Nowadays, it is common to use multiple email accounts by different providers. Many people have a personal email account with one provider and a work email account with another. But having to con­stant­ly switch between the two accounts is a waste of time and can be im­prac­ti­cal. Wouldn’t it be much easier to have all of your emails in one place, ir­re­spec­tive of the email address they were sent to? For­tu­nate­ly, Gmail allows users to forward all their incoming messages.

Email for­ward­ing in Gmail: a step-by-step guide

There are lots of reasons you might want to set up for­ward­ing in Gmail. Often people do so when they are out of the office. If you’re going to be away for a few weeks and unable to answer emails from clients or customers, it may make sense to forward incoming messages to a colleague. For­ward­ing can also be useful if you want to combine messages from several accounts in one inbox. Here’s how to forward emails from Gmail:

Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account and navigate to “Settings”.

Image: Gmail user interface in the desktop version
The Gmail settings are ac­ces­si­ble via the gear icon.

Step 2: Select “Settings” from the drop-down menu.

Image: Gmail settings in the drop-down menu
Click on “Settings” in the drop-down menu.

Step 3: Open the “For­ward­ing and POP/IMAP” tab.

Image: Gmail forwarding tab
The Gmail settings are split into several tabs, including “For­ward­ing and POP/IMAP”.

Step 4: Enter a for­ward­ing email address and click on “Next” to confirm.

Image: Adding a forwarding address in Gmail
Enter the address where you want to receive the emails forwarded by Gmail.

Step 5: After you click on “Next”, a pop-up window will open, asking you to confirm the for­ward­ing email address by clicking on “Proceed”.

Image: Confirmation window for Gmail forwarding
You need to confirm the for­ward­ing address in the pop-up window.

Step 6: A message con­tain­ing a con­fir­ma­tion link will now be sent to the for­ward­ing address you specified. Click on the link to approve the for­ward­ing settings.

Image: Confirmation message for Gmail forwarding
After con­fir­ma­tion, the for­ward­ing address will be added.

Step 7: Once you’ve set up the link between your two email providers, you need to refresh the Gmail interface. Go back to the “For­ward­ing and POP/IMAP” tab in your Gmail settings.

Step 8: In the “For­ward­ing” section, select the “Forward a copy of incoming mail to” option. The drop-down menu contains further options for defining what Gmail should do with the forwarded emails. These include:

  • Keep a copy of the forwarded email in your Gmail inbox
  • Keep the copy and mark it as read
  • Au­to­mat­i­cal­ly archive the forwarded email
  • Delete the email from your Gmail account after for­ward­ing it

Confirm your selection by clicking on “Save Changes”.

Image: Gmail forwarding options
Once you’ve set up a for­ward­ing address, you can tell Gmail what to do with forwarded emails.
Tip

Gmail is part of G Suite, Google’s ap­pli­ca­tion package. In addition to the email program, Google Workspace provides many other useful office ap­pli­ca­tions.

Disabling the Gmail for­ward­ing function

If you no longer want Gmail to forward incoming messages to your other account, you can easily disable the function. Follow these steps to disable for­ward­ing in Gmail:

Step 1: Open Gmail settings by clicking on the gear icon and navigate to the “For­ward­ing and POP/IMAP” tab.

Step 2: In the “For­ward­ing” section, click on “Disable for­ward­ing”. Click on “Save Changes” to confirm that you want to disable for­ward­ing.

Image: Disabling Gmail forwarding
Click on “Disable for­ward­ing” to turn off the for­ward­ing function.
Note

No longer satisfied with Gmail? You can delete your Gmail account without losing access to your main Google account.

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