>>One downside to using CDO to send mail without Outlook is there's no record in any "Sent items" or similar. If you need that then COM automation of Outlook is one way to go. This requires 32-bit Outlook in order to work with VFP.
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>If the email server is gmail, does gmail keep a record of what has been sent?

A good question that's probably easier to test than to speculate on what the result might be. I don't use Gmail so I can't answer that directly.

Google seems to not like any "raw" access to their services i.e. anything outside their attempt at a "walled garden". Here's a link explaining what another app needs to go through to get integration with Google SMTP to work: https://kb.synology.com/en-global/SRM/tutorial/How_to_use_Gmail_SMTP_server_to_send_emails_for_SRM . I'm not sure sending via CDO would support everything needed for that to work.

But, assuming you can get CDO to work with Gmail SMTP, it's going to require authentication. I can think of 2 ways Gmail might use that:

1. Simply send the mail without involving the associated user mailbox (nothing in Sent items)

2. Involve the user mailbox and put a copy in its Sent items

My guess is the only way to know is to test. And test again 3 months from now: Google is renowned for everything being beta, and for changing how things like this might work without notice.