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How Einstein Activity Capture Works
Einstein Activity Capture captures or syncs email and event data, including participants, from the connected Microsoft or Google account and stores it in Salesforce. Understand at a high-level the relationship between your Microsoft or Google account data and how it connects to and powers your Salesforce data and features.
Required Editions
| Available in: Lightning Experience |
| Available with Einstein Activity Capture Standard in Sales in Starter, Pro Suite, Professional, and Enterprise Editions |
| Available with Unlimited Edition, Einstein 1 Sales Edition, and Agentforce 1 Edition |
| Available with Einstein for Sales, which is included in Einstein 1 Sales Edition and available for an extra cost in Enterprise and Unlimited Editions |
| Available with Sales Engagement, which is included with Sales in Performance and Unlimited Editions, and available for an extra cost in Professional and Enterprise Editions |
| Available with Revenue Intelligence, which is available for an extra cost in Enterprise and Unlimited Editions |
Email Messages
Messages sent and received from your email account are captured and saved to Salesforce as email message and task records. Reports and other Salesforce tools, such as flows and triggers, can access email data. The data syncs automatically to the activity timeline of the related account, contact, lead, opportunity, contract, and quote records. Emails sent from within Salesforce are routed through and appear in the connected email account.
When Inbox or Sales Engagement is turned on, email data is used to generate engagement data and you see that along side your messages. When Agentforce Lead Nurturing is turned on, agents use email messages for understanding customer relationships and to inform their recommendations. Email data is also used to create email insights.
Salesforce admins can exclude your company’s internal email domain (and any sensitive internal aliases) so private emails between employees aren’t captured to Salesforce records. See Considerations for Excluding Data from Einstein Activity Capture.
If a Salesforce admin set up Einstein Activity Capture before Summer ’25 or if Sync Email as Salesforce Activity isn’t turned on, email data isn’t saved as email message records. The data appears on activity timelines, but it isn’t available to reports or other platform tools. If you’re using a version of Einstein Activity Capture setup before Summer ’25, we recommend updating and migrating your email to Sync Email as Salesforce Activity.
Deep dive: Emails and Einstein Activity Capture and How Email Activity Relates to Other Salesforce Records.
Calendar Events
Calendars sync between Salesforce and a Microsoft or Google calendar. In Salesforce, the meeting data is saved in event records and appears in My Events in the Salesforce calendar. Einstein Activity Capture links the data to the related contact and lead records and adds it to the activity timeline. Platform tools, such as standard reports, can also access it.
An admin can set up event syncing in different ways.
- Microsoft or Google to Salesforce (recommended) Manage and schedule meetings in your Microsoft or Google calendar. This is the fastest way to sync calendar data. Changes that you make in the Salesforce calendar don't sync back to Microsoft or Google. Einstein Activity Capture sends updates continuously but not in real time. Events typically sync within 5 minutes, though can take up to several hours.
- Salesforce to Microsoft or Google Manage meetings from either your connected account or Salesforce. Changes that you make on the Salesforce calendar typically take 15 minutes or more to sync back to Microsoft or Google. Don't use this for time-sensitive calendar changes.
- Both Directions Make meeting changes in both the external calendar and Salesforce. Sync conflicts can occur, and Einstein Activity Capture gives preference to changes made in a Microsoft or Google calendar.
Deep dive: Events and Einstein Activity Capture
Contacts
Contacts sync in both directions between Salesforce and Microsoft or Google. When you first connect your external account to Salesforce, Einstein Activity Capture scans your account and creates records for contacts that aren't in Salesforce. When you send an email message or add a calendar event, Einstein Activity Capture scans the activity for new data and creates or updates contact records. Reports and other Salesforce tools have access to synced data on contact records.
Use Salesforce as your source of truth for contacts. Sync from Salesforce to your account, not from your account to Salesforce. This prevents users from editing information in their personal accounts and then overwriting the shared Salesforce contact records.
Deep dive: Contacts and Einstein Activity Capture
Data Storage
Data storage is defined retention period that varies by license and edition. After your retention period ends, Salesforce removes the data from the activity timeline. Captured data is also tied to a user's connected account, so deactivating a user or removing their connection can affect the activities visible on related records.
Deep dive: Data Retention and Deletion
