Alumni Email FAQs
I Want To Know if I Have an Alumni Email
Any Stanford alum or current student with three quarters-plus status (meaning you’ve completed a minimum of three academic quarters as a matriculated, degree-seeking student in a degree-granting program at Stanford) is eligible for a Stanford Alumni email account. You are allowed 5 GB of storage with your Alumni account, across all Google apps, including Drive and Gmail.
To get an alumni email account, you must have a Stanford Pass account and be a Stanford alum with three quarters-plus status. To activate your alumni email, visit My Account, where you will see a dedicated 'Alumni Email' tile. You can activate your email account from there if you don't have one, or see your existing alumni email if you do. GSB alums will have the ability to set up GSB and/or Stanford Alumni email accounts.
GSB and Stanford Alumni email accounts are completely separate. However, you log in to each using your Stanford Pass username and password. You are allowed 15 GB of storage with your GSB alumni account, which includes Email and Drive.
I Want To Learn How To Access My Email
Access your alumni email account through the alumni.stanford.edu website (and clicking the "check email" button).
You can also access it via mobile device or your desktop (e.g., via Outlook or Apple Mail). Only desktop access requires the creation of a separate Google Apps password. To create a Google Apps password please contact Stanford Customer Service.
If you try to access your alumni email through gmail.com, you must log in with username@alumni.stanford.edu (even if you use username@stanfordalumni.org). You will then be redirected to the Stanford Pass login page.
If you have any issues or receive any errors, reach out to Stanford Customer Service.
Yes, make sure you log out of Gmail separately. In addition, closing the alumni email browser/tab without signing out will not log you out. If you don't log out, others who use your computer can access your email.
To sign out of your Gmail account, select the initial of your first name in the upper corner of the page and click "Sign out."
Your account will remain accessible to you as long as you comply with the Terms of Use, which may be changed or amended periodically. Stanford reserves the right to discontinue an alum's email access if the alum uses the account in a way that, at the sole discretion of Stanford, is deemed inappropriate as defined by the Code of Conduct. Stanford reserves the right to terminate the webmail service at any time.
Stanford does not view or access any content from your alumni email account unless explicitly requested to do so by the account owner to provide technical assistance or in response to an automatic account suspension by Google or a compulsory legal process mandate.
I Need Help With My Email Account
Stanford's IT staff is responsible for setting up and administering alumni email. Stanford Customer Service continues to be the first point of contact for any problems alums may encounter with the service.
Stanford Alumni email, powered by Google, provides strong security and privacy protections. Google is contractually obligated to protect your confidential information and not release it to other parties, absent compulsory legal processes. Learn more about Google’s privacy protections.
In order to provide essential core features for Stanford Alumni email, Google runs automated scanning and indexing processes like spam filtering, anti-virus protection, and malware detection. Google systems also scan content to make sure Apps work better for users, enabling functionality like search in Gmail or Google Docs. These processes are completely automated and do not involve humans.
To change your Stanford Alumni email, contact Stanford Customer Service.
Google no longer supports third-party apps that require users to sign in with only a username and password (basic authentication). Apps must not connect using OAuth, which entails signing in through Google’s sign-in screen rather than storing a password in the app. If your app still uses a stored password, it will report that your username and/or password is incorrect. POP and IMAP were not discontinued and will continue to work normally with any app that signs in via OAuth. For setup instructions, see this article.
I Want To Change My Email Settings
Yes, Gmail lets you set up forwarding of incoming mail to another address. Learn how to set up forwarding.
To delete a forward setting, select the "gear" in the upper right-hand corner of your mail screen. Select the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab. Select the radio button that says "Disable forwarding."
If you have multiple forward settings, you will find the remainder under the Settings tab called "Filters.” A filter that was set for forwarding will say the following:
Matches: from:(*)
Do this: Forward to emailaddress@domain
To remove the filter, click "Delete" to the left of the filter.
Google has a robust Contact Manager that helps you easily create new contacts. After manually adding contacts, you can then include them on your “Frequently Contacted” list. Learn how to add, move, or import contacts.
Folders are called "Labels" in Gmail. Labels are Google's way of categorizing information, and they display to the left of the subject line of a message, in addition to the left side of a Gmail page. You can assign multiple labels to a single message and color-code them for easy identification. Learn how to create a label.
Gmail filters allow you to manage the flow of incoming messages. Using filters, you can automatically label, archive, delete, star or forward your mail, or even keep it out of Spam—all based on a combination of keywords, sender, recipients and more. Learn how to create filters.
An email alias is one or more additional email names that direct mail to your primary email address, and they can be useful when you have to provide an email address and prefer not to give out your primary address. Google aliases may contain letters (A–Z), numbers (0–9), dashes (-), underscores (_), and periods (.), but other special characters are not allowed.
If you would like to create a new alias, contact Stanford Customer Service.
To view existing aliases, click on the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of your alumni email, select “See all settings” and select the "Accounts" tab.
A signature is a standard message automatically inserted at the bottom of every message you send. Google allows for a single signature. Learn how to create a signature.
The time zone for Stanford Google Apps is set to Pacific Time Zone. If you want to change the time zone, you will have to go to your Google Calendar. Click the gear icon at the top of any Google Calendar page, then click Settings and select the General tab. In the Country section, select your country. In the Time zone section, select your time zone. When you navigate away from the page, your changes will save automatically.
You can set up a vacation response in your Gmail settings that will automatically reply to anyone who emails you. Learn how to create a vacation auto-reply.
A preview pane allows you to read mail right next to your list of conversations. Although preview panes are not a standard feature in Google, you'll be happy to know that there is a way to enable them. Click on the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of your alumni email, select “See all settings” and select the "Inbox" tab. Scroll down the page to Reading pane and select "Enable reading pane". Save changes at the bottom of the page.
You can toggle between @alumni.stanford.edu and @stanfordalumni.org variants in the dropdown menu in 'From' when composing a new message. You can also select a default sender in settings under 'Accounts.'
Stanford uses Google Workspace for Education. Google does not allow users to log in to a consumer Google product using the email address they use in Google Workspace for Education. If you try to log in, you will see a message saying you need to associate your account with a different email address. You will be given three options: (1) create a new Gmail address, (2) associate a different email address with this account (e.g., username@yahoo.com), or (3) continue to log in with a temporary password assigned by Google.
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I Want To Learn Why My Alumni Email Is Different
Your personal Gmail account is completely separate from your alumni email account. You are allowed 5GB of storage with your Alumni email account.
Effective January 8, 2027, Stanford alumni accounts will be capped at 5 GB. This shift from our former storage cap of 15GB was necessary as Google eliminated free storage for education accounts and began charging institutions, such as alumni associations. Alums exceeding the 5 GB cap will be unable to send/receive email or change/add files until they free up storage space by deleting or moving files off the account.
You can review your total storage footprint to see which items are consuming your storage. To learn about how to manage and reduce your account storage, visit the alumni account storage resources page.
Effective January 8, 2027, if your account’s total storage usage exceeds the 5 GB limit, you will lose your data. For guidance on how to manage your data and reduce your storage footprint, visit the alumni account storage resources page.
Google does not allow you to merge separate Google Accounts. You can, however, set up one account to forward to another account. Learn how to set up forwarding.
Unfortunately, this is not possible. To avoid seeing the "Switch Accounts" prompt that signs you out of one of your accounts, we suggest using one browser for your personal Google account and a different browser for your alumni email.