Gmail is ending “Send mail as” in January 2027: here are your options

Updated September 27, 2026

Google has announced that starting January 2027, Gmail will no longer support the “Send as” feature for third-party email addresses (Gmail Help). If you use Gmail to reply from an address like you@yourdomain.com, @outlook.com or an old university account, that option is going away.

Who is affected

• Custom domains on free Gmail. This is the classic setup: forward mail to Gmail with Cloudflare Email Routing, ImprovMX or your registrar, then reply using “Send mail as” through an SMTP server.
• Other providers' addresses (Outlook, Yahoo, ISP mail) that you send from inside Gmail.
• Not affected: Google Workspace aliases and other Gmail addresses you own.

Google is also winding down Gmailify and POP fetching of other accounts, so “Gmail as a universal inbox” is getting harder on both the receiving and the sending side.

Option 1: Move the domain to a mail host

Point your domain's MX records at Fastmail (~$50/yr), iCloud+ (from ~$12/yr, if you're in the Apple ecosystem), Zoho Mail (free or low-cost tiers) or Proton. You get proper sending and receiving on your domain.

Trade-off: you move to a new inbox and new apps, and your old Gmail history stays behind unless you migrate it.

Option 2: Google Workspace

Workspace (about $7/user/month) supports custom domains natively, and its “Send as” isn't affected.

Trade-off: it's a new Google account, so it isn't your existing @gmail.com, and it's a recurring cost for each user.

Option 3: Use a desktop mail client

Thunderbird, Apple Mail or Outlook can read your Gmail over IMAP and send through your domain's SMTP server.

Trade-off: you give up Gmail's web interface, search and labels as your main workspace.

Option 4: Two inboxes

Keep reading in Gmail, and switch to your provider's webmail whenever you need to reply as your domain.

Trade-off: it's clumsy, it's easy to reply from the wrong address, and replies aren't threaded in Gmail.

Option 5: Keep Gmail and send through an email API

Transactional email services such as Resend, Amazon SES, Postmark and Mailgun can send as your domain once you verify it, and most have a free tier big enough for personal mail. A browser extension can then hand your Gmail draft to that service when you press Send.

That's what CustomFrom does. It adds a From picker to Gmail's compose window and sends through your own provider account, including attachments, pasted images and threaded replies, and it BCCs a copy back to Gmail. It costs $15 once after a 7-day trial that starts with your first message.

Trade-off: it only works in Gmail on desktop Chrome and Edge, not in the mobile apps.

Quick comparison

What to do now

Keep receiving the way you do today, since forwarding to Gmail still works. The sending side is what you need to replace before January. If Gmail's web interface is where you spend your day, the Cloudflare + Resend setup guide takes about 15 minutes.