You can use categories in Gmail to reduce clutter and focus on emails that matter to you. When you use the “Default” inbox type, Gmail automatically sorts your emails into these categories:
- Primary: Emails from people you know and messages that don’t appear in other tabs.
- Social: Messages from social networks and media-sharing sites.
- Promotions: Deals, offers, and other promotional emails.
- Updates: Automated confirmations, notifications, statements, and reminders that may not need immediate attention.
- Forums: Messages from online groups, discussion boards, and mailing lists.
Choose which categories to show
Important: You can only choose from the current categories. You can't create your own categories.- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top right, click Settings
.
- In the “Quick settings” menu, under “Inbox type,” select Default.
- Click Customize.
- Select one or more categories.
- At the bottom of the window, click Save.
.Tips:
- If you have more than 250,000 emails in your inbox, you can’t use the “Default” inbox type. To get below the limit, delete or archive your emails.
- To show starred messages in the “Primary” category, check the box next to “Include starred in Primary.”
- When you turn on notifications for new mail, you only get notifications about messages in the “Primary” category. Learn how to change Gmail notifications.
Categorize your email
If you find an email in the wrong category, you can move it. Over time, this helps Gmail learn your preferences and sort your email more accurately.
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- Drag and drop the email to the correct category tab.
- At the bottom left, you can find a confirmation message.
- To undo the action, click Undo.
Tips: You can also:
- Create a filter: For specific senders, you can set up a filter that:
- Marks their emails as important
- Directs their email to a specific category
- Star an email: After you star an email, it appears in the “Primary” category and the category it’s already in. Learn how to star emails in Gmail.
Best practices for Gmail categories
- To turn off categories, change your inbox type. Learn how to change your Gmail inbox layout.
- To search for emails in a specific category:
- At the top, in the search bar, enter
category: - Enter the category name before your search term. For example,
category:social party
- At the top, in the search bar, enter
- To search for flight confirmations, hotel bookings, or restaurant reservations, enter:
category:reservations. However, you can’t add "Reservations" as an inbox category. - Archived emails don’t appear in categories.
- To find archived emails, go to Gmail and select All mail label.
- While you can't create custom categories, you can use labels to organize your emails. Learn how to create labels to organize Gmail.