How do I delete all emails in the Gmail app?

Last reviewed: October 8, 2026 · Markdown version

Not in one tap. The Gmail app does have a Select all box, but Google's own steps for Android and iPhone say "By default, Gmail selects up to 50 messages to delete", so clearing a whole inbox from a phone means fifty at a time, round after round. The only route Google documents for selecting every message in one go is on a computer. Below are the phone steps, the way to make each round count, and the point at which it is worth getting up and opening a laptop.

The steps on Android and iPhone

Google gives the same sequence for both apps under "Delete multiple messages quickly" (Delete messages in Gmail — Android and its iPhone & iPad version, read 8 October 2026):

Open the Gmail app and touch and hold a message.
At the top left, tap the box next to Select all.
At the top, tap Delete.
For the next batch: "Scroll to the top of the page", tap Select all again and delete again.

To pick out a few messages instead, the same pages say to touch and hold each one you want, then tap Delete.

Make each round count with a search

Fifty at a time is slow from the inbox and much less painful from a search, because every round then removes only mail you meant. Both app pages say: "To delete specific emails, enter a search operator in the search bar." Google's examples are a sender (From: fatima@cymbal.com), a date range (after:2025/3/29 before:2025/4/5), a keyword and has:attachment. Search for one newsletter's address, select, delete, repeat until the results are empty, and that sender is gone. The operators worth knowing are on using search operators in Gmail.

Swipe, for the odd message

For clearing as you read, a swipe is quicker than selecting. It is not set to delete unless you change it: on Android, Menu, Settings, General settings, Swipe actions, then Change next to a swipe and choose Delete; on iPhone, Menu, Settings, Inbox customizations, Mail swipe actions, and pick Trash for the right or left swipe (the two app pages above). If yours archives instead, the message leaves the inbox but stays in the account.

When a computer is the better tool

Google's computer instructions on the same page include a notice reading "Select all 2,000 conversations in Inbox", a link that selects every matching conversation rather than one page of them (Delete messages in Gmail, read 8 October 2026). The Android and iPhone versions of that page describe no such link; their only bulk instruction is the fifty-message Select all. So if the job is years of mail, a browser on any computer does it in minutes, and mass-deleting in Gmail walks through it. You do not need to repeat the work on the phone afterwards: Google's page on missing mail says "There’s only one copy of every email", and a delete on one synced device removes it from the others (Gmail messages are missing, read 8 October 2026).

Deleted is not gone yet

Everything you delete in the app goes to Trash, and the app pages say that "Up to 30 days after deletion" you can still recover it. To clear it sooner, open Menu, then Trash, and tap "Empty trash now" at the top; after that there is no undo. If the inbox count barely moved after all that, why deleting takes several rounds lists the usual reasons, and emptying Gmail's Trash covers the storage side.

Doing it sender by sender on a phone

If fifty-at-a-time is the part that defeats you, Adinand Email Cleaner is built for this job on a phone. It groups your Gmail by sender, so you see who sent the thousands before you remove anything, and lets you clear one sender's mail together instead of fifty messages at a time. It follows the same rules as Gmail's own delete: the mail moves to Gmail's Trash, and the app has no permanent-delete button of its own. The space it shows is what "will free up after Trash clears". Without paying, you can clear up to 2,500 emails on your first clean, then another 250 each month; a month you do not use is not added to the next.