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How to add and change a signature in Gmail (step-by-step guide)
TL;DR
On a computer, go to Settings > See all settings > General, scroll to Signature, enter your email signature, and click Save Changes.
In the Gmail app, open Settings, pick your account, and edit Mobile signature, or leave it empty to use your computer email signature.
For a whole company, an admin can add one shared footer in the Google Admin console.
How do I add an email signature in Gmail on a computer?
To add an email signature in Gmail on a computer, go to Settings > See all settings > General > Signature and click Create new. The full steps:
Open Gmail in your browser.
Click the Settings gear at the top right, then See all settings.
On the General tab, scroll down to Signature and click Create new.
Give your new Gmail signature a name.
Type your details in the text box. The toolbar above it handles text style, links, and images.
Under Signature defaults, choose which email signature Gmail uses for new emails and which it uses for replies.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.
Google documents the same path in its Gmail Help article on creating a Gmail signature.
How do I add an email signature in the Gmail app?
To add an email signature in the Gmail app, open Settings, pick your account, and set Mobile signature. The steps differ slightly by phone.
On Android
Open the Gmail app and tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) at the top left.
Scroll down and tap Settings, then pick the account.
Tap Mobile signature.
Enter your email signature text and tap OK.
On iPhone and iPad
Open the Gmail app and tap the menu icon at the top left.
Scroll down, tap Settings, and pick your account.
Tap Signature settings and turn on Mobile signature.
Enter your email signature text, then tap Back to save it.
If you leave Mobile signature empty, the app uses the email signature you set on a computer, including its images and formatting. If you enter text there, it replaces the computer email signature in the app.
Using Apple’s Mail app or another email app instead? See our guides to email signatures on iPhone and on Android.
How do I change, edit, or update an email signature in Gmail on a computer?
To change an email signature in Gmail, open Settings > See all settings > General > Signature, click the one you want, edit it, and click Save Changes. The full steps:
Go to Settings > See all settings.
On the General tab, scroll to Signature and click the email signature you want to change.
Edit the text, links, or images in the box. To rename it, click Edit next to its name.
Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
To remove one, select it in the same list, click Delete, confirm, and click Save Changes.
How do I change or update an email signature in the Gmail app?
To change an email signature in the Gmail app, open Settings, pick your account, and edit Mobile signature. The full steps:
Open the Gmail app and tap the menu icon at the top left.
Scroll down, tap Settings, and pick your account.
Tap Mobile signature on Android, or Signature settings and then Mobile signature on iPhone and iPad.
Edit the text, then tap OK on Android or Back on iPhone.
To use your computer email signature in the app instead, clear the text in Mobile signature.
How do I add an image or logo to a Gmail email signature?
To add an image to a Gmail email signature, click the Insert image icon in the signature editor on a computer, then choose Upload, My Drive, or Web Address (URL). The full steps:
Go to Settings > See all settings > General > Signature and click where the image should go.
Click the Insert image icon in the toolbar.
Choose Upload, My Drive, or Web Address (URL).
Click Select, then click Save Changes.
If you pick an image from My Drive, share it publicly or it won’t appear in the email signature. Google says an image also counts toward the 10,000-character limit, so resize it if Gmail shows an error.
To see how embedded and hosted images differ in email signatures, read our guide to embedded vs. hosted images. The Web Address (URL) option is the hosted one.
Jasmine Hotham-Tunnadine, Template Designer at Exclaimer, says GIFs, PNGs, and JPEGs work in email signatures. “And sadly we can’t use SVGs. They’re perfect for websites, but not supported at all in email signatures.”
How do I add an HTML email signature to Gmail?
If you’ve designed an email signature as an HTML file, paste the rendered version into the signature box. Our guide to creating an HTML email signature covers how to build one.
Build the email signature in an HTML editor or with Exclaimer’s free email signature generator.
Save the HTML file and open it in a browser.
Select the whole email signature and copy it.
In Gmail, go to Settings > See all settings > General > Signature and click Create new.
Paste it into the text box.
Check the layout, then click Save Changes.
"Now, Gmail does support HTML signatures, so it is possible for IT to send out a standard email signature template here. But even offering a signature template for users to copy and paste is going to have very mixed results, and there are two really big concerns I have here: lack of compatibility, there's no guarantee that HTML will render correctly on every email client, and that's a problem given that one of the reasons for a standard email signature is consistent organizational branding. And user error, given individuals will need to use an HTML editor, will likely need to navigate multiple parts of the code to place their personal details, and then copy and paste the HTML into Gmail's settings, it feels like this is going to cause potentially more problems than it solves."
How do I use different email signatures for new emails and replies?
Click Create new in the Signature section for each email signature you want, then set the defaults under Signature defaults. One can cover new emails and another can cover replies.
To switch for a single message, click the Insert signature pen icon at the bottom of the compose window.
