Gmail Delegation and Shared Inboxes in Google Workspace

If more than one person has to answer an address like info@ or support@, there are five practical ways to arrange it in Google Workspace, and the one we point most small teams at is Gmail delegation. You put the address on a mailbox and hand access to the people who should answer it. Adding those people costs nothing, because they are colleagues you already pay for.

The money question has one split in it, and it is the split that decides your bill. Delegates are free. A shared address that owns its own mailbox is an account somebody signs in to, and reading Google’s licensing rule against its own shared inbox instructions, that account is a seat: one paid subscription slot, the thing Google prices per user per month and calls a licence in the Admin console. On Business Starter, Google’s entry plan, a seat is S$9.40 per month on a one-year commitment, meaning you sign up for twelve months to get the lower rate. Three of those run S$28.20 a month, or S$338.40 a year. Put the same three addresses on Google Groups instead, as mailing lists several people can answer from, and a group is an address with members rather than an account anyone signs in to, so on our reading it adds no seat at all.

One piece of naming is worth settling before anything else, because the words are used loosely everywhere. Google’s own admin help says it plainly: “In Gmail, delegated accounts and shared inboxes are the same.” Google now documents a feature it calls Shared inbox, on an admin help page stamped 21 August 2026, and it is a front door onto delegation rather than a different product.

And the free option that looks easiest is the one to rule out. Do not put the password in a group chat. Google’s guidance is direct: “Google Accounts are intended for use by only one person.”

Prices checked on Google’s own pages: its Singapore pricing page on 23 August 2026, and its payment-plan comparison, Singapore dollar row, on 18 August 2026. Google’s help pages were checked on 23 August 2026. Every price is in Singapore dollars, per user per month. Neither page states a GST position against its Singapore dollar rates, so confirm the tax treatment on your own invoice.

The five ways, side by side

Each row below is a real way to get one address answered by several people. They are not five products. Two of them are the same mechanism reached through different doors, and one of them is not a mailbox at all: a Collaborative Inbox is a Google Group, an address with members rather than a person with a mailbox, given extra controls for handing messages round. Google’s own admin help says it “offers several ways to collaborate using email” without fixing a number to them, so the five below are our grouping of the routes a small business actually has.

Two rows in that table are the same feature. A shared inbox is a delegated mailbox that happens to be its own account rather than a person’s. That difference is what puts a price in its cost column, for the reason set out in the money section, and it leaves the reply column unchanged.

Sharing the password is the one to rule out

It is free, it takes five seconds, and it is the route we see small teams reach for. Google names three specific things that can go wrong when several people regularly use one account by sharing the username and password, and none of them is a lecture about security policy.

The account can hit a threshold, because in Google’s words sharing “increases the chances that an account will reach a threshold”. Google can throw up an extra security question or a login challenge, because, in its own words, it suspects “that an unauthorized person is trying to access one of your user’s accounts”. And, in Google’s own words, “The account might be temporarily locked”. That last one is the reason to care. A locked shared account does not lock out one person. It locks out everyone who was answering that address, at the same time.

An alias is not a shared inbox

An email alias is a second address that lands in someone’s existing inbox. Google’s admin help calls it “a forwarding email address that an admin adds to a user’s primary email address”, and you get “up to 30 email aliases for each user at no extra cost”.

That makes an alias excellent for one person with two roles. Put sales@ on your own account, answer it from there, and pay nothing.

Sending is the exception worth knowing, because it is the half most people assume is blocked. Google is explicit on the same page: “Although only one user can receive mail from the alias, multiple users can send email from an alias if they set up a custom From address.” So a whole team can quote as sales@, provided each of them sets that up, and Google says how: “To send email from an alias, the user must set up a custom From address in Gmail.” What none of them can do is read the replies, because those land in one mailbox.

It stops working the moment a second person needs to read that address, and Google says so on that same alias page: “Only one user can use an email alias. If you need an email address that’s used by multiple users, we recommend using Gmail delegation instead.” Google’s separate page on delegating an address explains why an alias cannot be stretched to cover a team: “Email aliases don’t support delegates because an alias isn’t a Google Account.”

An alias is not an account of its own, so it cannot have delegates of its own. That is a narrower limit than it first sounds. Any colleague who needs to see alias mail can still be delegated onto the mailbox sitting behind it, because, in the alias page’s words, “Messages sent to the email alias automatically route to the user’s primary email account’s inbox”. Colleague is the right word there: Google restricts who a delegate can be, and says that at work “you can only add other people or groups in your organization as your delegate”.

