Gmail Templates: How to Create, Share and Automate Them

To use templates in Gmail, turn them on under Settings > See all settings > Advanced > Templates > Enable. Then write a message and save it with More options > Templates > Save draft as template. Inserting, editing, sharing and sending one automatically are below.

Gmail used to call these canned responses. They work only in Gmail on a computer. For out of office replies and the other kinds of auto reply, see the Gmail auto reply guide.

Turn on templates in Gmail

You do this once per Gmail account.

1. Open Gmail on your computer.
2. At the top right, click Settings, then See all settings.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Next to Templates, click Enable.
5. Scroll down and click Save Changes.

Create and save a template

1. Click Compose.
2. Write the template text. Add a subject line if you want the template to carry one.
3. At the bottom of the compose window, click More options (the three dots).
4. Click Templates > Save draft as template > Save as new template.
5. Give it a name you'll recognise in a list, such as "Pricing reply" or "Order received", and save.

Use square brackets for the parts you'll change each time, like [first name] or [order number]. Gmail doesn't fill them in, so the brackets make a missed one easy to spot before you send.

Insert a template into an email

1. Click Compose, or open the email and click Reply.
2. Click More options at the bottom of the compose box.
3. Click Templates, then pick the template under Insert template.
4. Replace the bracketed parts and click Send.

Note: The Gmail app on Android and iPhone can't insert templates. On an iPhone, a keyboard text replacement is the nearest substitute.

Edit or delete a template

Gmail has no edit button. You change a template by saving over it.

1. Insert the template into a new message and make your changes.
2. Click More options > Templates > Save draft as template.
3. Under Overwrite Template, pick the template's name and click Save.

To delete one, click More options > Templates > Delete template, pick the template and click Delete.

Note: A deleted template can't be recovered, so copy the text somewhere first if you might want it back.

Share Gmail templates with your team

Gmail saves templates to each person's account, and there is no share button. That holds on Google Workspace too, and when your team reads one address through a Google Group. Two workarounds are in common use:

• Keep the master copy of every template in a shared Google Doc. Each person saves the ones they use into their own Gmail. When a policy or price changes, update the Doc and ask everyone to overwrite their copy.
• Use a Gmail extension with shared templates, such as Ablebits Shared Email Templates or Drag. One edit then reaches everyone.

The Doc is free, but copies drift as people forget to update theirs. If the team also needs to assign emails and see who replied, a shared inbox tool for Gmail usually includes shared templates.

Send a template automatically with a filter

Use this for a standing reply to one kind of email, such as everything sent to support@. The same filter screen can also forward those emails, for example to a Slack channel.

1. In the Gmail search bar, click Show search options.
2. Set the criteria, for example To support@yourcompany.com, then click Create filter.
3. Tick Send template and choose the template.
4. Click Create filter.

Note: Every matching email gets the same text, and the filter matches words, not meaning. For wording that works as an auto reply, copy one of these automated email response examples.

Steps checked against Google's Create a template in Gmail and Create rules to filter your emails on 2026-10-04.

Templates not showing in Gmail?

If Templates is missing from More options, the setting isn't on. Enable it under Advanced and click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. Leaving without saving is the usual miss.

If you're in the Gmail app, there's no fix: templates only appear in Gmail on a computer. Open the email there instead.

If Send template in a filter offers nothing to pick, you haven't saved a template yet. Create one first, then build the filter.

When a template can't answer the email

A template sends the same words every time. It can't quote the price for 200 units or say where order 4521 is.

AI email replies read the email and draft the answer from your own documents and order data. InboxPilot (we make it) does this in Gmail, and each draft waits for you to approve it. It starts with a 7-day free trial with no card, then Starter is $39 a month for 300 conversations (pricing, October 2026).