How to Use Gmail in Basic HTML Mode
![]()
The Gmail web email client is very fancy, but some Gmail users may wish to use the much more simplified Basic HTML mode for Gmail. Basic HTML Gmail strips away the fancy actions, features, and functions as well as JavaScript from the default Gmail web view, turning Gmail.com into a much more simplified webmail experience.
The main advantage to using Gmail in Basic HTML mode is that it’s stripped down considerably and thus very fast loading with lower resource requirements, so if you’re on a lower bandwidth internet connection it can make using Gmail a better experience. Of course there are other reasons users may want to use Gmail in HTML mode as well, including for improved compatibility with specific web browsers, for using Gmail with notably older browsers or older operating systems, to simplify the interface appearance to be closer to old-fashioned Gmail, or to avoid JavaScript altogether, amongst many other reasons.
You can switch Gmail to Basic HTML view and back to Standard Gmail View at any time, this article will show you how to do that.