One more thing about aliases is worth knowing before you use one to look like a department. Google states that “Email aliases aren’t private. Sometimes, they’re visible to other users”, and gives the example of a recipient searching their own Gmail and seeing messages from both the person’s real address and the alias.

Delegation, and the shared inbox Google says is the same thing

Gmail delegation gives another person the right to work in a mailbox as if it were theirs. Google’s description is short: “A delegate is someone who can read, send, and delete emails in your account for you.” A delegate cannot use chat as you and cannot change your password.

The ceiling is far higher than a small business will ever need. On a work or school account Google allows you to “Add up to 1,000 delegates”, and says that “With typical use, 40 delegates can access a Gmail account at the same time”. There is a scaling option that is easy to miss, too. You can hand access to a whole team at once instead of adding people one by one, because “Google Groups can be added as account delegates. One Group counts as a single delegate for that account.” Your administrator has to allow it first, with a setting Google labels “Allow users to grant their mailbox access to a Google group”.

The catch with plain delegation is whose name is on the mailbox. If you delegate your own inbox to two colleagues, the address they are answering is still yours. That is right for cover during leave and wrong for an address the business wants to outlive the person.

The shared inbox Google now documents

Google’s admin help puts a proper front door on that problem, under the feature name Shared inbox, reached in the console through a control called Set up a shared email address. In Google’s description, an administrator “can create a mailbox and grant access to it for users in your organization”, with [email protected] as Google’s own example. The path is one click from the console’s front page: “From the Home page Users section, click Set up a shared email address.”

You do not have to start from scratch. Google documents converting something you already run, including a mailbox you have already delegated: you can convert “an any existing email account (including delegated accounts) in your organization to a shared inbox and assign delegates”. The wobbly phrasing is Google’s, on a page it stamped 21 August 2026.

It may not be in your console yet. Google is explicit: “Shared inbox is an admin feature that’s being released in phases. If you don’t see it in your Google Admin console yet, use delegated Gmail accounts instead.” Google lists it as supported on Business Starter, Business Standard and Business Plus.

So what a shared inbox gives you, over delegating a colleague’s mailbox, is ownership rather than a different way of working the mailbox. The address has its own mailbox, the people answering it are delegates on that mailbox, and messages go out from the shared address with the delegate recorded alongside. Google describes the trail like this: “In each email sent from a shared inbox, you can review the shared inbox address (from) and the delegate who sent the email (sent by)”, and the person who sent it can be hidden in the settings if you would rather customers saw only the department.

Can a delegate use a shared mailbox on a phone?

Maybe, and the only way to know is to open the Gmail app on your own phone. Google is rolling this out and says it may not have reached you yet.

Google’s Gmail help page carries the notice at the top: “The ability to access a delegated account in the Gmail app for Android, iPhone, and iPad is currently rolling out and may not be available to you yet.” Google’s Workspace Updates blog dates the latest movement. Its 30 June 2026 post on delegated accounts on mobile now opens with “[Update Aug 21, 2026] We have resumed this rollout.”

What that means for you, in plain terms. Delegated mailboxes on the Gmail mobile app are not a thing you can be promised, and they are also no longer something anyone can flatly call impossible. Google’s own post describes the old state in the past tense: “Previously, users could only work with delegated Gmail accounts through the web interface.”

Where it has arrived, it arrives smaller. Google lists a second set of features that are missing from delegated accounts specifically on Android, iPhone and iPad, including background sync for messages, conversation summaries, notification settings and nudges. Background sync is the one to read twice, because without it an app can be slower to show a message that has already arrived.

A Google Group as a Collaborative Inbox

The Groups route is a different shape of answer. Instead of a mailbox that several people open, you get a queue that several people work.

It rides on a service Google classes as “a core service in your Google Admin console”, and a group is an address with members rather than a user account, so on our reading it adds no seat. That is worth confirming against your own subscription.

Switch Collaborative Inbox features on for a group and members with the right permission can take a conversation for themselves, assign it to a named colleague, drop it again, and mark it complete, no action needed, or a duplicate. Assignment sends the person an email, and whoever assigns it can type a note that arrives in that email. You can also search the queue by who owns what, with the filters Google labels assigned to me, assigned to anyone and not assigned.

