How to Fax From Gmail: In 15 Minutes, You'll Never Need (or Want) a Fax Machine Again -

This post was last updated on November 4th, 2021 at 04:13 pm

Yay, you got a new gig! But, ugh, you’re required to send/receive faxes. Who faxes these days? It’s been so long since you’ve had to send or receive a fax that you finally donated your fax machine to Goodwill. Do you have to get a new one? No: you just have to learn how to fax from Gmail.

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How to Fax From Gmail

It is so easy to fax from Gmail that you may never want to (or have to) deal with a fax machine again. A Gmail fax account is essentially a no-effort way to add full fax capabilities to your Gmail account. For you, it’s just like sending or receiving an email with attachments. The person on the other end of the fax transmission sends or receives their fax via whatever fax machine they normally use.

15 Minutes Max to a Successful Fax!

Minutes 1-5: Sign Up for Gmail

This assumes, of course, that you do not already have a Gmail account. If you do, you’ll save five minutes by skipping to the next step. If you need one, hop over to gmail.com and create one. It’s free and you get a massive amount of free storage. You also get top-of-the-line spam filtering and some handy features like AI-generate reminders to reply to emails you might have accidentally ignored.

Minutes 6-10: Sign Up for a Fax Account

The one thing Gmail doesn’t have built in is faxing. However, that’s easily solved in this five-minute how to fax from Gmail step. You just need an online fax account. There are a number of services that provide variations on this. For pure simplicity, we favor RingCentral and its 30-day free trial.

Free 30-Day Gmail Faxing Trial

RingCentral is a subscription service that gives you your own local fax number that allows you to send/receive unlimited faxes up to a total of 1,500 pages. That means you could send 1,500 one-page faxes or a single 1,500-page fax. Most of us will send somewhere in the middle of that. The service is incredibly easy to use and even has 24/7 live telephone support if you need it.

The Fax Number Becomes an Email Address

One reason we love RingCentral is that it integrates seamlessly with Gmail. There is nothing to install. You simply address an email using the recipient’s fax number (including country and area code) as an email address @rcfax.com. For example, if your recipient’s fax number is 1-234-567-8910, you simply Gmail their fax machine at 12345678910@rcfax.com. It’s that easy. If they fax you back, it shows up in your Gmail inbox with the same fax number address.

Minutes 11-15: Scan Your Fax Document

The final step is to scan the document (assuming it is paper). With Gmail fax, you attach the document you are faxing just like you were emailing. This requires it to be a recognized format like a PDF file. There are great free smartphone apps that will turn your phone’s camera into a scanner. iCloud and Dropbox have them built directly into the system. A moment’s Googling will find you easy instructions.

You’ll Never Need (or Want) a Fax Machine Again

Fifteen minutes of effort and your new gig is safe. Your Gmail account is your new fax machine. It fits in your laptop. It fits in your smartphone. You can access it from anywhere you have an Internet connection. Bonus: it perfectly organizes everything for you. Not only do you not have to go buy a new fax machine, but you may never need (or want) a fax machine again.