When Gmail debuted 12 years ago it made a shift in how nosotros thought about email. At a time when the norm was Hotmail'south 2MB free storage, or using an Isp electronic mail address you were likely to lose at some point, the days of having to tightly manage your email storage are long gone.

Instead of deleting, the idea of archiving messages indefinitely became plausible. This has been helped past a make clean interface to go on a tidy inbox and powerful search capabilities, so y'all can notice and think one-time emails at will. Gmail search is also speedy which makes it applied, even if you don't keep your inbox at all organized.

For sake of brevity, I'll encompass a few of my favorite and most useful Gmail search operators and so give you lot the total list below with some examples.

First Things Showtime

If yous don't desire to remember any operators, clicking on the search box down pointer will bring upwardly a dialog with useful ways to search, covering typical queries using labels, appointment, recipients, and then on.

On the opposite of the spectrum, those who love keyboard shortcuts will certainly want to enter operators by hand. So make certain y'all accept Gmail keyboard shortcuts turned on (Shift + ' / ' shows the full list) and simply hit ' / ' (forwards slash) will bring focus on the search box.

Most Useful

Using quotes "search goes here" and the minus sign "-"

Similar to searching on Google, if you wrap your query effectually with quotes, it will make a literal search. Then yous can wait up an verbal cord like "a new hope". Conversely, adding a minus sign before a certain term or email address, volition remove those from your results. For instance, "star wars" -battlefront.

from: to: subject:

Run a standard search while adding who you sent or received an electronic mail from. This will narrow search results considerably, finer filtering results in a breeze. If it'due south someone in your address book, Gmail will aid matters further past autocompleting names which is handy.

Similarly, with subject area: you can ignore emails' content and search text in the bailiwick line merely.

has:attachment and filename:

If you're looking for a specific email nearly your "pineapple" project that had an attachment added to information technology, you can add "has:attachment" and y'all'll only get results with emails that accept your query term and attachments.

Or if you are looking for a item file you can search by filename. The filename: operator also works to expect up file types/extensions, then you lot can employ "pineapple filename:pdf" and it volition narrow things down for you lot.

size: and larger:

If you're running out of space (Gmail offers ~15GB of free storage these days), looking upwardly former emails that are larger than say, 10mb larger:10m will aid y'all finding those pesky emails with huge attachments you may no longer need, saving precious free inbox infinite in the process.

More than Options

is: starred/unread/read/chat

If you utilize Gmail'south star system to marker important letters, this will assistance narrowing things downwardly considerably. Or if you lot utilize Google Chat, searching only within chats, can be a lifesaver, For instance: "is:conversation Melissa".

before: and afterward:

Although a tad cumbersome to use versus picking a date from the search drop down menu. For very specific queries yous can use the yyyy/mm/dd format, to search within a certain fourth dimension frame.

For example, "after:2017/01/01 invoice" or "after:2012/01/01 earlier:2016/01/01"

For relative time queries, you lot can also utilise older_than: and newer_than: (too available from the drop downward search dialog).

in:anywhere

Gmail search ignores Trash and Spam folders by default, this operator overrides it and searches everywhere.

Using brackets () and OR

Although I rarely use these, they surely come up handy for advanced queries.

Brackets () let you grouping terms. For case, "subject:(star wars)" volition await for the complete term in the subject field line only, while trying to practise the aforementioned without brackets "subject field:star wars" would only look for the word 'star' in the subject and 'wars' everywhere else.

The OR operator (must be capital letter) works a niggling bit like programming. And then y'all can match multiple terms. For instance, a search for ii different senders: "from:paul OR from:chris"

In that location are a few more search operators that we haven't covered here on purpose, since the in a higher place will cover 98% of your needs.

five days, 5 killer tech tips is a new TechSpot monthly feature

On the 3rd week of every calendar month, we will publish 5 tech tips, 1 for each solar day of the week (Mon-Friday) about a given app, service, or platform.

This calendar week it's well-nigh uncovering keen Gmail usability tips and tricks.

  • Day i: How to Remotely Sign Out of Gmail on Multiple Devices
  • Solar day ii: Mastering Gmail Search
  • Day iii: Utilize Gmail Offline and Schedule Emails
  • Day four: Apply Gmail Filters to Automate your Inbox
  • Day 5: Getting Started with Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts