Google I/O 2026: Gmail’s fancy AI Inbox is coming to more users

Since the beginning of the year, Google has been toiling hard to make our Gmail inboxes clutter-free. Back in January, it first previewed “AI Inbox,” which, just like its non-AI namesake, is designed to help you master your inbox without missing any key conversations, even though the focus has now shifted from “zero inbox” to focusing on what matters. Over the past months, AI Inbox was released to the highest-paying Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US, but it’s now rolling out to more people. And with this expansion, Google is bringing new features.

At the I/o 2026 keynote, Google announced new additions making their way to Gmail’s AI Inbox. These new features include creating personalized replies that are drafted using helpful context from multiple email threads. In addition, AI Inbox can dig through your emails and make a specific document easily accessible right within the to-dos shown on top of the page.

Along with this, you can now initiate actions, such as drafting a response, viewing documents, or updating your Google Calendar entries right from the list of to-dos using dedicated buttons. And besides this, you mark entire threads as read or remove unhelpful suggestions from within the AI Inbox.

Google says the people who’ve used AI Inbox “love it” so far, and that’s enough grounds to make it more widely available. Alongside AI Ultra subscribers, AI Inbox will now also be available to Google AI Plus and AI Pro subscribers in the US. That’s something we previously predicted as well when Google started rolling it out to users in beta. 

At the time of writing, Google hasn’t clarified whether the features will differ across tiers, but we’ll update the article once we know more. Availability in other regions hasn’t been discussed either.

Previously, Google had said all the information is sourced only from your Gmail and apps that share information with it via email. That means, it won’t directly access your Google Docs, Calendar, or other Google Workspace apps.

While the availability for Google AI subscribers across different tiers is coming soon, Google hasn’t revealed whether the feature will also come to mobile apps anytime soon. However, it has confirmed a new feature called Gmail Live, where you will be able to run an instance similar to Gemini Live, limited to your inbox items, get a lowdown based on your received email, and draft responses without actually typing a word.