How to Schedule an Email in Gmail
Want to send emails at the perfect time? Gmail makes it easy with its built-in scheduling tool.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Why schedule emails? Draft emails when it’s convenient for you and send them at the right time for your recipient, even across time zones.
- How does it work? Gmail lets you schedule emails up to 49 days in advance. You can manage, edit, or cancel scheduled emails anytime.
- Best times to send? Emails sent early mornings (4:00 AM–8:00 AM PST) or midweek (Tuesdays and Thursdays) often perform best.
- Limits: Gmail allows 100 scheduled emails at a time, with daily sending caps of 500 (personal accounts) or 2,000 (Google Workspace users).
Quick Steps to Schedule an Email:
- Write your email.
- Click the arrow next to "Send" and select "Schedule send."
- Pick a date and time.
- Confirm, and your email will move to the "Scheduled" folder.
Pro Tip: Personalize your emails and plan follow-ups to boost response rates. For larger campaigns, consider tools like Warmforge for email warm-up and Mailforge for advanced automation.
Gmail’s scheduling feature is perfect for professionals looking to optimize communication and manage time effectively.
How to Schedule an Email in Gmail: Step-by-Step Guide
Scheduling an email in Gmail is quick and straightforward once you know where to look. Whether you're sending a single email or planning a series of messages for an outreach campaign, the process is the same.
Step 1: Write Your Email
Start by clicking "Compose" and filling in the recipient's email address, the subject line, and your message.
Make your subject line engaging but avoid anything that might come across as spammy. Keep your email short and to the point, while adding a personal touch - mentioning something specific about the recipient, like their company or recent achievements, can help your message stand out.
Before scheduling, ensure your email is complete. If you need to make changes later, you'll have to cancel the scheduled send, edit the content, and reschedule it. Once you're ready, move on to finding the scheduling option.
Step 2: Locate the "Schedule Send" Option
To schedule your email, click the drop-down arrow next to the "Send" button and select "Schedule send".
If you're using the Gmail app on your phone, tap the three dots in the top-right corner to open the menu, where you'll find the "Schedule send" option.
This feature works with both personal and professional Gmail accounts.
Step 3: Choose the Date and Time
When you select "Schedule send," Gmail will suggest a few preset options like "Tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM", "Tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 PM", or "Monday morning at 8:00 AM." For more control, click "Pick date & time" to open a calendar and clock interface.
Pick a time that aligns with your recipient’s schedule and time zone. For example, if you’re sending a cold email, aim for standard business hours. After choosing the date and time, you're ready to schedule the email.
Step 4: Confirm and Manage Your Scheduled Emails
Once you've selected the date and time, click "Schedule send" to confirm. Gmail will display a brief confirmation message, and your email will be moved to the "Scheduled" folder.
To view your scheduled emails, go to the "Scheduled" folder in the left-hand menu on desktop. On Android devices, open the menu and tap "Scheduled".
If you need to make changes, click "Cancel send" to move the email back to your drafts. From there, you can edit and reschedule it as needed.
Best Practices for Scheduling Cold Emails
Creating a successful cold email campaign involves more than just hitting "send" at the right moment. The success of your outreach often hinges on when your emails land, how personalized they feel, and whether they make it to the recipient's inbox.
Timing Strategies for Better Response Rates
When it comes to cold emails, timing is everything. A study of over 95,000 cold email campaigns revealed that emails sent between 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM PST achieved a 42.7% open rate. Why? Because they land at the top of inboxes just as recipients start their day.
Midweek is prime time for cold emails. According to Campaign Monitor's analysis of 100 billion emails in 2021, Tuesday consistently had the best click-through and click-to-open rates. Salesmate's research backs this up, showing that Tuesdays (27.5%) and Thursdays (26%) are the strongest performers, while Monday often sees the most replies.
Here's a breakdown of open rates by day:
| Day of the Week | Share of Opens (%) | Open Rates |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 13.1% | Medium |
| Tuesday | 13.4% | Medium |
| Wednesday | 12.9% | Medium |
| Thursday | 12.4% | Low |
| Friday | 12.7% | Low |
| Saturday | 16.9% | High |
| Sunday | 18.7% | Highest |
Surprisingly, weekends perform well for open rates, with 58% of U.S. consumers checking email first thing in the morning. However, while Sunday emails might grab attention, they may not always align with your business goals. Be sure to schedule emails based on your recipient's local time to avoid awkward delivery hours.
While timing lays the groundwork, personalization and thoughtful follow-ups are what truly drive results.
Personalization and Follow-Up Planning
Cold emails that feel generic rarely get a second glance. Personalization can lead to 82% higher open rates and boost response rates by up to 140%.
Start with the subject line - it’s your first impression. A personalized subject line can increase open rates by 26% and, in some cases, even double them. For example, instead of a bland "Quick question about [Company Name]", try something specific like "Saw your recent TechCrunch feature - quick question about scaling."
