How to Block a Sender in Gmail

Someone keeps emailing you and you want their messages out of sight. Blocking a sender in Gmail sends everything they send from now on straight to Spam, where it is deleted automatically after 30 days.

Open a message from the sender

In Gmail on the web, open any email from the address you want to block. Blocking works on the exact address shown in the From line, not on a display name, so check that it is the right one.

Click the three-dot menu

At the top right of the message, next to the Reply arrow, click the More icon (three vertical dots).

Click Block "name"

Choose Block "sender name" from the menu. A confirmation box explains that future messages from this address will be marked as spam. Click Block.

Check that it worked

Any message the sender has already sent stays where it is. Only new mail is affected. Gmail marks new mail from a blocked address as spam and files it in the Spam folder in the left sidebar, where you can still read it if you ever need to.

Unblock later if needed

Click Settings (gear icon), See all settings, then Filters and Blocked Addresses. Blocked addresses are listed at the bottom of the page. Tick one and click Unblock selected addresses, or click unblock beside a single entry. Mail from that address returns to the inbox from then on, but anything already in Spam stays there.

For newsletters and marketing mail. Blocking is the wrong tool for a legitimate mailing list. Open the message and click Unsubscribe next to the sender's name at the top, which tells the list to stop sending. For actual junk, use the Report spam button (the stop-sign shaped icon) in the toolbar instead of blocking, since that trains Gmail's filter for you and for everyone else.