Gmail Delegate Access: Share an Inbox Without the Password

When more than one person handles the same mailbox, the quiet default is to share the login. Gmail delegate access exists so that you do not have to. It is a setting inside Gmail that lets other people read, answer and clear your mail while your password stays yours alone. This guide covers who a delegate can be, what delegation deliberately does not cover, how to set it up, why the option sometimes fails to appear, where mobile currently stands, and the two arrangements that suit a genuine team inbox better. Every fact below comes from Google’s own documentation, linked where it is used.

Why passing one Gmail password around causes problems

A shared password feels efficient for about a month. The trouble it causes is not dramatic; it is slow and administrative.

No record of who sent what

When three people sign in as the same person, the Sent folder tells you nothing beyond the fact that a reply went out. You cannot ask who promised the client a refund, because the mailbox has one voice and no author. Delegation fixes this at the source: Google says that when a delegate sends a message from your account, their email address appears, so every outgoing reply carries a name.

Everyone holds the keys to recovery and settings

A password is not scoped. Anyone who has it can change the recovery phone, edit filters, set up forwarding, or work through anything else behind the Google Account. Delegation is scoped by design, and the list of what it excludes is published rather than guessed at.

Removing one person means a new password for all

The real cost arrives when somebody leaves. A shared password has to be changed for everyone, and every remaining person has to be told the new one. Removing a delegate is a single Delete link next to their name. If you are moving a team off a shared login today, treat it as two jobs: change the password, then finish by signing every old session out of the account so nothing left behind keeps working.

How Gmail delegate access works

What delegates can do: read, send and delete mail

Google’s definition is short: a delegate is someone who can read, send and delete emails in your account for you. That covers the ordinary work of an inbox — opening threads, replying, forwarding, archiving, deleting. The delegate does this from their own Gmail, signed in as themselves.

Read that scope as the whole mailbox rather than a filtered view. Google’s published list of what delegation leaves out covers Google Account settings and services outside mail, not folders, so a delegate works with the mail that was already there as well as anything that arrives after you grant access.

What delegates can’t do: chat, change the password or open account settings

The help page states that a delegate cannot chat with anyone or change your password. It also lists features that are unavailable in a delegated mailbox, among them Google Account settings, Drive attachments, Google Photos, Tasks, Gmail Chat, client-side encryption, emoji reactions, Gemini, Meet, Smart Compose, Smart Reply, autocomplete and spelling checks. The same page adds a second list for Gmail on Android, iPhone and iPad, naming background sync for messages, conversation summaries, custom emojis, dynamic email, image settings, managing blocked users in Chat, notification settings, nudges, and smart features and personalization settings.

Read that list as the boundary of the feature. Delegation is mail access, not account access.

How sent mail shows the delegate’s address

Because the delegate’s address appears on messages they send, delegation is transparent by default. Nobody on the receiving end is misled about who typed the reply, and nobody inside your team can hide behind the mailbox owner’s name.

Setting up Gmail delegation step by step

Accounts and Import, then Grant access to your account

Google’s steps run on a computer, in the account that owns the mailbox:

1. Open Gmail, click Settings, then See all settings.
2. Open the Accounts and Import tab (some accounts show it as Accounts).
3. Under Grant access to your account, click Add another account.
4. Enter the person’s email address.
5. Click Next Step, then Send email to grant access.

Google states that before you can add delegates you have to verify your identity, which confirms you requested the change in your Google Account.

The invitation email and its one-week expiry

The person you named receives an invitation they have to accept, and Google says that invitation expires after a week. If the week lapses before anyone acts on it, that invitation is no longer valid, and access has to be granted again from the Grant access to your account section. Google documents adding and deleting a delegate, not re-sending an expired invitation.

Opening the delegated inbox

The delegate signs into their own Gmail, clicks their profile picture in the top right, finds the account marked Delegated in that menu, and clicks its name. Google suggests checking the address at the top of the page to confirm which mailbox you are in, which is worth doing before you press Send.

To remove someone later, return to Accounts and Import and click Delete next to their name under Grant access to your account.

Gmail delegate access not showing or not working

The wait of up to 24 hours

Check this first. Google states that it can take up to 24 hours before a delegate can use your account. If the invitation was accepted an hour ago and the mailbox is missing from the profile menu, the answer is usually to come back tomorrow.

