Email, Messaging, & Video Calls > Email 45 45 people found this article helpful How to Organize & Categorize Messages in Gmail with Labels Labels offer greater flexibility than a folder-tree structure By Heinz Tschabitscher Heinz Tschabitscher Writer University of Vienna A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on May 1, 2023 Reviewed by Jon Fisher Reviewed by Jon Fisher Wichita Technical Institute Jonathan Fisher is a CompTIA certified technologist with more than 6 years' experience writing for publications like TechNorms and Help Desk Geek. lifewire's editorial guidelines Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email In This Article Expand Jump to a Section Add a Label to a Gmail Message Customize Your Gmail Labels Manage Gmail Labels Frequently Asked Questions What to Know Add a label: Open a message or select one (or several) from the inbox. In the toolbar, choose the Labels icon.Customize labels: Go to Settings > Labels to create a new one or choose options to decide how labels function.Delete labels: Select the More button next to a label name, then choose Remove Label. Unlike most email servers that rely on a series of folders to organize messages, Gmail replaces folders in favor of labels. These labels are a tagging system for emails. Learn how to use labels to organize messages using Gmail on any operating system. How to Add a Label to a Gmail Message Folder-based sorting stores emails in one location. Label-based sorting can apply several labels to a single message. To add one or more labels to Gmail messages: Log in to your Gmail account Open a message, or select the check boxes in the message list to select several emails. Go to the toolbar and select the Labels icon. In the Label As dialog box, select the label you want to apply. Choose Create New to make and apply a new label. How to Make Gmail Labels How to Customize Your Gmail Labels The Label As dialog box includes a link to Manage Labels, which is a shortcut to the Labels screen of the Gmail Settings menu. Either click that link, or go to Settings > Labels. If you're already logged in to your Gmail account, you can go directly to your Gmail Labels Settings. At the bottom of the settings screen, you'll see your custom labels. Select Create New Label to add a new label to the list. Each label supports four settings groups: Show in label list: Anytime a list of messages with labels appears in the left sidebar, select show (the default) to show the label persistently, hide to suppress it persistently, or show if unread to appear only when unread messages with that label appear. Show in message list: Select whether the label appears on messages in the message list. Actions: Select Remove to delete the label or edit to change it. Show in IMAP: Force email programs (like Microsoft Outlook) that use IMAP folders instead of Gmail labels to treat labels like IMAP folders. Unless there's a need to hide messages, leave Show in IMAP selected by default. How to Manage Gmail Labels To edit or delete Gmail labels: Go to the Folders pane and select the label you want to manage. Select the More button to the right of the label name. Choose the feature you want to change, such as the label color. Or, select Edit to change the label name or nest it under another label. Select Save to apply the changes. Choose Remove Label from the More menu to delete a label. FAQ How many labels can you have in Gmail? You can have up to 500 Gmail labels. However, you can create additional labels within those labels. How do I merge labels in Gmail? In your Gmail inbox, select the search bar and enter label:name OR label:name (replace name with the names of the folders to merge). Select all messages in the results and create a new label for the selected messages. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit