Updated October 9, 2026
To save emails from Gmail to Google Drive, install the free Save Emails to Google Drive Chrome extension. It adds a Google Drive button to Gmail. Select one email or a hundred, click the button, choose a folder, and the emails are saved to Drive as PDFs with their attachments.
That’s the short answer. The longer one covers the save options (one PDF per conversation or one merged file, attachments embedded or separate), the one-click backup of your whole inbox, where the files end up, and the situations where people find this most useful.
Watch how it works
How to save emails to Google Drive
Four steps, and the first one only happens once.
1. Add Save Emails to Google Drive to Chrome
Add Save Emails to Google Drive from the Chrome Web Store and connect it to the Google Drive account you want to save to. It works with personal Gmail and with business email on Google Workspace. There’s nothing to configure; when you return to Gmail, the Google Drive button is already there.
2. Select the emails you want to save
In Gmail, open a single email, or tick the checkboxes next to several emails in your inbox or a search result. Search is the fast way to gather a batch: search for a client’s address or a project name, then click Select all.
3. Click the Google Drive icon
With the emails selected, click the Google Drive icon in Gmail’s toolbar and choose Save selected conversations to Google Drive.
The menu has a shortcut, too. Once you’ve saved to a folder, it shows Save to [that folder] (as PDF), so filing the next batch into the same place is one click with no dialog. If you save receipts to the same Drive folder every month, that’s the line you’ll use most.
4. Choose a folder and how to save
A dialog asks where in Google Drive the files should go. Pick an existing folder or create a new one. The same dialog holds the save options: one PDF per conversation or all of them merged into one, and whether attachments are embedded in the PDF or saved as separate files next to it.
One PDF per conversation is the right choice for most filing, because each PDF is named after its email and can be found on its own later. Merged into one PDF is for when someone asked for “everything about the Henderson contract” and wants one document to read, not a folder of twenty. Separate attachments is for pulling a month of invoices out of your inbox as files you can open without the cover emails.
Click Save, and the extension does the rest.
What the saved PDF contains
Each PDF holds the full email: the message, the sender and recipients, the date, and the subject line, so whoever opens it later has the whole context. Attachments are either embedded in the PDF or saved alongside it in the same folder, depending on the option you chose.
Nothing changes in Gmail. The original emails stay in your inbox with their labels. Saving to Drive is a copy, not a move.
Back up your whole inbox to Google Drive
The same menu has two options that skip the selecting altogether. Backup all emails to Google Drive (organized by date) saves everything in your mailbox into Drive folders by year and month. Backup all emails to Google Drive (organized by labels) does the same but mirrors your Gmail labels as Drive folders, so the structure you already use in Gmail is the structure you get in Drive.
Either one is the answer to “I want a copy of my email that doesn’t live in Gmail,” whether that’s for leaving a job, a legal hold, or peace of mind. Pick the one that matches how you’ll look for things later: by when they happened, or by what they were about.
New: drag emails straight onto a Drive folder
The newest version of Save Emails to Google Drive also shows your Google Drive folders inside Gmail’s sidebar, so you can select emails and drag them onto a folder without opening the menu at all. If you file emails in batches every week, that’s the faster route. We cover it in Gmail to Google Drive: Drag and Drop Emails Into Your Drive Folders.
When to save emails to Google Drive
Receipts and invoices. Most receipts arrive by email now. Search for the month’s receipts, select all, save them with separate attachments, and your accountant or your expense report has every one of them in a single Drive folder, with no forwarding. Next month, it’s the one-click “Save to” line in the menu.
Requests from HR or legal. When someone asks for every email about a particular matter, search for it, select all, and merge them into one PDF. You hand over a single, dated document instead of a string of forwards.
A record that outlives your inbox. Contracts, approvals, and the thread where the scope was agreed to belong somewhere that doesn’t depend on one person’s Gmail account. Once they’re in a shared Drive folder, the team can find them whether or not you’re there. And if the whole mailbox needs to outlive the inbox, that’s what the backup options are for.
If what you need is to save a single email and share it with someone, see How to Save an Email to Google Drive and Share It With Your Team.
Frequently asked questions
Does saving an email to Google Drive include its attachments?
Yes. Attachments are saved with the email, either embedded in the PDF or as separate files in the same folder, depending on the option you choose when you save.
Can I save a whole Gmail label to Google Drive?
Yes, two ways. Open the label, click Select all, then click the Google Drive icon and save the selected conversations. Or choose Backup all emails to Google Drive (organized by labels), which saves every label as its own Drive folder in one go.
Does the email get deleted from Gmail?
No. The extension copies the email to Drive. The original stays in Gmail exactly as it was.
What format are the emails saved in?
PDF. Each email, or each merged batch, becomes a PDF file in Google Drive that anyone with access to the folder can open, search, and share.
Is there a faster way to file emails into Drive folders?
Yes. The current version puts your Drive folders in Gmail’s sidebar, so you can drag selected emails onto a folder. See our drag-and-drop guide.
