How to Search and Find Emails Fast in Gmail

Quick and easy-to-follow guide for Gmail users

The quickest way to find an email is to use the Search mail bar on top.

How to search for emails in Gmail step-by-step with images

Step 1

There’s a decent amount of search operators you can use to make your search as specific as possible.

You can click the little arrow on the right to make searching simpler and Show search options.

Gmail search operators to narrow down the scope of your search

This menu pops up, allowing you to narrow down the scope of the search.

From lets you specify the sending email address.
To lets you specify the receiving email address.
Use the Subject field to look for something in the subject.
Use the Has the words field to look for specific words anywhere in the email.
Doesn’t have excludes emails with specific content from the search.
Size lets you search for messages of a specific size.
Date within will look for messages sent or received in the time frame you select.
Search lets you choose which labels to search.
Check Has attachment to search for messages with attachments.
Check Don’t include chats to exclude chat messages. By default, the search checks both chat messages and emails.

Click Search at the bottom when ready.

Our article on search operators is coming soon. For now, you can find the complete list in Google’s Help article here https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7190?hl=en.

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