To help you find information faster, Gmail can generate an AI Overview when you search so that you don't have to open and read through individual messages. For example, if you enter 'When is my flight to Hawaii?' in the search bar, Gmail can generate information about your upcoming trip based on relevant emails. Learn how to get an AI Overview in Gmail search.
To quickly find emails and attachments, use search chips, advanced search and other search features in Gmail.
Learn what happens when you search in Gmail
- 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:
- Contacts
- Labels
- Messages
- Past searches
- To improve your search experience, searches that you make in Gmail that return no results show related results instead.
- You can sort search results by relevance or by chronological order. To sort your results, select Most relevant or Most recent.
Search for emails
In this article, learn how to:
- Use the search bar
- Narrow your search results
- Search for emails in spam and the bin
- Clear search history
Use the search bar
Important: If you don't have an Internet connection, you can only search for emails synced with your device. Learn how to use Gmail offline.
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top, in the search bar, enter your search criteria.
- Press Enter.
Tip: To sort emails in chronological order, above the search results, click Most relevant 
Narrow your search results
To narrow your search, you can:
- Use search chips for emails and attachments
- Use advanced search
- Use search operators
- Ask Gemini in Gmail
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top, in the search box, enter your search criteria.
- Press Enter.
- Under the search box, select a chip:
- From: Search for anything from a specific email address.
- Any time: Search for anything that's sent within a certain date range or on a specific date.
- Has attachment: Search for anything with attachments or that has a specific type of attachment:
- Google Docs
- Google Sheets
- Exclude Calendar updates: Search for anything that isn't a Google Calendar update.
- To: Search for anything that you sent to a specific email address.
- Is unread: Search for anything that's currently marked as 'Unread'.
- Is encrypted: Search for emails that use client-side encryption.
Tip: If you use Chat in Gmail, you can find additional search chips under the search box:
- Mail: Search for emails in your inbox.
- Conversations: Search for messages in Chat.
- Spaces: Search for spaces in Chat.
You can use the advanced search option menu to search for additional functions, like saved filters.
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top, in the search box, click Show search options
.
- Fill in any of these sections:
- From: Search for anything from a specific email address.
- To: Search for anything that you sent to a specific email address.
- Subject: Search for anything that matches the subject line of an email.
- Has the words: Search emails that match specific words and phrases.
- Doesn't have: Exclude emails from your search that match specific words and phrases.
- Size: Search for emails that match a certain size.
- Date within: Search emails sent within a specific time frame.
- Search: Search emails listed in other areas of Gmail, like:
- Custom labels
- Spam
- Bin
- At the bottom, click Search.
.Tip: To create a filter based on your search results, click Create filter. Learn more about filters.
To filter Gmail search results, you can use search operators, like words or symbols. If you search for emails, you can combine multiple search operators.
For example, you can search for:
- Senders: sam@your-company.com
- Date ranges: after:2025/01/01 before:2025/05/01
- Files, attachments and other attributes: has:attachment
For a full list of search operators, learn how to refine searches in Gmail.
Tips:
- If you search for a person's email address, the results show emails that include their alias.
- To limit the search to only the original email, enclose the search in quotes. For example: 'from:john.smith@gmail.com'.
- If you search 'from:email', the results will show Drive files shared by that email address.
If you have an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan, you can ask Gemini in Gmail to search for emails.
For example:
- 'Show my unread emails'.
- 'Emails from [person] sent last week'.
- 'Show unread emails from this week'.
Search for emails in spam and the bin
Important: By default, emails in spam and the bin aren't included in a standard search. To find emails in spam and the bin, use advanced search in Gmail.
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top, in the search box, click Show search options
- Next to 'Search', in the drop-down menu, click 'All mail'
Mail and spam and bin.
- Enter information that's in the email.
- If you're not sure about the exact words or details to enter, leave the fields blank.
- Click Search.
Tips:
- If you want to retrieve an email from your bin, remove the email from your bin.
- To prevent Gmail from automatically sending an email to spam, report the email as 'Not spam'.
Clear search history
- On your computer, open Gmail.
- At the top, click the search box.
- Your most recent search may show.
- On the right, in the search results, click Delete
.
.Learn how searches are saved in your Google Account
Important: The words that you use to search and browse in Gmail are saved. This feature improves suggestions in your future searches. To use this feature, on the 'Activity controls' page, turn on Web & App Activity.
- If you clear your search history in Gmail, all your email searches are removed across all devices.
- To control your saved activity, go to My Activity.
- You can also clear your search history from Google servers. Learn how to delete your activity.