How to Download All Gmail Attachments at Once (2026) — 3 Methods
3:24 · Subtitles in 11 languages · Also on YouTube
This 3-minute tutorial compares three ways to download all Gmail attachments at once. Method 1 saves the files by hand, one email at a time. Method 2 uses the Save Bulk Gmail Attachments Chrome extension to save a selection of emails in one click, to Google Drive folders or to one ZIP file. Method 3 exports the whole mailbox with Google Takeout. The video shows the limits of each method, so you can choose the one that fits your task.
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Full transcript
Gmail will zip the attachments of a single email for you. But fifty emails at once? There's no button for that. Here are the three ways that actually work in 2026.
Attachments never arrive in one tidy thread. A vendor's invoices spread over months. Resumes across a hiring round. Receipts scattered through a quarter. Getting them all means open, download, re-file — one message at a time.
Inside one open email, Gmail has a download-all. But select ten emails in your inbox, and the toolbar offers archive, delete, mark as read — nothing for attachments. That gap is the whole problem. So — three options.
Method one: by hand, email by email. Method two: a Chrome extension that adds the missing button inside Gmail. Method three: the Google Takeout export.
Method one — manual. Open each email, hover an attachment for the download icon — or use that per-email download-all to get a ZIP. Then drag everything out of your Downloads folder into the right place.
Free, built in, and fine for one or two emails. But for fifty? That's fifty ZIPs in your Downloads folder — unzipped, renamed, and re-filed by hand. It's exactly the loop you're trying to escape.
Method two: Save Bulk Gmail Attachments — a Chrome extension that adds the button Gmail is missing. It's free for up to seven attachments a day, and everything runs in your browser.
Install it from the Chrome Web Store. Back in Gmail, a paperclip marks the emails that carry attachments. Tick any emails you want — one, or hundreds — and click Save. Every attachment in your selection comes along — never two of five files.
You choose where they land. Straight into Google Drive — filed automatically into folders by year and month — or one organized ZIP download. No save dialog per file, and no re-filing afterwards.
Big batches are safe too — uploads resume if your connection drops or you close the tab. The free plan covers seven attachments a day, forever. [The video names an older Pro price. See the pricing page for current plans.]
Method three: Google Takeout — Google's official export. Request your mail, wait for the archive to build — hours, sometimes days — download an MBOX file that can run to gigabytes, and pull the attachments out with a desktop email client. It works, and it's free. But it exports your whole mailbox, not a hand-picked selection. Right for leaving Gmail. Heavyweight for fifty attachments.
So — one email, maybe two: stay manual. A batch you want complete and filed into Drive: the extension is the purpose-built option. And a full-mailbox archive, or leaving Gmail for good: that's Takeout.
One note on safety. None of these methods deletes your email — saving copies attachments out, and they stay in Gmail. The extension's access is read-only by design — it can't send, reply, or delete anything. Try it free at save bulk gmail attachments dot com. The full written guide is linked below.