How to Forward Gmail to Notion Database (Complete 2025 Guide)

Picture this: You're managing client communications in Gmail, tracking project updates in your inbox, and manually copying important emails into your Notion workspace. Sound familiar? If you're like most Notion power users, you've probably spent countless hours doing this tedious dance between Gmail and Notion.

The good news? There's a better way. You can automatically forward Gmail emails to your Notion database, complete with all the metadata, attachments, and context you need. No more copy-pasting, no more switching between tabs, and no more lost emails.

In this guide, I'll show you exactly how to set up Gmail to Notion forwarding in minutes, whether you're managing a CRM, tracking support tickets, organizing receipts, or building any other email-powered workflow in Notion.

Why Forward Gmail to Notion?

Before we dive into the how-to, let's talk about why this integration is a game-changer for thousands of Notion users.

The Problem with Manual Email Management

Most professionals waste countless hours switching between Gmail and Notion, manually copying important emails into their workspace. This workflow breaks your focus and creates several pain points. Copy-pasting emails is time-consuming and error-prone, often missing important context like sender information, dates, or email threads. Attachments frequently get lost or forgotten in the process, and searching across both Gmail and Notion separately becomes frustrating when you can't remember where you saved that important client email.

What You Gain with Automatic Forwarding

When you automate email forwarding from Gmail to Notion, you unlock powerful workflow improvements. All your emails live in your Notion workspace alongside related projects, contacts, and notes, creating a truly centralized information hub. Subject lines, senders, dates, and body content automatically populate your database fields, eliminating manual data entry entirely. PDFs, images, and documents save directly to Notion, ensuring nothing gets lost. You can find emails using Notion's powerful search and filter capabilities, and connect emails to your existing Notion databases and automations for seamless workflow integration.

According to recent productivity research, teams that centralize their communication save an average of 2-3 hours per week that would otherwise be spent switching between tools and searching for information. That's 100+ hours per year just from one simple integration!

What You'll Need

Before we start, make sure you have a Gmail account (personal or Google Workspace) and a Notion workspace (free or paid). The entire setup process takes about 5 minutes, and we'll help you create a Notion database if you don't have one ready yet.

Having a clear use case in mind helps—whether that's building a CRM, tracking support tickets, organizing receipts, or any other email-powered workflow. Basic familiarity with Gmail filters and Notion database properties will make the process smoother, but we'll walk you through everything step by step.

Step 1: Set Up Your Notion Database

First, you need a Notion database to receive your emails. If you already have one set up, you can skip to Step 2.

Creating a New Email Database in Notion

1. Open Notion and navigate to the workspace where you want to store emails
2. Create a new database by typing /database and selecting "Table - Inline"
3. Name your database something like "Emails", "Client Communications", or "Support Inbox"

Essential Database Properties

Your email database needs several key properties to capture all the important information from incoming emails. The good news is that Mailsink will create these automatically if they don't exist in your database. You'll need a Subject field (Title type) for the email subject line, a From field (Text) for the sender's email address, a To field (Text) for recipient addresses, a Date field (Date type) for when the email was sent, a Body field (Text) for the email content, and an Attachments field (Files & media) for any files attached to the email.

For workflow management, consider adding optional properties like Status (Select) for tracking workflow stages and Priority (Select) for categorizing importance. You can customize these properties later based on your specific workflow needs. Many users add properties like "Client Name", "Project", "Response Needed", or "Follow-up Date" to create more powerful email management systems.

Step 2: Connect Your Notion Workspace to Mailsink

Now let's set up the automation that will forward your Gmail to Notion.

Why Mailsink?

While there are several ways to get emails into Notion, Mailsink is purpose-built specifically for this workflow. Unlike complex automation tools that require coding knowledge, Mailsink offers a simple connection that anyone can set up in minutes. It preserves email formatting so your messages look great in Notion, handles attachments automatically so files upload seamlessly, and provides per-inbox addressing so you can route different emails to different databases.

Connection Steps

1. Go to Mailsink.app and sign up for a free account.
2. Click "Connect Notion" in your dashboard.
3. Authorize Mailsink to access your Notion workspace.
   • Select the pages Mailsink can access (choose the workspace where you want emails to live).
   • Click "Allow access".
4. Create an inbox from the Inboxes tab.
   • In the create form, select the Notion tab.
   • Choose where emails should land:
     • Create a brand new Notion database directly from Mailsink, or
     • Link an existing database that already has the properties you want to use.
   • Keep the Auto-create properties toggle enabled to let Mailsink generate Subject, From, Body, Attachments, and other recommended columns automatically (you can adjust these later).
5. Click "Create inbox". Mailsink verifies the connection, autoconfigures the database, and generates a unique inbox address (like abc123@in.mailsink.app).
6. Copy the generated inbox address — you'll use this for email forwarding.
7. Optional customization: Open the inbox drawer later and fine-tune mappings in the Email Content, Email Metadata, Attachments, or Thread Linking tabs. You can rerun autoconfigure at any time if you add new properties in Notion.

