Anthropic has launched a Gmail connector for its Claude AI assistant, allowing it to read, draft, send and organise emails directly from a user's inbox using natural-language requests rather than fixed commands. The feature is designed to save users time on routine email tasks while keeping them in control, as Claude asks for approval before sending, replying to or forwarding messages unless this is changed. It is available to all users, including those on Claude's free tier, and can be set up in a matter of minutes.

Users connect the tool via the Connectors menu in Claude, signing in with their Google account to grant access, after which no special prompts are needed to ask Claude to find, draft or send emails. Approval settings can be customised: read-only actions such as searching emails are set to "always allow" by default, while write or delete actions, including sending replies or managing labels, require approval unless a user switches this off. Team and Enterprise account owners must first enable the connector organisation-wide, and members must use personal accounts rather than work ones to activate it themselves.