How to Block an Email on Gmail

Last Updated: February 1, 2021

Tired of getting unwanted e-mails from some people you know? E-mail servers only filter messages as spam when it detects it or it’s from a suspicious sender, but for ordinary messages from normal senders, it still goes to your inbox even if you don’t want it to. If you’re using a Gmail account, you can’t exactly block e-mail addresses, but you can set a filter to divert these messages straight to the trash folder.

Part 1

Part 1 of 2:

Logging Into Your Gmail

1
Navigate to Gmail. Open your web browser and go to mail.google.com.
2
Log into your account. Enter your username/email and password.
- If you do not have a Gmail account you'll need to create one. Follow the instructions to do so.

Part 2

Part 2 of 2:

Blocking an Email

1
Use the search bar. Inside your Gmail, there’s a search bar on top of the page that you can use to search your e-mail account. Click on the down arrow on the right part of this search bar, and a window to specify your search will drop down.
2
Type in the address you want to block on the “From” field. You can do this just by typing the e-mail address. This will affect all the messages from this address, regardless of what the message contains. If you want to be a little more specific, you can set the other fields too:
- To—Filter an e-mail who has a particular recipient.
- Subject—Enter any words that might be included in the subject line of the mail.
- Has the words—If the mail has any words in its body that’s declared here, it will be filtered out.
- Doesn’t have—If the body of the mail doesn’t have the words declared here, it will be filtered out.
- Doesn’t have attachments—E-mails that don’t have files with it will be filtered out.
- Don’t include chats—Skip messages/threads that you’ve replied to.
- Size—If the size of a message falls under the range set here, it will be filtered.
- Date—Set the range of time the messages will be filtered.
3
Click on “Create filter with this search” after you’ve set the fields. This option is located at the bottom-right corner of the search filter window.
4
Select the corresponding action for the filter. If you want to block it, select “Delete It.”
- Every time you receive a message that falls under the criteria of the filter you created, it will be redirected straight to the trash bin.