Gmail attachments to Google Drive: a Zapier workflow or Email It In?
A common way to save attachments is an automation: Zapier, n8n or Make watches your Gmail inbox and copies new attachments to Google Drive. Email It In works differently: it gives you a separate address and never touches your inbox. Each is good at different things.
How a Gmail-to-Drive workflow works
- You connect your Gmail account to the automation tool and give it access to your mail.
- A trigger, such as Zapier's "New Attachment", finds new emails with attachments. An action uploads each attachment to a Google Drive folder.
- The tool checks your mailbox on a schedule. Zapier's help centre gives the interval by plan: every 15 minutes on the Free plan, 2 minutes on Professional and 1 minute on Team. The n8n template checks every minute.
- It only sees mail that reaches that one inbox.
- You can add more steps: only some senders or labels, rename the file, add a row to a spreadsheet, post a message to your team.
How Email It In works
- You get a separate address. Anyone can send to it: you from any email account, a scanner or copier, a phone, a client or a supplier. You can still forward mail from Gmail.
- It never asks for access to your mailbox. With Google Drive it can only see the folders you pick and the files it creates.
- Attachments are filed within seconds of the email arriving.
- Tags in the address or subject send mail to different folders (Premium). It files into Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box or Egnyte. Google shared drives work too.
- After each file it can email you a notice, or call a web hook that starts your own workflow.
- There is nothing to build or keep running: sign in and your address is ready.
Side by side
| Gmail workflow (Zapier, n8n, Make) | Email It In | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to your email | Needs access to your Gmail | None: it has its own address |
| What it saves | Attachments that arrive in that Gmail inbox | Attachments sent to your Email It In address, from any account or device |
| How quickly | On the tool's schedule (Zapier: every 1 to 15 minutes, by plan) | Seconds after the email arrives |
| Extra steps | Yes: filters, renaming, spreadsheets, messages | A notice email or a web hook after each file |
| Setup | Build, test and look after a workflow | Sign in; the address is ready |
When to use which
| Use | |
|---|---|
| Attachments already arrive in your Gmail and senders should not change anything | A workflow |
| Each file needs more steps: renaming, a spreadsheet row, a message | A workflow, or Email It In with a web hook that starts one |
| No tool should get access to your mailbox | Email It In |
| Scanners, copiers or other people send files straight to storage | Email It In |
| It should work in a minute, with nothing to maintain | Email It In |
Try Email It In with Google Drive
See the setup on the Email files to Google Drive page, or sign in to get your address.
Sources
Read on 14 October 2026: