Gmail Email Settings: IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and App Password Setup

Key Takeaways

• For incoming mail, use imap.gmail.com on port 993 or pop.gmail.com on port 995, both with SSL.
• For sending, point at smtp.gmail.com via port 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL).
• If the app signs in with a password, use your full email address and a 16-character App Password. If it offers OAuth2, use that.
• Personal accounts have had IMAP switched on permanently since January 2025 (the old toggle no longer exists, so don't waste your time looking for it).
• If the app offers "Sign in with Google," use that instead of typing in the manual values.

Gmail IMAP, POP3, and SMTP Settings

The Gmail IMAP settings and Gmail POP settings below cover incoming mail, while the Gmail SMTP settings are for outgoing messages.

Most failed setups come down to two things:

• The first is typing just your username, like "davidmorelo," into the username field. Gmail wants your full address instead, like yourname@gmail.com.
• The second is leaving authentication off for outgoing mail. People sometimes uncheck "My server requires authentication" because they think it's optional. But smtp.gmail.com is a public server that anyone can reach, so it demands proof you own the mailbox you're sending from. Without that box checked, your client connects but never sends its credentials, and Gmail rejects the connection as coming from a stranger.

Who Actually Needs Manual Gmail Settings?

Turns out, not that many people actually need to manually enter Gmail settings in 2026. If you're setting up Gmail in Outlook, Apple Mail, iPhone Mail, or Thunderbird, you'll be offered a "Sign in with Google" option (you can thank the OAuth standard for this option). When you click the option, you simply approve the sign-in request in a browser window that appears, and the client fills in every server address and port on its own.

The situations where you still need to manually enter Gmail email settings include the more technical stuff like WordPress plugins, CRMs that send mail on your behalf, custom scripts, and older clients that predate the development of the OAuth standard.

However, it's important to know that Google killed what the company refers to as "less secure app" access back in May 2022 for personal Gmail and in 2025 for Workspace. That means the password you use to log into Gmail no longer works over IMAP, POP, or SMTP. If your app connects by password, it needs the so-called Gmail App Password instead.

How to Create a Gmail App Password

A Gmail App Password is a 16-character password that stands in for your regular Gmail password when an app needs to connect over IMAP, POP, or SMTP. The problem is that this password only exists if you've already turned on 2-Step Verification, which is why the option so often looks missing. Here's what you need to do to successfully create a Gmail App password so that you can then use it to access your account from a third-party app:

1. Turn on 2-Step Verification in your Google Account under Security. Without it, the App Passwords page simply doesn't show up.
2. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords.
3. Give it a name you'll actually remember, like "Thunderbird laptop" or "WP Mail SMTP."
4. Copy the 16-character string Google displays. The spaces between the four groups are just formatting.
5. Paste it into your app's password field. Your username stays as your full email address.

Due to their less secure nature, you should generally reserve App Passwords for situations where OAuth isn't an option, and you need to make sure to revoke any you stop using.

⚠️ Important: Google will block App Passwords if your 2-Step Verification relies on security keys only, if Advanced Protection is enabled, or if your Workspace admin hasn't explicitly allowed them.

Do You Still Need to Enable IMAP in Gmail?

No, you actually don't need to enable IMAP in Gmail anymore, and this is the reason why a lot of setup guides on this topic have become outdated. Since January 2025, IMAP has been permanently turned on for personal Google accounts and the "Enable IMAP" radio button is gone from Settings (if you've been looking for it, now you know that nothing is wrong with your account).

The only exception is POP, the older protocol for downloading mail from a server to a single device. Several POP settings still live under Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP. For example, you can choose whether to enable it for all mail or only for mail arriving from now on, and you decide what Gmail does with its own copy.

POP vs IMAP: Which One Should You Use?

IMAP is the best choice for most Gmail users who want to access their account via a third-party app. This more modern protocol treats the server as the source of truth, so a message you mark as read on your phone shows as read on your laptop, and folders you create in one place appear in the other.

