You need Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional or Enterprise, an assigned Sales or Service seat and a connected inbox. In Gmail, click Sequences, pick one, adjust the steps and click Start sequence.

How to see HubSpot contact details inside Gmail

Click the HubSpot sprocket icon in Gmail's right side panel to see the CRM record for whoever you're emailing. If the panel is hidden, click Show side panel at the bottom right. HubSpot's contact profile guide says you can then:

• Read and edit the contact's details, and click Open in HubSpot for the full record.
• See and add their companies, deals, tickets and tasks.
• Log a note, call or meeting, or create a task, without leaving Gmail.
• Click Add to HubSpot to create a contact for someone who isn't in your CRM yet.

Say Greg runs a six-person marketing agency in Austin. A prospect replies asking for a proposal, and before he answers he opens the side panel: the deal is at the proposal stage, a colleague logged a call last week, and there's an open task to send case studies. He replies with the case studies attached and closes the task from the same panel.

How to log Gmail emails without the extension

If you can't install the extension, for example on a phone or in another browser, you can log emails with HubSpot's BCC or forwarding address. Find both in Settings, Objects, Activities, Email Log & Track, under Manual Logging, per HubSpot's BCC guide.

• BCC address: add it to the BCC line of an email you send. HubSpot logs it to the recipient's contact record, their main company and their five most recent open deals, and creates a contact if there isn't one.
• Forwarding address: forward a reply you received to it, and HubSpot logs it to the sender's timeline.

The catch: it only works when you send from the address you use for HubSpot, a connected inbox or a configured alias. BCC logging also doesn't track opens. I treat it as a backup for the odd email from my phone, not a way to run a pipeline.

Which HubSpot and Gmail setup should you use?

Use the extension plus a connected inbox if you sell or manage accounts from Gmail every day. Use the extension alone if you mostly want tracking, templates and contact details. Use the BCC address only as a fallback.

If you want something HubSpot doesn't do natively, such as creating a deal whenever a certain label is added in Gmail, an automation tool like Zapier or Make can bridge the two. I'd set up the built-in connection first and only add automations for the specific gaps you notice after a few weeks.

Before you send your first tracked email

1. Install the extension in the Chrome profile you use for work.
2. Connect your inbox and your Google Calendar in HubSpot settings.
3. Ask your admin to set the default Track and Log behavior.
4. Add your own domain and personal addresses to the never-log list.
5. Turn three of your most-sent emails into templates.
6. Check that your booking link works by booking a test meeting with a colleague.