How to Set a Company-Wide Email Signature in Gmail (2026)

The short answer: Google Workspace has one built-in way to put the same signature on everyone’s email: the Append footer setting (Admin console → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Compliance). It is identical for every sender, is added after the message leaves Gmail, and nobody sees it while composing. For a real, personalized signature inside each person’s Gmail compose window, you have to write it into every user’s Gmail settings, either with a script (the Gmail API or GAM) or with a signature manager that does it for you.

There is no “set signature for all users” button in the Admin console. That surprises most admins, so this guide lays out all four options side by side, with the exact steps, the limits Google documents, and the problems each one leaves you with.

The 4 options at a glance

	Append footer	Each user sets their own	Script (Gmail API or GAM)	Signature manager
Visible while composing	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Personalized (name, title, phone)	No, same text for all	Yes, typed by hand	Yes, from the directory	Yes, from the directory
Users can edit or remove it	No	Yes	Yes, until the next run	Depends on the tool
Different signature per team	One rule per organizational unit	Manual	Separate templates and runs	Built in
New hires get it automatically	Yes	No	Only if you rerun the script	Yes, with assignment rules
Covers send-as aliases	Applies to outbound mail	Per alias, by hand	Only if you loop over aliases	Depends on the tool
Skills needed	Admin console	None	Service account, scripting	Admin console

The rest of this guide goes through each column.

Option 1: Append footer in the Google Admin console

This is Google’s native, server-side option. It adds the same block of text (and optionally an image) to the bottom of outgoing messages.

1. Sign in to the Google Admin console with an account that has the Gmail Settings administrator privilege.
2. Go to Menu → Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Compliance.
3. On the left, select the organizational unit the footer should apply to. Child units inherit the setting from their parent.
4. Scroll to Append footer and click Configure (or Add another rule if one exists).
5. Enter a name for the setting, then type the footer. You can format the text and add an image.
6. By default the footer is only added to messages sent outside your organization. Check the box to also append to messages sent within your organization if you want it internally too.
7. Click Save and confirm the rule appears in the Append footer table.

Google says changes can take up to 24 hours to apply, though it is usually faster. Full details are in Google’s help article Set up Google Workspace user signatures in Gmail.

Image size rules for the footer: Google recommends 70 to 100 px high and 300 to 400 px wide, with a hard maximum of 100 px high by 1000 px wide. For more on sizing, see the email signature size guide.

Where the footer falls short:

• Everyone gets the exact same text. There are no fields for name, title or phone number, so it works as a company footer or legal disclaimer, not as a personal signature.
• Senders never see it. It is added after the message is sent, so nobody can check how it looks before it goes out.
• It stacks under personal signatures. If people also have their own Gmail signature, recipients get both, one under the other. Decide which one carries the contact details.
• Per-team versions mean more rules. Sales and Support need separate rules scoped to separate organizational units.

Use the footer for a legal disclaimer or confidentiality notice that has to be on every external email. It is a poor fit for a branded, personalized signature.

Option 2: Ask every employee to set their own

Each person can add a signature in Gmail under Settings (gear icon) → See all settings → General → Signature. The steps for one person are in how to add an email signature in Gmail.

This is free and gives each person a signature in the compose window, but there is no admin control. You cannot see what people set, you cannot update everyone when the logo or phone number changes, and new hires start with nothing until someone helps them. In practice it means sharing a template, chasing people to paste it, and watching it drift within weeks.

If you go this route, two admin settings matter. Gmail signatures can be up to 10,000 characters, so heavy HTML pasted from a design tool can be rejected. And if people add images from Google Drive, the image must be shared publicly, which requires Admin console → Apps → Google Workspace → Drive and Docs → Sharing settings to allow sharing outside the organization.

Option 3: Push signatures with a script (Gmail API or GAM)

Google’s own help page points to this as the way to apply one signature to everyone’s settings so that it shows in the compose window. Each user’s signature lives on their send-as address in Gmail settings, and the Gmail API method users.settings.sendAs.patch can overwrite it. To do that for other people, you need:

1. A Google Cloud project with the Gmail API enabled and a service account.
2. Domain-wide delegation for that service account in the Admin console (Security → Access and data control → API controls), granted the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.basic scope, so it can act as each user.
3. A script that loads an HTML template, fills in each person’s details from the directory (Admin SDK Directory API), and calls sendAs.patch for every user.

