Mail merge from Gmail,
without the spreadsheet

Connect your Gmail account, open the composer, and use the Individuals and List switch to choose who it goes to. Write the email once and add merge fields such as {{first_name}} or {{company}} from the field panel, which shows the value each field will use for the person you’re looking at. Every recipient gets a separate copy from your Gmail, filed in your Sent folder, so nobody sees anyone else’s address. Because a list is a saved search of your contacts, a new client who matches it is included next time without anyone touching a spreadsheet.

Yes. Each message goes out through the Gmail account you connected, from your address, and a copy is saved in your Sent folder like anything you write by hand. You approve the connection on Google’s own consent screen, and ContactsPlus never sees your password; it keeps an encrypted token instead. If you connect more than one mailbox, the composer’s From line lets you pick which one sends each email. Disconnecting removes the stored token and cancels anything still waiting in the queue.

Google accounts come in two kinds: personal Gmail, which Google lets send up to 500 emails a day, and Google Workspace, which allows 2,000. On the Microsoft side, Outlook.com, Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online all work, though a work account may need your IT administrator’s approval first; mail merge in Outlook covers that in detail. iCloud Mail can’t be connected, because Apple offers no way for other apps to send from it, and connecting your own SMTP server is still under consideration.

Two limits stack. Your provider sets the ceiling: 500 a day on personal Gmail and 2,000 on Google Workspace. Inside that, ContactsPlus paces the queue at 30 an hour and 250 a day by default, and you can raise or lower both under Sending pace. A newly connected mailbox warms up at 6 an hour for its first four weeks, a gentler start for an account that hasn’t sent in volume before. One send to an Email List can hold up to 1,000 people, and anything beyond the day’s allowance waits for the next day’s slots.

Nothing goes out with braces in it. The composer flags the problem in a banner, Show me where jumps to the field, and the merge-field panel shows which contacts have no value for it. You can type a fallback such as ‘your team’ that’s used only where the field is empty, open the contact and fill the field in, or take the field out of the message. Until you do, Send now and Add to queue stay unavailable.

Yes, if you allow it. Reading replies is an optional permission you can decline on Google’s consent screen. With it, ContactsPlus checks only the headers of new messages, such as who sent them and which message they answer, to spot replies to emails it sent; it doesn’t read subjects or message text while it checks. A reply is noted on the contact, anything else queued to that person is held back, and opening the reply shows its text, fetched from your mailbox. Without the permission, emails still send but replies aren’t detected.

You choose per email. With This is a personal email ticked, there’s no unsubscribe line and no ‘why you got this’ note, which suits a message to one client. Untick it for a send to a list and the footer carries an unsubscribe link, with a line for your postal address. People who unsubscribe and addresses that bounce are recorded, listed under Unsubscribed contacts and skipped on later sends, and you can download those lists whenever you need them.

Emailing is a Premium feature. A free account can send up to 20 emails in total, enough to try a template, a test and a small list on real contacts. Premium and Teams include Emailing in full, along with Sales Pipeline, tasks and 10 GB of document storage. Test emails to your own inbox don’t count against the allowance, and your provider’s daily limit still applies on every plan. The pricing page compares the plans.

Yes. The composer’s When it sends panel shows the next free slot, such as tomorrow at 8:00 AM, and the scheduler lets you pick another date and time. A list starts at the time you choose and leaves one slot at a time at your hourly and daily pace, so a long list can run into the next day. Every waiting email sits in the queue with its own send time, where you can push it to the top, edit it, cancel it or send it immediately, and Hold pauses the whole mailbox.

Some accounts do. Google added a mail merge to several paid Workspace plans, including Workspace Individual and Business Standard, but not to personal @gmail.com accounts or Business Starter, and on some Enterprise and Education plans it’s limited to internal recipients unless an administrator changes it. It takes its list from a Google Sheet or Google Contacts, can’t put merge fields in the subject line, and caps merged email at 1,500 a day. ContactsPlus doesn’t depend on your plan: it works with any Gmail account and with Outlook.