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
Gmail user interface in the desktop version

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

Image: Gmail settings in the drop-down menu
Gmail settings in the drop-down menu

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

Image: Gmail forwarding tab
Gmail for­ward­ing tab

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

Image: Adding a forwarding address in Gmail
Adding a for­ward­ing address in 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
Con­fir­ma­tion window for Gmail for­ward­ing

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
Con­fir­ma­tion message for Gmail for­ward­ing

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
Gmail for­ward­ing options
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.

Google Workspace
Work smarter, together with Workspace
  • All your favorite Google tools, in one place
  • Business Gmail with your own domain
  • Gemini AI to help you work smarter

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
Disabling Gmail for­ward­ing
Note

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

Reviewer

  • Jeanna Raffa

    Jeanna Raffa

    With over 18 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in online marketing, Jeanna Raffa possesses extensive expertise in digital marketing. Since 2020, her focus has been on providing practical in­for­ma­tion regarding email, office, and cloud storage solutions.

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