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.

In this article:

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

Email aliases are a helpful way for users to read and send mail sent to another email address, within their Google Workspace account. For instance, aliases are useful for sales and support staff who want a memorable, public email address such as [e-mail] or [e-mail].

Users sign in to their Google Workspace account, not their email alias. For example, the Solarmora.com admin assigned Emily the email alias [e-mail]. To read and respond to messages sent to [e-mail], Emily signs in to [e-mail].

When should I use alternate emails (email aliases)?

Email aliases are useful for small businesses just getting started. For example, a one-person business might create three aliases: [e-mail] for customer inquiries, [e-mail] to handle invoices, and [e-mail] to manage sales.  An email alias is assigned to only one user, so email sent to the alias goes to the user’s primary email inbox. 

Here are some examples:

• Someone in your organization fills multiple roles—Create aliases for multiple roles instead of switching between multiple inboxes with different email accounts. For example, [e-mail] wants a separate email address for marketing inquiries. He sets up the email alias [e-mail]. Mail sent to either address goes to Alex’s inbox.
• 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 receive any messages sent to the old employee's email, map their previous email address to the address where you want to get those messages. Learn more

 
Tip: 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.

Before you begin

• Multiple users can’t share an email alias.
• Alternate (alias) email addresses are not Google Accounts, so you can't sign in with an email alias address and access Google services, such as 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.
• 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

Tip: Try the Home page quick link. On your Admin console Home page, click Create an alternate email address (email alias)enter your userclick Proceedgo to step 5 below.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

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

2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Users.
3. To open the user settings page, click a user name.

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

4. Click Add Alternate Emails.
5. Click Alternate email and enter a name for the alias (the part of the address before the @ sign) and, if needed, select a domain.

   Repeat this step for each new alias that you want to add for the user.

6. Click Save.

Within 24 hours (often sooner), the user begins receiving email sent to this address.

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. From the Admin console Home page, go to Users.
3. To open the user settings page, click a user name.

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

4. Click Add Alternate Emails.
5. Next to the 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.

It can take up to 24 hours for the alias to be removed.

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. From the Admin console Home page, go to Users.
3. Click the userAdd Alternate Email.

   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 which user you are, you need to 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