ChatGPT Dots with Gmail and Google Calendar: setup and recipes

Connect Gmail and Google Calendar and your dot can read your mail, write drafts, check your week and add events. It reads without being asked. It sends an email only when you tell it what to send and to whom.

#What you can hand over

Your dot does three kinds of thing with your mail and calendar. Only the last one leaves your account, and that's the one that waits for you.

So the jobs worth handing over are the ones that end in a summary or a draft: a morning brief, a sorted inbox, a reply ready to send, a free slot found.

#Connect Gmail and Google Calendar

If you connected Google when you created your dot, skip to the recipes. Otherwise connect from the conversation, which takes three steps.

Each app starts on the Allow low-risk actions permission level. To have your dot ask before any change, set both to Read-only actions: how the four levels work.

#What it does on its own, and what waits for you

With both apps connected, what happens to an email depends on what you said. These three cases cover almost everything.

A yes covers that one email. To be asked every time, add a custom rule: type "sending an email" and choose Ask before taking action.

#Four recipes to copy

Each of these is a job a dot has done with a real inbox or calendar. Swap in the parts in [BRACKETS]. Start with the brief, because it shows you what your dot thinks matters.

Every day at 7am [YOUR TIME ZONE], check today's calendar and my unread email and send me a morning brief here. Three sections: Calendar, Email needing attention, Problems to check. One line per item, with a link to the email or event. Leave out newsletters. Don't reply to anything. Run one now, then confirm the schedule.

A first brief looks like this when it arrives. The mail items are blurred here.

Marker 1Marker 2Marker 3

1. 1The schedule is confirmed in one line.
2. 2Calendar first.
3. 3Then the emails that need you.

After two days away, ask for a triage instead. Your dot reads everything and replies to nobody.

Triage my inbox for the last two days. Tell me what I have to respond to, what can wait and what's spam. Don't respond to anything. Think of it like you're the filter: just show me what I should be looking at.

When you know what you want to say and don't want to write it, ask for a draft.

Draft a reply to [NAME]'s latest email about [SUBJECT]. Say [WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY]. Keep it short and match how I usually write to them. Save it as a draft in that thread and send me the link. Don't send it.

For your calendar, booking time works best as two messages: one to find the slot, one to book it.

Look at my calendar for next week and find the lighter days. I need a four-hour block for [WHAT IT'S FOR]. Count invitations I haven't answered as busy. Suggest the best day and a backup. Don't change my calendar yet.

When you tell it to book, your dot checks the details first. Here a garbled voice request gets the day, the hours and the time zone repeated back before anything is written.

After the "yes", the dot answers "Added:" with a link to the event. To run any recipe on a schedule, give your dot a job shows how.

#Fixes

Most problems with Gmail and Calendar are connection problems. Find yours in the left column.

#Check you've got it

One question before you go.

Predict

You ask your dot: "Draft an email to Diana with the main findings." A minute later it says the draft is ready. Where is the email?

• In Diana's inbox. A finished draft gets sent
• In your Gmail drafts, unsent, with a link to it in the chat
• Nowhere yet. The text is only in the chat

Show the answer

In your Gmail drafts, unsent, with a link to it in the chat

A request for a draft ends in a draft. Your dot saves it in Gmail and tells you it's ready. Send is still yours to press.

A request for a draft ends in a draft. Your dot saves it in Gmail and tells you it's ready. Send is still yours to press.

1. 6 October 2026
   Rebuilt as a recipe page with the real connection screens, four recipes and real results.
2. 5 October 2026
   First published.