How to Search by Date in Gmail

Find emails from certain date ranges with our guide

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Last Updated: February 7, 2025 Tested

If you're looking for an email or chat from a certain date in your Gmail archives, follow this simple search technique. If that's not enough, we've thrown in a few more advanced search terms to help you out.

Easy Way to Search Gmail by Date

Open the search bar at the top of the Gmail window.
Type in "after:YYYY/MM/DD" to search all messages received after a certain date.
Use "before:YYYY/MM/DD" to search for emails received before that date.
Combine "after" and "before" to see emails within the date range.

Steps

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On a computer browser, the search bar is visible at the top of the screen from any Gmail page. On a mobile device, you may need to touch a magnifying glass icon to open the search bar.
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Search for emails after a certain date. To search for emails after a certain date, type after:YYYY/MM/DD into the search bar, replacing those letters with an actual date. For example, write after:2015/03/29 to search for emails written after March 29th, 2015.
- You can use the word newer instead of "after."
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You can probably guess this already, but the search "before:YYYY/MM/DD" will search for everything before the date you write. The word older will work instead of "before," if you prefer.
You can use both of the above terms in the same search. For example, after:2015/03/29 before:2015/04/05 will list every message sent after midnight on March 29th, 2015, but before April 5th, 2015.
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Use relative terms. For more recent messages, you don't need to work out the exact date. Use the terms older_than or newer_than instead. Here's how:
- older_than:3d = from more than 3 days ago
- newer_than:2m = from less than 2 months ago
- older_than:12d newer_than:1y = older than 12 days and newer than 1 year
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Add extra terms. You can add ordinary terms to the same search, as well as other advanced search terms. Here are a few examples:
- after:2015/01/01 before:2015/31/12 rock climbing will list every message with the words "rock" and "climbing" from 2015.
- newer_than:5d has:attachment will list all emails with attachments sent within the last 5 days.
- before:2008/04/30 from:Jenna dance will list all emails from before April 30th, 2008, from Jenna, that include the word "dance."

Community Q&A

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Question

It looks like Google deletes e-mails that are more than 5 years old. Is that true? If not, how can I find an e-mail that's more than 5 years old?

Community Answer

No. Type in the title of the email into the search bar. It is possible that it is still there, especially if you've sorted it into a special folder.

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Question

How can I find all email with no user defined labels in Gmail?

Eddie Keith

Community Answer

Go to the drop down arrow within the search box. In the drop-down menu next to "Search," select Mail & Spam & Trash. Fill in the boxes with the information you're looking for. At the bottom, click Search.

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Question

I want the inbox to display by latest date, how do I do so?

Community Answer

By default, Gmail's inbox displays e-mails starting from newest (at the top) to oldest, which means your request is fulfilled by default.

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Warnings

Do not use a different format for the date. Entering the date with the year at the end instead of the beginning, for example, will show the wrong results.

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