How to Add an Email Signature in Gmail
Set up a professional Gmail signature with your logo and links, make it show on replies, and fix the problems that trip most people up.
Checked against Gmail's current settings screen, September 2026
Table of Contents
Need a signature first?
Free Signature GeneratorBefore You Start
A clean signature makes every email you send look like it came from a real, established business. Gmail makes it easy once you know where the setting lives. We set these up for clients all the time, so this guide covers the steps on a computer plus the phone app, multiple addresses, Google Workspace and the fixes for the problems we see most often.
The short version
In Gmail on a computer, click the gear icon, then See all settings. On the General tab, scroll to Signature, click Create new, name it, and paste or type your signature. Under Signature defaults, choose it for new emails and for replies, then click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
What you'll need:
A computer
Signatures with a logo, colors and links are set up in Gmail on the web at mail.google.com. The phone app only has a plain text signature.
Your signature, ready to paste
Build one free with our Email Signature Generator, or type it straight into Gmail.
The right Gmail account open
Signatures are saved per account. If you use more than one Gmail account, you'll set each one up separately.
Don't have a signature yet?
Our free Email Signature Generator builds a Gmail-ready signature with your logo, contact details and social links in about two minutes. No signup. It's the same tool we use for client signatures.
Open Gmail's Settings
Go to mail.google.com on your computer. In the top right corner, click the gear icon (Settings). A Quick settings panel slides out. Click See all settings at the top of it.
Shortcut:
mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/general opens the General settings tab directly for the first Gmail account you're signed in to.
Find the Signature Section
You'll land on the General tab. Scroll about halfway down the page until you see Signature: (appended at the end of all outgoing messages). Click + Create new.
Tip: Already have a signature? It's listed in this section. Click its name to edit it instead of creating a new one.
Name Your Signature
A Name new signature box pops up. The name is only for you (the people you email never see it), so keep it simple, like "Main signature" or "Short reply." Click Create.
Paste Your Signature
Your new signature now has an empty box next to it. This is where the signature goes. Pasting a finished signature is the easiest way to get a logo, colors and links that look right.
In the Email Signature Generator, fill in your details and click Copy Signature. (Using a different tool? Copy the finished, visible signature, not its code.)
Back in Gmail, click inside the empty signature box and paste: Ctrl + V on Windows or Cmd + V on a Mac. Your logo, colors and links should look just like the preview.
Paste the signature, not the code
Gmail's signature box is a visual editor, not an HTML editor. If you paste HTML code (text that starts with something like
<table), your emails will show that raw code. For Gmail, use
Copy Signature, not Copy HTML Code.
Good to know
Gmail allows up to 10,000 characters per signature, and images count toward that limit. The generator shows your signature's size as you build it (the example above is about 1,500). Prefer to type it yourself? Use the toolbar under the box for bold, colors and links, and the Insert image button to add a logo from Google Drive, an upload, or a web address.
Set Your Signature Defaults
Just below the signature box is Signature defaults. Pick your new signature in both dropdowns: FOR NEW EMAILS USE and ON REPLY/FORWARD USE.
Don't skip the reply setting
If ON REPLY/FORWARD USE is left on No signature, your signature shows up on new emails but not on replies. It's one of the most common reasons people think their signature "stopped working."
Optional: the checkbox underneath
"Insert signature before quoted text in replies and remove the "--" line that precedes it."
Checked: your signature sits right under what you typed in a reply, and Gmail drops the two-dash line above it.
Unchecked (the default): your signature goes below the quoted conversation in replies, which can push it far down a long thread.
Click "Save Changes"
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the settings page and click Save Changes.
Easy to miss
The Save Changes button is at the very end of a long page, well below the signature. If you leave Settings without clicking it, your new signature is thrown away.
Send Yourself a Test
Click Compose and your signature should already be in the new message. Send it to a second email address you own (or a coworker), then reply to it as well. Check that:
Your logo or photo shows up (not as an attachment or a broken image)
Your phone number, email and website links work
The signature appears on your reply, not just the new email
It still looks right when you open the email on your phone
Switch signatures on the fly
Want a different signature on one email? At the bottom of the compose window, click Insert signature (the pen icon) and pick another one, or choose none.
You're All Set!
Every new email you send from Gmail on your computer now carries your signature, and so will your replies if you set that default. Read on for multiple signatures, Google Workspace, your phone, and quick fixes if something looks off.
Multiple Signatures, Addresses and Accounts
More than one signature
Click Create new again to add as many as you like. A popular setup: a full signature with your logo for new emails, and a short one (name and phone) for replies. Choose each one in the matching Signature defaults dropdown, and use Insert signature in the compose window to switch on any single email.
Sending from other addresses ("Send mail as")
If you send from more than one address in the same Gmail account (added under Settings, Accounts and Import, Send mail as), each address can have its own signature. Gmail adds a drop-down menu above the signature box in Settings. Pick an address, then set its signature and defaults. Don't see the drop-down? Check that your other addresses are listed in the Send mail as section.
More than one Gmail account
Signatures belong to each account. If you're signed in to two accounts (say, a personal Gmail and your business one), switch accounts with your profile picture in the top right corner and repeat the steps for each.
