Does Gmail Support POP3? What Still Works, and What Ends in January 2027

"Does Gmail support POP3?" is really two questions. One is whether you can download your Gmail into another mail program over POP. The other is whether Gmail can collect mail from a different account, like an old ISP or hosting mailbox, over POP. As of October 2026 the answer to the first is yes, and Google says that isn't changing. The answer to the second is yes until January 2027, and then no.

Reading your Gmail over POP: still supported

Google's page on the changes says Gmail "still supports reading emails from your Gmail account with external clients using POP", and that POP and IMAP stay "fully supported for accessing Gmail from other apps".¹ So Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail or anything else that speaks POP3 can keep downloading your Gmail.

POP is off until you turn it on. Per Google's instructions:²

1. In Gmail on the web, open Settings (the cog), then "See all settings".
2. Go to the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
3. Under "POP download", choose "Enable POP for all mail" or "Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on".
4. Choose what happens to Gmail's copy once your mail program has downloaded it, and save.

That last option matters more than it looks. You can keep Gmail's copy in the inbox, mark it as read, archive it or delete it. Pick delete and the only copy of each message ends up on whichever computer collected it. It's the first thing Google suggests checking when people say mail is disappearing from Gmail.² I'd keep Gmail's copy unless you're deliberately moving out of Gmail.

Then, in your mail program:

For the password, if your mail program offers to sign in with Google, use that. Current versions of Thunderbird, Apple Mail and Outlook open a Google sign-in window when you add a Gmail address. If yours doesn't, you need an app password, a 16-letter code you generate in your Google Account, and that only exists once 2-Step Verification is on.³ If the App passwords option is missing, Google lists three reasons: it's a work or school account, it uses Advanced Protection, or 2-Step Verification is set up with security keys only.³

Two things catch people out. Gmail only hands each message to POP once, so with POP set up on a laptop and a phone, whichever checks first gets the message and the other never sees it. Gmail's "recent mode" works around that: put recent: in front of your address in the username field and that client gets the last 30 days of mail, whatever other devices have already downloaded. Turn on "leave a copy on the server" in the client as well.² And "Account exceeded POP command or bandwidth limits" means the client is checking too often, so make it check less frequently.²

POP or IMAP?

For most people IMAP is the better fit. It keeps the mail on Gmail's servers and keeps every device in step, so something you read or file on your phone shows the same way on your laptop, and labels appear as folders. POP downloads copies to one machine and Gmail doesn't know what you did with them afterwards. POP still makes sense if you want a local archive of your mail, or you only ever read it on one computer and want it stored there.

You don't need to turn IMAP on. Google removed the switch in January 2025, and IMAP is now always on in Gmail.⁴ The server is imap.gmail.com on port 993 with SSL, with the same sign-in rules as above.

Gmail collecting mail from other accounts: ending

The other direction is "Check mail from other accounts", under Settings, Accounts and Import, where Gmail logs in to another POP3 server and pulls its mail into your inbox. That is what Google is removing. New setups stopped being accepted after the first quarter of 2026, and existing users can keep it until January 2027.⁵ Google's newer timeline says existing connections "continue to work" through the rest of 2026, then in January 2027 Gmail "will fully remove" POP fetching, Gmailify, and "Send as" for addresses Google doesn't host.¹ Mail that has already been fetched stays in your inbox.⁵ I've put the full timeline in a separate post.

Google's suggested replacements are the other provider's own webmail, a desktop mail client, or the Gmail app on your phone, which can still add outside accounts (POP included, on Android).¹ None of those put the mail in Gmail on the web. Forwarding from the old provider does, where it's offered, though forwarded mail can land in spam and some providers, Yahoo for one, charge for it. I've compared the options in more detail.

If what you want is the old behaviour, mail from another POP3 account arriving in your Gmail inbox on its own, that's the gap I built PopRelay for. It checks the POP3 mailbox on a schedule and adds new mail to Gmail through the Gmail API, asking Google only for permission to add messages and labels, so it can't read what's already in your Gmail. It doesn't bring back "Send as", though: after January 2027, replying from the other address means its own webmail or a desktop client.

Sources

1. Google, "Learn about changes to third-party email account support in Gmail", accessed 30 October 2026.
2. Google, "Read Gmail messages on other email clients using POP", accessed 30 October 2026.
3. Google, "Sign in with app passwords", accessed 30 October 2026.
4. Google, "Add Gmail to another email client", accessed 30 October 2026.
5. Google, "Learn about upcoming changes to Gmailify & POP in Gmail", accessed 30 October 2026.