diff --git a/src/apron_tools/providers/google/gmail/tools.py b/src/apron_tools/providers/google/gmail/tools.py
index e9914e0..ca1cf58 100644
--- a/src/apron_tools/providers/google/gmail/tools.py
+++ b/src/apron_tools/providers/google/gmail/tools.py
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import base64
-import binascii
 import contextlib
 from email.mime.text import MIMEText
 
@@ -58,6 +57,29 @@ def _headers(token: str, *, content_type: bool = False) -> dict[str, str]:
     return h
 
 
+def _decode_base64url(data: str) -> bytes:
+    """Decode Gmail base64url data, restoring the padding Gmail omits.
+
+    The Gmail API returns ``MessagePartBody.data`` and attachment data as
+    base64url that commonly drops the trailing ``=``, which
+    ``base64.urlsafe_b64decode`` rejects. Restoring it is a no-op on input
+    that is already padded. Decoding is strict: characters outside the
+    base64url alphabet are rejected rather than silently discarded, so
+    corrupt data surfaces as an error instead of truncated bytes.
+
+    Args:
+        data: The base64url-encoded string to decode, with or without padding.
+
+    Returns:
+        The decoded bytes.
+
+    Raises:
+        ValueError: If ``data`` cannot be decoded, such as an invalid length,
+            a character outside the base64url alphabet, or non-ASCII input.
+    """
+    return base64.b64decode(data + "=" * (-len(data) % 4), altchars=b"-_", validate=True)
+
+
 def _extract_header(headers: list[dict[str, str]], name: str) -> str:
     """Extract a single header value from a Gmail payload headers list."""
     for h in headers:
@@ -76,8 +98,8 @@ def _extract_body(payload: dict) -> str:
     body_data = payload.get("body", {}).get("data", "")
     if body_data:
         try:
-            return base64.urlsafe_b64decode(body_data).decode("utf-8")
-        except Exception:
+            return _decode_base64url(body_data).decode("utf-8")
+        except ValueError:
             return "(Could not decode email body)"
 
     parts = payload.get("parts", [])
@@ -89,11 +111,11 @@ def _extract_body(payload: dict) -> str:
         part_data = part.get("body", {}).get("data", "")
 
         if mime_type == "text/plain" and part_data:
-            with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
-                plain_text = base64.urlsafe_b64decode(part_data).decode("utf-8")
+            with contextlib.suppress(ValueError):
+                plain_text = _decode_base64url(part_data).decode("utf-8")
         elif mime_type == "text/html" and part_data:
-            with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
-                html_text = base64.urlsafe_b64decode(part_data).decode("utf-8")
+            with contextlib.suppress(ValueError):
+                html_text = _decode_base64url(part_data).decode("utf-8")
         elif part.get("parts"):
             nested = _extract_body(part)
             if nested and nested != "(No email body found)":
@@ -292,12 +314,9 @@ async def gmail_get_attachment(
     if not encoded:
         return GetAttachmentResult(success=False, error="Attachment contained no data.")
 
-    # Gmail returns base64url data that often omits trailing padding, which
-    # base64.urlsafe_b64decode rejects; restore it before decoding.
-    encoded += "=" * (-len(encoded) % 4)
     try:
-        raw = base64.urlsafe_b64decode(encoded)
-    except (binascii.Error, ValueError):
+        raw = _decode_base64url(encoded)
+    except ValueError:
         return GetAttachmentResult(success=False, error="Could not decode attachment data.")
 
     return GetAttachmentResult(
diff --git a/tests/providers/google/gmail/test_tools.py b/tests/providers/google/gmail/test_tools.py
index 9f9a622..61a7051 100644
--- a/tests/providers/google/gmail/test_tools.py
+++ b/tests/providers/google/gmail/test_tools.py
@@ -195,6 +195,172 @@ async def test_encodes_message_id_in_request_path(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -
 
