How to save a Gmail e-mail as a PDF

On a computer

1. Open the e-mail in Gmail.
2. For one message, click More (the three dots at the top right of the message), then Print. For the whole conversation, click Print all at the top right.
3. Save the printout as a PDF. In Chrome or Edge, set Destination to Save as PDF. In Safari on a Mac, open the PDF menu at the bottom of the print window and choose Save as PDF. In Firefox, choose Save to PDF; in other browsers on Windows, Microsoft Print to PDF.
4. Click Save and choose where to keep the file.

On an iPhone or iPad

1. Open the e-mail in the Gmail app.
2. For one message, tap More at the top right of that message, then Print. For the whole conversation, tap More at the top of the screen, then Print all.
3. In Print Options, don’t choose a printer. Tap the Share button at the top instead, then Save to Files.

If you don’t see a Share button, pinch outwards on the page preview: it opens as a PDF that you can share or save.

On an Android phone

1. Open the e-mail in the Gmail app.
2. For one message, tap More at the top right of that message, then Print. For the whole conversation, tap More at the top of the screen, then Print all.
3. At the top, tap the printer name and choose Save as PDF.
4. Tap the PDF download button and choose where to save the file.

What the PDF contains

The PDF is what Gmail’s print view shows: the subject, the sender, the recipients, the date and the message itself. Attached files, such as a PDF, a document or a spreadsheet, aren’t put inside it, so download them from the e-mail as well. E-mails sent in Gmail’s confidential mode can’t be printed at all, so they can’t be saved this way.

Another way: download the message and convert it

On a computer, Gmail can save an e-mail as a file. Open it, click More, then Download message. That saves an .eml file, the standard format for one message. Google notes that you need a desktop mail program to open it, but the EML to PDF converter opens it in your browser instead.

1. Download each e-mail you want with Download message.
2. Open the EML to PDF converter and choose the .eml files (up to 20).
3. Click One PDF of the messages listed to get them all in one PDF, each starting on a new page, or Download PDF for one.

Each message gets its sender, recipients and date (in your time zone) at the top, and a list of its attachments with their names and sizes at the end. The .eml files are read on your device and never uploaded.

This quick PDF keeps the words and paragraphs, not the layout, colours or pictures, so a receipt with tables and a logo comes out as plain text. Some scripts (Chinese, Arabic and Indian scripts, for example) and emoji print as “?”. For a message as it looks, print it from Gmail as above, or open the .eml in the EML viewer and click Print or save as PDF.

A whole label or mailbox

Gmail prints one conversation at a time. To save hundreds of e-mails, export them with Google Takeout and open the .mbox file in the MBOX viewer, which can make one PDF of the messages you search for or pick by label. The Google Takeout guide has the steps.

If something looks wrong

• There is no Print option. The e-mail was most likely sent in confidential mode, which blocks printing.
• Only one message of the conversation is in the PDF. You used Print in one message’s menu. Use Print all instead: at the top right on a computer, or in the More menu at the top of the screen on a phone.
• The .eml file opens in a mail program, not the browser. That is fine: the file is the e-mail itself. To read it in the browser, use the EML viewer; to get a PDF, the EML to PDF converter.