How to Change the Default Sending Account in Gmail

If you're using multiple email addresses from within your Gmail account, then you know you can choose who you send mail as each time you send an email. But did you know that you can change your default sending account? You can, and it's not difficult at all.

Tired of Losing Seconds?

Are you tired of losing the time it takes to change the From: address on the majority of email messages you send? Sure, it's only a couple of clicks and a few seconds, but if you're repeating the process several times a day, that time adds up.

If the email address you use most often for sending is different from what Gmail picks initially in new messages, you can change that default – and make your favored address Gmail's, too.

How to Change the Default Sending Account in Gmail

To choose the account and email address that is set as the default when you start composing a new email message in Gmail:

Click the Settings gear icon (⚙) in your Gmail's toolbar.

Select the Settings item from the menu that has popped out.

Screenshot of web page showing the Settings option in Gmail

Go to the Accounts and Import category.

Click make default next to the desired name and email address under Send mail as:

Screenshot of the make default option in Gmail settings web page

Your default sending account should now be changed.

While the Gmail apps for iOS and Android will offer all your email addresses for sending and do respect the default, you cannot change the setting in them.

What Will Happen with a Specific Email Address Set as the Default?

When you start a new message from scratch in Gmail (using the Compose button, for instance, or by clicking an email address) or forward an email, whichever email address you set as the Gmail default will be the automatic choice for the From: line of the email.

What happens when you start a reply instead of a new message depends on another setting, though.

What Happens When I Reply?

When you start composing a reply to an email, Gmail, by default, does not use your default Gmail address without further consideration.

Instead, it examines the email address the message to which you are replying was sent.

If that address is one you have configured in Gmail for sending, Gmail will make that address the automatic choice in the From: field instead. This makes sense in many a case, of course, because the sender of the original message automatically receives a reply from the address to which they sent their email – instead of an email address that's possibly new to them.

Gmail lets you change that behavior, though, so the default Gmail address is used in all emails you compose as the automatic choice for the From: field.

How to Change the Default Address for Replies in Gmail

To make Gmail ignore the address to which an email was sent and always use the default address in the From: line when you start a reply:

Click the Settings gear icon (⚙) in Gmail.

Select Settings from the menu that has appeared.

Go to the Accounts and Import category.

Navigate to Send mail as: > When replying to a message

Make sure Always reply from the default address (currently: [address]) is selected.

Screenshot showing option to Always reply from default address in Gmail settings web page

You should be using the default address now.

Even when you've chosen a different default sending address, you can always change the address in the From: line at any time while composing a message.