How does Priority Inbox work in Gmail?

Last reviewed: October 10, 2026 · Markdown version

Priority Inbox is one of Gmail's inbox types. Instead of tabs, it stacks the inbox into sections, and out of the box those are, in Google's words, "important and unread, starred, and everything else." (Tips to optimize your Gmail inbox, read 10 October 2026). The top section depends on Gmail's guess about which mail matters to you; the rest you control. How it compares with the other five inbox types is on changing your Gmail inbox type. This page is about how this one behaves.

Switching it on

On a computer: click Settings at the top right, and under "Inbox type" select Priority Inbox. To pick which sections show, click Customize, choose them, then Save Changes (the Tips to optimize your Gmail inbox page above). In the Gmail app on Android or iPhone, it is Menu, Settings, your account, then Inbox type and Priority Inbox (Change your Gmail inbox layout, Android, read 10 October 2026).

Choosing it replaces the Default inbox and its tabs, because an inbox type is a single setting. Google's categories page ties the tabs to Default and says "To turn off categories, change your inbox type." (Organize your emails into categories, read 10 October 2026).

The sections, on a computer and in the app

The two versions of Google's layout page do not list quite the same sections. On a computer you can show "Important and unread," "Starred," "Everything else," or a label that you have made (Change your Gmail inbox layout, read 10 October 2026). The Android and iPhone versions list "Inbox," "Important and unread," "Starred," or a label you made. Two rules from Google's tips page: you can reorder sections in Settings, See all settings, Inbox, under Inbox sections with Options, and "The Everything else section always appears last."

Giving a label its own section

This is the part most people miss, and it turns Priority Inbox into a simple dashboard. Google's steps: create the label first, then Settings, See all settings, the Inbox tab, and next to a section click Options or Add section, then More options, choose the label and Save Changes. Its example is a section "From my manager" (the tips page above). Pair the label with a filter that applies it automatically, and that sender's mail always has a place near the top. Making your own categories covers the label-and-filter half.

How Gmail decides what is important

The top section runs on the same importance markers Gmail shows everywhere. Google lists the signals, from whom you email to which messages you star, archive or delete, and lets you hover over the marker to see why a message got it. Clicking the marker on a wrongly flagged message "also helps Gmail learn which emails you think are important." (Importance markers in Gmail, read 10 October 2026). The full list of signals is on why Gmail marks mail Important.

The same page offers a setting on the computer, "Don't use my past actions to predict which messages are important". It does not say what the Important and unread section shows once you choose it, and neither do the layout or tips pages we read on 10 October 2026. If you switch it on, watch that section for a few days before relying on it.

Where Google's Priority Inbox page went

If you follow an old link to Gmail's Priority Inbox help, it now opens the general layout page. We fetched the former address (support.google.com/mail/answer/186531, read 10 October 2026) and it returned Change your Gmail inbox layout, where Priority Inbox has a single paragraph. The most detailed current instructions are on the tips page cited at the top, which is written for work and school accounts. Its steps for switching Priority Inbox on use the same menu names as Gmail's own help (Settings, Inbox type, Priority Inbox), but the reordering and label-section steps appear only there, so if a button is named differently in a personal account, that is the likely reason.