Google's Gemini AI can read and analyze your Gmail messages to summarize emails, draft replies, find information, and help manage your inbox.
While these features can save time, they have also raised privacy concerns. Some users may not want an AI assistant processing their personal conversations, financial details, work emails, or other sensitive information.
How to Turn Off Gemini in Gmail on a Computer
If you use Gmail through a web browser, follow these steps to disable its smart features.
- Open Gmail on your computer and sign in to your Google account.
- Click the Settings icon in the top-right corner.
- Select See all settings.
- Under the General tab, scroll down to Smart features.
- Find Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet and uncheck the box.
- Confirm the change if prompted.
Next, you should also turn off the additional Google Workspace features.
- Return to the General tab in Gmail settings.
- Scroll down to Google Workspace smart features.
- Click Manage Workspace smart feature settings.
- Turn off Smart features in Google Workspace.
- Turn off Smart features in other Google products.
- Click Save.
These settings control how Gmail and other Google services use your content to provide AI-powered and personalized features.
Turning them off will disable the relevant Gemini functions that use your Workspace data.
How to Turn Off Gemini in Gmail on Android and iPhone
You can also change these settings directly from the Gmail app.
The process is similar on Android and iPhone.
- Open the Gmail app.
- Tap the three horizontal lines in the top-left corner.
- Scroll down and select Settings.
- Choose the Gmail account you want to manage.
- Find the Smart features option.
- Turn off Smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet.
- Open Google Workspace smart features.
- Disable Smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products.
Depending on your Gmail version, some options may appear in slightly different locations.
You can also make these changes through Gmail on a computer.
Google says these settings apply across devices where you are signed in with the same account, so you generally do not need to repeat the process on every device.
How to Stop Gemini From Accessing Your Connected Google Apps
Gemini can also connect with Google services such as Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and other Workspace applications.
These connections allow the AI assistant to use information from your account to provide personalized answers.
If you want to limit this access, you should review your connected apps.
Open gemini.google.com and sign in to your account.
Go to Settings & help > Personal Intelligence > Connected Apps.
Find Google Workspace and turn off the connection if it is enabled.
This prevents the connected-app personalization feature from continuing to access that information.
However, disconnecting an app does not automatically remove information that may already be included in previous Gemini conversations.
You may also need to review and delete relevant conversations from your Gemini activity.
How to Stop Google From Saving Your Search Activity for AI Training
If you want additional privacy protection, you can also change how Google saves your activity across its Search services.
Google says information collected through Search services can be used to improve its products, including training generative AI models.
To prevent future Search Services History activity from being used for this purpose, follow these steps.
- Sign in to your Google account.
- Open your Search Services History settings.
- Turn off Search Services History.
- If you also want to remove saved activity, choose Turn off and delete activity.
- Follow the instructions to confirm your selection.
You can also adjust the Save Media option if you want to keep Search Services History enabled but limit the media it stores.
Google is gradually introducing these new controls, so some accounts may still show the older Web & App Activity settings.
How to Turn Off Personalized Google Recommendations
Google also uses your account activity to personalize Search results, recommendations, and certain AI responses.
You can disable this personalization without deleting your emails.
Open your Google account and navigate to Data & privacy > Personalization settings.
Find Personalized Recommendations in Search services and turn it off.
You can also access this setting directly through Google's Search personalization page.
Disabling personalized recommendations will limit how Google uses your saved information to tailor Search experiences.
However, it does not automatically delete previously saved activity or disable personalization across every Google service.
Does Google Use Your Emails to Train Gemini?
Google says it does not directly use personal Gmail messages to train its foundational AI models, including Gemini.
In an April 2026 statement, the company explained that Gemini processes email content to perform specific tasks, such as summarizing a conversation or drafting a response.
Google says this information is not retained by Gemini in Gmail after completing the requested task.
Similar protections apply to data in Google Workspace services such as Docs, Drive, Calendar, and Sheets.
However, there is an important distinction when users connect their Google content to other services.
According to Google's privacy documentation, connecting Workspace content to Search services may allow certain information derived from emails and files to be used to improve its AI systems.
Google says its Search services do not train AI models directly on the contents of a user's Gmail inbox.
However, summaries, excerpts, and other information produced when users interact with connected Search features may be used for model improvement, depending on their settings and permissions.
This is why reviewing both Gmail's smart features and your Google account's connected services is important.
What Happens When You Disable Gemini in Gmail?
Turning off smart features can affect more than Gemini.
Depending on which settings you disable, Gmail may stop providing automatic email categorization, suggested replies, Smart Compose, and certain summary cards.
Some cross-app features may also stop working, including automatically showing flight reservations from Gmail in Google Calendar.
Google Workspace features that use Gemini to summarize information, find files, or draft content may also become unavailable.
However, you can continue using Gmail for normal email activities, including sending, receiving, searching, and organizing messages manually.
If you later decide to use these features again, you can return to the same settings and turn them back on.
For users who prioritize privacy over AI-powered convenience, disabling the relevant smart features and reviewing connected-app permissions provides greater control over how Google uses their information.
It is important to remember that this does not prevent Gmail itself from processing messages for basic email delivery, spam protection, and security. It specifically limits the optional smart features and connected AI experiences controlled by these settings.
