Classify Gmail emails with GPT-4o mini and send Telegram notifications

Gmail AI Email Classifier & Notifier

Since Gmail inboxes can quickly become cluttered, this workflow provides an automated AI-based email classification system. It listens for new emails, categorizes them using an AI classifier, applies Gmail labels, and sends you a Telegram notification with a quick summary.

If you often miss urgent client messages or struggle with sorting work vs. promotions, this workflow ensures you never overlook important emails.

Use case: Especially useful for professionals who receive a high volume of mixed emails (clients, work, promotions). The workflow automatically labels and notifies you of new emails based on their category.

How It Works

1. Trigger Input

   • The workflow starts with the Gmail Trigger node, which listens for new incoming emails.
   • By default, it polls every minute, but you can adjust the polling frequency.
   • Email metadata (from, subject, body) is passed downstream.

   Example JSON input:

   {
     "from": "[email protected]",
     "subject": "Urgent project deadline",
     "text": "Please review the attached contract ASAP"
   }
   

2. Classify Email (AI)

   • The Classification Agent (powered by OpenAI via LangChain) receives the email data.

   • It sorts the email into one of four categories:

     • High Priority – urgent, time-sensitive
     • Work Related – general work emails
     • Promotions – newsletters, offers, sales
     • Other – uncategorized emails

   • The classifier uses a system prompt to ensure output is returned in JSON format for downstream processing.

3. Apply Gmail Labels

   • Based on classification, the workflow applies the corresponding Gmail label:

     • High Priority → “Important + Starred”
     • Work Related → “Work” (custom Gmail label)
     • Promotions → “Promotions” (custom Gmail label)

   • Each label must already exist in Gmail for the operation to work.

4. Generate Notification

   • The AI Agent (notification assistant) takes the classified email and rewrites it into a short, casual notification.

   • Example notification:

     [High Priority] New email from [email protected]  
     Subject: Urgent project deadline  
     "Please review the attached contract ASAP"
     

5. Send to Telegram

   • The Telegram node sends the generated notification to your personal chat ID.
   • Requires a Telegram bot created with @BotFather and your chat ID configured.

How to Use

1. Import this workflow into n8n.
2. Set up Gmail OAuth2 credentials and connect your Gmail account.
3. Create Gmail labels: High Priority, Work Related, Promotions.
4. Set up a Telegram bot in @BotFather and copy your chatId into the node.
5. Run the workflow — every new email will now be classified, labeled, and notified.

Requirements

• n8n Gmail Trigger with Gmail OAuth2 credentials
• OpenAI API key configured for LangChain nodes
• Telegram bot created via @BotFather with your chat ID
• Existing Gmail labels (Work, Promotions, etc.)

Customizing This Workflow

You can extend it by:

• Adding more categories – e.g., “Finance,” “Personal,” or “Spam.”
• Changing the notification channel – send to Slack, Discord, or SMS instead of Telegram.
• Adjusting classification rules – edit the system prompt for finer-grained AI sorting.
• Changing polling frequency – set Gmail Trigger to every 5 minutes instead of every minute.
• Expanding extracted fields – include attachments, links, or CC addresses in the notification.