August 22, 2022  |   

Do you need to send a fax but you don't have a fax machine? You can easily send a fax using your Gmail account. The document will be sent like an email but received as an ordinary fax in your recipient's fax machine. Here's how to send a fax from Gmail today in three simple steps.

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How to Send a Fax From Gmail: Simple and Easy

1. Choose an Email Fax Service Provider

First, you'll need to sign up with a good email fax provider like aFax. These services will convert your digital email into analog form, which can then be sent along the Public Switched Telephone Network like an ordinary fax. Some of them offer a free trial during which you can send many faxes at no cost. Others offer free email faxes for documents under a certain number of pages in length.

With one of these companies, you're effectively using their telephone line to send the fax, so you don't need to pay for your own landline. Your recipient will receive the fax on their fax machine, and it will look just like an ordinary fax. Because the document is encrypted and delivered via telephone line, not the internet, it's just as secure as any fax sent from a fax machine.

2. Connect Your Gmail to the Email Fax Provider

Next, you'll need to connect your Gmail account to the email fax service. With most of them, this is as simple as clicking once to confirm the connection. Or, you might have to type your Gmail address into an email address box and save it.  

3. Compose and Send Your Fax in Gmail

Now, you're ready to send your first Gmail fax. Simply compose a new email in Gmail. Attach the document you wish to send. Whatever you enter into the email subject line and contents will appear on an elegant cover letter: the first page of your printed fax at the other end.

To use your recipient's fax number, you'll be given a special email suffix by your email fax provider.

How Your Email Fax Is Delivered

Your message will go to the email fax provider, which will instantly turn it into an analog fax message and deliver the document to the designated fax number. Your recipient will either receive it on their fax machine or in their inbox if they're also using an email fax service.

What About the Confirmation Notice?

When the fax is received at the other end, you'll be sent a confirmation of receipt notice. This will come directly into your email inbox and to your email fax provider's account. You no longer have to hover around a fax machine waiting for the confirmation notice to print out.

Why Fax Is Sometimes Preferred to Regular Email

The most common reason business owners seek out email fax is because they have dealings with an organization that only accepts fax for certain kinds of important documents. Companies in the healthcare, legal and financial industries still prefer to fax much of the time. As do companies in some fax-friendly countries like Japan and Germany. Government organizations like the CIA also use fax for sensitive information.

The reasons for preferring fax to email vary. Many people perceive fax to be more secure, and when emails are unencrypted that is largely true. Others are simply hesitant to adopt modern technology. Whatever the reason, if you find yourself doing business with someone who prefers fax, it's now extremely easy to accommodate their wishes without the need to buy a fax machine.

Send your first email fax with ease today. Test Drive Our #1 Recommended Choice!