But don't stop at the subject line. Dive deeper into personalization by researching your recipient. Check out their LinkedIn profile, recent blog posts, or social media activity. Look for key events like product launches, funding announcements, or new hires. For instance, a Lifesize campaign that tailored emails based on lead intent and demographics saw a 57% increase in open rates, 82% more responses, and a 31% year-over-year revenue boost.
"Cold email personalization means making every cold email you send read like a unique, compelling correspondence written just for the recipient. It's the cumulative product of research, well-written copy, and intuitive automation."
- Antonio Gabrić, Outreach Manager @ Hunter
Don’t overlook follow-ups - they account for 55% of email responses. Plan your sequence in advance, ensuring each follow-up offers fresh value or a new perspective instead of simply repeating the original message.
Even with perfect timing and personalization, deliverability is the final hurdle. This is where email warm-up tools come into play.
Use Email Warm-Up Tools for Better Deliverability
No matter how well-crafted your email is, it won’t matter if it lands in the spam folder. This is why email warm-up is crucial, especially for new domains or email addresses.
Email warm-up builds trust with providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo. Without it, your emails might struggle to gain a good sender reputation, leaving them stuck in spam. The warm-up process typically takes 8–12 weeks to fully establish credibility.
Tools like Warmforge automate this process by gradually increasing your email volume while generating positive engagement signals. This helps strengthen your sender reputation more quickly than manual methods. For example, Google Workspace allows up to 2,000 emails per day, but that’s only effective if those emails actually reach inboxes.
The process starts small, sending just a handful of emails daily, and scales up over time. Even after achieving good deliverability, it’s important to keep the warm-up running. Maintaining a strong reputation is an ongoing effort, especially since 80% of email users prefer email as their primary channel for business communication.
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Fixing Common Email Scheduling Problems
Timely email delivery is just as crucial as proper scheduling. Let’s dive into common scheduling issues and how to address them effectively. Even with Gmail’s strong scheduling capabilities, occasional hiccups can delay or disrupt your email plans.
Delivery Errors and Failed Sends
If your scheduled email doesn’t send as planned, Gmail usually provides an error message to pinpoint the problem. One of the most common errors is "You have reached a limit for sending mail," which happens when you exceed Gmail’s daily sending cap. This limit resets on a rolling 24-hour basis, so you may need to wait up to 24 hours for your sending ability to return. For users frequently hitting this limit, setting up a Google Group for bulk communications can be a helpful workaround.
Another error you might encounter is "Messages failed delivery," which typically means the recipient’s email address is invalid. To avoid this, double-check your recipient list before scheduling emails, especially for cold outreach. Using an email verification tool can help identify invalid or outdated addresses and prevent delivery failures.
Sometimes, you’ll see the "A recipient is receiving excessive emails" error if you’ve sent too many emails to the same person within a short timeframe. In such cases, pause sending emails to that recipient for 24–48 hours and consider reaching out through other methods, like LinkedIn or a phone call.
To prevent authentication-related delivery issues, ensure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured. These protocols verify the legitimacy of your emails and can significantly improve your chances of successful delivery.
If errors persist, you can always adjust your scheduled emails - more on that in the next section.
How to Edit or Cancel Scheduled Emails
Need to make changes to a scheduled email? Gmail makes it simple. Head to the "Scheduled" section in the left-hand menu of your Gmail dashboard. On Android devices, you can find this option by tapping the menu and selecting "Scheduled".
To edit a scheduled email, open the email you want to modify and click "Cancel send" at the top right. Once canceled, the email will move to your drafts folder, where you can make your edits. Afterward, just click the down arrow next to "Send" and choose "Schedule send" to reschedule it for a new time.
If you need to cancel a scheduled email, follow the same process: go to the "Scheduled" section, select the email, and click "Cancel send". The email will return to your drafts folder, giving you the option to delete it or save it for later. This flexibility is especially handy for cold email campaigns, where timing and personalization can make or break your success.
Gmail Scheduling Limits and Restrictions
Gmail imposes some scheduling limits that can affect your email campaigns. For instance, you can only have 100 scheduled emails at a time. If you hit this limit, you’ll need to send or delete some of your scheduled emails before adding new ones.
For those managing large campaigns, this restriction can be a bit of a challenge. If you need to schedule more than 100 emails, consider alternative methods like using Google Calendar reminders or Gmail’s snooze feature to manage follow-ups.
Another limitation is that Gmail doesn’t support recurring scheduled emails, so each one must be scheduled manually.
| Account Type | Daily Email Limit | Recipients per Email | Scheduled Email Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Gmail | 500 emails | 100 recipients | 100 scheduled emails |
| Google Workspace | 2,000 emails | 100 recipients | 100 scheduled emails |
| Workspace Enterprise | Up to 5,000 emails | 100 recipients | 100 scheduled emails |
Interestingly, Gmail allows emails to remain scheduled for up to 49 years, though this feature is more of a quirky fact than a practical tool for most users.
