Gmail provide advanced search operators to help you narrow your search criteria.
The query syntax is operator:search_keyword. For instance, you could say from:paypal.com to find all emails where the sender in PayPal. Use the logical boolean search operators to specify multiple search operators (e.g., from:paypal OR subject:invoice).
Also see: Gmail Search Tips and Tricks
| Search Criteria | Gmail Search Query |
|---|---|
| Emails that are either starred or unread | is:unread OR is:starred |
| Emails with specific recipients in the To or Cc fields | to:amit OR cc:aryaman |
| Emails received during a specific time period | after:2024/01/01 before:2025/06/15 |
| Search for messages older or newer than a time period | older_than:7d (for 7 days) newer_than:2m (for 2 months) older_than: 2y (for 2 years) |
| Search Gmail by size | larger:10M (for emails larger than 10 MB) smaller:1M (for emails small than 1 MB) size:1000 (specify the size in bytes) |
| Email messages that are in a particular email folder (or label). | in:label_name label:label_name label:personal-emails in:anywhere (message anywhere in Gmail) |
| Find emails that have no labels applied | has:nouserlabels has:userlabels |
| Find emails that have particular words in the subject line | subject:invoice subject:(invoice OR receipt) subject:"payment received" |
| Find messages that contain particular words | dinner OR movie (either words) dinner AND movie (contain both words) (dinner movie) (contain both words) "dinner movie" (exact phrase) |
| Find emails that have an attachments | has:attachments filename:pdf (search attachments by type) filename:emails.csv (search by file name) |
| Search for messages delivered to a particular email address | deliveredto:amit@labnol.org |
| Emails where my email is either in CC or BCC | cc:me OR bcc:me |
| Emails that do not contain a specific word | -cats |
| Find emails messages in trash or spam | label:spam OR label:trash |
| Find emails anywhere but in spam or trash | in:anywhere |
| Find emails that contain links to Google Drive or Google Slides or YouTube | has:youtube OR has:drive OR has:presentation |
Gmail Search - Things to Know
- Search for an exact phrase by enclosing the phrase inside double quotes. Capitalization is ignored.
- You can use logical operators like AND, NOT or OR to refine your search and they must always be typed in uppercase letters.
- Search for email messages by date using the before: and after: search operators. The date format is yyyy/mm/dd (e.g., 2025/07/15)
- You cannot use the bcc: operator to find emails in which you were blind carbon copied.
- If the label name in Gmail includes a space (e.g., Office Expenses), use a dash in the query when searching for emails inside that label (e.g.
label:office-expenses)
