Gmail AI Triage in n8n: Draft Replies with OpenAI

Draft smarter Gmail replies automatically—powered by OpenAI inside n8n

Gmail AI Triage in n8n: Draft Replies with OpenAI watches your inbox for new unread emails, classifies each message with OpenAI, and either drafts a reply in the original thread or files the email with the right follow-up label—so your “inbox-to-action” workflow stays fast and organized.

What this workflow does

• Checks Gmail every minute for new unread messages using a Gmail trigger.
• Sends the email subject and snippet to OpenAI to generate:
  • a category,
  • a draft reply, and
  • a flag indicating whether the sender is waiting for an answer.
• When an answer is needed (“waiting for an answer” flag):
  • creates a Gmail draft reply addressed to the original sender, in the same thread.
  • labels the original message as YouDecide when OpenAI classifies it as “du”, otherwise labels it as Drafted.
• When no answer is needed:
  • labels the original Gmail message as Noise when OpenAI classifies it as “werbung”.
  • otherwise labels it as FYI.

Use cases

• Turn inbound customer questions into ready-to-review Gmail drafts without manual triage.
• Automatically separate “reply-required” messages from FYI and low-signal items.
• Support SaaS workflows where agents need categorized queues and consistent labeling.

Technical details

• n8n workflow using Gmail Trigger and Gmail actions.
• OpenAI integration via n8n-nodes-langchain-openai (select a model that can return JSON; the system message is already written).
• Uses label management with four Gmail labels: YouDecide, Drafted, FYI, Noise.
• Includes conditional logic (e.g., if) to choose reply vs. file-by-label paths.

Setup checklist

• Connect your Gmail OAuth2 account and select the same credential in the trigger and Gmail steps.
• Add OpenAI API credentials and adjust the four category definitions as needed.
• Create the required Gmail labels and update label IDs if they differ in your account.