Is a PDF made this way searchable?

Yes. Print to PDF keeps the text as text, so you can select it, copy it and search inside it. It isn't a screenshot. The same is true of the PDFs Quicktion produces, since both are rendered from the email's HTML rather than photographed.

Does the PDF include the attachments?

No. Printing captures the message body only. If an invoice was attached you have to download it separately, and nothing links the two afterwards except your own filing. This is the main reason people give up on doing it by hand once there are more than a handful of emails.

Can I save a whole Gmail label as PDFs at once?

Not with print. Google Takeout can export a label, but it hands you an .mbox archive, which is a mail file rather than a folder of readable PDFs. For an ongoing archive, a forwarding rule that saves each new email as it arrives is the practical route.

How do I stop the URL and date printing at the top of the page?

In the Chrome print dialog, open More settings and untick "Headers and footers". Safari has the same option under Show Details. Otherwise every page carries the date and a mail.google.com address across the top, which looks odd on anything you send to a client.

Can I do this on my phone?

Yes. In the Gmail app, open the message, tap the three dots on the message and choose Print. On Android pick "Save as PDF" as the printer; on iPhone tap the share icon in the print preview and choose Save to Files. Apple Mail on iPhone works the same way from the reply menu.

The free plan saves 25 emails a month to one destination and doesn't ask for a card. Pro is $12/month for 1,000 emails and unlimited destinations. Only successful saves count against the limit.

Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail

How to save an email as a PDF

Every email client can do it through the print dialog: open the message, choose Print, and set the destination to Save as PDF instead of a printer. The exact steps for each client are below, along with the parts that trip people up, like attachments not coming along.

The steps, per email client

All three routes go through the print dialog, which is why the PDF comes out looking like a printed page.

Gmail

Web browser

1Open the email you want to save.
2Click the three dots at the top right of the message, next to Reply, and choose Print. Use the printer icon above the thread instead if you want every message in the conversation in one file.
3In the print preview that opens, set Destination to Save as PDF.
4Click Save and pick where the file goes.

Outlook

Web, Windows and Mac

1Open the message. On the web, click the three dots at the top right and choose Print, then Print again in the preview.
2In the Outlook desktop app, go to File then Print.
3Choose Save as PDF in the destination list, or Microsoft Print to PDF on Windows.
4Save the file where you want it.

Apple Mail

Mac and iPhone

1On a Mac, open the message and choose File then Export as PDF.
2Older versions use File then Print, then the PDF dropdown at the bottom left of the dialog.
3On iPhone, open the message, tap the reply arrow and choose Print.
4Tap the share icon in the print preview and choose Save to Files.

Where print to PDF runs out

For one email it's the right tool. The problems show up when saving emails becomes something you do every week.

Attachments stay behind

Printing captures the message, not the invoice attached to it. You download that separately, name it yourself, and hope the two are still findable together in a year.

Unloaded images print as gaps

If your client blocked the sender's remote images, they aren't in the print view either, so the receipt arrives missing its logo and sometimes its layout.

Headers and footers come along

Chrome adds the date, page numbers and a mail.google.com URL to every page unless you untick Headers and footers in More settings first.

It's one email at a time

Six clicks per message is fine for one receipt. It stops being fine somewhere around the tenth, and there's no way to run it over a whole label after the fact.

Or let it happen without you

Quicktion gives you an address like receipts-x7k2m@in.quicktion.io pointed at a folder in your Google Drive. Anything you forward there is rendered to PDF and filed. Point a Gmail filter or an Outlook rule at it and the archive keeps itself.

Google Drive folder

2026-08-12_Your receipt from Acme Inc.

email.pdfthe message, rendered
email.htmlthe original HTML
receipt-8842.pdfattachment

The attachment is in the folder rather than lost in Downloads, and the raw HTML is kept alongside the PDF for the rare email whose layout doesn't survive rendering. Folder names come from a pattern you set, so they sort the way you file.

Frequently asked questions

Saving one email? Print it. Saving them all year?

Set up a forwarding address in two minutes and the next receipt files itself. 25 emails a month on the free plan, no credit card.

Using Thunderbird, or want the mobile steps in more detail? The long version of this guide covers more clients. Also useful: saving email attachments to Drive.