How to Add an Email Signature in Gmail (2026 Guide)

Your email signature is the last thing people see in every message you send — and in Gmail it takes about two minutes to set up. This guide walks through the exact steps for Gmail on desktop, how to install a designed (formatted) signature instead of plain text, the separate mobile signature, and fixes for the problems people actually run into.

Add a signature in Gmail on desktop

1. Open Gmail in a desktop browser and click the gear icon in the top right.
2. Click See all settings at the top of the quick-settings panel.
3. Make sure you're on the General tab, then scroll down to the Signature section (about two-thirds down the page).
4. Click + Create new, give the signature a name like "Work," and click Create. The name is only for your reference — recipients never see it. Gmail lets you keep multiple signatures.
5. Type or paste your signature into the editor box. The toolbar handles bold, italics, font color, links, and images.
6. Under Signature defaults, choose which signature to use for new emails and which to use on reply/forward. Most people use the same one for both.
7. Tick the checkbox "Insert this signature before quoted text in replies and remove the '—' line that precedes it." Without this, Gmail tacks your signature onto the very bottom of the quoted thread, where nobody scrolls.
8. Scroll to the bottom of the Settings page and click Save Changes. Your signature is now live.

Use a designed signature instead of plain text

Gmail's signature editor has no "paste HTML" button — but there's a reliable workaround: paste the rendered signature, not the code.

1. Build your signature in a generator or open its preview page in a browser.
2. Select the whole rendered signature (what it looks like, not the HTML source) and copy it — Ctrl+C on Windows, Cmd+C on Mac.
3. Click inside Gmail's signature editor box and paste — Ctrl+V / Cmd+V.
4. Gmail preserves the fonts, colors, layout, and links surprisingly well.

This is the fastest way to get a professional-looking signature without fighting the editor's limited toolbar.

Add a signature in the Gmail mobile app

Important: your mobile signature is completely separate from your desktop one. They don't sync. Mobile signatures are text-only — no images, links, or formatting.

On Android:

1. Open the Gmail app and tap the menu icon (three lines).
2. Scroll down and tap Settings, then select your account.
3. Tap Mobile Signature, type your signature, and tap OK.

On iPhone/iPad:

1. Open the Gmail app and tap the menu icon.
2. Tap Settings, then select your account.
3. Tap Signature settings, toggle Mobile Signature on, and type your signature.

Keep it short: name, title, company, phone. If you want the full designed signature on your phone, set it up on desktop and use Gmail in your phone's browser.

Troubleshooting: the three problems everyone hits

My images show as broken icons

Gmail can't display images that live only on your computer. Every image in your signature must be hosted at a public URL (HTTPS) or in Google Drive shared as "Anyone with the link." If you built your signature in a generator, re-copy it from the generator's preview page rather than from a saved file on your desktop.

My signature doesn't appear on replies

You skipped step 7 above. Go back to Settings → See all settings → General → Signature, tick "Insert this signature before quoted text in replies," and click Save Changes. Note: changing settings doesn't update drafts you already started — only new compositions.

The formatting looks wrong after pasting

You probably pasted raw HTML code instead of the rendered signature. Go back to the generator's preview, select the visual signature, copy, and paste again. If a specific font looks off, stick to common fonts (Arial, Georgia, Verdana) — exotic fonts get substituted on the recipient's end anyway.

What to put in your signature

Keep it to five or six lines. Nobody reads a fifteen-line signature.

• Full name — the name people know you by
• Job title and company
• Phone number — the one you actually answer
• One link — your website or booking page, not five social icons
• Photo (optional) — a small headshot makes you memorable; keep it around 100–150 px wide

Skip quotes, legal disclaimers (unless your industry requires them), and "Sent from my iPhone."

Change or delete a signature later

Signatures aren't permanent. To update one, go back to Settings → See all settings → General → Signature, click the signature name, edit it in the box, and hit Save Changes at the bottom. To remove one entirely, select it and click the trash icon next to its name — just make sure it isn't set as anyone's default first, or Gmail will fall back to "(no signature)."

If you keep multiple signatures (say, one formal and one casual), you can swap between them while composing: click the pen icon in the compose window's bottom toolbar and pick a different signature from the list.

Make one in about a minute

If you'd rather not build it by hand, Sigline's free email signature generator gives you 13 templates, a live preview, and one-click copy that pastes straight into Gmail's signature box — photo, links, and formatting included. No signup needed for the free version.