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Censorship Monitor · China Last test

Does Gmail work in China?

No. China has blocked Gmail since 2014: the website from June 2014, and access through mail apps such as Outlook and Apple Mail from December 2014.

Today’s test · mail.google.com

Blocked

mail.google.com fails to open on China Unicom and China Mobile, twice, while it opens from other countries.

Last confirmed
Seen in our tests since
30 Sep 2026 (may be older)
How it fails
The connection never completes
Tested on
China Unicom and China Mobile
Test Gmail yourself › Everything we test in China

The official status

Gmail in China

Almost all Google services were disrupted in China in June 2014, before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, and Gmail’s website was blocked.

Mail apps such as Outlook and Apple Mail kept working until 26 December 2014, when that route was cut too and Gmail traffic from China fell to almost nothing. Google said nothing was wrong on its end, and China’s foreign ministry said it didn’t know about the block.

Independent tests from inside China still found Gmail blocked in October 2026.

What people use instead

Chinese email services such as Tencent’s QQ Mail and NetEase’s 163 Mail.

Get past a block

How to use Gmail in China

A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so a block on Gmail in China no longer applies. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic, and you should set it up before you travel.

Only government-approved VPNs are legal in China, and most foreign VPNs are blocked.

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Around the world

Where else is Gmail blocked?

No other country we test blocks Gmail right now.

It opens in 23 of the 23 other countries with a current result.

China

What else is blocked in China?

52 of the other 66 sites and apps we test are blocked in China.

All 67 results for China ›

History

Changes for Gmail in China

No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.

Method

How we test

  • Every day, test machines on China Unicom and China Mobile home connections open mail.google.com.
  • A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
  • A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
  • Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
  • We test the website over home broadband. The app, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.

Full method ›

Questions

Gmail in China: questions

Is Gmail Banned in China?

Yes. China has blocked Gmail since 2014: the website from June 2014, and access through mail apps such as Outlook and Apple Mail from December 2014.

Can I Get Gmail in China Through Outlook or Apple Mail?

No. Mail apps kept working until late December 2014, when that route was cut too.

Why Is Gmail Blocked in China?

China has never said. Gmail went down with almost all Google services in June 2014, before the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, and its last route, through mail apps, was cut in December 2014.

Free to use

Cite this result

Quote or republish today’s result with a link to this page: the monitor’s data is under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0).

Source: vpnAlert Censorship Monitor, https://vpnalert.com/tools/censorship-monitor/china/gmail/

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