How to Attach an Email to a Google Calendar Invite

You're setting up a meeting to discuss an email: a client's request, a vendor's quote, a bug report from a customer. Everyone in the meeting needs to read that email first. So you open the Calendar event, click Add attachment... and find that Google Calendar only lets you attach files from Google Drive. There's no way to pick an email.

Most people end up forwarding the email to every guest, or pasting its text into the event description. Neither works well. Forwards get buried in inboxes, and pasted text loses its formatting, images and attachments.

New: attach emails to Calendar events with EmailShot. EmailShot now works inside Google Calendar. While editing an event, click Add attachment > EmailShot, pick one of your recent EmailShots, and the email is attached to the event. Guests open it from the event with one click, with its original formatting.

This guide shows how it works, then covers the other ways to attach an email to a Google Calendar invite and where each one falls short.

Can You Attach an Email to a Google Calendar Event?

Not natively. Google Calendar's attachment button accepts Google Drive files only, so to attach an email you first need to turn it into something Calendar accepts. That's what EmailShot does: it turns a Gmail message into a link that renders the full email in any browser. The new Calendar integration attaches that link to the event as a proper attachment, next to any Drive files.

How to Attach an Email to a Calendar Invite with EmailShot

Step 1: Install EmailShot

Install EmailShot from the Google Workspace Marketplace. It works with personal Gmail accounts and Google Workspace accounts. If you already use EmailShot in Gmail or Google Docs, there's nothing new to install: the Calendar integration is part of the same add-on.

Step 2: Create an EmailShot of the email

Open the email in Gmail and click the EmailShot icon in the side panel. EmailShot creates a shareable link to the email. Before creating it, you can choose what to hide: the sender's address, the recipients, or an expiration date for the link. See the EmailShot creation options for the full list.

If you already made an EmailShot of this email, EmailShot shows you the existing link.

Step 3: Open your Calendar event and click "Add attachment"

In Google Calendar, create a new event or open an existing one, and open the full edit view (click More options if you're in the quick-create popup). Under the description, click the Add attachment icon. Next to Google Drive, you'll see EmailShot.

Step 4: Pick the email

EmailShot lists your most recent EmailShots by subject and sender. Click the one you want. It's attached to the event straight away, with the email's subject as the attachment name.

If the email you just created doesn't appear, click ↻ refresh at the top of the list.

Step 5: Save the event

Click Save. The attachment is stored with the event, and every guest sees it when they open the event in their calendar. Clicking it opens the email in the browser.

The first time you use EmailShot in Calendar, Google asks you to grant two extra permissions: one that lets EmailShot run inside Calendar, and one that lets it add the attachment to the event you're editing. EmailShot can only change the event you have open, and only when you pick an email. See EmailShot OAuth permissions explained for the full list.

What Your Guests See

Guests don't need EmailShot, and they don't need to sign in to anything. The attachment opens the email in a regular browser tab, rendered the way it looked in Gmail: HTML formatting, inline images, links and the original headers (minus anything you chose to hide).

That works for external guests too. A client or vendor using Outlook or Apple Calendar can open the email the same way as your teammates.

Other Ways to Attach an Email to a Google Calendar Invite

If you can't install an add-on, here are the alternatives, and what you give up with each.

Use Gmail's "Create event"

In Gmail, open the email, click the More menu (three dots) and choose Create event. Gmail creates a Calendar event from the email, with the subject as the title, the people on the thread as guests, and the email's text in the description.

This is fine for a quick reminder, but the email itself isn't attached. You get plain text without formatting, images or the email's own attachments, and it only works when you start from Gmail. It doesn't help when the event already exists, or when the email you want to share is one of several.

Save the email as a PDF and attach it from Drive

Open the email, click Print all, choose Save as PDF, upload the PDF to Google Drive, then attach it to the event from Drive.

This keeps most of the email's formatting, but it takes five steps, and the PDF is a frozen copy with no working links. You also have to manage Drive sharing: guests outside your organization often get "You need access" and have to request it before the meeting.

Paste the email into the event description

Copy the email's text and paste it into the description. It's quick, but long emails make the event hard to read, formatting is mostly lost, and anyone with access to the event sees the full content, including any addresses or signatures you'd rather not share.

Forward the email to every guest

Forwarding gets the email to people, but not to the event. Guests have to search their inbox right before the meeting, people added later never get it, and you can't take a forward back once it's sent. See email forwarding vs. email sharing for a longer comparison.

Comparison

When to Attach an Email to a Meeting

• Client and vendor calls. Attach the email with the request, quote or proposal you're about to discuss, so everyone reads the same version.
• Incident reviews. Attach the alert or the customer's bug report to the post-mortem meeting.
• Interviews. Attach the candidate's application email to the interview invite for the panel.
• Approvals and sign-offs. Attach the email with the terms being approved, so the decision and its context live in the same place.
• Recurring meetings. Attach this week's status email to the next occurrence of a weekly sync.

Privacy Tips

An event attachment is visible to every guest, and to anyone guests forward the invite to. Before attaching an email, check what it contains:

• Hide what guests don't need. EmailShot can hide the sender's address and the recipients, so you share the content without exposing everyone on the thread.
• Set an expiration date. For a one-off meeting, a link that expires a week later keeps the email from staying accessible indefinitely.
• Delete it when you're done. Deleting an EmailShot from the Gmail add-on stops the link working everywhere, including in the Calendar event.

The Email sharing best practices for teams post goes into more detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I attach an email to a Google Calendar invite without an add-on? Not as an email. Google Calendar only attaches Google Drive files, so without an add-on you have to save the email as a PDF, upload it to Drive and attach that file. EmailShot skips the PDF and Drive steps.

Can I attach an email to a Calendar event on my phone? The Google Calendar apps for Android and iOS don't support add-ons. Attach the email from Google Calendar on the web, and guests can open it from any device, including their phone.

Do guests need EmailShot installed? No. Guests open the attachment in their browser without installing or signing in to anything.

Can I attach more than one email to the same event? Yes. Click Add attachment > EmailShot again and pick another email. Each one appears as a separate attachment.

Does it work with Google Workspace accounts? Yes, EmailShot works with personal Gmail and Google Workspace accounts. If your administrator only allows approved add-ons, they can allowlist EmailShot or install it for the whole domain.

What about Outlook? Classic Outlook for Windows can attach an email to a meeting with Insert > Attach Item > Outlook Item. That attaches a copy of the message, which guests need Outlook to open. EmailShot works with Gmail and Google Calendar.

Get Started

1. Install EmailShot from the Google Workspace Marketplace.
2. Create an EmailShot of the email in Gmail.
3. In Google Calendar, edit your event and click Add attachment > EmailShot.

The same EmailShot links also work in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides as Smart Chips. New to EmailShot? Start with the getting started guide.