In this day and age, POP is still useful for pulling mail onto a single machine and keeping it there, usually for a local archive or offline work. When using it for this purpose, it doesn't really matter that POP arrives as one flat stream with no labels, and has no idea what you did on any other device.

Gmail SMTP Ports: 587 or 465?

Use 587 with TLS first (many apps call it STARTTLS) because it's the modern standard for outgoing mail, so almost every client out there defaults to this port and protocol combination.

You may sometimes need to change the port to 465 with SSL if your app only lists "SSL" as an encryption choice, or if 587 just won't connect. For example, some shared hosts and office networks block outbound 587 while letting 465 through, which is why Google lists both ports in the Gmail SMTP settings docs. You'll also find port 25 in Google's documentation, but most consumer ISPs block it, so treat it as a last resort.

How to Use Gmail SMTP With WordPress

Out of the box, WordPress sends mail through PHP's mail() function, which is unauthenticated and misconfigured on a lot of shared hosting. As a result, messages sent this way land in spam so often that it's one of the top reasons people end up googling Gmail SMTP WordPress. The standard fix is the WP Mail SMTP plugin.

To use the WP Mail SMTP plugin, you need to install it from the WordPress plugins section, open the WP Mail SMTP settings, and pick the Other SMTP mailer. Put smtp.gmail.com in the host field, TLS for encryption, 587 for the port, and turn Authentication on. Your Gmail address goes in the username field, your Gmail App Password in the password field. Set the From Email to that same address, because Gmail rewrites mismatched senders, and then run the Email Test.

The plugin also includes a Google mailer that logs in over OAuth, and WP Mail SMTP actually recommends that route over Other SMTP. Setup takes longer since you create credentials in Google Cloud Console, or one click on Pro, but no password sits in your database. And whichever route you pick, personal Gmail's 500-message cap makes it a poor fit for bulk sending.

Gmail Setup in Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, and iPhone Mail

Current versions of all four clients handle Gmail through OAuth, so the settings table above is really a fallback.

In Outlook, just type your Gmail address and approve access in the Google window that pops up. Our guide on how to add Gmail to Outlook covers both the classic and new versions.

Thunderbird detects Gmail from the address alone and switches to OAuth2 on its own. If an older profile still shows "Normal password," change it in Account Settings: Server Settings for incoming mail, and Outgoing Server (SMTP) for sending.

Apple Mail on macOS lists Google under Mail, Add Account. On iPhone the path is Settings, Apps, Mail, Mail Accounts, Add Account, Google. The Other entry further down is where you'd enter manual values, so don't go there without a reason. Our email settings on iPhone walkthrough covers those screens.

Google Workspace vs Personal Gmail

Workspace accounts run on the same servers with a higher sending limit once the account is established, but your admin sits between you and most of these settings. The admin can switch POP and IMAP off domain-wide, and they decide whether App Passwords are available to you at all.

Admins also have two options that personal accounts don't. The SMTP relay at smtp-relay.gmail.com accepts ports 25, 465, and 587, authenticates by IP address or credentials, and allows 10,000 recipients per user per day, which makes it a good fit for scanners and internal apps.

The restricted server at aspmx.l.google.com on port 25 skips authentication entirely but only delivers to Gmail and Workspace addresses. Both need Admin console setup first, and the restricted server also needs the device's IP allowlisted and covered by SPF.

Gmail SMTP Not Working and Other Common Fixes

Keeping Gmail Manageable After Setup

Once Gmail is connected to multiple devices and apps, the difficulty of keeping your inbox organized can easily become higher since you're now potentially dealing with mail arriving from more places than you used to, notifications and auto-replies piling up across every device, and other forms of mail noise.

What you need is a centralized Gmail management tool that works on the mailbox itself rather than on one client, so whatever you clean up stays cleaned up in Outlook, on your phone, and in the Gmail web app.

Clean Email provides this mailbox-level management by connecting directly to your account. Once you get started with Clean Email, you can clean out old Gmail mail and unsubscribe from senders you no longer read.

You can also sort messages into Smart Folders and use Auto Clean rules to prevent new clutter from building up.