How to send emails automatically from Google Sheets

1. 01Set up the sheet

   Name the tab List. Put headers in row 1: Email, Name, Due, Status, Sent at (columns A to E). Add one recipient per row and leave Status and Sent at blank.

2. 02Paste the script

   In the sheet, open Extensions, then Apps Script. Delete the sample code, paste the script below and save. It skips any row already marked Sent, stops when the daily quota runs out, and writes Sent plus the time after each email. A row with a bad address is marked Error and skipped, so one typo cannot stop the rest of the list.

   function sendRowEmails() {
     const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActive().getSheetByName('List');
     const rows = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();
     const tz = SpreadsheetApp.getActive().getSpreadsheetTimeZone();
     for (let i = 1; i < rows.length; i++) {
       const [email, name, due, status] = rows[i];
       if (!email || String(status).startsWith('Sent') || String(status).startsWith('Error')) continue;
       if (MailApp.getRemainingDailyQuota() < 1) break;
       const day = due ? Utilities.formatDate(new Date(due), tz, 'd MMM yyyy') : 'soon';
       const body = 'Hi ' + name + ',\n\nYour renewal is due on ' + day + '.\nReply to this email if anything has changed.\n\nThanks';
       try {
         MailApp.sendEmail(email, 'Your renewal is due ' + day, body);
         sheet.getRange(i + 1, 4, 1, 2).setValues([['Sent', new Date()]]);
       } catch (err) {
         sheet.getRange(i + 1, 4, 1, 2).setValues([['Error: ' + err.message, new Date()]]);
       }
       SpreadsheetApp.flush();
     }
   }

3. 03Test on yourself first

   Make a copy of the whole spreadsheet (File, then Make a copy), replace its rows with two that use your own address, open Apps Script from the copy and click Run. Google asks you to authorise the script the first time. Check both emails arrived and both rows now say Sent.

4. 04Add a time-driven trigger

   In the Apps Script editor, click Triggers (the alarm clock icon), then Add Trigger. Choose sendRowEmails, event source Time-driven, then a day or week timer and an hour. Google may run it at any point within that hour.

5. 05Check the limits before you scale

   Apps Script counts recipients, not emails: 100 a day on a gmail.com account and 1,500 on Workspace, with up to 50 recipients per message. A single run can last 6 minutes. If your list is bigger, the script stops and the next trigger run picks up the unsent rows.

6. 06Or build it in n8n

   Add a Google Sheets Trigger set to Row added, then a Gmail node with Resource Message and Operation Send. Map To, Subject and Message from the row. Turn off Append n8n attribution if you do not want the footer, and add a Google Sheets node after it that writes Sent back to the row.

7. 07Decide if it is worth it

   If you send the same kind of email every week, put the minutes you spend now into the free Automation ROI calculator, linked below, to see whether setting this up pays back.

1. A sheet lists 12 customers with an email, first name and renewal date, and Status is blank on every row.
2. The script runs from a weekly time-driven trigger on Monday morning on a free gmail.com account.
3. It sends 12 emails, which uses 12 of the 100 daily recipients, and writes Sent with a timestamp on each row.
4. Someone runs it again by hand the same day: every row already says Sent, so nothing is sent twice.
5. Two new customers are added on Wednesday. Next Monday the script emails only those two rows.
6. This is an illustration of the steps, not a measured result.

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• n8n docs: Google Sheets Trigger node

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• n8n docs: Gmail node message operations

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