Gmail Rules & Filters: The Complete Guide

Gmail calls rules filters. To create rules in Gmail, you build a filter from the search bar, which takes about a minute. A filter has two halves, what to match (a sender, a subject, a word) and what to do with it (label it, archive it, forward it).

Quick start: create a Gmail rule in 5 steps

1. In Gmail on a computer, click Show search options (the slider icon) at the right of the search bar.
2. Enter what to match in From, Subject or Has the words.
3. Click Create filter.
4. Choose the actions, such as Apply the label, Skip the Inbox, Forward it or Star it.
5. Click Create filter again to save it.

Each filter lives in one person’s account. That’s fine for your own inbox, and it’s the reason teammates sharing a support@ address can’t use one filter to decide who answers an email. More on that near the end.

What are Gmail rules (and why Gmail calls them filters)?

Gmail rules and Gmail filters are the same feature. Outlook calls its version “rules,” so that’s what most people search for, but Gmail’s settings, buttons and help pages all say “filter.”

A filter is an instruction: when an email matches these criteria, take these actions. Gmail checks every new message against your filters as it arrives, so the work happens before you open your inbox.

People use them to file client mail under a label, keep newsletters out of the inbox, star email from the boss and forward invoices to accounting. Filters are one of the quickest wins on our list of Gmail productivity tips.

How to create a rule (filter) in Gmail

There are three ways to create a filter in Gmail, and they all end on the same two screens: criteria, then actions. Use a computer for all three. The Gmail app on Android and iPhone has no option for creating filters, though the filters you make on a computer still run on mail you read on your phone.

Method 1: From the search bar

This is the method to use when you’re building a rule from scratch.

1. Open Gmail in your browser.
2. Click Show search options at the right of the search bar.
3. Fill in your criteria: From, To, Subject, Has the words and so on.
4. Click Search to check which emails match (optional, but it catches typos).
5. Click Create filter at the bottom of the panel.
6. Choose your actions.
7. Tick Also apply filter to matching conversations if you want it to act on mail you already have.
8. Click Create filter.

Method 2: From an email (“Filter messages like these”)

This is the fastest way when the email you want to catch is in front of you, because Gmail fills in the sender for you.

1. Tick the box next to the email (or several from the same sender).
2. Click More (the three vertical dots) in the toolbar.
3. Click Filter messages like these.
4. Adjust the criteria if you need to, then click Create filter.
5. Choose your actions and click Create filter again.

Method 3: From Gmail settings

Use this one when you’re reviewing your existing filters and want to add another.

1. Click the gear icon, then See all settings.
2. Open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
3. Click Create a new filter below the list.
4. Enter your criteria, click Create filter, pick your actions and save.

Google’s own steps for all three are on its Gmail filters help page.

Gmail filter criteria and actions

Every Gmail filter is a set of criteria plus a set of actions. If you give a filter more than one criterion, an email has to match all of them, as the Gmail API filter guide puts it.

Once you click Create filter, Gmail shows the actions. You can tick as many as you like on one filter:

Three details catch people out. Apply the label takes one label per filter (the API guide states it plainly: “Only one user-defined label is allowed per filter”), so make a second filter if you need two. If you want to forward emails automatically in Gmail, the forwarding address has to be added and verified first. And Google’s help page notes that a forwarding filter only affects new messages, even if you tick “Also apply filter to matching conversations.” For setting up the labels themselves, see our guide to Gmail labels.

How to see your filters in Gmail

To see your filters in Gmail, click the gear icon at the top right, then See all settings, then the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab. Every filter in your account is listed there, each showing its criteria (“Matches”) and its actions (“Do this”), with Edit and Delete links beside it. Blocked senders sit in a separate list underneath.

There’s no shortcut to this page from the inbox, so it’s worth bookmarking if you tune your filters often. Gmail doesn’t show which filter acted on a particular email, so this list is also where you start when a rule misbehaves.

How to edit or delete a Gmail filter

To edit or delete a Gmail filter, open Settings → See all settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses and find the filter.

1. Click Edit next to it.
2. Change the criteria, then click Continue.
3. Change the actions.
4. Click Update filter.

To delete it, click Delete next to the filter and confirm with OK. To clear out several at once, tick their boxes and click Delete below the list.

Deleting a filter stops it acting on new mail. It doesn’t undo anything it already did, so labels stay applied and archived email stays archived until you change it yourself.

How to apply Gmail filters to existing emails

Filters normally act only on mail that arrives after you create them. To apply a Gmail filter to existing emails, tick Also apply filter to matching conversations on the actions screen before you click Create filter (or Update filter, when editing). Gmail runs the actions on every matching email already in your account. Forwarding is the exception: it never applies to old mail.

How to create a rule in Gmail to move emails to a folder

Gmail doesn’t have folders or a “move” action. Labels do the job of folders, and a filter can move an email into one with two actions together:

1. Create a filter with your criteria (Method 1 or 2 above).
2. Tick Apply the label and choose a label, or pick New label to make one.
3. Tick Skip the Inbox (Archive it).
4. Click Create filter.

The email now lands under that label in the left sidebar and never shows in your inbox. Leave out Skip the Inbox if you want the label and still want to see the email arrive. Our Gmail labels guide covers nesting and colors.

10 Gmail rules worth setting up

Each recipe gives the criteria and actions. Set them up once and they run on every new email.

1. Auto-label client or project emails

Criteria: From: @clientdomain.com Actions: Apply the label “Client: Acme”

One filter per client domain and every email lands under the right label without you touching it. If colleagues need the same structure, Gmail label sharing explains your options.

