Gmail App for Mac: 7 Gmail Mac Clients Compared

There is no Gmail app for Mac from Google, and there never has been. On macOS your realistic options are Mimestream, which is built specifically for Gmail and costs 49.99 dollars a year, Apple Mail, which is already installed and handles Gmail over IMAP, or a multi-account client if some of your mail is not Gmail. Pick Mimestream if every mailbox you own is a Gmail account and you want Gmail behavior exactly reproduced. Pick a plain IMAP client if even one mailbox is on Outlook.com, iCloud or your own domain, because Gmail specific clients cannot hold it.

That is the short version. The longer version matters because the decision changes in January 2027, when Google removes the features that let Gmail pull your other mailboxes in, and because most Mac mail roundups compare interfaces without mentioning the one constraint that actually eliminates half the shortlist.

Why there is no official Gmail app for Mac

Google builds Gmail as a web application. It ships native apps for Android and iOS and nothing else. There is no Gmail entry in the Mac App Store, no signed installer, and no plan announced for one. If you find a site offering a Gmail download for macOS, it is not distributing Google software.

What Google supports instead is installing mail.google.com as an app. In Chrome, open the three dot menu, choose Cast, save, and share, then Install page as app. You get a standalone window with a dock icon and notifications. Turn on offline mail in Gmail settings first and Chrome will keep up to 90 days of messages locally, though that only works in Chrome, not Safari or Firefox.

The installed web app has one hard limit, and it is the reason most people go looking for something else. Gmail multiple sign in switches between your accounts rather than merging them. Three Gmail addresses means three windows, three unread badges and three notification streams. There is no setting that combines them, because Gmail does not do it.

The seven Mac clients worth comparing

Prices below were checked against each vendor directly in August 2026. eM Client and Spark quote in euro and render in local currency.

Mimestream

Mimestream is the best Gmail client on the Mac and it is not close, provided Gmail is all you need. It is built on the Gmail API rather than IMAP, which is the technical detail that makes everything else work properly: labels behave like labels instead of being flattened into folders, Gmail search operators work, filters and categories carry across, and multi label messages do not duplicate. It is 4.99 dollars a month or 49.99 a year, covers up to five devices, and has a 14-day trial. There is contact sales pricing above 50 seats.

The catch is total. Mimestream is macOS only and Gmail only. It cannot connect an Outlook.com address, an iCloud address, a Fastmail account or your own domain. If your mail is entirely Gmail, that costs you nothing at all. If one mailbox sits elsewhere, it eliminates the client, because you are back to running a second application beside it.

Apple Mail

Apple Mail is already on the machine, connects Gmail with Google sign in rather than an app password, and has an All Inboxes view that genuinely merges accounts. For a lot of people this is the correct answer and they never needed to search. Its weaknesses with Gmail are the ones every IMAP client has: labels arrive as folders, archive and delete semantics take getting used to, and Gmail search operators do not pass through. It also has a long history of syncing oddly with large Gmail mailboxes, which is why the question keeps being asked by people who already have it installed.

Spark

Spark is worth a look mostly because of what its free tier includes: unlimited accounts, sync, the unified Smart Inbox, search, scheduled sends, snooze, set aside, reminders and dark mode. That is a lot for no license fee. Paid Plus is 99 euro per user a year and Pro is 229 euro, and the struck-through 120 and 264 figures on the pricing page are list prices rather than what you pay. Two things to know before you commit: the AI Meeting Notes feature is metered at five uses for the lifetime of a free account and 40 a month on Plus, and the Workflows, Auto-Drafts and Auto-Labels features carry a soon label, meaning they have not shipped. Spark runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, with no Linux and no ChromeOS build.

Canary Mail

Canary is the privacy-leaning option, with PGP support and an encryption story the others do not tell. The free tier covers two devices, Growth is 3 dollars a month billed at 36 a year, and Pro+ is 10 dollars a month billed at 100. Lifetime tiers exist but the price is not published. It handles any IMAP mailbox, so it does not have Mimestream's constraint. There is no Linux build.

eM Client

eM Client is the most complete traditional desktop client on this list, now at version 10, with mail, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes in one folder tree. Read its pricing carefully, because it is the most misreported on the internet. The $59.95 one-time purchase covers one device and the version you bought. Future major versions are a separate lifetime upgrades add-on at $90 per device. The three device figure that gets quoted alongside the one-time price actually belongs to the $39.95 a year Personal subscription. Those are the US prices: eM Client serves a cheaper euro list to Europe, which is why quoted figures vary so widely. There is a no-cost tier limited to two accounts for personal non-commercial use, a 30-day trial and a 30-day money-back window. Windows and macOS only. The iOS and Android apps need no license.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird has a proper macOS build, is at release 153, carries no license fee and its Unified Folders view merges accounts well. It connects Gmail with an app password or OAuth and handles as many mailboxes as you throw at it. It looks like what it is, which is a mature open source desktop client rather than a designed product, and there is no iOS app if you want the same thing on a phone. For a Mac user who wants everything local, owned and costing nothing, it is still the honest recommendation.

