How to create, nest and delete folders in Gmail (labels)

Gmail has no "Create folder" button. It organizes mail with labels, which do the job of folders.

One difference explains almost everything else about them: an email can carry several labels at once, and adding a label does not take the email out of your inbox.

This guide covers every label task on a computer, Android, iPhone and iPad, checked against Google's own help pages in October 2026.

How Gmail labels differ from folders

A folder holds an email in one place. A label is a tag on the email.

Gmail's help says it plainly: "If you apply a label to a message, it doesn't result in a copy of the message specifically for the label" (Gmail Help).

Four consequences follow:

• One email, many labels. A message from a client about an invoice can sit under both "Clients" and "Invoices" without being copied.
• The inbox is a label too. Labeling an email leaves it in the inbox. It only leaves when the Inbox label is removed, which is what archiving and Move to do.
• Removing a label never deletes the email. It stays in All Mail and under any other label it has.
• Deleting an email removes it everywhere. Google: "When you delete an email, it's removed from every label and your inbox."

Labels are also private. "Only you can access your labels. The people you email don't get them," according to Gmail Help.

How to create a folder in Gmail on a computer

1. Open Gmail in your browser.
2. On the left, next to Labels, click Create new label (the + icon).
3. Enter a label name.
4. Optional: to put it inside another label, check the box next to Nest label under and pick the parent.
5. Click Create.

The new label appears in the left panel, ready to receive mail. You can also label an email as you write it: in the compose window, click More options, then Label.

How to create a label on Android, iPhone and iPad

Both phone apps can now create labels. Android was the last to get it.

Label creation reached Android in early 2026 and rolled out account by account (9to5Google, 11 Feb 2026), so update the app if you don't see it yet.

On Android:

1. Open the Gmail app and tap Menu at the top left.
2. Under "All labels," tap Create label.
3. Enter a name and tap Save.

On iPhone or iPad:

1. Open the Gmail app and tap Menu at the top left.
2. Under "Labels," tap Create new.
3. Enter a name and tap Save.

The apps don't match the web everywhere. Google documents nesting and label colors only on a computer:

Source: Gmail Help, Create & manage labels, desktop, Android and iOS versions, October 2026

How to move emails into a label, and why they stay in your inbox

If labeled mail keeps showing up in your inbox, it's because Gmail has two buttons that sound alike and do different things:

Google's wording for Move to: "When you move a message to a label, the label is added and other labels, like 'Inbox,' are removed." So if you want folder behavior, use Move to, or drag the email onto a label in the left panel.

To file several emails at once:

• Computer: check their boxes, click Move to at the top and pick the label.
• Android: touch and hold the emails, then tap More > Move to.
• iPhone and iPad: touch and hold, tap More > Change labels, uncheck the current label, select the new one and tap Done.

The letter shortcuts only work once they are switched on: Settings > See all settings > Keyboard shortcuts on (Gmail keyboard shortcuts).

Archiving has its own trade-offs, covered in our guide to archiving Gmail and finding archived emails.

How to nest labels (sub-folders)

Nesting is how you build a folder tree, for example Clients with one label per client inside it. Gmail's help documents one way to do it: check Nest label under when you create the label, then pick the parent from the dropdown.

Plan the tree on a computer, since the help pages give no nesting step for the Android or iPhone app.

Gmail sorts labels by name, so a number or symbol at the start of a name ("1 Clients," "2 Finance") is a common way to pin the labels you use most to the top.

How to color, rename and hide labels

Change a color on a computer: hover over the label on the left, click More, then Label color, and pick a color.

Add custom color lets you mix your own, up to 100 custom colors. Color works best as meaning rather than decoration, for example red for anything waiting on you.

Rename a label:

• Computer: hover over the label, click More and edit the label.
• Android: Menu > Settings > your account > Manage labels > the label > Name, then Done.
• iPhone and iPad: Menu > Settings > Inbox customizations > Labels > the label > Name, then Done.

Hide a label you rarely open: Settings > See all settings > Labels, then click Show or Hide next to it. A hidden label keeps its mail; it just leaves the left panel. If labels seem to have vanished, this tab is the first place to check.

How to delete a label (your emails stay)

• Computer: hover over the label, click More, then Remove label.
• Android: Menu > Settings > your account > Manage labels > the label > Delete.
• iPhone and iPad: Menu > Settings > Inbox customizations > Labels > the label > Delete.