For businesses handling high-volume email campaigns, upgrading to Google Workspace can increase your daily sending limits. However, it’s worth noting that the 100 scheduled email cap remains unchanged. If you need even greater capacity or advanced automation features, consider using dedicated outreach tools to supplement Gmail’s native scheduling capabilities.
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Gmail's email scheduling feature has reshaped how professionals manage communications, making it easier to send timely messages across different time zones and busy schedules.
Main Benefits of Email Scheduling
Scheduling emails can significantly improve your outreach efforts. By strategically timing your messages, you can increase open rates, especially when aligning with your recipients' working hours. Research indicates that promotional emails sent around midday on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays tend to perform better in terms of open rates.
Another advantage is the time saved through planning and batching emails in advance. As Margaret Sikora puts it:
"Email scheduling is an incredibly useful feature for managing your communications efficiently. It allows you to send emails at a specific time, ensuring that your messages reach the recipient's email address at the most convenient moment."
Additionally, scheduling ensures your communication feels timely and personalized, even across different time zones. This flexibility allows you to adjust your plans as needed. Considering that it often takes an average of five follow-up emails to get a response from a prospect, strategically using scheduling can help you stay consistent and effective in your outreach efforts.
Next Steps for Advanced Email Campaigns
Once you've mastered Gmail's scheduling functionality, you can take your email strategy to the next level with advanced tools. Email marketing is highly effective, offering an average return of $36 for every dollar spent and outperforming social media by being 40 times more effective.
For larger-scale campaigns, investing in dedicated tools can make a big difference. For example, Mailforge provides automated DNS setup for cold outreach, allowing you to manage up to 200 mailboxes for $484 per month - a significant cost savings compared to Google Workspace ($1,680) or Microsoft 365 ($1,200) for the same capacity.
To improve deliverability, Warmforge offers email warm-up services and placement tests, which are essential for ensuring your emails land in the inbox. This is especially important as automated, triggered emails can generate up to eight times more opens than standard bulk email campaigns.
For lead generation, tools like Leadsforge help you quickly build targeted, verified lead lists, while Salesforge streamlines sequence management. Together, these tools enable you to design comprehensive cold email campaigns that go far beyond basic scheduling.
To ensure success, start with SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Segment your campaigns based on recipient personas and behaviors, and go beyond simple personalization by incorporating insights like purchase history or browsing activity. Regularly monitor engagement metrics by segment and clean your email lists to maintain strong deliverability rates. By combining Gmail's scheduling feature with these advanced tools, you'll be ready to run scalable and effective email campaigns.
FAQs
How can I schedule Gmail emails to reach recipients at the best time in their time zones?
To make sure your scheduled Gmail emails land at the right time for recipients in different time zones, it's important to plan based on their local time. Gmail uses the time zone you set when scheduling, so if you schedule an email for 10:00 AM your time, it will send at exactly that time, no matter where the recipient is located.
For better engagement, try scheduling emails during standard business hours in the recipient's time zone - ideally between 8:00 and 9:00 AM on weekdays, particularly from Tuesday to Thursday. These time slots tend to boost the chances of your email being opened and read, leading to higher engagement and response rates.
What can I do if my scheduled email in Gmail doesn’t send because of daily sending limits?
If your scheduled email in Gmail doesn’t send because you’ve hit the daily sending limit, you’ll need to wait - up to 24 hours - for the limit to reset. Gmail automatically lifts the restriction once the time has passed, allowing your emails to go through.
To avoid running into this problem again, consider breaking up large recipient lists into smaller groups or spreading your scheduled emails over several days. If you’re using a Google Workspace account and think the limits aren’t accurate, it’s worth contacting your administrator or Google support for help. For higher-volume email campaigns, tools like Salesforge or Mailforge can help you manage your outreach more efficiently and bypass these restrictions.
How can I make my scheduled emails more personalized to boost open and response rates?
To make your scheduled emails stand out and boost both open and response rates, try adding a personal touch. Start by including the recipient's name in the subject line and email body. It’s a small change, but it can make your email feel much more tailored and inviting.
Another way to step up your email game is by segmenting your audience. Group your contacts based on things like demographics, interests, or their past interactions with your brand. This lets you craft messages that speak directly to their needs and interests, creating a stronger connection.
Take it a step further with dynamic content. For example, mention a recent purchase or interaction to show you’re paying attention. Emails that feel timely and relevant are more likely to grab attention and spark engagement. Personalization doesn’t just make your emails feel thoughtful - it builds trust and motivates recipients to take action, making your efforts far more impactful.