That is genuinely more than a shared mailbox does. It is also the route with the most settings behind it, so three things are worth knowing before you commit to it.

It depends on a service your administrator can turn off. Collaborative Inbox rides on Groups for Business, and Google’s own description of that service switched off says the plain consequence: “You can’t use Collaborative Inboxes, moderate conversations, or add some other features.”

Which address a group message goes out as is a setting in Google Groups, not a fixed behaviour. Groups carries a permission Google describes as “Who can post as group. This includes posting messages from the group’s email address”, and a Default sender option in a group’s posting policies that can be set to the group address or the author’s address. On a work account an administrator can limit who is allowed to hold that permission, so it is not always the group owner’s call. If replies are leaving as the individual and you wanted the group, that pair of controls is where to look.

The free route has volume limits. A group can have unlimited members, but Google caps what flows through it: 300 inbound emails per group per 5 minutes, 25 MB for a single message, and for Collaborative Inbox groups specifically, 25 email addresses per message when forwarding or copying people in. Reach a limit and, in Google’s words, “your activity is temporarily restricted”. Google adds that “Restrictions typically last an hour but can last as long as 24 hours.” One caveat belongs on any table of these numbers, and it is Google’s own: “These limits can change without notice to protect Google’s infrastructure.”

What each route costs in Singapore dollars

Three of the four routes worth using add nothing to the bill. The fourth reads as a seat, and the rest of this section is why.

The two columns are Google’s two ways of paying, and the cheaper one ties you in. Google’s own comparison of the plans is blunt about the annual one: you “Must pay full commitment (even if you cancel early)”, and “you pay for all purchased licenses” whether or not you still need them. No commitment means you pay month to month at the higher rate and can stop any time. On Business Starter that choice is worth S$1.80 per user per month, so a shared mailbox you might not keep is one to start on the flexible plan.

Why the last two rows carry a price at all is worth spelling out, because Google splits the answer across two pages and never puts it in one sentence, and it is easy to read the free half and stop.

Adding delegates is free. Those people are colleagues who already have a seat, and giving one of them access to a second mailbox does not create a new user.

A shared address that owns its own mailbox is a different thing. It is an account you sign in to. Google’s instructions for managing one begin “Sign into Gmail with the shared inbox account”, and Google’s licensing page states the rule for accounts: “A user needs a license to use a Google service”, and “Multiple users can’t share a single Google Workspace license, even if they don’t use all of the tools.”

Read those two pages together and the shared mailbox is a billable seat. Google does not say so in a single sentence anywhere we can point you to, which is why we tell our own clients to check their subscription in the Admin console, or ask whoever they buy Workspace from, before planning on three of them.

One dated note on the price. Google’s Singapore pricing page is currently advertising 50 per cent off Business Starter, listed as running 6 September 2026 to 6 December 2026 at S$4.70 per user per month. Read the footnote attached to it before you count on it. Google prints the offer as “available to new Google Workspace customers only” and says the introductory price “is only available for the first 20 users added, for 12 months”. So it will not apply to a mailbox you add to a subscription you already run. The page also prints two different durations against the same offer, three months on the plan card and twelve in the footnote, so confirm the term at checkout. A promotion changes what a first stretch costs, not what the subscription costs.

What a delegate does not get, including Gemini in Gmail

A delegated mailbox is not a full Gmail. Google publishes the list of what is missing, and gives its reason: delegation grants “permission to manage your email only”, and the exclusions exist “For your security and privacy”, covering features that reach into non-email services or sensitive account settings. The published list runs wider than that description, and some of what is missing is plain writing help.

Google’s list includes access to Google Account settings, adding attachments to Drive, adding photos and videos from Google Photos, adding to Tasks, autocomplete, autocorrect, chat in Gmail, client-side encryption, emoji reactions, Gemini in Gmail, Meet in Gmail, Smart Compose, Smart Reply, and spelling and grammar checks.

Gemini in Gmail is on that list, and that is the line to stop at. Google’s Singapore pricing page sells “Gemini AI assistant in Gmail” as an included feature of Business Starter. So a business can pay for the AI in every seat, run its customer queue as a shared or delegated mailbox, and find that the queue is where the AI does not appear. Google’s stated reason for the exclusions is security and privacy, and this is that boundary drawn around email. It is still a real consideration if AI help with replies is part of why you are upgrading, and it belongs in that decision rather than after it. Our piece on what Gemini in Google Workspace actually includes covers what you are buying, and Business Starter against Business Standard works through the edition question.

