Meet Gmail's Undo Send feature, a lifesaving little hack buried in the Gmail settings. It gives you a 10-second window to "undo" sending an outgoing email.

You just have to enable it first.

  1. Click the Gear
  2. Click Settings
  3. Under the General tab find Undo Send
  4. Remember to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page (Yes, scroll to the bottom)


  • When you send an email, the yellow dialogue that displays "Your message has been sent" will also give you the option to Undo. Click it, and the email will reopen, un-sent, in the composition window.

gmail undo sent send


  • It defaults so that you have 10 seconds to click before the Undo button disappears, but you can adjust that window of opportunity. Go to Settings > General > Undo Send, and select a cancellation period up to 30 seconds.
  • After this time period the email is good and send. There is no way to pull the email back.