Email Searching in Gmail with Operators

Gmail’s best feature is its email searching capabilities. Search terms or Operators help us finding mails more easily, effectively and conveniently. Thanks to Google’s proprietary search algorithms, we can find mails hidden deep inside. For example: Just adding after: or before: keyword, we can find mails within particular dates. Here are some more search terms that you might find useful in daily usage.

Operator	Definition	Examples
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	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” 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 Mail, Spam, and Trash that contain the word “movie”
in:inbox in:trash in:spam	Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam	Example: in:trash from:amy Meaning: Messages from Amy that are in Trash
is:important label:important	Search within messages that Priority Inbox considers important.	Example: is:important from:janet Meaning: Messages from Janet that were marked as important by Priority Inbox
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
has:yellow-star has:red-star has:orange-star has:green-star has:blue-star has:purple-star has:red-bang has:orange-guillemet has:yellow-bang has:green-check has:blue-info has:purple-question	Search for messages with a particular star	Example: has:purple-star from:David Meaning: Messages from David that are marked with a purple star
cc: bcc:	Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: 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: older: newer:	Search for messages sent or received during a certain period of time (using the date format yyyy/mm/dd)	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.
older_than newer_than	Similar to older and newer, but allows relative dates using d, m, and y for day, month, and year	Example: newer_than:2d Meaning: Finds messages sent within the last two days.
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).
circle:	Search for messages that were sent from someone who you added to a particular Google+ circle	Example: circle:friends Meaning: Any message that was sent by a person in your “Friends” circle. Examples: circle:”soccer friends (team blue)” or circle:”my \”fab four\”” Notes: For circle names that include a space, parentheses, curly brackets, or vertical bar, add quotes around the name. For names that include quotes, add a back slash immediately before the quotes.
has:circle	Search for all messages that were sent from someone who you added to your Google+ circles	Example: has:circle Meaning: Any message that was sent by a person in any of your circles.
category:	Search for messages within a category	Example: category:updates Meaning: All messages in the Updates category. Example: category:social Mindy Meaning: Messages in the Social category that include “Mindy.”
size:	Search for messages larger than the specified size in bytes	Example: size:1000000 Meaning: All messages larger than 1MB (1,000,000 bytes) in size.
larger: smaller:	Similar to size: but allows abbreviations for numbers	Example: larger:10M Meaning: All messages of at least 10M bytes (10,000,000 bytes) in size.
+ (plus sign)	Match the search term exactly	Example: +unicorn Meaning: Finds messages containing “unicorn” but not “unicorns” or “unciorn”
rfc822msgid:	Find a message by the message-id header	Example: rfc822msgid:200503292@example.com Meaning: Locates the exact message with the specified SMTP message-id. Learn more about headers.
has:userlabels	Search for messages that have custom labels that you added to them. NOTE: Gmail applies labels to individual messages, not to conversation threads.	Example: has:userlabels Meaning: Finds all messages with any of your own labels (excludes automatic labels like inbox, spam, and trash). Since Gmail applies labels to individual messages, you might see results that appear to have labels; in this case, another message in the same conversation thread has had a label applied to it.
has:nouserlabels	Search for emails that have no labels.	Example: has:nouserlabels Meaning: Find emails without any custom labels (excludes automatic labels like inbox, spam, and trash).

Related: Google Search Prefix Operators