Important: Copy and save your inbox address — you'll need it in the next step!

Step 3: Set Up Gmail Forwarding

Now comes the magic part - configuring Gmail to automatically forward specific emails to your Notion database.

Method A: Forward ALL Emails

If you want every email to go to Notion (great for dedicated support or project email addresses):

1. Open Gmail settings by clicking the gear icon → "See all settings"
2. Click the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab
3. Click "Add a forwarding address"
4. Paste your Mailsink inbox address and click "Next" → "Proceed"
5. Check your Notion database - You should see a verification email from Gmail
6. Click the verification link in the forwarded email
7. Back in Gmail settings, select "Forward a copy of incoming mail to [your-address@in.mailsink.app]"
8. Choose what happens to Gmail's copy - Usually "keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox"

Method B: Forward Specific Emails (Recommended)

Most users prefer selective forwarding using Gmail filters. This gives you more control:

1. In Gmail, click the search bar and then click "Show search options" (the filter icon)
2. Set your criteria:
   • From: Specific email addresses (e.g., clients@company.com)
   • To: Specific recipient (e.g., support@yourcompany.com)
   • Subject: Keywords to filter (e.g., "invoice" or "support request")
   • Has the words: Additional filtering (e.g., "urgent" or project names)
3. Click "Create filter"
4. Check "Forward it to" and select your Mailsink address
5. Optional: Add labels, mark as read, or categorize
6. Click "Create filter"

Popular Filter Patterns

Here are some common filter patterns that work well for different use cases. For client emails, you can filter by sender domain using from:@client-company.com and forward those to your "Client CRM" database. For receipts and invoices, use subject:receipt OR subject:invoice to catch all financial documents and route them to your "Finance" database. Support requests sent to support@yourcompany.com can automatically go to your "Support Tickets" database, while newsletters from sources like Substack or Medium can be filtered with from:@substack.com OR from:@medium.com and forwarded to a "Reading List" database. The best part is you can create multiple filters for different use cases, giving you complete control over how emails are organized.

Step 4: Test Your Setup

Let's make sure everything works correctly:

1. Send a test email to the email address you've set up filtering for
2. Wait 10-30 seconds for processing
3. Check your Notion database - Your test email should appear!
4. Verify all fields populated correctly:
   • ✅ Subject line
   • ✅ Sender address
   • ✅ Date and time
   • ✅ Email body content
   • ✅ Attachments (if you included any)

Troubleshooting

If your email isn't showing up in Notion, first check that your Gmail filter is active and the forward address is correct. For missing attachments, check your Mailsink plan limits if you're working with larger files. If formatting looks weird, try toggling between plain text and HTML view in Mailsink settings to see which works better for your emails. If the verification email isn't arriving, check your spam folder or try adding the forward address again in Gmail settings.

Real-World Use Cases

Now that you've set up Gmail to Notion forwarding, here are some powerful ways to use it:

1. Client CRM

Set up a powerful client relationship management system by forwarding all client emails to a dedicated "Clients" database. Mailsink automatically extracts typical email metadata (Subject, From, Date, Body, Attachments) and can use AI integration to enhance the data. You can then add your own custom properties like client name, company, last contact date, status, and linked projects. Every email automatically creates a new record, giving you a complete view of each relationship. Use Notion relations to link emails to project databases, so when a client emails about Project X, you can see all related communication in one place.

2. Support Ticket System

Transform your support email into a fully functional ticket system by forwarding support@yourcompany.com to a "Support Tickets" database. Mailsink automatically extracts typical email metadata, and with AI integration, can help categorize and prioritize tickets. You can then add your own custom properties for ticket number, customer information, priority level, status, assigned team member, and resolution notes. Each new email becomes a new ticket automatically. Use the status property to track tickets through stages like "Open", "In Progress", and "Resolved", while team members can claim tickets and add notes directly in Notion. Create a Notion board view to visualize ticket status like a Kanban board for better workflow management.

3. Receipt & Invoice Tracking

Simplify your financial record-keeping by forwarding receipts and invoices to a "Finance" database. Mailsink automatically extracts typical email metadata and attachments, and AI integration can help identify vendors and extract key information. You can then add your own custom properties for vendor name, amount, category, payment status, and tax deductible status. Attachments save automatically with each email, making tax time significantly easier since all your receipts are already organized. Use Notion formulas to calculate totals and track expenses by category, giving you instant insights into your spending patterns.

