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Auto-Translate Incoming Gmail Emails to English with OpenAI GPT-3.5

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Created by: David Olusola || dae221

David Olusola

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Last update 8 days ago

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🌍 Auto-Translate Incoming Emails to English

This workflow automatically detects the language of every new Gmail email and translates non-English messages into English. The translated email is forwarded to your inbox with a clear "[TRANSLATED]" subject tag, and a label is added for easy filtering.


⚙️ How It Works

  1. Gmail New Email Trigger

    • Listens for new unread emails in your Gmail inbox.
    • Captures subject, sender, body text, and metadata.
  2. Normalize Email Data

    • A Code node extracts the raw content from the email.
    • Strips HTML, normalizes plain text, and prepares data for language detection.
  3. Detect Language (OpenAI)

    • Uses OpenAI GPT-3.5-turbo to detect the email’s language.
    • If the language is English, workflow ends.
    • If not, continues to translation.
  4. Translate to English

    • OpenAI translates the email body into clear English.
  5. Prepare Translated Email

    • Builds a forwarded email containing:
      • Original sender & subject
      • Received date
      • Message ID
      • Translated content (with formatting)
  6. Send Translated Email

    • A Gmail node sends the translated message to your inbox.
    • Subject is prefixed with [TRANSLATED] for easy recognition.
  7. Add "Translated Emails" Label

    • Automatically tags the original message in Gmail with "Translated Emails".
    • Helps you filter all auto-translated emails later.

🛠️ Setup Steps

1. Gmail Label

  • In Gmail, create a new label:
    Translated Emails
  • Or update the label in the final Gmail node.

2. OpenAI API Key

  • Get your key from platform.openai.com.
  • Add credentials in n8n.
  • Uses GPT-3.5-turbo (low cost, reliable).

3. Gmail OAuth

  • In n8n, connect your Gmail account.
  • Requires read/modify permissions.

📧 Example Output

Subject: [TRANSLATED] Meeting Proposal

Body:
🌍 AUTO-TRANSLATED EMAIL (Original Language: ES)
📧 Original From: [email protected]
📅 Received: 2025-08-29
🔗 Message ID: 123456abcdef

═══════════════════════════════════════
TRANSLATED CONTENT:

Hello, I wanted to ask if we can schedule the meeting for next week.

═══════════════════════════════════════

✨ This email was automatically translated by n8n workflow.


⚡ With this workflow, every foreign-language email is instantly translated and delivered to you in English — no manual copy-pasting into Google Translate again.