Limits: 10 delegates on personal accounts

Google’s limits are set by account type: a personal gmail.com account can add up to 10 delegates. Work and school accounts can add up to 1,000 delegates, and Google adds that with typical use 40 delegated users can be in a Gmail account at the same time.

Work and school accounts: admin settings and same-organization delegates

On a managed account the setting may not be yours to make. Google’s administrator documentation for letting users delegate access to a Gmail account puts mail delegation under Menu, then Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, User settings, then Mail delegation. The same page states that users can only delegate access to another user in the same organization, regardless of their domain or their organizational unit. So a managed mailbox cannot be delegated to an outside contractor’s personal address.

Aliases and alternate addresses can’t be delegated

Google is explicit here: you cannot add delegates to an alternate email address or alias, because it is not a Google Account. If your team mail arrives at an alias, delegate the underlying account or move that address to a group instead.

Gmail delegate access on mobile

What Google says about the Android and iOS rollout

Quoting the help page as it reads today: the ability to access a delegated account in the Gmail app for Android, iPhone and iPad is currently rolling out and may not be available to you yet. If the delegated mailbox does not appear in the app’s account switcher, you are simply on the wrong side of that rollout.

What to do while you wait

Use a computer. Google documents delegation on its Computer tab from end to end — granting access under Accounts and Import, then opening the mailbox marked Delegated from the profile picture menu — so a desktop browser is the route that is written down and working today. No official page describes a mobile-browser shortcut, so do not plan a team around one.

Shared inbox Gmail options: a Google Groups collaborative inbox

Delegation is built around one person’s mailbox. A team address like support@ is a different shape, and Google Groups covers it.

Turning a group into a Collaborative Inbox

Per Google’s guide to Collaborative Inboxes: sign in to Google Groups, click the name of a group, click Group settings on the left, and for Enable additional Google Groups features, select Collaborative Inbox. The page lists the requirement as the Owner or Manager role, and adds that if you are signed in from a work or school account the feature requires Google Groups for Business. Conversation history has to be on for the group. That work-and-school line is the only account-type caveat the page gives: it does not say one way or the other whether a personal Google Account can turn Collaborative Inbox on, so check the setting in your own group before you plan around it.

Taking, assigning and completing conversations

Once it is enabled, members with the moderate metadata permission can select one or more conversations and click Take, Assign, Mark as complete, or Drop to remove an assignment. That is the part delegation has no answer for: two people opening the same thread cannot tell whether the other is already writing a reply, while a Collaborative Inbox puts an owner on each conversation.

When a group address beats delegation

When Google Workspace is the better answer

Mailboxes on your own domain

Google’s Workspace pricing page puts custom email for your business against every column of its plan comparison, Starter through Enterprise, and the Enterprise card alone adds secure custom business email with S/MIME encryption. If your team is already inventing shared gmail.com addresses to look organized, that is the gap being filled.

Delegation your admin controls

On Workspace an administrator controls whether delegation is available, and for which organizational units, from the User settings path above. Each user still grants access to their own mailbox from Accounts and Import, so nobody waits on the admin to name their delegates. The policy sits with the organization; the choice of people sits with the mailbox owner.

Offboarding without resetting shared passwords

This is the quiet argument for a managed domain. When someone leaves, an administrator suspends or deletes their account and their access ends. Nobody has to circulate a new password, and no leaver keeps a copy of credentials that several colleagues still use.

Separate inboxes for separate projects

For a team, one of the three routes above is the sanctioned answer, and all three beat passing a login around. Extra accounts are not a substitute for delegation, and nothing here needs them.

There is a narrower case: separate projects, clients or test environments that each genuinely need their own mailbox, where delegation is the wrong tool because there is no single owner’s inbox to delegate. If you are weighing bought accounts for that, weigh the terms first. Buying accounts goes against Google’s terms, and Google can close an account at any time — that risk sits with you, not the seller. Bought accounts should also never hold roles on a client’s assets without the client’s written agreement.

If you still want to look at it, PVAVRT’s Gmail accounts are listed by grade with per-account prices, and our guide explains how PVAVRT’s Gmail grades and handover work before you order anything. Questions go to Telegram @pvavrt, the main channel, or WhatsApp +1 (310) 460-9890. Ordering terms, replacement scope and payment details are set out in PVAVRT’s FAQ.