4. Job Application Tracker

Build a comprehensive hiring pipeline by forwarding recruiting emails to a "Candidates" database. Mailsink automatically extracts typical email metadata and attachments (like resumes), and AI integration can help identify candidate information. You can then add your own custom properties for candidate name, position applied for, interview stage, interview date, and notes. Track the entire hiring process in one Notion workspace, from initial application through final decision, with all communication and documents automatically organized.

5. Newsletter Archive

Setup: Forward newsletters to a "Reading List" database Properties: Source, topic, read status, highlights, saved for later Workflow: Build a searchable knowledge base from your favorite newsletters

Pro tip: Add tags for different topics to filter your archive.

Advanced Tips & Tricks

Multiple Inbox Addresses

You can create multiple inbox addresses in Mailsink, each pointing to different Notion databases. Each inbox gets a unique auto-generated address:

• abc123@in.mailsink.app → Client CRM database
• xyz789@in.mailsink.app → Support Tickets database
• def456@in.mailsink.app → Finance database

This lets you route different emails to different places automatically.

Gmail Filter Combinations

Get creative with filter combinations:

from:@client-domain.com AND subject:"Project Alpha"
→ Forward to "Project Alpha" database

from:orders@shopify.com
→ Forward to "Order Fulfillment" database

has:attachment filename:pdf AND subject:contract
→ Forward to "Legal Documents" database

Notion Database Views

Set up multiple views in your email database:

• Table view: See all emails in a list
• Board view: Group by status (To Review, In Progress, Done)
• Calendar view: Timeline of email communications
• Gallery view: Visual view of emails with attachments

Integrating with Other Tools

Combine Gmail → Notion with other integrations:

• Notion API: Build custom automations
• Zapier/Make: Connect to thousands of other apps
• Notion AI: Summarize long email threads
• Slack: Get notified when important emails arrive in Notion

Alternatives to Consider

While Mailsink is built specifically for email-to-workspace integration, here are alternatives:

Manual forwarding: Free but time-consuming Zapier: More complex setup, higher cost Make.com: Similar to Zapier, steeper learning curve Custom scripts: Free if you can code, maintenance required

For most users, Mailsink offers the best balance of ease, features, and cost.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

"My emails aren't showing up in Notion"

Checklist:

1. Verify your Gmail filter is active (Settings → Filters)
2. Check your Mailsink inbox address is correct
3. Look for verification emails in Notion
4. Test with a simple email (no attachments first)
5. Check Mailsink dashboard for processing errors

"Attachments are missing"

Solutions:

• Check your Mailsink plan for attachment size limits
• Check that the "Attachments" property exists in your Notion database
• Try with different file types (PDFs work best)

"Email formatting is broken"

Fixes:

• Toggle between plain text and HTML view in Mailsink settings
• Some complex HTML emails may not render perfectly
• Use the "Body" property for content, not the title

"I'm hitting my email limit"

Options:

• Use filters to be more selective about which emails forward
• Archive old emails to stay under the limit
• Check your Mailsink plan for current limits

Conclusion

Forwarding Gmail to Notion is one of those simple integrations that dramatically improves your productivity. Instead of juggling two tools, you get a single source of truth for all your important communications.

Whether you're building a CRM, managing support tickets, tracking receipts, or organizing any other email-based workflow, this integration saves time and mental energy. The best part? It takes less than 5 minutes to set up.

Your next steps:

1. Create your Notion email database (or use an existing one)
2. Sign up for Mailsink and connect your Notion
3. Set up Gmail forwarding rules
4. Send a test email and watch the magic happen

Once you see it working, you'll wonder how you ever managed emails without it.

Ready to get started? Try Mailsink free →

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I forward from multiple Gmail accounts? A: Yes! Create separate Gmail filters in each account, all pointing to the same (or different) Mailsink inbox addresses.

Q: Will this delete emails from Gmail? A: No, Gmail keeps a copy unless you specifically tell it to delete forwarded emails (not recommended).

Q: Can I stop forwarding later? A: Absolutely. Just delete the Gmail filter or forwarding rule, and new emails won't be sent to Notion.

Q: Does this work with Google Workspace (G Suite)? A: Yes! The process is identical for personal Gmail and Google Workspace accounts.

Q: How do I forward only specific emails? A: Use Gmail filters (covered in Step 3, Method B) to forward only emails matching your criteria.

Q: Can I edit emails after they're in Notion? A: Yes, once in Notion, they're regular database entries you can edit, annotate, and enhance.

Q: What happens if I reach my email limit? A: New emails won't be processed until your monthly limit resets or you adjust your plan.

Last updated: November 6, 2025