How do I set up filters in Gmail?

Last reviewed: September 21, 2026 · Markdown version

A filter is a standing instruction: "when mail matches this, do that, forever." It is the only tool in Gmail that reduces future work rather than present mess, and it is built from a search — which means if you can find the mail, you can filter it.

Building one from a search you already trust

Run the search first and look at the results. from:noreply@shop.example, category:promotions older_than:1y, subject:"order confirmation" — whatever matches exactly the mail you mean and nothing you would miss. Then, from the bottom of the search window, choose Create filter, and pick the action.

Doing it in that order matters. A filter built from a guess quietly eats mail you wanted; a filter built from a search you have just read is a filter you have already tested.

What a filter can do

Skip the inbox (archive it) — the gentlest option, and reversible: the mail is still searchable.
Apply a label, so it is filed without ever interrupting you.
Delete it — straight to Trash, where it stays recoverable for 30 days.
Mark as read, star, forward, or never send to Spam.
Apply to existing mail too — there is a checkbox for that when you create the filter, and it is the difference between fixing the future and fixing the backlog.

What a filter cannot do

It cannot unsubscribe you. Filtered mail is still sent, still received, and still counts against your storage if you only label or archive it. A filter is a way to stop seeing something, which is the right tool for mail you need but do not want interrupting you — order updates, alerts, statements — and the wrong tool for a newsletter you are simply done with. Which tool for which problem.

The practical limit: making them one at a time

Filters are excellent and they do not scale by hand. The senders filling an inbox are rarely five; they are eighty, discovered slowly, each needing a search, a review and four clicks — on a phone, where Gmail's filter UI barely exists.

Where we fit

Adinand Email Cleaner groups your Gmail by sender so the eighty are visible at once, and its auto-trash rules are real Gmail filters — created through Gmail's own API and running inside Gmail itself, not inside our app. That has a consequence worth stating: the rules keep working if you delete the app, because they were never ours to begin with. Three of them on the free tier, unlimited on Pro.