Twitter is called X now, and the emails come from both names depending on how long you've had the account. It's rarely one kind of message. It's a "what you missed" digest, plus suggested posts, plus someone liked your reply, plus a product update. People unsubscribe from one, the next kind shows up, and they decide unsubscribing doesn't work. It does. There are just several switches.
I'm Alec, founder of Gmail Unsubscribe. This page covers the X side first, because that's the only thing that stops the mail at the source, then the Gmail side for what's already there.
The settings path
X keeps email controls under notifications. The path is the same on the web and in the app:
- Sign in to X and open Settings and privacy from the menu.
- Click or tap Notifications.
- Click or tap Email notifications.
- Toggle email notifications off entirely, or uncheck the individual types you don't want.
Changes save automatically, so there's no button to hit at the end. X documents this in its email preferences guide.
If you still use the account, the individual checkboxes are usually what you want. Turning off the digests and recommendations while keeping, say, direct message alerts gets rid of most of the volume without making you miss anything.
The unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email
Every X marketing or notification email has an unsubscribe link in the footer. Clicking it unchecks the setting for that one type of notification. It's the quickest fix when a single email is the problem, because you don't have to find which checkbox it belongs to.
It won't stop everything, though. If three kinds of email are arriving and you click unsubscribe on one, the other two keep coming. That's the usual reason people think the link is broken.
Gmail can also show its own Unsubscribe button next to the sender's name on emails that support it. That sends the same request for you without opening the email's link. How to unsubscribe from emails in Gmail covers where it appears and when it doesn't.
What to keep
Don't switch off or block anything about access to your account: new login alerts, password changes, verification codes. Those aren't marketing, and they're how you'd find out if someone else got into the account. Unsubscribing from them isn't the goal. Unsubscribing from the digests is.
Block it in Gmail instead?
You can, but think of it as hiding rather than stopping. Gmail's Block sends future mail from that address to Spam. X keeps sending, you just stop seeing it, and if a security alert comes from the same address it goes to Spam too. Block is the right tool for a sender that ignores unsubscribe requests, which X generally doesn't. More on that difference in how to block an email address in Gmail.
Now the pile already in Gmail
Settings only change what X sends from now on. The old digests are still in your account, using storage.
In Gmail, search:
from:x.com OR from:twitter.com
Read the first page before you do anything, because security alerts and login codes come from the same domains. If it's all disposable, select the results, use Gmail's option to select every matching conversation, delete, and then empty Trash. Deleted mail sits in Trash for 30 days and still counts against your storage until you do. The careful version is in how to delete multiple emails in Gmail at once.
To keep the recent ones and clear the rest, add an age filter: from:x.com older_than:1y.
X is usually not the only one
If X is loud enough that you searched for this, it's worth seeing what else is in there. The average first scan with Gmail Unsubscribe finds about 15 subscription senders.
Our extension runs inside Gmail, finds those senders, and sends real unsubscribe requests through each sender's official mechanism: one-click (RFC 8058), then unsubscribe-by-email from your own address, then the unsubscribe link. It can also archive the backlog each sender left behind.
One honest caveat. Roughly a third of unsubscribe attempts across our users hit senders with no working mechanism at all. We tell you plainly which ones failed instead of quietly filing their mail to Trash and calling it done. Big platforms are generally not in that third. The ones that ignore you tend to be small senders you've never heard of.
Free covers unlimited scanning and archiving, and 5 unsubscribes a month. Pro is $35.88/year for unlimited unsubscribes.
See every list your inbox is on, not just the loud one. Scan free, unsubscribe from the senders you pick, and find out which ones have no working opt-out.
Add to Chrome, freeCommon questions
How do you stop getting emails from Twitter?
Settings and privacy, then Notifications, then Email notifications. Turn email off entirely or uncheck the types you don't want.
Does the unsubscribe link stop all Twitter emails?
No. It turns off that one notification type. The rest stay on until you change them in Email notifications.
Will this stop security alerts?
Leave those on. Login alerts, password changes and verification codes are account mail, and you want them.
Should I just block Twitter in Gmail?
Only if the settings don't hold. Blocking hides future mail in Spam rather than stopping it, and it hides security alerts too.
How do I delete the old Twitter emails in Gmail?
Search from:x.com OR from:twitter.com, keep any security alerts you need, delete the rest, and empty Trash.