# How do I edit my Gmail labels? — Adinand Email Cleaner Last reviewed: September 23, 2026. HTML version: https://adinandemail.com/answers/edit-gmail-labels **Editing a label happens behind the *More* menu beside its name in Gmail's sidebar, and the important part is what editing does not touch.** The web steps below are from Google's own page ([*Create & manage labels in Gmail*](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/118708), read 23 September 2026). ## Rename, nest, colour

On the web, move to the label's name in the left sidebar, click **More**, and edit from there. The same menu holds **Label color**, and Google allows up to 100 custom colours. To nest one label inside another, Google documents a "Nest label under" checkbox when you create a label; its editing steps say only "Edit your label", without listing what the edit dialog offers.

## Delete

Same menu: **Remove label**. This is the step people worry about, and the worry is misplaced. Google's developer reference describes deleting a label as removing "it from any messages and threads that it's applied to" ([*Method: users.labels.delete*](https://developers.google.com/workspace/gmail/api/reference/rest/v1/users.labels/delete), read 23 September 2026) — the label goes, and nothing in it says the messages go with it. The mirror-image fact, in Google's words, is the one to remember: "When you delete an email, it's removed from every label and your inbox." The same page is blunt that "Labels are different from folders": a message under three labels is still one message, so deleting it takes it out of all three at once.

## The ceiling

"You can create up to 5,000 labels," says the same Gmail Help page, which keeps a separate pointer for anyone creating labels with the Gmail API. Reaching that by hand would take some doing, and in our view a label list in the thousands is unusable long before it is full.

## On phones

Both Gmail apps can create, rename and delete labels, not only apply them. On Android it is Menu, Settings, your account, **Manage labels** ([*Create & manage labels in Gmail — Android*](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/118708?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid), read 23 September 2026); on iPhone and iPad it is Menu, Settings, **Inbox customizations**, Labels ([*Create & manage labels in Gmail — iPhone & iPad*](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/118708?co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS), read 23 September 2026). Neither phone page describes nesting or colours; those steps appear only in the computer instructions.

## Why the label list grows unusable

Labels are a decision you make once per message, forever. Every one you create is a question you will be asked again on the next message that could plausibly go there — and "could plausibly go there" grows faster than the list does. That is why label systems tend to collapse: not because labels are bad, but because they are a per-message cost paid indefinitely.

The way out is not more labels, it is fewer decisions: Gmail's filters can "send email to a label" ([*Create rules to filter your emails*](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6579), read 23 September 2026), which turns a recurring per-message question into a single rule. [How Gmail filters work.](https://adinandemail.com/answers/gmail-filters)

Related: [How do I add labels in Gmail?](https://adinandemail.com/answers/add-labels-in-gmail) · [How do I use labels in Gmail?](https://adinandemail.com/answers/use-labels-in-gmail) · [Gmail filters](https://adinandemail.com/answers/gmail-filters) · [Organize Gmail](https://adinandemail.com/answers/organize-gmail)