If you send from more than one address, a drop-down menu above the text box lets you give each address its own email signature. It only shows if the addresses are listed under Send mail as in the Accounts and Import settings.
Why isn't my Gmail signature working?
If it shows on new emails but not replies, check the Signature defaults for replies. Also check the checkbox under the email signature box, "Insert this signature before quoted text in replies and remove the '--' line that precedes it." Without it, Gmail puts the email signature below the quoted text.
If it vanished after an edit, go back to Settings and confirm you clicked Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
If an image from My Drive won't display, check that it's shared publicly. On a work or school account, your admin has to allow public sharing of Drive files. Google's troubleshooting article for Gmail email signatures covers the rest.
If it's missing or different in the Gmail app, open Mobile signature for that account. Text there replaces your computer email signature. Clear it to use the computer one.
How long can a Gmail email signature be?
Google caps it at 10,000 characters, and images count toward the total. If Gmail shows a length error, shorten the text or resize the images. For the full fix, see our guide to the Gmail "signature too long" error.
Where do I manage Gmail email signatures for a whole company?
The Append footer setting in the Google Admin console (Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Compliance) adds one text footer to outgoing messages for everyone in an organizational unit. By default it goes only to messages sent outside your organization, and a checkbox adds it to internal mail too. For advanced users, the Gmail API can put the same email signature in everyone's settings. Without either, each person manages their own email signature in their own Gmail settings.
Footer changes can take up to 24 hours to apply. Our guide to creating a Google Workspace email signature walks through the admin setup step by step. For a large organization with lots of email signatures to manage, Google's admin help points admins to apps in the Google Workspace Marketplace.
"None of these requests are hard. That's what makes them a drain instead of a project. A two-minute signature fix doesn't look like much on its own, but multiply it across every new starter, every role change, and every rebrand, and it adds up to real hours that were never going toward the security and infrastructure work IT actually exists to do."
How do Gmail's built-in options compare with an email signature manager?
In Exclaimer's State of Business Email 2025 survey of 4,009 IT professionals (Censuswide, April 2025), 80% still rely on manual methods or user self-service for email signatures. In the US sample, only 18% of organizations use centralized management.
Each employee in Gmail | Append footer in Google Admin | Exclaimer | |
What it contains | Whatever the employee enters | One text footer for everyone in the organizational unit | A template filled with each person's details from Google Workspace Directory |
Varies by department or region | The employee picks which email signature to use | Each organizational unit can have its own footer | Signature Rules target by department, region, device, audience, or recipient |
Who controls it | The employee, at any time | An admin with the Gmail Settings privilege. Users can't change or remove it. | IT, plus teams IT gives role-based permissions |
Can Gmail apply different email signatures to different departments automatically?
Each person can keep several email signatures and choose which one to use, and an admin can set a different Append footer for each organizational unit. A footer is one block of text for the whole unit.
To give each department its own email signature with each person's details filled in, you need an email signature manager. Exclaimer's Signature Rules do this for Google Workspace, pulling the details from Google Workspace Directory.
How do I stop employees from changing their email signatures in Gmail?
Not in their own Gmail settings. Google says an admin can use the Gmail API to put the same email signature in everyone's settings, but it shows up in the compose window and users can edit it. The Append footer works differently. Users don't see it while writing, and they can't change or remove it.
"If you don't have a standard system, people get creative. You can have someone calling themselves account director when their actual title is account executive. That causes confusion, but also potential liability in who the customer thinks they're dealing with."
For per-person email signatures that employees don't maintain, Exclaimer applies them server-side as email routes through Exclaimer, and role-based permissions decide who can edit templates. Exclaimer's disclaimers are applied by rule, and employees can't edit or remove them. They support legally compliant emails but don't guarantee compliance.
How do I keep Gmail email signatures consistent after a merger or rebrand?
Update them from one central template that reaches everyone at once. Elisabeth Goossens, Director of Brand Communications at Exclaimer, said in a webinar on rebranding and M&A: "Email signatures are a classic example. They're often left until late in the process, and they affect every single outbound communication the business sends."
Bloomerang, a software company with 540 employees, cut its email signature update time from weeks to about 15 minutes, a 98% reduction, when it deployed Exclaimer during an acquisition.
How does Exclaimer manage Gmail signatures at scale?
"Most of the Gmail signature problems in this guide only show up because signatures are managed one inbox at a time. The moment you centralize it, the troubleshooting section basically stops applying."
Exclaimer's email signature manager for Google Workspace lets you design the email signature once in a drag-and-drop designer, with no HTML. Directory sync fills in each person's details from Google Workspace Directory.
Exclaimer applies the email signature server-side as email routes through Exclaimer, so it appears on any device or email client. A few message types are excluded, including encrypted and digitally signed email. Exclaimer also manages email signatures for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Exchange.
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