2. Skip the inbox for newsletters (and mark them read)

Criteria: Has the words: unsubscribe Actions: Skip the Inbox, Apply the label “Newsletters”, Mark as read

Almost every newsletter has “unsubscribe” in the footer. Marking them as read keeps them out of your unread count too, so you read them when you choose to.

3. Star email from your boss or key clients

Criteria: From: boss@company.com Actions: Star it, Always mark it as important, Never send it to Spam

Gmail’s importance guesses aren’t always right. This makes sure the people who matter always stand out.

4. Forward leads to your sales team

Criteria: Subject: pricing OR demo OR quote Actions: Forward it to sales@company.com, Apply the label “Leads”

Speed matters with a new enquiry. Verify the sales address in your forwarding settings first, or Gmail won’t let you pick it.

5. Archive social media notifications

Criteria: From: @linkedin.com OR @facebookmail.com Actions: Skip the Inbox, Apply the label “Social”

Worth a look once a day, not worth an interruption every hour.

6. Label emails with attachments

Criteria: Has attachment (tick the box) Actions: Apply the label “Has files”

Narrow it with filename:pdf in Has the words to catch only contracts and invoices.

7. Quiet a noisy sender who isn’t spam

Criteria: From: alerts@noisytool.com Actions: Skip the Inbox, Mark as read

Some senders aren’t spam, but you never need to see them arrive: monitoring alerts, a group you can’t leave, a vendor’s weekly digest. Archive them and they stay searchable. For a sender you never want to hear from, use Delete it instead.

8. Separate personal and work email

Criteria: From: mom@gmail.com OR friend@gmail.com Actions: Skip the Inbox, Apply the label “Personal”

If one account handles both, this keeps the line clear during work hours. To see them side by side instead, try multiple Gmail inboxes.

9. Flag support emails by urgent keywords

Criteria: Has the words: urgent OR broken OR "can't log in" OR refund Actions: Star it, Always mark it as important, Apply the label “Urgent”

Customers use predictable words when something is wrong. This rule only works in your own inbox, though. If your whole team reads support@, everyone gets their own star and nobody knows who is answering. At that point the team needs a simple ticketing system with rules that assign each email to a teammate.

10. Sort email sent to an alias

Criteria: To: you+billing@gmail.com Actions: Apply the label “Billing”

Gmail delivers you+anything@gmail.com to your inbox, so you can hand out a different Gmail alias for billing, signups and newsletters, then sort by the To address.

Search operators for Gmail filters

The Has the words box accepts Gmail’s search operators, which turns a basic filter into a precise one.

To create a filter in Gmail for multiple email addresses, put them all in the From field separated by OR: alice@example.com OR bob@example.com. Operators combine, so from:@client.com has:attachment filename:pdf catches only PDFs from one client.

Import and export Gmail filters

You can copy filters to another Gmail account with an export file.

1. Go to Settings → See all settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses.
2. Tick the filters you want and click Export. Gmail downloads an .xml file you can edit in any text editor.
3. In the other account, open the same tab and click Import filters.
4. Choose the file, click Open file, then Create filters.

The import is a snapshot. Change a filter in one account later and the other account’s copy stays as it was.

Why isn’t my Gmail filter working?

When a Gmail filter isn’t working, it’s almost always one of these:

• The criteria are too narrow. A typo in the address, or a subject the sender changed. Run the criteria as a search first.
• The email is a reply. Google’s filter help says a reply is only filtered if it meets the same criteria, and filters act on individual messages, not whole threads.
• The email arrived before the filter. Edit it, tick “Also apply filter to matching conversations” and click Update filter.
• Two filters disagree. If one archives and another stars, both apply, and the starred email disappears from your inbox anyway.
• The forwarding address isn’t verified, or you expected forwarding to work on old mail. It only forwards new messages.
• You’re on your phone. The Gmail app can’t create or edit filters. Use a computer.

If the list has grown long, tidy it. Google doesn’t publish a limit on the number of filters an account can have, so a long list isn’t the problem by itself, but overlapping filters are. Merge similar ones with OR.

Rules for a shared support@ address

Gmail filters belong to one person. On a shared support@ or sales@ address, each teammate keeps their own copy of every filter, so the same email gets starred in five inboxes, nobody owns it, and two people reply. Exporting filters to everyone doesn’t fix it either, because no Gmail filter can assign an email to a person. If you’re working out how to manage a support@ address in Gmail, that’s the gap to plan for.

Keeping adds shared rules and auto-assignment to Gmail. Keeping calls them workflows: one rule, set up once for the whole team, that runs on every new email in the mailbox.

• Assign an owner by sender, subject or keyword, or rotate new emails across the team with round robin.
• Tag and set priority so urgent emails rise to the top for everyone, not just for one person.
• Close or ignore the noise, such as thank-you replies and notifications that need no answer.

As of October 2026, Keeping’s Essentials plan includes 2 workflows, and Advanced adds unlimited workflows and round robin assignment. See pricing for current details, and our guide to ticket routing for how to plan the rules.

A round robin workflow in Keeping. Screenshot from the Round Robin assignment help guide.

Your team keeps working in Gmail, and the customer still gets an ordinary reply from the shared inbox for Gmail.

Need rules that work for your whole team?

Keeping adds shared rules to Gmail: assign every email to an owner, tag it and set priority automatically, so support@ never gets two replies.

Start a 14-day free trial

Frequently asked questions about Gmail rules