Google Advanced Operators – for GMail

Gmail Advanced Operators

Gmail Advanced Operators

Advanced operators are great. You can get extremely creative with the operators and use them to offload some serious work. I use advanced operators with Google alerts to get exactly the news/data I’m looking for…

Using Advanced operators for GMail has been a lifesaver… here’s a table with operators.

Operator Definition Example(s)
from: Used to specify the sender Example - from:amy
Meaning – Messages from Amy
to: Used to specify a recipient Example - to:david
Meaning – All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else)
subject: Search for words in the subject line Example - subject:dinner
Meaning – Messages that have the word “dinner” in the subject
OR

Search for messages matching term A or term B*
*OR must be in all caps

Example - from:amy OR from:david
Meaning – Messages from Amy or from David

(hyphen)
Used to exclude messages from your search Example - dinner -movie
Meaning – Messages that contain the word “dinner” but do not contain the word “movie”
label: Search for messages by label*
*There isn’t a search operator for unlabeled messages
Example - from:amy label:friends
Meaning – Messages from Amy that have the label “friends”

Example - from:david label:my-family
Meaning – Messages from David that have the label “My Family”

has:attachment
Search for messages with an attachment Example - from:david has:attachment 
Meaning – Messages from David that have an attachment
list: Search for messages on mailing lists

Example - list:info@example.com 
Meaning – Messages with the words info@example.com in the headers, sent to or from this list

filename: Search for an attachment by name or type

Example - filename:physicshomework.txt
Meaning - Messages with an attachment named “physicshomework.txt”

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Example - label:work filename:pdf
Meaning - Messages labeled “work” that also have a PDF file as an attachment

” “
(quotes)

Used to search for an exact phrase*
*Capitalization isn’t taken into consideration

Example - “i’m feeling lucky”
Meaning - Messages containing the phrase “i’m feeling lucky” or “I’m feeling lucky”

Example - subject:”dinner and a movie”
Meaning - Messages containing the phrase “dinner and a movie” in the subject

( )
Used to group words 
Used to specify terms that shouldn’t be excluded

Example - from:amy(dinner OR movie)
Meaning - Messages from Amy that contain either the word “dinner” or the word “movie”

Example - subject:(dinner movie)
Meaning - Messages in which the subject contains both the word “dinner” and the word “movie”

in:anywhere Search for messages anywhere in Gmail*
*Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default
Example - in:anywhere movie 
Meaning - Messages in All MailSpam, and Trash that contain the word “movie”
in:inbox
in:trash
in:spam
Search for messages in InboxTrash, or Spam Example - in:trash from:amy
Meaning - Messages from Amy that are in Trash
is:starred
is:unread
is:read
Search for messages that are starred, unread or read Example - is:read is:starred from:David
Meaning - Messages from David that have been read and are marked with a star
cc:
bcc:
Used to specify recipients in the cc: orbcc: fields*
*Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied
Example - cc:david 
Meaning - Messages that were cc-ed to David
after:
before:
Search for messages sent during a certain period of time*
*Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format.
Example - after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18 
Meaning - Messages sent between April 16, 2004 and April 18, 2004.*
*More precisely: Messages sent after 12:00 AM (or 00:00) April 16, 2004 and before April 18, 2004.
is:chat Search for chat messages Example - is:chat monkey
Meaning - Any chat message including the word “monkey”.
deliveredto: Search for messages within a particular email address in the Delivered-To line of the message header Example - deliveredto:username@gmail.com
Meaning - Any message with username@gmail.com in the Delivered-To: field of the message header (which can help you find messages forwarded from another account or ones sent to an alias).

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