Gmail Filters: A Step-by-Step Guide With 12 Useful Examples

Gmail filters are saved searches with actions attached: every new message that matches the search is labeled, archived, starred, forwarded or deleted before you see it. Google’s Gmail Help describes building them on a computer, either from the search box or from a message already in your inbox.¹ A filter that catches the right mail and nothing else comes from the same five moves, in this order:

1. Build a search that finds the mail
2. Test the search before you save it
3. Click Create filter and choose the actions
4. Decide whether to apply it to mail you already have
5. Edit, back up and review your filters

To decide which mail deserves a filter in the first place, read how email filters and rules sort an inbox, which also compares Gmail with Outlook. A filter is the simplest case of the trigger-and-action pattern in workflow automation for beginners. Menu names below are from Gmail’s English interface on the web.

How do I create a filter in Gmail?

To create a Gmail filter on a computer, open Gmail, open the search bar’s Show search options panel, enter your criteria, click Create filter, tick the actions you want and click Create filter again, according to Google’s Gmail Help. A second route starts from a message: tick its box, open the More menu and choose Filter messages like these.¹

Both routes end on the same two screens: one that describes the mail and one that says what happens to it. Getting the first screen right matters more, because every action you tick later applies to whatever that description catches.

1. Build a search that finds the mail

The search options panel has fields such as From and Subject; type an address into From and the filter will act on mail from that sender.² Any query written in Gmail’s search syntax also works as a filter, Google’s developer guide says, so you can type operators straight into the search box instead of using the fields.³

That is also how to filter emails by sender in Gmail. Put the full address in From for one sender, or the @ sign followed by the company’s domain, such as @example.com, to catch everyone who writes from that domain, as a How-To Geek guide describes.⁴ A weekly sales report from reports@example.com needs nothing more than that one field.

2. Test the search before you save it

Google’s help suggests running the search first, with the Search button, and only then choosing Create filter. Read the results: they are the existing messages your filter would act on.¹ A search for the word “invoice” in the subject will find suppliers’ invoices, and also the client asking why an invoice is late. Narrowing the search to your suppliers’ addresses keeps the client’s question out of the filter.

One detail of Gmail’s search can surprise you. Gmail matches individual messages, so a search that excludes something can still show a whole conversation if one message in it qualifies.⁵

3. Click Create filter and choose the actions

The second screen is a list of tick boxes. Keio University’s Gmail guide lists them as skipping the inbox (archiving), marking as read, starring, applying a label, forwarding, deleting, keeping out of spam, marking as important or not, and applying an inbox category, and you can tick several at once.² Google’s developer guide sets one limit on that list: a filter can apply only one of your own labels.³

For most automated mail, the pair to tick is Apply the label plus Skip the Inbox. The message never interrupts you, yet it is one click away under its label in the sidebar.

4. Decide whether to apply it to mail you already have

Can Gmail filters apply to existing emails? Yes: when you create a filter, a box offers to apply it to the matching conversations already in your mail, Keio University’s guide says; leave it unticked and only new mail is touched.² Forwarding is the exception: Google’s help says a filter that forwards mail affects only new messages.¹

Myth

A new Gmail filter only ever sorts mail that arrives after you make it.

Fact

A tick box applies a new filter to matching conversations you already have. Forwarding is the exception: it affects only new messages.

Tick the box for labels and archiving, which tidy old mail and lose nothing. Leave it unticked if the filter deletes, because hundreds of old messages can go to the trash at once.

5. Edit, back up and review your filters

To edit or delete a filter, open Settings, choose See all settings and go to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab. The same page has Export, which saves the filters you tick as an .xml file you can open in a text editor, and Import filters, which loads such a file back into Gmail.¹ Export before a big cleanup or before moving to a new Google account.

Google’s developer documentation caps the number of filters at 1,000 per account; the Gmail Help pages we checked do not mention a limit.⁶ Long before that point, old filters for senders who stopped writing make the list hard to read, so step 5 ends with a review, described below.

Can you create Gmail filters on the mobile app?

Not according to Google’s help pages, checked on 7 November 2026. Gmail Help gives filter steps only for a computer, and the Android and iPhone versions of the page show the same computer steps.¹ The Android help for labels, by contrast, describes applying, moving and creating labels inside the Gmail app.⁷

Google’s developer documentation describes filters as rules set for the account that act on each incoming message, so a filter made on a laptop keeps sorting new mail whatever device you read it on, and its labels show up in the app.³ A delivery notice that slipped past your Receipts filter can still get its label in the app; fixing the filter’s search waits until you are at a computer. So build and edit filters on a laptop or desktop, and use the phone for the odd stray message.

Search operators that make Gmail filters precise

Gmail’s search operators are short words and symbols, such as from:, list: and a minus sign, that narrow a search, and Google’s help says they can be combined.⁵ Because a filter is a search, they decide how precise it is, and six groups of them do most of the work.

Quotes and the minus sign do the most to tighten a filter. A filter on the bare word invoice matches it anywhere in a message; subject:"invoice attached" matches only that phrase in the subject. A minus sign carves out exceptions, such as a sender’s security notices inside a filter that archives the rest of their mail. Add one operator at a time and run the search after each, so you can see which term removed which messages.

12 Gmail filters you can copy

The twelve filters below are built from the operators in the table; replace the example addresses with your own and run each search before saving it. Most pair a label with Skip the Inbox so nothing is lost, and the calendar search comes from Google’s own help.

1. Newsletters. Search from:(news@example.com OR digest@example.org); apply the label Reading and Skip the Inbox.
2. A mailing list. Search list:announce@example.com; apply the label Lists and Skip the Inbox.
3. Receipts. Search subject:(receipt OR invoice OR "order confirmation"); apply the label Receipts and Skip the Inbox.
4. Routine calendar replies. Search header:X-Google-Calendar-Notification:rsvpAccepted OR header:X-Google-Calendar-Notification:rsvpTentative; Skip the Inbox.
5. Invites from other calendars. Search filename:ics; apply the label Invites.
6. Automated alerts. Search from:(noreply OR no-reply) -subject:(security OR password); apply the label Alerts, Skip the Inbox and Mark as read.
7. Your manager. Search from:manager@yourcompany.com; Star it and Always mark as important.
8. Mail addressed to you. Search to:me; Always mark as important.
9. Large attachments. Search larger:10M; apply the label Large files, which makes them easy to find when storage runs short.
10. A project. Search "Project Atlas" OR from:@clientco.com; apply the label Atlas and leave the mail in the inbox.
11. Social notifications. Search category:social; Skip the Inbox and Mark as read.
12. A trusted sender. Search from:school@example.org; Never send it to Spam.

1. Search: describe the mail with fields or operators such as from:, list: or subject:
2. Test: click Search and read the results, looking for anything the filter should leave alone
3. Act: tick the actions, usually Apply the label and Skip the Inbox, then Create filter

The calendar filter (4) uses a hidden header that Google Calendar adds to its emails; Google’s Calendar Help lists one search token per kind of notice, from new invitations to declined room bookings, and suggests archiving routine replies while labeling declines that carry a note.⁸ It works only for mail sent by Google Calendar. Filter 5 is our own suggestion for other calendar systems: if their invitations arrive with an .ics calendar file attached, a filename search catches them, though it may also catch booking confirmations that carry one, so test it first.

The alerts filter (6) leaves out security and password mail on purpose, our own precaution: a sign-in warning can come from a no-reply address too, and it is automated mail you should see at once. Filter 8 has a limit of its own: to:me matches any message with you on the To line, including ones sent to several people, and none of the documented operators tests for mail sent to you alone.⁵

The filter for social notifications (11) needs inbox categories switched on, as the operator table notes. Filter 12 follows Google’s own advice for a sender whose mail keeps landing in spam: put the address in From and tick Never send it to Spam.⁹

Label and skip the inbox, then check after a month

A label keeps a filtered message searchable, while a deleting filter sends it to the trash, where Google’s help says messages are permanently deleted after 30 days. So route mail with a label and Skip the Inbox, and keep deleting for senders you have checked for a few weeks. Google’s own checklist for missing mail tells you to look for filters that delete or skip the inbox.¹¹

The second habit, a review after a month, fits a 2019 study of how people write email rules. Researchers at MIT found that many rules their participants wanted were already possible in their usual email client, and some participants found such rules hard to get right.

The study

Limited evidence

Why people skip rules their mail app supports: an MIT need-finding study, 2019

Twelve engineering students wrote small rules for their own inboxes on a platform the team built, then were interviewed. More than half of their rules could already have been built in their usual email client. Asked why they had not done it, some said proper rules were hard to write; one described a sender-and-mark-as-read rule that did not always work. The authors concluded that people need better ways to debug and test automations.¹²

The sample is small and unusually technical, and the students were writing code, not Gmail filters, so it says more about rule-writing in general than about Gmail. Still, the trouble participants described was a rule that did not behave as intended, and testing with Search and a later check are there to catch that.

A month after you set up your filters, open each label once and scan for mail that should have reached you, such as a colleague’s question caught by a receipts filter. Then open Filters and Blocked Addresses, remove the filters for senders who have stopped writing, and export the rest as a backup.

Your first Gmail filters

• Write the search with an operator such as from: or list:
• Click Search and read the results before saving
• Choose Apply the label and Skip the Inbox
• Tick the box to apply it to existing mail, unless it deletes
• Keep security and sign-in alerts out of archiving filters
• Put a filter review in my calendar for one month from now
• Export my filters after the review

The bottom line

Gmail filters work best as labels with Skip the Inbox, built at a computer from a search whose results you have read. Pick the two or three senders that interrupt you most, copy the matching filters from the list, and set a reminder to open each label in a month.