Must know these Gmail search hacks. Here are some of the best Gmail tips and tricks for the power user. Use these Gmail multiple search operators to enhance the Gmail search inbox capability.
Search operators you can use with Gmail
You can use words or symbols called search operators to filter your Gmail search results. You can also combine operators to filter your results even more.
How to use a search operator
- Go to Gmail.
- In the search box, type the search operator.
- from: Specify the sender Example: from:amy
- to: Specify a recipient Example: to:david
- cc: and bcc: Specify a recipient who received a copy Example: cc:david
- subject: Words in the subject line Example: subject:dinner
- OR or { } Messages that match multiple terms Example: from:amy OR from:david or Example: {from:amy from:david}
- – Remove messages from your results Example: dinner -movie
- AROUND Find messages with words near each other. Use the number to say how many words apart the words can be or Add quotes to find messages in which the word you put first stays first. Example: holiday AROUND 10 vacation or Example: “secret AROUND 25 birthday”
- label: Messages that have a certain label Example: label:friends
- has:attachment Messages that have an attachment Example: has:attachment
- has:drive or has:document or has:spreadsheet or has:presentation Messages that have a Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides attachment or link Example: has:drive
- has:youtube Messages that have a YouTube video Example: has:youtube
- list: Messages from a mailing list Example: list:info@example.com
- filename: Attachments with a certain name or file type Example: filename:pdf or Example: filename:homework.txt
- ” ” Search for an exact word or phrase Example: “dinner and movie tonight”
- ( ) Group multiple search terms together Example: subject:(dinner movie)
- in:anywhere Messages in any folder, including Spam and Trash Example: in:anywhere movie
- is: find messages marked as such is:unread, is:read, and is:important
- is:chat searches for chat logs.
- is:starred — Searches for starred messages. One can specify the color of a star or other mark using has: has:yellow-star returns messages with a yellow star. has:yellow-bang finds messages with a yellow exclamation mark. has:purple-question searches for messages with a purple question mark. has:orange-guillemet finds messages with two orange forward arrows.has:blue-info returns messages with a blue i
- label: Searches for messages assigned a label Example: label:toodoo-doll finds all messages labeled “toodoo doll.”
- has:userlabels Searches for emails that have any labels except those used by default and not including labels such as “inbox”, “trash,” and “spam”
- after: Finds messages sent on or after a date, which is typed as YYYY/MM/DD Example: after:2004/04/16 or Example: after:04/16/2004
- before: Searches for messages sent before a date Example: before:2004/18/04 or Example: before:04/18/2004
Note: When using numbers as part of your query, a space or a dash (-) will separate a number while a dot (.) will be a decimal.