September 22, 2022  |   

If you don't have a fax machine, but you need to send a fax, there's no need to worry. You can easily send a fax from Gmail when you subscribe to an online fax service that will turn your email into a virtual fax machine. This process can take less than 10 minutes and save you money in the long run.

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How to Fax From Gmail in Five Easy Steps

1. Register With an Online Fax Service

The first step in turning your email address into a virtual fax machine is registering with an online fax service. You can choose the fax service you want based on a free trial or the cost of monthly subscriptions. If you are a small business owner, you may also want to consider an online fax service that provides other communication tools you can use to streamline your business operations.

When it comes to the cost of an online fax service, a monthly subscription is usually between $20 and $30. Although this seems like an investment, when you compare the cost of sending a fax at a store such as FedEx or UPS, individual pages can cost up to two dollars. This means that even sending 10 pages is the cost of your total monthly subscription fee for an online fax service.

2. Compose a New Email Message

Once you are registered with an online fax service, you will be given a digital fax number that will turn your Gmail account into a virtual fax machine. When you're ready to send a fax, all you need to do is compose a new email message. In the subject line, you can put the general subject of your fax document you can use the body of the email as a fax cover page.

3. Enter the Recipient's Fax Number

When you compose your fax email, instead of placing the recipient's email address in the “send to” field, you will place the recipient's fax number. Because you are using an online fax service with a digital fax number, using the address field for a fax number will work the same way as putting a fax number in a traditional fax machine.

4. Attach Documents

Next, you will need to attach the documents you want to fax. Your online fax service will likely convert any document into a PDF file to make for cleaner data transmission. However, it's easier to convert text files into PDF, which means you should focus on sending text-based files such as Google documents or Microsoft Word documents.

You cannot fax picture files, such as JPEGs or PNG files. Although your document can contain pictures, your digital fax service is unable to transmit picture-only files. When you attach files to your fax email, you can pull the documents from the local storage on your device or cloud storage.

5. Send and Wait for Confirmation

The final step is to send your email fax and wait for confirmation. Just like a traditional fax machine, many online fax services offer a confirmation so that you can be confident that your fax was received. Usually, you will receive a confirmation of a successful fax several minutes after sending your fax email.

The process of signing up for an online fax service and using your email account as a virtual fax machine can take less than 10 minutes. Sending a virtual fax is very similar to sending an email, but instead of inputting an email address, you will input a fax number.

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