What can an AI agent do with
Full Gmail access?
This is the widest Gmail permission. The agent can read, write, send and permanently delete any email in your account. Google tells app makers to ask for it only if they need to delete mail for good, skipping the trash.
How to spot it
On a Google Workspace connection or settings screen, this is https://mail.google.com/.
With it, an agent can
- Read every email and attachment in your account
- Write and send email as you
- Create, change and send drafts
- Move email to the trash
- Permanently delete email so it cannot be recovered
It cannot, on its own
- Create Gmail filters or change forwarding. Google puts those behind separate settings permissions.
What a bad day looks like
A tricked agent could send email in your name and then permanently delete it, leaving no copy in your trash.
Set it up safer
- Ask whether it can use https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify instead. That one can trash mail but cannot delete it for good.
- If it only reads mail, ask for https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly.
- If it only sends, ask for https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send and turn on an approval step before anything goes out.
Narrower permissions on Google Workspace:
- Read, send and organize Gmail
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify - Read Gmail
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly - Send email as you
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send
Ask the company selling the agent
- Why does your agent need to delete email permanently instead of moving it to the trash?
- Can I approve each email before it is sent?
- Do you keep copies of my email on your servers, and for how long?
- Can it work with a narrower Gmail permission?
Source
Checked against Google Workspace documentation on 2026-09-28. All Google Workspace permissions →
Thinking about a specific agent?
Tell us what it connects to, what it is allowed to do and who approves its work. You get a plain-language label of what it can touch and what to ask the seller. It takes a couple of minutes, and your answers stay in your browser unless you choose to post a test job.
Or have a person go through the AI apps on up to 3 of your business services with you and get a written report, for $249.
This page explains what a permission allows. It does not describe, test or rate any product. Permission details are summarized in our own words from the provider's documentation, linked on the page; providers change their documentation, so check the source before you rely on a detail.