How to Add Several Contacts to a Gmail Group at Once

Set up a group to email related contacts in a flash

Focussed student
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by Heinz Tschabitscher
An independent writer who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
Updated April 07, 2019

Gmail makes it easy to send group emails to multiple addresses at once. If you find that you need to add more people to an existing group, it's as simple as selecting who should be a part of the group and then selecting the group in which to place them.

How to Add Recipients to a Gmail Group

Adding existing contacts to a Gmail group is easy:

  1. Open your Gmail screen and click the Menu icon in the upper right corner next to your avatar. Select Contacts to open the list of all your existing contacts.

    Gmail menu Contacts option

  2. Hover over the initial in front of each contact's name that you want to add to an group to reveal a check box. Put a check in the box next to every contact you are adding.

    Name selections for group members

  3. Select the Label icon at the top of the lists of contacts. Under Manage Labels, select the group you want to add all the new contacts to and then click Apply to save the change.

    Manage labels menu

    If the group doesn't already exist, select Create label in the Manage labels drop-down menu and enter a new group name.

  4. Check your work by selecting the group name under Labels in the left panel. You should see all the new contacts in the group.

    Checking group member list

Adding New Recipients to Your Contacts List

If the recipients aren't already on your Contacts list, the process takes a little longer because you have to add them as contacts before you add them to a group. The fastest way to add new contact is by hovering your mouse over a name in an email and selecting Add to Contacts in the screen that pops up.

Sending an Email to a Group

When you are ready to contact the entire group, click Compose in Gmail to open a new message screen. In the To field, type the name of the group. Click the group name in the menu that pops up, and the names of the members are entered into the To field.

Tips on Gmail Groups

Gmail does not let you instantly create a new group of recipients in a message. For example, if you've been emailed by several people in one group message, you cannot quickly add all of them to a new group. You must instead add each address as a new contact individually, and then add them all to the same group.

The same is true if you type several email addresses in the To, Cc, or Bcc fields and then want to add them to a group. You can hover your mouse over each address, add them as contacts, and then add them to a group, but you cannot quickly add every address to a new group automatically.