Gmail search like a pro: the search operators that really help

Sender, recipient, subject

• from:miller@example.com: emails from this sender
• from:@example.com: all senders of this domain
• to:info@yourcompany.com: to a specific address, useful with forwarding
• subject:quote: «quote» in the subject
• subject:"quote renovation": exactly this phrase in the subject

Attachments

• has:attachment: emails with an attachment
• filename:pdf: PDF attachments
• filename:invoice: attachments whose name contains «invoice»
• larger:10M: emails over 10 MB, good for freeing up space
• has:drive has:document has:spreadsheet: links to Google Drive files

Time

• newer_than:7d: newer than seven days (d days, m months, y years)
• older_than:2y: older than two years
• after:2026/01/01 before:2026/04/01: first quarter of 2026

Folders and state

• label:invoices: with this label; for sublabels use a hyphen: label:clients-quotes
• -label:invoices: without this label
• has:nouserlabels: emails without a label of your own, so not yet filed
• in:inbox, in:sent, in:spam, in:trash, in:anywhere (including spam and trash)
• is:unread, is:starred, is:important
• category:promotions: in the Promotions tab

Combining

• invoice OR receipt: one of the two (OR in capitals)
• invoice -advertising: with «invoice», without «advertising»
• from:@shop.com (invoice OR order): brackets group
• "final notice": exact phrase
• {invoice receipt voucher}: curly brackets are a shorthand for OR

Saving searches and using them as filters

Gmail has no saved searches, but two ways lead there: save the address of the results page as a browser bookmark. Or turn the search into a filter: open search options, put the command into Has the words, then Create filter. That way «find receipts» becomes a label that fills itself. More in Create Gmail filters.