15 Gmail Filter Recipes That Clean Your Inbox

A Gmail filter is a saved rule. It watches for mail that matches your criteria, then acts on it — labels, archives, stars, or deletes — automatically. You already know filters exist. This guide skips the theory and hands you 15 ready-made recipes to paste in today, then shows how to build your own.

Quick answer: A Gmail filter is a saved rule. It matches mail by search criteria, then applies an action such as a label, archive, star, or delete. Click the filter icon in the search bar, type your criteria, and click Create filter. Then pick the action and save. Tick “Also apply filter to matching conversations” to run the rule on existing mail.

The 30-second answer

A Gmail filter has two parts: search criteria and an automatic action. Open the filter icon in the search bar. Type your criteria. Click Create filter. Then pick an action — apply a label, skip the inbox, star, or delete.

15 Gmail filter recipes

Here are 15 filters that do real work. Each shows the exact criteria to type and the action to set. Copy the criteria into the filter window, then choose the matching action.

Tame newsletters and promotions

Bulk mail is the biggest source of inbox noise. These filters move it out of the way before you ever see it.

1. Auto-label one newsletter. Criteria: list:news@example.com. Action: apply a label named Newsletters and tick Skip the Inbox. The list: operator takes a mailing-list address, not a wildcard — copy the address from the newsletter’s List-Unsubscribe line or its From field, and add one filter per list you want filed away.

2. Silence one pushy sender. Criteria: from:promo@retailer.com. Action: apply a label and Skip the Inbox, or Delete it if you never open them. Swap in the address that floods you.

3. Mute the promotions tab. Criteria: category:promotions. Action: Skip the Inbox and Mark as read. Sale emails stay searchable but stop nagging you with a bold count.

Organize receipts and orders

Purchase records are worth keeping but clutter the inbox. Label them on arrival and find any one in seconds.

4. Corral receipts and invoices. Criteria: subject:(receipt OR invoice OR order OR payment). Action: apply a label named Receipts. Every purchase record lands in one place for tax time.

5. Track shipping updates. Criteria: subject:(shipped OR tracking OR delivery OR dispatched). Action: apply a label named Shipping. Follow every parcel without hunting through the inbox.

6. Group travel bookings. Criteria: subject:(itinerary OR reservation OR booking OR boarding). Action: apply a label named Travel and Star it. Flights and hotels stay together before a trip.

Prioritize the people who matter

Some senders must never slip past you. These filters keep them visible and out of spam.

7. Star mail from your boss. Criteria: from:boss@company.com. Action: Star it and Never send it to Spam. Important senders stay visible and safe.

8. Protect key senders from spam. Criteria: from:accounts@yourbank.com. Action: Never send it to Spam and apply a label. Bank alerts never vanish into the spam folder.

9. Auto-archive noisy notifications. Criteria: from:(no-reply@ OR notifications@). Action: Skip the Inbox and Mark as read. App alerts stay searchable but leave the inbox quiet.

Route mail by alias and project

Filters can sort mail by who sent it or which address received it. Use that to separate your work streams.

10. Sort mail sent to a plus alias. Criteria: to:you+shopping@gmail.com. Action: apply a label named Shopping. Gmail delivers any address with a +tag, so give each signup its own alias and filter it.

11. Label a client or project. Criteria: from:(@clientdomain.com). Action: apply a label named Client. Every message from one company threads under one label.

12. Forward a specific type of mail. Criteria: from:leads@yoursite.com. Action: Forward it to a teammate. New leads reach the right person on their own. Add the address in Settings and confirm the verification link or numeric code first. Gmail hides the address in filter options until verification is complete.

Corral heavy attachments

Large files quietly fill your 15 GB of storage. Label them first, then clean them out in one pass.

13. Label your biggest attachments. Criteria: has:attachment larger:10M. Action: apply a label named Big attachments. Every heavy email gathers under one label, ready for a later cleanup. Note that larger: measures the whole message, not one attachment.

14. Catch large PDFs. Criteria: filename:pdf larger:5M. Action: apply a label named Big PDFs. Reports and scans that eat storage stay in view.

15. Flag heavy mail for review. Criteria: has:attachment larger:5M. Action: apply a label named Review. Open the label once a month and clear what you no longer need.

How do I create a filter in Gmail?

Build any recipe above in six steps.

1. Click the filter icon at the right of the Gmail search bar.
2. Type your criteria in the fields, for example has:attachment larger:10M.
3. Click Create filter at the bottom of the window.
4. Tick the actions you want, such as Apply the label or Skip the Inbox.
5. Choose or create the label if your action needs one.
6. Click Create filter again to save the rule.

How to apply a filter to existing emails

By default, a filter acts only on new mail. To sweep mail already in your inbox, tick one extra box.

1. Build the filter and reach the actions step.
2. Tick Also apply filter to matching conversations at the bottom.
3. Click Create filter.

Gmail then runs the rule across every matching conversation at once. Use it to label a backlog of receipts, or to archive months of old notifications in a single pass.

One action is excluded. A filter that forwards mail applies only to new messages, even when you tick the box. Gmail never re-sends mail you already received.

Filtering with operators: OR, wildcards, and multiple addresses

Filters accept the same operators as Gmail search. Combine them to match exactly the mail you mean.

Two notes on operators. Gmail has no true wildcard for partial words, so invoic* does not work — list the variants with OR or { } instead. To filter several of your own addresses, group them: to:(you@gmail.com OR you@work.com).

How to edit, disable, or delete a filter

Manage every filter from one screen.

1. Click the gear icon, then See all settings.
2. Open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
3. Find the filter in the list.
4. Click edit to change its criteria or actions, or delete to remove it.

Gmail has no pause switch. To stop a filter without losing it, edit the filter and clear its actions, or delete it and rebuild it later. For the labels a filter created, see how to delete labels in Gmail without losing the mail underneath.

What a has:attachment filter can and can’t do

A has:attachment filter is powerful for one thing: it gathers attachment-heavy mail under a label so you can find it. That is where its power over attachments ends.

A filter acts on the whole email. It can label, star, archive, or delete a message. It cannot reach inside and remove a single attachment, and it cannot save or download the files. Gmail has no rule that separates a file from the email that carries it. To save the attachments after you label the mail, use Save Bulk Gmail Attachments.

So use a filter as step one. Label your heavy mail with has:attachment larger:10M, then act on that label:

• To see exactly which emails eat your storage, find the large attachments in Gmail and sort by size.
• To reclaim the space, bulk delete those emails in Gmail after you save anything worth keeping.
• If your account already sits at the ceiling, the Gmail storage full guide walks through every place the gigabytes hide.

The filter does the sorting. A separate cleanup does the freeing.

Keep your filters working

Filters age well, but your inbox changes. Review your list every few months. Delete rules you no longer need, and tighten any that catch too much or too little. A short filter list that you trust beats a long one you forgot. Start with two or three recipes above, watch them run for a week, then add more.