Add or delete an alternate email address (email alias)

Let's make sure you're in the right place. These steps are for admins who manage Gmail accounts for a company, school, or other group. To use email aliases with a personal gmail.com account, follow these steps instead.

On this page

• What is an email alias?
• When should I use alternate emails (email aliases)?
• Before you begin
• Add an email alias for a user
• Remove a user's email alias
• Find a user’s email alias in the Admin console
• How users send email from an alias

As a Google Workspace administrator, you can create an alternate email address (email alias) for a user so they can send and receive email with another address. You can add up to 30 email aliases for each user at no extra cost.

What is an alternate email address (email alias)?

What's an email alias and how do I create one in Google Workspace?

An alternate email address, also called an email alias, is a forwarding email address that an admin adds to a user's primary email address. Messages sent to the email alias automatically route to the user's primary email account's inbox.

Tip: Only one user can use an email alias. If you need an email address that's used by multiple users, we recommend using Gmail delegation instead. Learn how to delegate a user's email address.

To read messages sent to the email alias, a user signs in to their primary Google Workspace account. For example, the Solarmora.com admin assigned Emily the email alias [e-mail]. To read and respond to messages sent to the alias, Emily signs in to her email account [e-mail].

When should I use alternate emails (email aliases)?

Google Workspace email aliases are useful for small businesses where someone fills multiple roles. For example, Juan owns a one-person business and created three aliases: [e-mail] for customer inquiries, [e-mail] to handle invoices, and [e-mail] to manage sales. Juan receives all messages in his primary email account, [e-mail],  

Here are more examples:

• You need a temporary email address—Use an alias to sign up for a particular service or to run a temporary project.
• An employee left your organization and you deleted their account—To forward email messages sent to the old employee, add their previous email address as an email alias to a current user. Learn about redirecting incoming messages.

Before you begin

• Multiple users can’t share an email alias.
• Email aliases are not Google Accounts, so you can't sign in with an email alias address and access Google services, like Google Drive.
• You can’t create an alias with the same name as an existing Google Account in your organization. For example, if you created a Google Account called [e-mail], you can’t create an alias called [e-mail].
• You can add up to 30 aliases for each user, at no extra cost. If you need more aliases, you must create another Google Account and add aliases to it.
• Email aliases aren't private. Sometimes, they’re visible to other users. For example, if a recipient searches Gmail for messages from [e-mail], search results might also include messages from Bill's alias, [e-mail].

Add an email alias for a user

To complete these steps, you need the appropriate User management privilege. Without this privilege, you won't see all the controls needed to complete these steps.

Add an email alias for a user

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
3. To open the user settings page, click a user's name.

   If you need help with finding the user in the list, go to Find a user account.

4. On the left, under the user's name, click Add Alternate Emails.
5. Click Alternate email and enter a name for the alias (the part of the address before the @ sign).
6. (Optional) If needed, select a secondary domain.
   Note: User alias domains don't show in the Domain menu. Learn more about user alias domains and secondary domains.
7. (Optional) If you want to add more email aliases, repeat steps 5 and 6.
8. Save.

Changes can take up to 24 hours but typically happen more quickly. Learn more

Remove a user's email alias

To complete these steps, you need the appropriate User management privilege. Without this privilege, you won't see all the controls needed to complete these steps.

Remove a user's email alias

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
3. To open the user settings page, click a user's name.

   If you need help with finding the user in the list, go to Find a user account.

4. On the left, under the user's name, click Add Alternate Emails.
5. Next to the email alias, click Remove.

   Note: If you don’t see Remove, the alias was automatically added as a domain alias. A domain alias is available to all users, so you can't remove it for just one user. Instead, you must remove the domain alias. For details, go to Remove a domain from your Google Workspace account.

6. Click Save.

Changes can take up to 24 hours but typically happen more quickly. Learn more

Find a user’s email aliases in the Admin console

Find a user’s email aliases in the Admin console

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
3. Click the userAdd Alternate Emails.

   If you need help finding the user in the list, go to Find a user account.

4. Click Show all alternate emails.

How users send email from an alias

To send email from an alias, the user must set up a custom From address in Gmail. This task is done by the user and is not visible to you in the Admin console. To set up the From address, tell your users to review Send emails from a different address or alias. 

Although only one user can receive mail from the alias, multiple users can send email from an alias if they set up a custom From address. Depending on the user, they must check or uncheck the Treat as alias box in Gmail. For details, tell your users to review Should I uncheck “treat as an alias” in Gmail?

Related topics

• Organize emails
• Add a user alias domain or secondary domain
• Change a Directory user's name or email address
• Activate Gmail for Google Workspace
• Delegate a user's email address