People search for "Gmail auto archive" expecting a setting. There isn't one. What Gmail gives you is a filter action called Skip the Inbox (Archive it), which archives matching mail the moment it arrives. Set up well, it keeps a category of mail out of your face while leaving it searchable. Set up badly, it quietly buries things you needed to read.
What archiving actually does
Archiving removes the Inbox label from a conversation. The message itself doesn't move anywhere special and nothing is deleted: it sits in All Mail, it still turns up in search, and any label you gave it still applies. If you're fuzzy on why Gmail behaves this way, the label model is the reason, and Gmail labels vs folders covers it properly.
Two consequences worth knowing before you automate it. Archived mail still counts against the 15 GB your account shares between Gmail, Drive, and Photos, so archiving is not a storage fix. And when someone replies to a conversation you archived by hand, the reply pulls the whole thread back into your inbox. A filter, by contrast, re-archives each new message that matches it, which is exactly why the filter version is the one worth setting up.
Build the auto archive filter
Do this at mail.google.com in a browser. It takes four steps:
- Type what you want archived into the Gmail search bar, for example
from:@example.com, and press Enter. Check the results first. A filter catches exactly what the search catches, so if the search looks wrong, the filter will be wrong in the same way. - Click the filter options icon at the right of the search bar (sliders), then Create filter at the bottom of the panel.
- Tick Skip the Inbox (Archive it). Add a label in the same step if you want the mail grouped somewhere you can find it later, which is usually worth doing.
- Click Create filter.
From then on, mail matching that search is archived at delivery. It never touches the inbox and it never shows an unread badge.
Apply it to the mail you already have
A new filter only runs on mail that arrives after you create it, so your existing backlog sits where it is. On the final step of the filter builder there's a checkbox for this: "Also apply filter to matching conversations." Tick it and Gmail runs the filter once across your mailbox.
You can also add it later. Settings (gear icon), See all settings, Filters and Blocked Addresses, edit on the filter, Continue, tick the box, Update filter. This is the single most common reason a filter looks like it does nothing, and Gmail filters not working walks through the rest of them.
Why "archive everything older than 30 days" doesn't work
This is the request behind a lot of auto archive searches, and Gmail can't do it with a filter. Filters evaluate a message once, when it arrives. A message that is brand new at delivery never matches older_than:30d, and Gmail doesn't re-run the filter a month later to check again. The filter sits there looking correct and firing on nothing.
What works is a manual sweep. Search older_than:30d category:promotions, click the select-all checkbox, then "Select all conversations that match this search" in the banner that appears, and archive. That clears the backlog in one action, and how to mass delete emails in Gmail covers the same selection technique when you'd rather delete than archive.
What to auto archive, and what to leave alone
Good candidates are mail you want kept but never want to see arrive: receipts and order confirmations, calendar and app notifications, automated reports, shipping updates, mailing lists you genuinely read in batches. Label them on the way past so the archive is browsable rather than a pile.
Leave alone anything where a delay costs you something. Bank and payment alerts, anything two-factor, your landlord, your accountant. Archived mail generates no notification on any device, so an auto archive rule on the wrong sender is a message you find three weeks late. Narrow the criteria to a specific sender or domain rather than a keyword that might match more than you meant.
One more: don't build an archive filter on category:promotions as a whole unless you've looked at what's in there. Gmail's tabs sort more aggressively than most people expect, and order confirmations regularly land in Promotions. If your tabs are misbehaving in the first place, Gmail categories not working is the fix for that, not an archive rule stacked on top.
On your phone
The Gmail apps for Android and iPhone archive individual messages with a swipe, but they cannot create or edit filters. Build the filter once in a browser and it applies to the account, so the phone apps obey it too. There's no separate mobile setting to turn on.
When archiving is the wrong tool
Most auto archive filters are built for subscription mail, and that's where the approach starts losing. The sender keeps sending. The messages keep counting against your storage. Each new shop you buy from needs another filter, and the filter list grows until nobody remembers what half of them do. You've made the mail invisible without reducing any of it.
For mail you don't want at all, removing the source beats routing it. Our extension scans your Gmail, lists every subscription sender it finds, and unsubscribes from the ones you tick in one batch, using each sender's own unsubscribe mechanism. It shows you the result per sender, including the failures, which matters more than it sounds: about a third of unsubscribe attempts we've measured hit senders offering no working mechanism at all. Those are the ones to block instead. Old mail from the senders you leave can be archived or deleted in the same pass, and scanning and archiving are unlimited on the free plan.
A typical first scan turns up around 15 subscription senders. Clearing those is usually a bigger improvement than any filter you could write for them, and it's the difference between an inbox that's quiet and one that's merely hidden. If you want the broader version of that cleanup, how to clean your Gmail inbox is the full walkthrough.
Stop writing a filter per sender. Scan your inbox, see every mailing list you're on, and get off the ones you're done with.
Add to Chrome, freeQuick answers
Does Gmail have an auto archive feature?
Not under that name. A filter with Skip the Inbox (Archive it) is the mechanism, and it archives matching mail at delivery.
How do I auto archive emails older than 30 days?
You can't, with a filter. Filters run at delivery, so older_than:30d never matches. Clear the backlog with a manual search-and-archive sweep instead.
Can I set this up from the Gmail app?
No. Filters are created in a browser at mail.google.com. Once created they apply to your whole account, phone included.
Does archiving free up storage?
No. Archived mail stays in All Mail and still uses your 15 GB. Deleting and then emptying Trash is what frees space, and deleting archived messages explains how to find them.
Archive or unsubscribe?
Archive mail you want to keep but not see. Unsubscribe from mail you don't want at all: archiving hides it, unsubscribing stops it. Unsubscribing in Gmail covers the options.