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Google Workspace email signature for all users: 3 options

Google’s built-in footer adds one text block to everyone. Per-person signatures need the Gmail API. Setup steps, limits and troubleshooting.
The Sendoff team4 min read

Google Workspace has one built-in way to push the same text to everyone: the Append footer setting in the Admin console. It adds your footer to outgoing mail. It cannot show each person's name, title or phone number. For per-person signatures you need the Gmail API, which writes a signature to each user's Gmail settings, or a tool that does this for you.

What the built-in footer does

Google's footer is an organisation-level setting. Admins write the footer text once, and it applies to everyone in the organisational unit you choose. Child units inherit it from the parent. Google's help page says it applies to all messages, including messages sent from aliases. It also says messages sent from third-party clients such as Outlook or Apple Mail get the footer.

Gmail's own signature box is a separate thing. Each user sets that in their own settings, and users can edit it.

Add a company footer in the Admin console

  1. Sign in to the Google Admin console with an account that has the Gmail Settings administrator privilege.
  2. Go to Menu > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Compliance.
  3. Select an organisation on the left.
  4. In the Compliance section, find Append footer and click Configure. If a footer already exists, use Edit or Add another.
  5. Type the footer text. To add an image, click the image icon and enter a URL on a public web server.
  6. Optional: tick the option to append the footer to internal messages.
  7. Click Add Setting or Save, then click Save at the bottom of the page.
  8. Send a test message to an address outside your domain.

Google says changes can take up to 24 hours, though they usually apply sooner. Wait before you assume it failed.

Footer limits that catch people out

  • 10,000 characters. Google's footer page sets this limit. It is the same ceiling Gmail applies to a personal signature.
  • No HTML in the footer editor. You get formatting tools, not a code box. A long footer pasted from Word or a website often carries hidden markup, so check the count after pasting.
  • Images must be public. Google says images stored in Google Drive cannot be used. Host them on a public web server over HTTPS.
  • Plain-text messages lose the formatting. Google says messages sent as plain text do not support images or formatted text in the footer. A plain-text footer is added instead.
  • Client-side encryption is not supported. Messages encrypted with Google Workspace Client-side encryption for Gmail do not get the footer.

Google's footer page does not say where the footer sits in a reply. Some vendors say it sits at the bottom of the whole thread. Send a reply to test it before you roll it out.

Per-person signatures need the Gmail API

If each person needs their own name and job title, the footer will not do it. The Gmail API has a users.settings.sendAs resource, and a signature belongs to each send-as address. Google's guide says signatures are configured per alias, so a person with three aliases needs three updates, not one.

To call sendAs.update, the service account needs the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.basic scope, granted through domain-wide delegation in the Admin console. Google's sample code requests this scope. Its guide does not state a signature length limit, so use the 10,000 character limit from the Gmail help page as the ceiling.

If you script this yourself, the steps are:

  1. Create a service account, enable domain-wide delegation, and authorise the client ID with the scopes you need.
  2. For each user, call users.settings.sendAs.list to get every send-as address.
  3. For each address, call users.settings.sendAs.update with the HTML in the signature field.
  4. Log each result. Sendoff treats a 404 as an address that is no longer in the user's Send mail as list, so it re-syncs the directory before retrying.

Troubleshooting

The footer does not appear. Wait up to 24 hours, then send a test to an external address. Internal messages are excluded unless you ticked the option.

The footer image is missing. Check that the image is on a public web server and not a Drive link. Open the image URL in a private browser window. If it does not load there, recipients will not see it either.

Gmail says the signature is too long. Gmail's help page says images count toward the 10,000 character limit, and it suggests resizing an image if you get an error. Long links in the markup add to the count too.

An alias has no signature. The API sets signatures per alias. A script that updates only the primary address leaves the aliases unchanged.

How Sendoff handles this

Sendoff connects to Google Workspace through domain-wide delegation. A super admin authorises it, and it requests read-only directory access plus the Gmail settings scope. It reads names, titles, departments and phone numbers from the directory, syncing hourly and on demand. It then writes each person's signature through the sendAs settings API, for the primary address and every alias, and shows a status table with retries for any failures. Mail does not route through Sendoff.

The footer and a per-person signature can coexist. A legal line that must appear on everything suits the footer. A name, title and phone number for each person suits a per-person signature. Build the layout in the free email signature generator, and read the Google Workspace integration page for the admin steps.

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