Inboxes

Ours runs in the browser, so there is no Mac build to keep current and the same board opens on a MacBook, a Windows desktop and a Linux laptop. It connects any IMAP mailbox with an app password, puts every account on one merged stream with the source shown per row, applies a category and a spam verdict to each message on arrival, and searches across all of them at once. It is 29 dollars a month flat for five mailboxes rather than per seat. The honest limits: no offline mode, no native mobile app, it sees Gmail labels as folders the way any IMAP client does, and it will not connect a managed Microsoft 365 work mailbox because tenant administrators block app password sign in.

The one question that decides this

Ask whether every mailbox you need is a Gmail account.

If yes, Mimestream, and stop reading. Nothing else reproduces Gmail on macOS as faithfully, and 49.99 a year is not much against the time it saves someone living in mail all day.

If no, Mimestream and Shortwave are both out, because both are Gmail and Workspace only. Then the question becomes whether you want a desktop application with a local store, in which case eM Client or Thunderbird, or a client that follows you between machines, in which case a browser based one. Airmail is a fourth possibility on Apple hardware, though its free tier is a single account and Pro is 9 dollars a month or 49 a year.

The volume of mailboxes matters too. Per device licenses and per seat subscriptions both get expensive at precisely the point where having several accounts became the problem you were solving, which is worth modelling before you buy rather than after.

What changes in January 2027

This is the part missing from every other Mac mail roundup, and it changes the answer for a specific group of people.

Google is removing three things from Gmail on the web: Send as for third party addresses such as an @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com account, Gmailify, and POP syncing that fetches a third party mailbox into Gmail. The announcement ran through the third quarter of 2026, the transition period covers the third and fourth quarters, and full removal lands in January 2027. New configurations are being restricted before then, so setting it up fresh is already closing.

If you have spent years funnelling an old Yahoo address or a work address into Gmail so that one Gmail tab showed everything, that arrangement ends. Google is explicit about what remains unaffected, which is third party account access in the Gmail mobile app and desktop mail clients using IMAP and POP, and its own recommended alternative is to configure a desktop client to connect to that account over IMAP and SMTP.

Read that again, because it is unusual. The company retiring the feature is telling you to go and get a mail client. Anyone whose single-tab setup depends on Gmailify should treat this as a dated migration rather than a someday item. It is the same category of thing as the renewal notices and certificates of insurance you have to track against their expiry dates: a fixed deadline that is entirely manageable if you handle it early and genuinely disruptive if it arrives unannounced.

Does Gmail have a desktop app for Mac?

No. Google has never published a Gmail application for macOS and has announced no plan to. The closest official equivalent is installing mail.google.com as an app from the Chrome menu, which gives Gmail its own window, a dock icon and notifications. Everything else described as a Gmail Mac app is a third party client connecting over IMAP or the Gmail API.

What is the best Gmail app for Mac?

Mimestream, if all your mailboxes are Gmail accounts. It uses the Gmail API rather than IMAP, so labels, filters, categories and search operators behave exactly as they do in Gmail, and it costs 49.99 dollars a year for up to five devices. If any mailbox is not a Gmail account, Mimestream cannot connect it, and a plain IMAP client such as Apple Mail, eM Client, Thunderbird or a browser based one is the right choice instead.

Can I get all my Gmail accounts in one inbox on a Mac?

Not in Gmail itself. Multiple sign in switches between accounts in separate tabs and never merges them into one list. To read several Gmail addresses in a single stream you need a client that connects each account separately, which every option on this page does apart from Gmail on the web. Apple Mail calls it All Inboxes, Thunderbird calls it Unified Folders, Spark calls it the Smart Inbox.

Do I need an app password to connect Gmail on a Mac?

Only if the client does not support OAuth. Google stopped accepting your ordinary Google password from mail clients, so a client either signs you in with Google directly, as Apple Mail and Mimestream do, or requires an app password. App passwords need 2-Step Verification switched on, take about a minute to generate per account, and keep working until you revoke them or turn 2-Step Verification off.

Is Mimestream worth 49.99 a year?

For someone whose working day happens in Gmail on a Mac, yes. It is the only client that reproduces Gmail semantics rather than approximating them, and the annual price is under a dollar a week. It is poor value in exactly one situation, which is when you also hold a mailbox it cannot connect, because then you are paying for a client and still running a second one beside it.

Where to go next

If you want the cross-platform version of this comparison, including what exists on Windows and Linux, read the full breakdown of the Gmail desktop app options. For the wider macOS shortlist beyond Gmail specifically, see our email client for Mac comparison, and if Mimestream is the one you were leaning toward, the Mimestream alternative page covers what you give up and gain by leaving it. The mechanics of connecting Gmail are covered in what an app password is.