How to Auto-create HubSpot Contacts from Gmail with N8n

Canvas > + > Trigger Nodes > Gmail

Set up Gmail trigger node

Configure N8n to monitor your Gmail inbox for new messages. This will fire the workflow whenever a new email arrives.

1. 1Click the '+' button to add a new node
2. 2Select 'Gmail' from the triggers list
3. 3Choose 'Message Received' as the trigger event
4. 4Connect your Gmail account using OAuth
5. 5Set 'labelIds' to 'INBOX' to monitor all incoming emails

Canvas > + > Regular Nodes > HubSpot

Add HubSpot lookup node

Check if the sender already exists in HubSpot to prevent duplicates. This search runs before creating any new contact.

1. 1Add a new node and select 'HubSpot'
2. 2Choose 'Contact' as the resource
3. 3Set operation to 'Get' then 'Get by email'
4. 4Map the email field to {{$node['Gmail'].json['payload']['headers'].find(h => h.name === 'From').value}}
5. 5Enable 'Continue on Fail' in node settings

Canvas > + > Logic > IF

Add IF condition node

Create a branch that only creates contacts for new email addresses. This prevents overwriting existing contact data.

1. 1Add an IF node after the HubSpot lookup
2. 2Set condition to 'Is Empty'
3. 3Connect the HubSpot node output to the IF input
4. 4Map the condition value to {{$node['HubSpot'].json['id']}}
5. 5Label the 'true' branch as 'Create Contact'

Canvas > + > Core Nodes > Code

Parse sender email address

Extract the clean email address and sender name from Gmail's header format. Gmail returns 'Name <[email protected]>' which needs parsing.

1. 1Add a Code node on the 'true' branch of the IF
2. 2Set language to JavaScript
3. 3Paste email parsing code to extract name and email
4. 4Test with a sample Gmail message
5. 5Verify the output shows separate 'email' and 'name' fields

Canvas > + > Core Nodes > Code

Add company domain extraction

Extract the company domain from the email address to populate HubSpot's company field. Most B2B workflows need this data.

1. 1Add another Code node after email parsing
2. 2Write JavaScript to extract domain from email address
3. 3Map domain to a 'company' field
4. 4Handle common email providers (gmail.com, outlook.com) by setting company to null
5. 5Test with both business and personal email addresses

Canvas > + > Regular Nodes > HubSpot

Create HubSpot contact node

Add the new contact to HubSpot with all parsed data. This is where the actual contact creation happens.

1. 1Add another HubSpot node after the parsing
2. 2Select 'Contact' resource and 'Create' operation
3. 3Map 'email' field to parsed email address
4. 4Map 'firstname' and 'lastname' from parsed name
5. 5Map 'company' field to extracted domain
6. 6Set 'lifecyclestage' to 'lead'

HubSpot Node > Additional Properties

Add contact source tracking

Tag the contact with source information so you know it came from email automation. This helps with attribution and lead scoring.

1. 1In the same HubSpot create node, scroll to additional properties
2. 2Add 'hs_lead_status' and set to 'NEW'
3. 3Add 'lead_source' custom property and set to 'Email Automation'
4. 4Map 'first_conversion_date' to current timestamp
5. 5Add any other custom tracking fields your team uses

Workflow Settings > Error Workflow

Set up error handling

Configure what happens when the workflow fails. Email processing needs reliable error handling to avoid losing leads.

1. 1Click on the workflow settings gear icon
2. 2Enable 'Error Workflow' and create a new error workflow
3. 3Add a Gmail node to send error notifications to your team
4. 4Set error retry to 3 attempts with 5-minute delays
5. 5Save and activate the error workflow

Executions > View Details

Test with real email

Send a test email from an address not in HubSpot to verify end-to-end functionality. This confirms the whole workflow works.

1. 1Activate the workflow by clicking the toggle switch
2. 2Send an email to your Gmail from a new address
3. 3Check the execution log in N8n for successful completion
4. 4Verify the new contact appears in HubSpot within 2-3 minutes
5. 5Send another email from the same address to test duplicate prevention

Canvas > Logic > IF

Configure email filtering

Add filters to process only relevant emails and ignore newsletters or automated messages. This prevents junk contacts in your CRM.

1. 1Add an IF node right after the Gmail trigger
2. 2Set condition to exclude emails with 'noreply' or 'no-reply' in sender address
3. 3Add another condition to exclude emails from known domains like 'mailchimp.com'
4. 4Create a whitelist condition for emails containing specific keywords in subject
5. 5Connect the filter to your existing HubSpot lookup node

Drop this into an n8n Code node.

// Parse complex email formats with fallback
const fromHeader = $node['Gmail'].json['payload']['headers'].find(h => h.name === 'From').value;
const emailMatch = fromHeader.match(/<(.+?)>/) || [null, fromHeader];

// Parse complex email formats with fallback
const fromHeader = $node['Gmail'].json['payload']['headers'].find(h => h.name === 'From').value;
const emailMatch = fromHeader.match(/<(.+?)>/) || [null, fromHeader];
const email = emailMatch[1].toLowerCase().trim();
const name = fromHeader.replace(/<.+?>/, '').replace(/["\']/g, '').trim();
const [firstName, ...lastNameParts] = name.split(' ');
return {
  email,
  firstName: firstName || email.split('@')[0],
  lastName: lastNameParts.join(' ') || null,
  company: email.includes('@gmail.') ? null : email.split('@')[1]
};