Got thousands of emails in Gmail and want rid of them? You don’t have to delete them 50 at a time. Gmail can delete every email in your account in one go. The trick is a small link that only appears after you’ve ticked the select box, and most people never notice it.
In this guide I’ll show you how to mass delete emails in Gmail: all of them, just your inbox, or only the ones you don’t want, such as old, unread or promotional emails. Plus what you can do on your phone, how to free up the space, and how to get emails back if you delete too many.
The Short Version
- On a computer, click More in the menu on the left, then All Mail.
- Tick the select box at the top left, above your emails.
- Click Select all conversations in All Mail, the link that appears just above the list.
- Click the Delete icon (the bin), then OK.
- Empty the Bin if you want the space back straight away.
Table of contents
- Before You Delete All Your Emails
- How to Delete All Emails in Gmail at Once
- How to Delete Old Emails in Gmail (and Keep the Recent Ones)
- Delete Emails From One Sender, Unread Emails and More
- How to Delete All Emails in the Gmail App
- Empty the Bin to Free Up Space
- Deleted Too Much? How to Recover Deleted Gmail Emails
- Can Gmail Delete Old Emails Automatically?
- Troubleshooting
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Summary
Before You Delete All Your Emails
Once the emails have gone from the Bin, there’s no getting them back. So take a minute to check three things:
- Do you want a copy? You can download every email first and keep it on your computer. How to Download Emails from Gmail shows you how. It’s free and takes a few clicks.
- All Mail means all mail. It includes emails you’ve sent, emails you’ve archived and emails in your folders (labels). If you only want to clear the inbox, use the Inbox instead.
- Is there anything to keep? Receipts, tickets, account details. You can delete everything except those, as I’ll show you further down.
How to Delete All Emails in Gmail at Once
You’ll need a computer for this. Open Gmail in your web browser and sign in.
- In the menu on the left, click More, then All Mail.
- Tick the select box at the top left, above your emails. That selects the 50 on screen.
- Just above the list, click Select all conversations in All Mail. Gmail shows how many there are, for example “Select all 12,408 conversations”.
- Click the Delete icon (it looks like a bin) at the top.
- Gmail asks you to confirm, because it’s a big job. Click OK.
Why Only 50?
Ticking the select box only picks the emails you can see on the page, which is 50 unless you’ve changed it. That’s why the Select all conversations link matters. Without it you’d be deleting 50 at a time.
With tens of thousands of emails, Gmail can take a few minutes. Leave the tab open until it’s finished. If a few are left afterwards, run through the steps again.
Only Want to Empty Your Inbox?
Do exactly the same, but in your Inbox instead of All Mail. Emails in your folders and the ones you’ve sent won’t be touched.
If your inbox has tabs (Primary, Promotions, Social and so on), each tab is separate. Repeat the steps in each one, or use All Mail if you want everything gone.
How to Delete Old Emails in Gmail (and Keep the Recent Ones)
Most people don’t want to lose everything. They want the years of old clutter gone. Gmail’s search box can find emails by age, and you can then delete only those.
- Click in the search box at the top and type older_than:1y, then press Enter. That finds every email more than a year old. Use 2y for two years, 6m for six months, and so on.
- Tick the select box at the top left.
- Click Select all conversations that match this search.
- Click the Delete icon, then OK.
Prefer a date? Type before:2020/01/01 to find everything from before 2020.
Keep Your Starred Emails
Add -is:starred to any search to leave starred emails out. For example, older_than:1y -is:starred finds old emails except the ones you’ve starred. Star anything you want to keep first, then delete the rest.
Delete Emails From One Sender, Unread Emails and More
The same search trick works for almost anything. Type one of these into the search box, then tick the select box, click Select all conversations that match this search and delete:
- from: followed by an email address, such as from:offers@shop.com, finds every email from one sender.
- is:unread finds every email you’ve never opened. Usually the junk you didn’t want anyway.
- is:read finds the ones you have opened.
- category:promotions finds everything in the Promotions tab. Swap in social or updates for the other tabs.
- larger:10M finds emails bigger than 10MB, which are the ones eating your storage.
You can combine them. is:unread older_than:6m finds unread emails more than six months old.
Clearing out Promotions? Gmail Category Tabs: Primary, Promotions and How to Manage Them has more on that tab, including how to stop the same offers landing in your Primary tab.
How to Delete Multiple Emails in Gmail
For a handful of emails, tick the box next to each one, then click Delete. To tick a whole run of them, tick the first, hold down Shift on your keyboard and tick the last. Everything in between gets ticked too.
How to Delete All Emails in the Gmail App
On a phone or tablet you can’t delete thousands in one go. The Gmail app only works on what’s on screen.
- Open the Gmail app and touch and hold one email until a tick appears.
- Tap the Select all box at the top, if you see one. On Android it selects up to 50 emails at a time. Otherwise tap each email you want.
- Tap the Delete icon (the bin) at the top right.
