How to use Gmail with a custom domain

Adding your own domain to an email address comes with some real benefits. It instantly builds trust, and when you’re emailing clients or col­leagues, it looks a lot more pro­fes­sion­al than a standard @gmail.com address. In this guide, you’ll learn how to connect your Google account to a custom domain for a fully pro­fes­sion­al setup in just a few steps.

How to connect Gmail and a custom domain quick guide

1. Register a custom domain for Gmail and create an address.
2. Open the Gmail menu Accounts and Import.
3. Enter the new address and SMTP server in­for­ma­tion.
4. Verify the al­ter­na­tive Gmail address via the con­fir­ma­tion link.
5. Select the desired sender address from the drop-down menu when composing a message.

How to buy a custom domain for Gmail

First, you need a domain name that properly reflects your business. It could be that your preferred domain is already taken. If that’s the case, you can add a suffix to your name, such as “smith-carpets.com” or “carl-cleans-cars.com”. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, other domain endings can be used to describe specific topics well, such as .fitness, .shop, or .design, and thousands more.

Buying a domain from IONOS example

You can purchase your own domain with IONOS in just a few clicks. Go to the official IONOS website and select the menu item Pro­fes­sion­al Email Address under Email & Office. Click on See plans to view the available plans for this service.

The “Mail Basic 1” plan should cover most use cases just fine. Along with a free domain, you get a spam filter and a mailbox with plenty of storage to get your pro­fes­sion­al setup off the ground (as of May 2026).

After you’ve decided on a plan, continue to the next step to choose your domain name.

The avail­abil­i­ty of your preferred domain name will be shown in real time. Once you’ve found a domain that’s free, you can complete the purchase.

In your IONOS customer account, create the desired email address under the domain you just bought by going to the Email tab. Another window will open in which you simply enter your preferred username before “@your-domain.com”. It is advisable to separate first and last names with a period; you can combine double names with a hyphen.

You will then see a con­fir­ma­tion, some security notes, and further down the page, a link to in­struc­tions for setting up your email in various email clients. Be sure to record the assigned password so you can later access the mailbox via the IONOS web mailer or an email client and retrieve the con­fir­ma­tion for linking it with Gmail.

How to connect Gmail and a custom domain step by step

With your email domain fully set up, it’s time to configure your email address in your Gmail account. First, open the Google email service in your preferred browser and log in to your account.

To use your newly con­fig­ured email address, access the settings by clicking the gear icon. Then, select See all settings to open the required submenu. Look for the Accounts and Import section.

In the “Send mail as:” line, click on the Add another email address button. Gmail will then open a separate browser window where you can enter your desired name and the new email address under your own reg­is­tered Gmail domain. Then click on Next Step >>.

In the next step, you need to provide the necessary in­for­ma­tion for the SMTP server. The IONOS SMTP server address is smtp.ionos.com, and the outgoing port is 587. Enter your full (new) email address as the username. Use the password you created when setting up the email address. After entering all the details, click on Add Account >>.

You will need to confirm the accuracy of this in­for­ma­tion. To do this, check the email Google sent to the address you wish to link. This email includes a con­fir­ma­tion link that you must click to complete the setup. Once this step is finished, you will receive a con­fir­ma­tion message in Gmail.

When composing a new email in Gmail, you can now access a drop-down menu in the sender field (“From”). This menu will display all available sender addresses, including your new Gmail address under your custom domain.