Which assistants can read, draft and send from your Gmail?

Reading means an app can search your mailbox and open messages. Drafting means it can write an email and leave it in your Drafts. Sending means the email leaves your account under your name, and nobody can pull it back.

Google's own permission names blur the middle step. On Google's Gmail API page (checked 14 October 2026), gmail.readonly is "View your email messages and settings." and gmail.compose is "Manage drafts and send emails." An app that can write drafts can usually send them too. There is no draft-only permission. What stops an app from sending is how it is built, not what Google allows.

So for each product below, the useful question is not only "what does it ask for?" but "can it send without me, and can I switch that on by accident?"

Yes. OpenAI's release notes say that since 8 June 2026 ChatGPT can "draft and send emails directly from the same conversation", on the web, on the Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise plans. OpenAI's help page lists sending an email among actions that "may require additional review". Its "Allow all actions" setting lets ChatGPT act "without additional approval prompts". OpenAI says that setting is not on the account-wide or workspace-wide menus, but "may be available for an individual app or connected account".

Since 25 August 2026, Plus and Pro users can also set ChatGPT Work to "respond when a new Gmail message arrives", and since 28 August you can connect more than one Gmail account. OpenAI's help page says its Gmail access uses gmail.modify, which Google describes as "Read, compose, and send emails from your Gmail account."

What it does well: one chat that works across your mail, calendar and files, for more than one account.

Anthropic's own pages disagree. Its help article on Google Workspace connectors (updated 1 October 2026) says the Gmail connector can "Send, reply to, and forward emails from Gmail", and that "By default, Claude asks for your approval before each of these actions." Claude's connector docs let you choose "Always allow" to skip the prompt for a tool; on Team and Enterprise plans, owners decide whether members may. Anthropic's Gmail docs page (updated 2 October 2026) still says "Claude can't create, send, or modify emails". Anthropic announced sending on X on 18 August 2026, so the docs page looks out of date, but check before you rely on either.

One limit: the connector reads "attachment metadata (not attachment content)", so Claude sees that a file is attached but does not read it from Gmail.

What it does well: a separate approval for every send, reply and forward, unless you switch it off.

Gemini is built into Gmail, so there is nothing to connect. Help me write and suggested replies work on a personal Gmail account with no paid plan, but only in the US; Google made them free on 8 January 2026. Asking questions about your inbox needs Google AI Plus ($4.99 a month), Pro ($19.99) or Ultra, or a Google Workspace plan. Google lists the Gemini side panel, which can "Create new emails or refine existing drafts for tone and clarity", under Google Workspace plans, and says US Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers "may no longer see" it.

No Google page says Gemini in Gmail sends email for you. The exception is Tasks in the Gemini app, which can "Compose email drafts, forward emails, or reply to existing email threads" and asks for your review before "Sending communications". Google calls it experimental, and it is only for personal accounts on AI Pro or Ultra, outside the EEA, the UK, Switzerland and Nigeria.

What it does well: the help sits inside the Gmail you already use, with no new app and no new habit.

Yes, if you read your Gmail in the new Outlook. Microsoft's support page says Copilot in Outlook works with "third-party email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud", but not in classic Outlook for Windows. It drafts and sums up threads, and Microsoft's steps end the same way: "Edit the draft as needed, and then select Send." A Send button inside Copilot Chat exists only for Microsoft's early-access Frontier users.

Who gets it: Microsoft's sharing page says that if you sign in to Outlook with a Microsoft account on Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium or Pro, Copilot works for your other accounts too, Gmail included, "as long as they are logged into Outlook on the same device." On Family, only the person who set up the subscription gets Copilot. A work or school account with a Copilot license works the same way.

What it does well: if your day already runs in Outlook and Microsoft 365, the help is where you work.

You connect Gmail or Outlook in Tatsulok under Extensions, on the Mail card. Tatsu searches your mail, reads whole threads and writes a reply inside the thread, which lands in your Drafts folder. The reply can draw on files in your Tatsulok library, and Tatsu's answer cites what it used, so you can open the passage before you trust a number. You change what is wrong, press Send Email, and confirm in the "Send Email?" dialog, which lists the recipients and the subject. Or you schedule it.

Tatsulok asks Google for gmail.readonly and gmail.compose, plus gmail.modify for archive, star and labels if you allow it, and does not ask for gmail.send. To be plain about it: as above, those permissions let an app send drafts, so the limit is in how Tatsulok is built. In the mail connection, Tatsu has no send action: only your Send button, or a send time you set, sends the email.

Where it falls short. It is not an email client, so you keep Gmail or Outlook open for your inbox. The email connection is in Beta. Google has not finished verifying Tatsulok's app, so you will see Google's unverified-app screen and must choose Advanced to continue. It does not answer new mail on its own. To try it, see connect your email.

If you pay for Google AI or Google Workspace and want help inside Gmail, start with Gemini. If you work in Outlook on Microsoft 365, start with Copilot. If you want one chat that acts across mail, calendar and files, ChatGPT and Claude both do it; keep approval on. If your replies rest on contracts, price lists or reports, and you want to see the line each claim comes from before you press Send yourself, try Tatsulok.

Before you connect anything, read how to give an assistant safe access to your email.