         assert result.success is True
 
+    async def test_success_with_unpadded_single_part_body(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
+        # Gmail commonly returns MessagePartBody.data without trailing '=' padding.
+        body = "Hi Bob, following up on the thread."
+        padded = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(body.encode()).decode("ascii")
+        assert padded.endswith("="), "test payload must exercise padding removal"
+
+        message = _load_json("get_message_full.json")
+        message["payload"]["mimeType"] = "text/plain"
+        message["payload"]["body"] = {"size": len(body), "data": padded.rstrip("=")}
+        message["payload"].pop("parts")
+
+        httpx_mock.add_response(
+            url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001?format=full",
+            json=message,
+        )
+
+        result = await gmail_read_email(
+            ReadEmailParams(message_id="msg-001"),
+            token=_TOKEN,
+        )
+
+        assert result.success is True
+        assert result.body == body
+
+    async def test_success_with_unpadded_multipart_body(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
+        body = "Hi Bob, following up on the thread."
+        padded = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(body.encode()).decode("ascii")
+        assert padded.endswith("="), "test payload must exercise padding removal"
+
+        message = _load_json("get_message_full.json")
+        message["payload"]["parts"][0]["body"] = {
+            "size": len(body),
+            "data": padded.rstrip("="),
+        }
+
+        httpx_mock.add_response(
+            url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001?format=full",
+            json=message,
+        )
+
+        result = await gmail_read_email(
+            ReadEmailParams(message_id="msg-001"),
+            token=_TOKEN,
+        )
+
+        assert result.success is True
+        assert result.body == body
+
+    async def test_success_with_unpadded_html_body(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
+        # Unlike the other unpadded regression tests above, this payload requires
+        # two padding characters ('==') rather than just one.
+        body = "<p>Hi Bob, following up.</p>"
+        padded = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(body.encode()).decode("ascii")
+        assert padded.endswith("=="), "test payload must require two padding characters"
+
+        message = _load_json("get_message_full.json")
+        message["payload"]["parts"][0] = {
+            "mimeType": "text/html",
+            "body": {"size": len(body), "data": padded.rstrip("=")},
+        }
+
+        httpx_mock.add_response(
+            url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001?format=full",
+            json=message,
+        )
+
+        result = await gmail_read_email(
+            ReadEmailParams(message_id="msg-001"),
+            token=_TOKEN,
+        )
+
+        assert result.success is True
+        assert result.body == body
+
+    async def test_single_part_body_with_undecodable_base64_returns_placeholder(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
+        # An invalid base64url length (a single data character) raises
+        # binascii.Error, a ValueError subclass, which the single-part path
+        # catches and reports as a decode failure.
+        message = _load_json("get_message_full.json")
+        message["payload"]["mimeType"] = "text/plain"
+        message["payload"]["body"] = {"size": 1, "data": "A"}
+        message["payload"].pop("parts")
+
+        httpx_mock.add_response(
+            url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001?format=full",
+            json=message,
+        )
+
+        result = await gmail_read_email(
+            ReadEmailParams(message_id="msg-001"),
+            token=_TOKEN,
+        )
+
+        assert result.success is True
+        assert result.body == "(Could not decode email body)"
+
+    async def test_single_part_body_with_invalid_base64_alphabet_returns_placeholder(
+        self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock
+    ) -> None:
+        # A complete valid Base64 block ("YWJj" -> "abc") followed by a stray
+        # character outside the base64url alphabet. The lenient decoder would
+        # discard the stray character and still decode "abc"; strict validation
+        # rejects it. This isolates the alphabet check rather than tripping the
+        # padding check the way a shorter invalid payload would.
+        message = _load_json("get_message_full.json")
+        message["payload"]["mimeType"] = "text/plain"
+        message["payload"]["body"] = {"size": 3, "data": "YWJj*"}
+        message["payload"].pop("parts")
+
+        httpx_mock.add_response(
+            url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001?format=full",
+            json=message,
+        )
+
+        result = await gmail_read_email(
+            ReadEmailParams(message_id="msg-001"),
+            token=_TOKEN,
+        )
+
+        assert result.success is True
+        assert result.body == "(Could not decode email body)"
+
+    async def test_single_part_body_with_non_utf8_bytes_returns_placeholder(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
+        # Valid base64url that decodes to bytes that are not valid UTF-8 raises
+        # UnicodeDecodeError, also a ValueError subclass, on the single-part path.
+        non_utf8 = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(b"\xff\xfe").decode("ascii")
+
+        message = _load_json("get_message_full.json")
+        message["payload"]["mimeType"] = "text/plain"
+        message["payload"]["body"] = {"size": 2, "data": non_utf8}
+        message["payload"].pop("parts")
+
+        httpx_mock.add_response(
+            url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001?format=full",
+            json=message,
+        )
+
+        result = await gmail_read_email(
+            ReadEmailParams(message_id="msg-001"),
+            token=_TOKEN,
+        )
+
+        assert result.success is True
+        assert result.body == "(Could not decode email body)"
+
+    async def test_multipart_body_with_non_utf8_bytes_falls_through(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
+        # On the multipart path an undecodable part is suppressed, leaving no
+        # usable body, so extraction falls through to the sentinel.
+        non_utf8 = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(b"\xff\xfe").decode("ascii")
+
+        message = _load_json("get_message_full.json")
+        message["payload"]["parts"][0]["body"] = {"size": 2, "data": non_utf8}
+
+        httpx_mock.add_response(
+            url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001?format=full",
+            json=message,
+        )
+
+        result = await gmail_read_email(
+            ReadEmailParams(message_id="msg-001"),
+            token=_TOKEN,
+        )
+
+        assert result.success is True
+        assert result.body == "(No email body found)"
+
     async def test_api_error(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
         httpx_mock.add_response(status_code=404, text="Not Found")
 
@@ -891,6 +1057,28 @@ async def test_success_with_unpadded_data(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
         assert result.data == raw
         assert result.size == len(raw)
 
+    async def test_success_with_unpadded_data_requiring_double_padding(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
+        # Unlike test_success_with_unpadded_data above, which only strips one
+        # padding character, this payload requires two ('==').
+        raw = b"unpadded pdf report bytes"
+        padded = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(raw).decode("ascii")
+        assert padded.endswith("=="), "test payload must require two padding characters"
+        unpadded = padded.rstrip("=")
+
+        httpx_mock.add_response(
+            url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001/attachments/att-006",
+            json={"attachmentId": "att-006", "size": len(raw), "data": unpadded},
+        )
+
+        result = await gmail_get_attachment(
+            GetAttachmentParams(message_id="msg-001", attachment_id="att-006"),
+            token=_TOKEN,
+        )
+
+        assert result.success is True
+        assert result.data == raw
+        assert result.size == len(raw)
+
     async def test_non_json_response(self, httpx_mock: HTTPXMock) -> None:
         httpx_mock.add_response(
             url=f"{_GMAIL_BASE}/messages/msg-001/attachments/att-005",