The plainer losses matter too. No Smart Compose and no spelling and grammar checks means the mailbox where your team writes to customers is the one without the writing help.

Two switches that do not do what they look like

Both of these are Google telling you, in its own documentation, that the obvious lever is not the one you want. Both belong in whatever you use as an offboarding checklist.

An expired password does not remove a delegate. Google’s wording: “If a user account has added a delegated user, the delegated user can still access the account, even if the account password has expired. To prevent ongoing access, either reset the account password, or remove the delegated user.” So a lapsed password on the mailbox does not shut the delegates out of it. The person who left is still a delegate on that mailbox until you reset its password or remove them by name.

Turning delegation off does not delete it. From Google’s admin page: “When you turn off delegation, all delegation relationships in your organization are turned off, but not deleted. If you re-enable delegation, the old delegation relationships are immediately active again.” Switch the feature off during a tidy-up, switch it back on a year later, and everyone who used to have access has it again.

The check is short. When somebody leaves, remove them as a delegate from every mailbox they were on, by name, and do not rely on the account or the feature being switched off to do it for you.

When is a paid shared inbox tool worth it?

We resell Google Workspace and we do not sell a help desk, meaning paid ticketing software that sits on top of Gmail to assign and track replies, so we have no reason to push you towards one or away from one. Our advice to our own clients is to start with the native routes, because they are free or nearly free, and to move only when you can name the thing you cannot do.

Four gaps are worth naming. The first is collision: nobody can tell that a colleague is already typing a reply to the message they just opened. Reporting is the second, because there is no way to show how long the queue takes to answer or how that changed this month. Third is workload, and this one is narrower than it sounds. Groups will tell you a conversation is assigned and let you filter on it, but nothing adds up at a glance how much of the queue each person is carrying. The fourth is routing, and it is narrower again. Gmail filters will label, archive, forward or star a message on a rule, so the sorting is covered, and a Collaborative Inbox lets somebody assign a conversation to a named colleague. What nothing does is make that assignment on a rule, so a person still reads the queue and decides who takes what.

The Groups route covers the middle of that list better than a shared mailbox does, because assigning and resolving is exactly what it was built for. What it does not give you is measurement.

So the test is the same one that applies to any subscription. A help desk seat costs money on top of the Workspace seat that person already has. Count the hours it would save your specific team, price them, and see whether they cover the bill. If a shared mailbox and a little discipline are keeping up, they are keeping up, and the honest advice is to leave it alone.

Common questions

Is a shared inbox free on Google Workspace? The delegates are. The address is not, if it has a mailbox of its own. Read Google’s licensing page against its shared inbox instructions and a shared mailbox reads as a user account, though Google states that in a single sentence on no page we can point you to. If that seat matters to your budget, the way round it is to put the address on somebody’s existing mailbox as a delegation, or run it as a Google Group. On the same reading, neither of those adds a seat, because neither creates an account somebody signs in to.

How many people can share one mailbox? Google allows up to 1,000 delegates on a work account, and says 40 can be in it at the same time under typical use. In our view neither figure is the number that will actually stop you. Two or three people in one mailbox with no way to see who is replying is where most teams start tripping over each other.

Do I need Google Groups if I have a shared inbox? Only if you want the queue features. A shared mailbox is a mailbox. A Collaborative Inbox adds taking, assigning and resolving, and on the same reading it adds no seat, so it is worth trying before you buy anything.

Google’s console does not show Set up a shared email address. Is something wrong? No. Google says the feature is being released in phases and tells you to use delegated Gmail accounts meanwhile. Set the address up as an ordinary mailbox and delegate it now. When the control does appear, Google documents converting that same account into a shared inbox, so the mailbox you set up today is the one Google converts rather than one you have to build again.

Where to start

Pick the smallest thing that answers your actual problem. An alias covers one person receiving, with any number of colleagues able to send as it. Delegation on a colleague’s mailbox covers their leave. A department address the business will keep for years is usually worth its own mailbox, and on the reading in the money section that one costs a seat. If the queue needs assigning and chasing rather than just answering, try a Collaborative Inbox first, since a group is an address rather than an account and on our reading adds no seat.

If you would rather talk it through before you set it up, our Google Workspace services page explains how we work, and Google Workspace pricing in Singapore has the current plan rates in Singapore dollars.