Google Workspace Notes
Using Gmail with your own business domain through Google Workspace? The steps above are exactly the same for each person. A few extras are worth knowing:
Company-wide footer: an administrator can add standard text to everyone's outgoing email in the Google Admin console under Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, Compliance, Append footer. People don't see it while writing and can't change or remove it. By default it's added only to emails going outside your organization, and changes can take up to 24 hours. It's great for a legal disclaimer, but it's the same text for everyone, so it doesn't replace personal signatures.
Logo from Google Drive not allowed? Drive images must be shared publicly to show in a signature, and some organizations block that. If you can only add images by web address, ask your admin, or use an image that's already hosted online (the generator hosts uploaded logos for you).
Same signature for the whole team: admins (or a developer) can use the Gmail API to push one signature into everyone's settings. Each person can still edit their own copy afterward.
Setting up a whole team?
Sanden Solutions builds matching signatures for small business teams and installs them in Gmail for you. Get in touch and we'll take it from there.
Gmail on Your iPhone or Android Phone
The Gmail app has its own Mobile signature, separate from the one you just set up. It's a plain text box, so no logo, colors or formatting. Here's the rule that matters, straight from Google: if you don't create a signature in the Gmail app, new messages use the signature you set up on your computer.
Our advice
Want your full signature with the logo on emails from your phone too? Leave the app's Mobile signature turned off or empty. Only turn it on if you'd rather send a short text-only signature from your phone (like "Sent from my phone, Maria").
iPhone and iPad
- Open the Gmail app.
- Tap Menu (top left), then Settings.
- Under Compose and Reply, tap Signature settings.
- Turn on Mobile Signature and type your text.
- Tap Back to save.
Have more than one account in the app? Change this setting for each account.
Android
- Open the Gmail app.
- Tap Menu (top left), scroll to the bottom and tap Settings.
- Choose the Google account you want to change.
- Tap Mobile signature and type your text.
- Tap OK.
Menus can vary a little between app versions and phone makers.
Note: this only covers the Gmail app. If you read your Gmail in Apple's Mail app or the Outlook app, those apps use their own signature settings.
Troubleshooting
The problems we run into most often when setting up Gmail signatures for clients, and how to fix each one.
⚠️ My logo or photo doesn't show up (or shows a broken image)
The image has to live at a public web address that anyone can open. If it sits behind a login, or on your computer only, recipients can't load it.
Added it from Google Drive? Google requires the file to be shared as "Anyone with the link" (Viewer). If the Drive file is ever deleted, the image disappears from your signature too.
Gmail offers three ways to insert an image: Web Address (URL), My Drive and Upload. If one fails, delete the image and try another.
⚠️ My logo shows up as an attachment
Images that are embedded inside the email itself (rather than loaded from a web address) can appear as attachments in some of your recipients' email apps.
The fix is a hosted image: one that loads from a public URL. When you upload a photo or logo to our Email Signature Generator, it hosts the image for you, so the signature you paste already uses a web address.
⚠️ My logo is huge, tiny or stretched
Google recommends signature images that are 70 to 100 pixels high by 300 to 400 pixels wide, and says the maximum is 100 pixels high by 1000 pixels wide.
Click the image inside Gmail's signature box and choose Small, Medium, Large or Original size, or resize the file before you add it.
⚠️ The formatting disappeared when I pasted
If "Plain Text" appears above the signature box, plain text mode is on. Open a new Compose window, click More options (the three dots at the bottom right) and uncheck Plain text mode, then go back to Settings.
Copy the finished signature, not its code, and paste it straight into Gmail. Pasting into a plain text app like Notepad first strips all the formatting.
Seeing odd extra characters? Select the signature, click Remove formatting in the toolbar, and style it again.
⚠️ My signature is missing on replies
Set ON REPLY/FORWARD USE under Signature defaults, then click Save Changes. Left on No signature, Gmail only signs brand-new emails.
Replying from your phone? The Gmail app follows its own Mobile signature setting (see the phone section above).
⚠️ My signature is buried at the bottom of long threads, or hidden behind three dots
By default Gmail places your signature below the quoted conversation in replies. Check "Insert signature before quoted text in replies and remove the "--" line that precedes it." to put it right under what you typed.
In a sent message, Gmail can tuck the signature behind a three-dot button. That is normal. Click Show trimmed content (the three dots) and it's there.
⚠️ Gmail says my signature is too long
The limit is 10,000 characters and images count. A logo pasted in as an embedded file can use most of that on its own. Swap it for an image hosted at a web address, or shrink it.
Our generator shows a live character count as you build, so you can see where you stand before you paste.
⚠️ My logo looks wrong in dark mode
Many people read email in dark mode, and some email apps change colors to match. A logo with a transparent background and dark lettering can nearly vanish on a dark screen.
The safe choice is a logo on a solid white or light background, or a version that reads well on both light and dark.
⚠️ I can't upload an image, or my changes won't stick
Always finish with Save Changes at the very bottom of the settings page. Leaving the page without saving throws the signature away.
For image upload trouble, Google suggests clearing your browser cache, allowing cookies for mail.google.com, or trying an incognito window or a different browser.
Still stuck? Google keeps its own list of fixes in Troubleshoot issues with Gmail signatures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need a Signature Worth Pasting?
Make a professional Gmail signature in about two minutes with our free Email Signature Generator. Add your logo, contact details and social links, then copy and paste. No signup, no watermark.