For a few hundred emails that’s fine. For thousands, use a computer. It’s one click there instead of an afternoon of tapping. Anything you delete on a computer disappears from the app too, because it’s the same account.
Empty the Bin to Free Up Space
Deleted emails don’t vanish straight away. They go to the Bin (called Trash if your Gmail is set to US English), and Gmail deletes them for good after 30 days. Until then they still count towards your 15GB of free storage.
To empty it now:
- Click More in the menu on the left, then Bin.
- Click Empty Bin now at the top of the list.
- Click OK to confirm.
Your Spam folder works the same way. Open it and click Delete all spam messages now. Still short of space? Gmail Storage Full? Here’s Why (and How to Fix it) explains where the rest of it is going.
Deleted Too Much? How to Recover Deleted Gmail Emails
If it’s been less than 30 days and you haven’t emptied the Bin, you can get them back:
- Click More, then Bin.
- Tick the emails you want back. To get them all, tick the select box and click Select all conversations in Bin.
- Click the Move to icon at the top and choose Inbox.
Once the Bin has been emptied, or 30 days have passed, Google says the emails are permanently deleted and can’t be recovered. No tool or app can bring them back, whatever the adverts say. That’s why it’s worth downloading a copy before a big clear-out.
Can Gmail Delete Old Emails Automatically?
Not by itself. Gmail has no setting that deletes emails once they reach a certain age. The nearest thing is to run the older_than search above every few months.
What Gmail can do is delete new emails from a particular sender as soon as they arrive. Set up a filter, the same way you would to file emails into a folder, but tick Delete it instead of choosing a label.
How to Create Folders in Gmail walks through setting up a filter step by step. For newsletters, it’s usually better to unsubscribe, and How to Block Emails in Gmail and Stop Spam shows how to unsubscribe and block senders.
Troubleshooting
I Can’t See Select All Conversations
The link only appears after you’ve ticked the select box, and only when there are more emails than fit on one page. If you’ve got fewer than 50, ticking the box has already selected them all.
Not All My Emails Were Deleted
Very large clear-outs sometimes stop part way. Go back to All Mail, or run your search again, and repeat the steps. Also check you were in All Mail and not just one tab of your inbox.
My Storage Didn’t Go Down
Empty the Bin first. Deleted emails still count until they leave it. If it’s still high, remember your 15GB is shared with Google Drive and Google Photos, so your emails might not be what’s filling it.
The Same Emails Keep Coming Back
Deleting old emails doesn’t stop new ones. Unsubscribe from the senders you don’t want, or set up a filter to delete their emails as they arrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I delete all emails in Gmail at once?
A: On a computer, open All Mail, tick the select box at the top left, click Select all conversations in All Mail, then click Delete and OK.
Q: Is there a select all in Gmail?
A: Yes. Tick the select box above your emails to select the page, then click the Select all conversations link that appears to select every email.
Q: How do I delete thousands of emails in Gmail?
A: Use a computer rather than the app. Select all conversations in All Mail, or in a search, and delete them in one go. Very large clear-outs can take a few minutes.
Q: How do I delete old emails in Gmail but keep recent ones?
A: Search for older_than:1y, select all the conversations that match, and delete them. Add -is:starred to keep any you’ve starred.
Q: Can I delete all emails from one sender in Gmail?
A: Yes. Search for from: followed by their email address, select all the conversations that match, and delete them.
Q: How do I delete all unread emails in Gmail?
A: Search for is:unread, tick the select box, click Select all conversations that match this search, then click Delete.
Q: Can I delete all my Gmail emails on my phone?
A: Only a screenful at a time. The Android app can select up to 50 emails at once. For thousands, use Gmail on a computer.
Q: How long do deleted emails stay in the Gmail Bin?
A: 30 days. After that Gmail deletes them permanently. You can empty the Bin sooner to free up space.
Q: Can I recover emails after emptying the Bin?
A: No. Once the Bin is emptied, or 30 days have passed, Google says the emails are permanently deleted.
Q: Will deleting all my emails delete my Gmail account?
A: No. Your account, contacts and email address stay exactly as they are. Only the emails go.
Summary
Gmail can mass delete thousands of emails in one go. You just need a computer, All Mail and the Select all conversations link. If you’d rather keep the recent ones, a quick search such as older_than:1y lets you delete only the old ones.
Download a copy first if there’s any chance you’ll want them later, then empty the Bin to get your storage back.
Related Posts
How to Download Emails from Gmail
Gmail Storage Full? Here’s Why (and How to Fix it)
Gmail is Switching Off Gmailify and Check Email From Other Accounts
Nothing has been switched off yet but if you have emails from different services, such as Yahoo, Outlook etc, sent to your Gmail account, you need to check this.
You can find this and other related step by step guides in – At Home Computer Gmail Guides
Written by Jeff Porter. I’ve been fixing Windows PCs since 2010 and I’m CompTIA Network+ certified. More about me