How to create folders in Gmail

Can I make folders in Gmail? Not under that name. Gmail gives you labels, and for day to day use a label is a folder: you create one, it shows up in the left sidebar, you put mail in it, you click it to see what's inside. The steps below cover creating one on the web, moving mail into it, nesting one inside another, and setting a filter so future mail files itself.

I'm Alec, founder of Gmail Unsubscribe. 104,000+ people have installed it. The question I get most often from people arriving from Outlook is where the New Folder button went. It's there. It's called Create new label, it's at the bottom of the sidebar, and the rest of this page is what changes once you start using it.

Create a folder (label) on the web

As of 2026:

1. Scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar. If the list is collapsed, click More to expand it.
2. Click Create new label.
3. Type a name. Short names are easier to live with, because the name is also what you type in search (label:receipts).
4. To file it under an existing label, tick Nest label under and pick the parent.
5. Click Create.

The same thing works from a message. Open or select it, click the Labels icon in the toolbar (it looks like a tag), and click Create new. That creates the label and applies it in one go.

Settings → See all settings → Labels has the full list, including a Create new label button and the checkboxes that decide which labels show in the sidebar at all. If you made a label and can't find it, that tab is where it went.

Move mail into it

Gmail has two buttons here and they do different things. This is the part that trips people up.

• Move to applies the label and removes the Inbox label. The conversation leaves the inbox, which is what a folder move does elsewhere.
• Labels only applies the label. The conversation shows under the label and stays in the inbox.

Dragging a conversation onto a label in the sidebar does the same thing as Move to. To do it in bulk, run a search, tick the checkbox at the top left to select everything on the page, click the link to select all conversations matching the search, then Move to.

On your phone

The Gmail app is built for applying labels rather than managing them. Open a message, tap the three-dot menu, then Change labels to tag it or Move to to tag it and clear it out of the inbox. Both lists show labels that already exist. Create the label on the web first, where you can also nest it and set a color.

Nest one folder inside another

Labels nest. Create Work, then create Clients with Work as its parent, and Clients hangs under Work in the sidebar. You can also drag one label onto another in the sidebar, or edit the parent under Settings → See all settings → Labels.

Nesting is for your eye and for search. It does not put the message inside a subfolder in the Outlook sense, so a conversation labeled Work/Clients can still carry Inbox, Starred, and anything else you applied. Keep the tree shallow. Three levels is usually plenty.

File future mail automatically

Creating the label sorts today's mail. A filter sorts tomorrow's.

1. Run the search that finds the mail you want filed, for example from:newsletter@example.com.
2. Click the filter icon in the search bar, then Create filter. (Settings → See all settings → Filters and Blocked Addresses → Create a new filter gets you to the same place.)
3. Tick Apply the label and choose your label.
4. Tick Skip the Inbox (Archive it) if you want it filed without ever landing in the inbox.
5. Tick Also apply filter to matching conversations to sweep the backlog in the same step.

One catch worth knowing: mail Gmail already routed to Spam skips your filters unless the filter says Never send it to Spam. A tidy Subscriptions label won't catch anything sitting in the junk mail folder.

Why your folder behaves oddly

Three surprises account for most of the confusion, and all three come from labels being tags rather than drawers.

A message you moved can still show up somewhere else, because one conversation can carry several labels at once. Archiving is not filing, it's removing the Inbox label, so archived mail still sits in All Mail and still counts against your storage. And if you read the same account in Outlook or Apple Mail, every label is drawn as a folder over IMAP, so the same message appears in several folders at once. Gmail labels vs folders works through each of those in full.

A folder doesn't stop the mail

This is the honest part. Building a Subscriptions label and filtering everything into it makes the inbox look calm, and the mail keeps arriving at exactly the same rate. You've moved the pile, not shrunk it.

For the lists you actually want gone, unsubscribing is the fix, and the label is a decent way to stage that work: filter the mail in, then go sender by sender and decide. Our data on that: the average first scan with our extension finds about 15 subscription senders, and roughly a third of unsubscribe attempts hit senders with no working unsubscribe mechanism at all. Those senders are the ones to block rather than label, because nothing else stops them.

Gmail's own Manage subscriptions view is a quick first pass over frequent senders. It misses the quiet ones, which is what the label catches.

The free plan covers 5 unsubscribes a month plus unlimited scan and archive. Pro is $35.88/year.

Common questions

Can I make folders in Gmail?

Not under that name. Labels do the same job: create one, it appears in the sidebar, click it to see what's in it. One conversation can carry several labels at once, which is the part a folder can't do.

Where is the Create new label button?

At the bottom of the left sidebar on the web, under your existing labels. Click More first if the list is collapsed. Settings → See all settings → Labels has the same button.

Can I create a label in the Gmail app?

The app applies labels that already exist, through Change labels and Move to on the three-dot menu. Create the label on the web, where nesting and label colors also live.

What's the difference between Move to and Labels?

Move to applies the label and removes Inbox, so the mail leaves the inbox. Labels applies the label and leaves the conversation in the inbox as well.

Does moving email into a folder free up storage?

No. The message still sits in All Mail with its labels attached. Deleting it and emptying Trash is what frees space. Deleting archived messages covers the search that finds them.

Can I color-code a label?

Yes. Hover the label in the sidebar, click its three-dot menu, and pick Label color. The color shows on the chip next to the subject line.