PCMag’s nine-task comparison favored Siri for searching Gmail: its task verdicts were seven wins for Siri, one for Gemini and one tie. That tally describes PCMag’s results with one Gmail account, two different phones and its chosen prompts—not a standardized ranking. PCMag’s comparison also shows where Gemini was quicker and where Siri returned links to the messages behind its answers.
How PCMag tested Siri and Gemini
PCMag used the same personal Gmail account, configured with its default settings, for both assistants. Siri ran on an iPhone 17 Pro Max and Gemini on a Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. The reviewer asked questions by voice over Wi-Fi in a home office, with three basic questions, three searches for details in older emails and three multi-step requests.
For each prompt, PCMag started a stopwatch after the reviewer finished speaking and stopped it when the final line of text appeared. Because the assistants ran on different phones, the results reflect those particular setups as well as the assistants.
Results across the nine Gmail tasks
| Task | Siri, as reported by PCMag | Gemini, as reported by PCMag |
| Delta flight destination | Found New Orleans and linked the flight-receipt emails in 4 seconds. | Correctly found New Orleans in about 4 seconds; no source-email links. |
| TSA PreCheck deadline | Answered in 5 seconds, added the consequence of missing the deadline and linked the email. | Gave a concise answer in 11 seconds; no source-email link. |
| Last Instacart order | Found the granola purchase, order summary, delivery date, item prices and receipt email in 9 seconds. | Looked for the Instacart app rather than the inbox answer and could not find it in 11 seconds. |
| Nothing Phone refund ticket | Returned the correct ticket number in 14 seconds. | Returned the correct ticket number in 7 seconds. |
| Wedding venue contract issuer | Correctly identified “Uliana” in 5 seconds. | Correctly identified “Uliana” in 8 seconds. |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra purchase after a trade-in | Returned the correct $713.64 amount in 10 seconds and showed an itemized breakdown. | Returned the same correct amount in 8 seconds. |
| Hotel near an August resort stay | Recalled an all-inclusive resort stay in Mexico and recommended three nearby Cancun hotels in 11 seconds. | Recommended three hotels in 21 seconds. |
| August Uber Eats spending | Reported about $76 in 6 seconds. | Missed one of three receipts and calculated the total incorrectly in 10 seconds. |
| Cheapest sprinter-van quote | Identified the lowest quote and displayed a comparison chart in 6 seconds. | Said it lacked access to the shopping history and suggested reviewing the inbox manually. |
The $713.64 was the account holder’s reported 2024 purchase amount for a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra after trading in a Galaxy S22 Ultra, not a current retail price. PCMag said the email showed the trade-in as completed on April 11, 2024.
Where the difference mattered
Siri’s clearest advantage in PCMag’s comparison was traceability: it linked supporting emails throughout the tasks. Those links give readers a way to open the message behind an answer. Gemini, meanwhile, was faster on the refund-ticket and purchase-price prompts, and both assistants returned the correct answers in those cases.
The broader task results favored Siri, particularly when a request involved finding and combining inbox details. Gemini missed a receipt in the spending task and did not retrieve the Instacart answer or the van quote from the inbox in PCMag’s run. That makes the seven-to-one tally useful as a summary of this particular set of tasks, not a promise about every account or prompt.
Connecting Gmail to Gemini
Google’s Gemini Apps Help describes connecting the Google Workspace app through Gemini’s Connected Apps settings, using the same Google account and meeting the applicable activity and Gmail smart-feature settings. Prompts can mention Gmail or use “@Gmail.” See Google’s Workspace connection instructions and Google content-app settings.
That Gmail connection is different from personalized Google Search. Google’s Search Help describes Search personalization as context for generated search results; Gemini’s Gmail connector is the route for retrieving email content. Google explains the Search distinction.
What Apple says Siri AI can do with email
Apple says Siri AI is designed to surface relevant information from emails and messages and use email content as part of a multi-step task. That announced capability is separate from PCMag’s task-level observations. Apple’s September 14, 2026 announcement described on-device models and Private Cloud Compute for requests that use Apple’s cloud processing; Apple says personal data handled by Private Cloud Compute is not stored or accessible to Apple.
In the same announcement, Apple said Siri AI’s beta rollout in English would accompany its 2027 software releases and listed French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish for the following month. Apple also said the feature would initially be unavailable on iOS, iPadOS and watchOS in the European Union.
