Should You Use ChatGPT for Emails?

Over 4 million users rely on ChatGPT every week, and many of them use it to write emails. But is this a good idea? Should you use ChatGPT for email drafting and editing purposes? 

In this article, we analyze the pros and cons of using ChatGPT for emails, share tips for getting the best out of Gen AI, and suggest tools to take your email writing skills to the next level. 

ChatGPT for Email: Key Features and Possibilities 

 ChatGPT is a generative AI tool trained on 45 TB of text, which allows it to learn and mimic human writing patterns, ideal for writing emails and other professional communications. 

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Research shows that 40% of people already use or will use AI to write their emails, and ChatGPT is one of the favorite tools for this purpose. The following features make it a suitable AI assistant for email writing: 

• Conversational interface: You can enter simple prompts like “write an email to my boss requesting a leave,” and ChatGPT will generate the email in response. You can also generate multiple options for email subject lines or ask about the best time to send an email.
• ChatGPT “Reason”: Launched in February 2025, the reasoning option allows ChatGPT to think through complex problems and arrive at a solution. It can be useful when writing nuanced messages, such as data-rich messages to leads or customer follow-ups. 
• ChatGPT “Canvas”: This feature, launched in October 2024, is ideal for writing long and descriptive messages. It supports in-line editing, just like Google Docs. 
• ChatGPT “Deep Research”: Whale, it’s primarily meant for research reports, you can also use this tool to retrieve data for your email—e.g., providing industry statistics for an AI-powered lead generation email. 
• File uploads: ChatGPT allows you to add files to a conversation and use that information for email writing. This means you can turn an audio recording into an email, convey information from a file through an email message, and much more. 

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Due to its powerful features and ease of use, ChatGPT is commonly used for email writing. However, there’s also the risk of detection, which could make the email writer seem unprofessional. This brings us to one of the biggest concerns surrounding the use of ChatGPT. 

Can ChatGPT Be Detected in Emails? 

Often, it’s easy to tell when something is written by AI, and this can put off email recipients and customers. If an email is impersonal, repetitive, too long or too short, or generic, the recipient may feel that not enough effort has gone into writing it. 

Further, there are AI detection tools like GPTZero, QuillBot AI Detector, and Copyleaks that claim to be able to detect ChatGPT-written text, although they aren’t 100% reliable. Recruiters and educators may use these tools to screen for genuinely human writing. 

Despite this, Gen AI tools like ChatGPT are widely used for email writing, especially in situations where your writing skills aren’t being assessed and you simply need to get the information across in a clear and professional manner. 

So, if you’re wondering if ChatGPT can be detected in emails, the answer is YES—there are about 20 tell-tale signs of AI-written emails. However, well-researched, humanized, and personalized emails tend to be highly effective, even if the draft is generated using AI assistance. 

Pros and Cons of Using ChatGPT for Emails 

When considering the use of ChatGPT for emails, the top pros and cons include: 

Pros: 

✅Easy to use, doesn’t require any technical skills. 

✅Generates professional and grammatically correct emails, great for non-native English speakers. 

✅Versatile tool that can adapt to formal/ informal, firm/convincing, friendly/academic, and other tones. 

✅Can learn from previous emails, audio recordings, and other files. 

✅ Saves time and cognitive effort, especially when writing multiple emails a day. 

Cons: 

❌ Requires prompting—a good ChatGPT prompt can take a lot of skill to write.

❌ The risk of writing generic emails, full of jargon-like “streamline” and “productivity.”

❌ The writer’s personality may not shine through. 

❌ The free version of ChatGPT is limited; really good emails require ChatGPT Plus, costing $20/month. 

Read our Ultimate Guide to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Emails for more in-depth analysis.

Pro Tips for Smarter Email Writing with Gen AI 

The real answer to the question, “Should you use ChatGPT for emails?” depends on how you use it. Here is a list of tips and best practices to keep in mind when you’re writing emails using ChatGPT (or, indeed, any Gen AI chatbot). 

1. Feed it a few past emails as input

It may make your prompt slightly longer, but it’s a good idea to include emails you’ve sent in the past to similar recipients. This allows the LLM to learn your unique style of writing and also pick up any unique information that may be pertinent for future emails. 

#ProTip: The Gmelius AI agent is trained on thousands of emails from your inbox. Try it today. 

2. Don’t rush the prompt 

While the whole point of using ChatGPT is to save time and effort, a weak prompt will only lead to generic emails and multiple iterations. Spend some time perfecting your prompt with: 

• Tonality specifications: Find the right balance between a professional tone and the personal touch of informal writing.
• Negative constraints: Specify the things you DON’T want the AI to include, like jargon or too many commas. 
• Length recommendations: Tell ChatGPT how long you’d want the email to be,  so that it doesn't generate too much or too little content. 

Here’s an example of a Reddit user iterating to arrive at the perfect email prompt for ChatGPT:

3. Save your best prompts

Just like you can create Gmail templates, it’s handy to have a repertoire of ChatGPT email writing templates that you can fall back on. Simply, modify the length and other constraints when you reuse the prompt to create tailored emails. 

4. When stumped, start a new chat 

ChatGPT is a conversational bot, which means that all prompts and responses in one conversation are assumed to be related to one another.  This can skew the results if you keep prompting it for too long. If you find that the Gen AI stops writing good emails after a while, then starting a new chat can be helpful. 

5. Try a prompt-free email writing tool like Gmelius 

While Gmelius also uses generative AI and other AI techniques like machine learning, it offers a prompt-free email writing experience. The AI agent analyzes your inbox, autonomously detects which emails need a reply, and drafts a response automatically. You can check out the drafts the next time you open your inbox, and send, discard, or edit them as needed. 

How Gmelius AI Saves 1 Hour/Day by Auto-Drafting Emails 

Gmelius analyzes your email writing patterns to auto-draft emails, without the added effort of prompting or interacting with a chat interface. The AI is re-trained with new data every week using machine learning, and optionally, you can connect it with a knowledge base so it can write highly detailed messages. 

The Gmelius AI agent automatically sorts your inbox and flags important emails so you can direct your energy wisely. Advanced users can leverage the automation architect to create email sequences and rules from simple prompts. This saves you up to an hour a day on email management tasks. 

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With the rise and rise of smart email, it’s natural to wonder if you should use ChatGPT for email writing. The answer will vary from one scenario to another, based on the level of personalization you need, your overall email management workload, and the time you want to spend writing emails. 

The average user spends 8 hours 42 minutes a week writing emails, but tools like ChatGPT and Gmelius can help reduce this significantly. 

Sign up for free (no credit card required). 

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