Most admins skip writing code and use GAM, the open-source Google Workspace command-line tool, which handles the delegation and the loop. One command sets a personalized signature for all non-suspended users:

gam all users signature htmlfile SigTemplate.html replace FirstName field:name.givenname replace LastName field:name.familyname replace Phone field:phone.value.type.work replace Email field:email.primaryemail

In SigTemplate.html, the words FirstName, LastName, Phone and Email are placeholders, and GAM swaps each one for that user’s directory value. The GAM wiki suggests designing the signature in a test user’s Gmail first and exporting it as the template.

Where scripts fall short:

• Users can still edit it. The script writes a normal Gmail signature, so anyone can change it in Settings. The next run overwrites their edits, which means you have to keep running it.
• New hires and title changes wait for the next run. Unless you schedule the script, a person who joins on Tuesday has no signature until someone remembers.
• Aliases are separate. Gmail stores a signature per send-as address. Someone who sends as sales@ from their own mailbox needs that alias updated too, or replies from it go out without a signature.
• Empty fields leave gaps. If a phone number is blank in the directory, the template prints an empty line or a dangling label unless the script handles it.
• The 10,000-character cap still applies, and complex table layouts hit it faster than you would expect.
• You own it. Credentials, the service account key, the schedule and the error handling are all yours to maintain.

This is a good option if you already run GAM and have one simple signature for the whole company.

Option 4: Use a signature manager

A signature manager does what the script does, but as a product: it installs from the Google Workspace Marketplace, reads your directory, writes each person’s signature into their Gmail settings, and keeps it in sync. If you are comparing tools, see the best email signature software for Google Workspace.

With Firma for Google Workspace, the setup looks like this:

1. Install Firma from the Marketplace. The admin approves access at install. Firma only requests Gmail settings and directory scopes, and holds no permission to read email content.
2. Design the signature in a drag-and-drop editor, with dynamic fields for name, title, phone, photo and so on. A field that is empty for someone can fall back to another value instead of leaving a gap.
3. Set assignment rules so people land on the right team, and get that team’s signature, by department, organizational unit, email domain or email address. See automatic email signature rules.
4. Deploy. Each person’s signature shows in their Gmail compose window. Change the template later and the update rolls out to everyone. Firma can also install signatures on a person’s alias addresses, which is the part most scripts skip.

Firma is free for up to 2 users, and paid plans start at $1.20 per user per month billed annually ($1.50 monthly), with no seat minimum. Details are on the pricing page.

Which option should you pick?

• You only need a legal disclaimer on external email: Append footer. It is free, enforced and cannot be removed by users.
• You have a handful of people and do not mind some drift: let each person set their own, from a shared template.
• You already use GAM and want one simple signature for everyone: the GAM command above, scheduled to run regularly.
• You want personalized, on-brand signatures per team that new hires get automatically: a signature manager.

Footer and personal signature are not either/or. Many companies keep a short Append footer for the legal text and use personal signatures for the contact details. Just keep the disclaimer in one of them, not both.

Running Microsoft 365 as well, or instead? The equivalent guide is how to deploy email signatures to all users in Microsoft 365.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Google Workspace admin set a signature for all users? Not as a personal Gmail signature from the Admin console. The console only offers Append footer, which adds the same text to outgoing mail on the server. To put a signature into every user’s Gmail settings, you need the Gmail API (directly or through GAM) or a Marketplace signature manager.

Why doesn’t the Append footer show when I compose an email? Because Google adds it on the server after the message is sent. Users don’t see it while writing and can’t change or remove it. Send a test email to an external address to check how it looks.

Does the Append footer apply to internal email? Not by default. It only applies to messages sent outside your organization unless you check the option to also append it to internal messages when you configure the rule.

Can I add a logo to a company-wide Gmail footer? Yes, Append footer lets you add an image. Google recommends 70 to 100 px high and 300 to 400 px wide, with a maximum of 100 by 1000 px. For personal signatures that use a Drive image, the file must be shared publicly.

How long does a company-wide footer take to apply? Google says up to 24 hours, though it usually takes effect sooner.

Can employees change a signature set by the admin? They cannot touch an Append footer. A signature written into Gmail settings by a script is an ordinary Gmail signature, so users can edit it until it is overwritten again. With a signature manager, it depends on the tool, so check whether it reapplies the approved version.