How to Unsend an Email in Gmail

You hit Send and immediately spotted a typo, the wrong attachment, or the wrong recipient. Gmail holds every message for a few seconds before it actually goes out, and during that window you can pull it back.

Click Undo in the Message sent toast

As soon as you send, a small dark bar appears at the bottom-left of the screen reading Message sent with Undo and View message links. Click Undo. The message reopens as a draft, unsent, and you can fix it or discard it.

Act within the window

The bar stays for the length of your cancellation period, which is 5 seconds by default and can be set as high as 30. Once it disappears, the message has been delivered. Opening another message or navigating away can dismiss the bar early and send the email, so click Undo before doing anything else.

Open Settings to lengthen the window

Click Settings (gear icon) at the top right, then See all settings. Stay on the General tab.

Change the Undo Send cancellation period

Find Undo Send near the top of the General tab. Next to Send cancellation period, choose 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds from the dropdown. Thirty seconds is the maximum, and the only cost is that every email you send leaves half a minute later than it otherwise would.

Click Save Changes

Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes. The new window applies to every message you send from then on, on any device signed in to the account.

After the window closes. There is no recall in Gmail. Once the bar is gone, the message is in the recipient's mailbox and nothing in Gmail can remove it. Send a short follow-up correcting the mistake instead. The Gmail app on Android and iPhone also shows an Undo bar briefly after sending, and it uses the same cancellation period you set on the web.