Deleting a label does not delete the emails under it. The label comes off every message, and the messages stay in All Mail and under their other labels. "If you remove a label from a message, the message isn't deleted," as Google puts it.

To get rid of the emails as well, do it in this order: search for label:your-label-name, select every result, delete them, then remove the label. Our guide to mass deleting Gmail emails covers selecting thousands of messages at once.

Some labels can't be deleted or renamed at all. Inbox, Starred, Snoozed, Important, Sent and Drafts are system labels, and the category tabs (Social, Promotions, Updates, Forums) are created and applied by Google.

Let filters label new mail automatically

Filters do the filing for you, so new mail lands under the right label without a click.

1. In the search box at the top, click Show search options.
2. Enter the criteria, for example the sender's address or a word in the subject. Click Search to check the matches.
3. Click Create filter.
4. Check Apply the label and choose the label.
5. To keep matching mail out of the inbox, also check Skip the Inbox (Archive it).
6. To label the emails you already have, check Also apply filter to matching conversations.
7. Click Create filter.

Starting from an email works too: check its box, click More, then Filter messages like these. To change a filter later, go to Settings > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses. The full option list is in Gmail's filter help.

On iPhone and iPad there is a lighter version: Settings > Inbox customizations > Labels > a label > Add, then type a sender. "New messages that match your criteria are automatically labeled."

Search tricks for working with labels

Gmail's search box does the heavy lifting once labels exist. These operators come from Gmail's search operator list:

• label:invoices shows everything under a label. Combine it with dates, for example label:invoices older_than:1y.
• has:nouserlabels finds email with none of your labels, the quickest way to see what your filters miss.
• has:userlabels does the opposite.
• in:archive lists archived mail.
• category:promotions searches a category tab.

One caveat: labels attach to messages, not whole conversations. A search for unlabeled mail can return a conversation whose newer replies were never labeled, because "the label applies only to the existing messages, not to new replies" when conversation view is on.

How labels show up in Outlook and Apple Mail

If you read Gmail in another email app, your labels become folders there. "Gmail treats labels as folders for the purposes of IMAP," says Google's IMAP documentation.

That explains two surprises. An email with two labels appears in two folders, and it is not a duplicate.

Deleting it from one of those folders usually just takes that label off: with Gmail's default settings, "you can find messages you delete from an IMAP folder in your 'All Mail' label" (Gmail Help).

Where your account offers it, a Show in IMAP checkbox in Settings > See all settings > Labels decides whether each label appears in the other app at all.

Keep your label system small

Gmail allows 5,000 labels per account. Google's own advice for business accounts is to stay at "500 labels or fewer (including nested labels)" because "too many labels can slow down your account" (Google Workspace best practices).

Most people need far fewer, and a setup like this holds up:

• A handful of top-level areas such as Clients, Finance and Personal, with nested labels for the specifics.
• One or two action labels such as "To reply" and "Waiting," in a color you notice.
• Filters for anything that arrives on a pattern, so you rarely label by hand.
• Search for the rest. A label you never click is a label you can delete.

Send one label to a Notion database

Some labels hold records more than conversations: receipts, client threads, job applications, supplier quotes. In Gmail they are a list.

In a Notion database each email becomes a row you can sort by date, group by sender, and extend with fields Gmail doesn't have, such as a status, an amount or a follow-up date.

2sync's Gmail integration does this with the label you already use. You pick the label as the sync filter, and every email that carries it arrives in Notion with its subject, sender, recipients, preview and a link back to the message, plus all its Gmail labels as a multi-select.

The sync runs one way, from Gmail to Notion, every 2 to 5 minutes depending on the plan, so nothing in your mailbox changes.

We built 2sync's Gmail sync around labels for the reason this guide keeps returning to: the label is the decision. Once a filter applies it, the database fills on its own.

The setup, including the "Notion Archive" label pattern, is in our guide to syncing Gmail with Notion.

This setup is also the closest replacement for the email databases Notion Mail used to fill, since Notion Mail shut down on 22 September 2026.

Labels are folders that do more

Gmail's labels behave like folders the moment you use Move to or a filter with Skip the Inbox (Archive it), and they do more than folders because one email can sit under several.

Create them on any device, nest and color them on a computer, and let filters and search keep the system small.

FAQ