Gmail templates: how to set them up, and where they run out

Gmail has had reusable templates for years — they are just switched off by default and hidden behind a three-dot menu inside the compose window. Turning them on takes about two minutes. Finding out what they cannot do takes about a week, so here is that part up front too.

By Rex (Kuan Hsiung Chen) · Updated 30 August 2026

Turning them on

Templates are a Gmail setting, not an add-on, and they are off until you enable them. They used to be called Canned Responses, which is why older instructions use that name.

1. In Gmail on the web, click the gear icon at the top right, then See all settings.
2. Open the Advanced tab, set Templates to Enable, and click Save Changes. Gmail reloads itself.
3. Click Compose and type the message you want to reuse. The subject line is saved with it.
4. In the compose window, open the three-dot “More options” menu at the bottom right → Templates → Save draft as template → Save as new template.
5. To use it later: in any compose or reply window, the same three-dot menu → Templates → click it under Insert template.

To update one, insert it, edit the text, then go back to Save draft as template and choose the existing template name to overwrite it instead of creating a new one.

The five limits people hit

1. There is no keyboard shortcut

This is the big one, and it has no workaround inside Gmail. Every single insertion is a mouse trip: click the three dots, hover Templates, wait for the submenu, find the name, click. Four interactions to place text you have already written. If you insert templates a dozen times a day, this is where the saved time goes back out.

2. Templates are static text

There are no variables. No {{recipient}}, no date, no order number. Which means the templates that would help most — the ones with a name and a specific detail in them — are exactly the ones you have to hand-edit after inserting. You end up either leaving awkward blanks in the saved copy or retyping the personal half every time.

3. It is Gmail, and only Gmail

The moment the conversation moves to LinkedIn, a support console, a forum, a web form, or Outlook, the templates are gone. For most people the same handful of stock answers is needed in three or four different places, and Gmail's feature covers exactly one of them.

4. Fifty templates, and no folders

Gmail caps saved templates at 50. Fine personally; tight for a support workflow. There is also no grouping or search within the menu — it is one flat alphabetical list, so the list itself becomes the bottleneck well before you reach the cap.

5. Templates cannot help with the non-repeating half

This is the structural one. A template only pays off for messages you send repeatedly in near-identical form. Most inboxes are not shaped like that: there is a stack of near-identical messages, and a much longer tail of ones that are each a little different. Templates do nothing for the tail, and the tail is usually what makes the afternoon disappear.

What to do about each one

Limits 1 to 4 are all "the feature works, the ergonomics don't", and a browser extension fixes that class of problem — it can put templates behind a keystroke, add variables, and work on every site instead of one. Limit 5 is different in kind: no template system solves it, because the text does not exist yet. That needs generation.

How Keyjot handles it

Keyjot is a Chrome extension built around exactly these five gaps. One keystroke — ⌘ ; on macOS, Ctrl ; on Windows and Linux, and rebindable if it collides with something — opens a command window beside your cursor. Then:

• Number keys instead of a menu. 1–9 insert your saved templates. No mouse.
• Variables. {{recipient}} and {{order_no}}-style slots are detected automatically and asked for at insert time rather than left as blanks to find.
• Every site, not just Gmail. It works in standard inputs, textareas, and rich-text fields — Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, support consoles, forums.
• Unlimited templates. No cap, and they never consume tokens.
• The long tail. The same window can draft a reply from the message you are answering plus one line of intent, wrap it in your saved greeting and sign-off, and switch between formal, friendly, short, and decline.

Pricing is a one-time $3.99 access pass including 100 AI reply tokens, one per generated reply; templates and hotkeys are unlimited and unmetered. Message text, generated drafts, saved templates, and key points are excluded from analytics — the privacy policy has the full detail.