Both Gmail and Outlook scan your email content to power AI features like Smart Reply, email summaries, and Gemini or Copilot responses. Google made this opt-out for Gmail around October 2025, affecting roughly 1.8 billion accounts. To turn it off in Gmail, go to Settings > See all settings > General and disable Smart features (the main toggle is labeled 'Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet'). In Outlook, look for Connected experiences under Privacy and data settings.
Your email inbox has always been scanned automatically — that's how spam filters work and how search finds old messages. But something shifted around late 2025: that scanning now includes Gemini, Google's AI assistant, which can read your emails and answer questions about them on request. For most Gmail users, this feature was turned on quietly, as a default, without a clear moment where you said yes.
This guide explains what's actually happening, who should opt out, and the exact steps to do it in both Gmail and Outlook.
What "AI Reading Your Email" Actually Means
The phrase sounds alarming, but the reality is more mundane — and in some ways more useful than you might expect.
When Gmail scans your email for AI features, automated systems process the text of your messages to generate Smart Reply suggestions ("Sounds good!", "Thanks, I'll take a look"), Smart Compose completions as you type, travel and purchase tracking cards, and — since the change in late 2025 — Gemini's ability to summarize a long email thread or answer questions like "What's the status of my Amazon order?"
No human at Google is reading your emails. That's worth saying plainly, because the phrase "AI reading your email" can conjure images that aren't accurate. What's happening is that your message text is being processed by machine-learning systems, similar in kind to how a spam filter works — just more capable and covering more use cases.
What changed around October 2025 is that this access was extended to Gemini and switched from opt-in to opt-out, affecting roughly 1.8 billion Gmail accounts worldwide. A class action lawsuit filed in November 2025 (Thele v. Google) argues that this switch happened without meaningful consent. Google maintains the change was disclosed in settings updates sent to users.
Microsoft Outlook has equivalent features through Copilot, with similar settings you can adjust.
Should You Turn It Off?
Not everyone needs to. Here's a quick way to think about it.
Consider opting out if your inbox regularly contains sensitive information — business communications, legal correspondence, medical records, financial details — that you'd prefer not to have processed beyond basic spam filtering and delivery. The same applies if you're generally uncomfortable with the idea of any automated system having access to the full text of your emails, even without a human involved.
You might prefer to keep it on if you find the AI features genuinely useful — Smart Reply saves you time, email summaries help you catch up after a vacation, or you've been using Gemini to search your inbox. The processing is automated, not human, and for most everyday personal email the privacy trade-off is relatively modest.
A middle path: you can turn off Gemini's deeper access to your inbox while keeping Smart Reply and Smart Compose active. The steps below show you how.
Turn It Off in Gmail (Web)
Open Gmail Settings
Go to mail.google.com and sign in. Click the gear icon in the top-right corner, then click See all settings at the top of the settings panel that slides out.
Find Smart Features
Click the General tab if it isn't already selected. Scroll down until you reach a section called Smart features. The main toggle is labeled Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet — unchecking it disables Smart Reply, Smart Compose, and the AI-powered inbox features within Gmail. Below that, a Google Workspace smart features heading links to Manage Workspace smart feature settings, where you can toggle Smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products independently.
Uncheck what you want to disable. If you only want to limit Gemini's inbox access without losing Smart Reply, focus on the Google Account step below rather than changing these.
Save Changes
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. Gmail will reload. Smart Reply buttons will disappear from the bottom of emails, and Smart Compose suggestions will stop appearing as you type.
Review Gemini Access in Your Google Account
The Gmail toggles above cover in-app features. For a more complete opt-out — especially for Gemini's ability to access your inbox — also visit myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy. Under History settings, look for Gemini Apps Activity — this is the specific toggle that controls Gemini's access to your Gmail inbox. Note that Web & App Activity is a separate, unrelated toggle for general browsing history; it does not govern Gemini's email access.
Turn It Off in Gmail (Mobile — iPhone and Android)
Open Gmail App Settings
Open the Gmail app. Tap the three horizontal lines (menu icon) in the top-left corner. Scroll down and tap Settings.
Disable Smart Features for Your Account
Tap your email address to open account-specific settings. The exact path differs by platform:
On iPhone and iPad: Under the General section, tap Data privacy, then toggle Smart features off.
On Android: Scroll to the General section and uncheck Smart features.
On both platforms the toggle is called Smart features — not "Smart features and personalization." Changing it on mobile updates the preference across all devices.
Turn It Off in Outlook
Microsoft Outlook's equivalent settings live under Connected experiences and control what Copilot and other AI-powered Outlook features can access from your email.
In Outlook on the Web (outlook.com or Microsoft 365)
Go to outlook.com or your Microsoft 365 mail. Click the Settings gear icon and navigate to General > Privacy and data > Privacy settings. There you can turn off categories of Connected experiences that process your email content, which limits Copilot's access to your messages. Outlook also has a dedicated Settings > Copilot section where you can turn Copilot off entirely — this toggle works independently of the Connected experiences settings.
In the Outlook Desktop App (Windows or Mac)
Open Outlook and go to File > Office Account and click Manage Settings under Account Privacy (on Windows), or go to Outlook > Preferences > Privacy (on Mac, which opens a Privacy preferences pane — not a separate dialog). There you'll find toggles for connected experiences, including the ones that analyze your content to power Copilot and other AI suggestions.
What You Lose When You Turn It Off
Being honest about the trade-off matters. These features stop working once you opt out:
In Gmail: Smart Reply buttons at the bottom of emails, Smart Compose auto-complete as you type, email thread summaries, purchase and travel tracking cards in your inbox, and Gemini's ability to answer questions about your emails ("Did I get a shipping confirmation for that order?").
In Outlook: Copilot email summaries, suggested replies based on thread context, and Copilot's ability to draft messages drawing on your email history.
If you use any of these regularly, consider the middle path mentioned above — turning off data sharing with other Google products and reviewing Gemini's access specifically, rather than disabling every Smart Feature at once.
What to Try Next
If you're reviewing your AI privacy settings more broadly, How to Opt Out of AI Training and Delete Your Data covers the chatbot side — what ChatGPT, Gemini, and others do with your conversations when you use those tools directly. For a bigger-picture view of what AI systems may already know about you, What Does AI Know About Me? is a useful next read.
