Manage delegates

This document explains how to delegate and collaborate on email using the Gmail API.

A Gmail user can grant mailbox access to one or more users in the same Google Workspace organization. The user granting access is the delegator, and the user receiving access is the delegate.

Delegates can read, send, and delete messages in the delegator's account. They can also view and add contacts. When a delegate sends a message from the delegator's account, the delegate's email address appears. For more information, see Delegate & collaborate on email.

Google Workspace organizations can use the settings.delegates resource to manage delegates within Gmail accounts in their organization. This requires a service account granted domain-wide authority.

You must refer to a delegate user by their primary email address, not an email alias. Gmail limits the number of delegates for each user in a Google Workspace organization to 25 delegates.

The settings.delegates resource contains more information on how to create, list, get, or delete delegates.

The settings.delegates resource includes a VerificationStatus object to indicate whether Gmail verified ownership of an email address for delegation. When you create a delegate using the settings.delegates.create method, Gmail sets the verificationStatus field to accepted without sending a verification email.