Search in Gmail

You can find an email in your inbox with search terms. To help you search faster, Gmail suggests search terms as you enter words. These search terms are based on information from your Gmail account, like messages, contacts, labels, or past searches.

How to search

An illustration of searching in Gmail on Android

Important: If you're offline, only emails synced to your device are visible. If you search through Gmail Go, searching won't work while you're offline.

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
At the top, in the search box, tap Search mail.

Optional: Tap Filter then tap a filter to make your search more specific. Learn more about available search filters.

Enter search criteria.
Tap Search .

Your results include all messages except those in spam or trash.

When you search for a person’s email address, the results will also show emails that include their alias. To limit the search to only the original email, the search should be enclosed in double quotes. Example: "from:[email protected]".

When you search 'from:email", the results also will return Drive files shared by that email address.

Search for your chat messages in Gmail

Open the Gmail app .
At the bottom, tap Chat .
At the top, tap Search in chat.
Search for what you want to find.
Tap the chat you want to open.

Use filters when you search

You can use filters at the beginning of your search or after you've searched to narrow your results. Below are the available search filters and what they do. You can combine multiple filters to narrow your search.

From

Search for anything that was sent from a certain email address.

To

Search for anything that you sent to a certain email address.

Attachment

Search for anything that has an attachment included or has a specific type of attachment like Google Docs, Google Sheets, or a PDF.

Date

Search for anything that was sent from a certain date range or specific date.

Unread

Search for anything that is currently marked as “unread”.

Exclude calendar updates

Search for anything that is not a Google Calendar update.

Tip: You can also use search operators to filter your search results.

How searches are saved

The words you use to search and browse in Gmail are saved for you. This feature improves suggestions when you search in the future.

For this feature to work, you must have the Web and App Activity setting turned on.
To go to and control your saved activity, visit My Activity.

Search within a label

You can now search messages under a specific Gmail label in the app to return results only within that label. You can also use search chips in the Gmail search box to refine label searches.

To search from your list of labels:

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
At the top left, tap Menu .
Tap the label you want to search in.
Enter your search criteria.
Under the search box, in the filter row, adjust your search filters.

To search from the search box:

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
At the top, in the search box, tap Search mail.
Enter your search criteria.
Under the search box, in the filter row, adjust your search filters and choose the label you want to search in.

Clear search history

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
At the top left, tap Menu .
Tap Settings General settings.
At the top right, tap More .
Tap Clear search history Clear.

Tip: Your search history will only be cleared from your device. You can also clear your search history from Google servers. Learn how to delete your activity.