How to unsend an email in Gmail

You can unsend an email in Gmail, but only briefly — for 5 seconds by default, or up to 30 seconds if you raised the limit in your Settings beforehand. Once that window closes, the email is delivered and you can’t get it back.

The Undo Send button is for the emails you regret the moment they leave: a reply-all that was meant for one person, a sharp answer written in frustration, or a proposal sent before your manager signed off on it. It matters most when the email holds something you can’t take back, like a password, bank details, or a client’s personal data.

In this guide, we’ll explain: 

• How to unsend an email in Gmail on desktop and mobile
• How to extend your cancellation window from 5 seconds to 30 seconds
• What to do once the window has closed (even at the 30-second maximum) 
• What Workspace admins can still recover

How to unsend an email in Gmail on desktop

As long as you act quickly, unsending an email in Gmail is easy. Here’s how:

1. Write an email and click Send.

2. A Message sent notification appears in the bottom left. Click Undo.

3. The email reopens as a draft. Make your edits and click Send again. 

How to unsend an email in the Gmail mobile app (Android and iPhone)

1. Open the Gmail mobile app.
2. Compose your message and tap Send.
3. Tap Undo at the bottom right.

Like on your desktop, the email will reopen as a draft. Make your edits and click Send again. 

How to change the Undo Send time in Gmail settings

1. Open Gmail and click Settings ⚙ → See all settings.

2. Locate the General tab and scroll to Undo Send. Choose a cancellation period of 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds (default is 5 seconds).

3. Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.

If you often catch mistakes after sending, set it to 30 seconds. The only cost is that every email arrives a few seconds later.

Changing Gmail’s Undo Send setting on the web doesn’t affect mobile, where the window is about 5–10 seconds.

What to do if you missed the Undo Send window 

You can’t retrieve a delivered email, so the goal shifts from undoing it to limiting what happens next. There are a few ways you could choose to proceed. 

• Email recipients directly and ask them to delete the message and send confirmation once they’ve done so. Uncomfortable, but effective when dealing with an individual or a small group of colleagues. 
• If the email stayed inside your company, contact your Workspace admin immediately, since they can still remove it from internal mailboxes using the security investigation tool. Then act on the contents rather than the embarrassment. 
• If you sent a password, API key, or account recovery code, revoke and replace it immediately instead of relying on anyone promising to forget it. 
• If you attached a client’s personal data, tell whoever handles privacy at your company the same day, even if nothing obvious has gone wrong yet. 
• Finally, resend what you actually meant to send, with a one-line correction and no lengthy apology.

How to undo emails in Gmail for business accounts

Google Workspace accounts have the same Undo Send feature as personal Gmail, with the same 30-second maximum. Business users don’t get a recall button either.

Workspace admins have an extra option for security investigation, which they can use to find a message and delete it from the organization’s Gmail mailboxes.

If you sent an email to the wrong colleague:

1. Contact your IT or Workspace admin as soon as you can.
2. Give them the subject line, the recipients, and the time you sent it, so they can find the message.
3. The admin searches for the message using the security investigation tool and deletes it from the recipients’ mailboxes.

This only works for recipients inside your organization. The tool acts on your company’s own Gmail mailboxes, so a copy sent to an external address stays on that recipient’s server.

Give yourself time to catch mistakes, and protect what you send

Proton Mail takes the same delayed-send approach, with Undo Send enabled by default for 10 seconds (twice Gmail’s default) and an adjustable window of up to 20 seconds. Plus, unlike Gmail, your setting applies across both web and mobile.

Proton Mail gives you more control over what happens to your messages. Emails you send to other Proton users or to addresses that support PGP (an open standard for end-to-end encryption) are end-to-end encrypted, including the message body and attachments.

For everyone else, you can add password protection, so only you and your recipient can read the email and their email provider can’t. Your inbox is stored with zero-access encryption, and you can set messages to expire.

If you decide to switch from Gmail, Easy Switch imports your conversation history, forwards new Gmail messages to your Proton account, and lets you keep sending from your Gmail address inside Proton Mail until you’re ready to leave Gmail behind.

Frequently asked questions about how to unsend an email in Gmail