Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
You can use labels to tag, organize, and categorize messages and threads in Gmail. A label has a many-to-many relationship with messages and threads: you can apply multiple labels to a single message or thread and apply a single label to multiple messages or threads.
For information about how to create, get, list, update, or delete labels, see the Labels reference.
To manage labels, you must use the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.labels scope. For more information about scopes, see Gmail API-specific authorization and authentication information.
Labels come in two varieties: reserved SYSTEM labels and custom USER labels. System labels typically correspond to pre-defined elements in the Gmail web interface such as the inbox. Systems label names are reserved; no USER label can be created with the same name as any SYSTEM label. The following table lists several of the most common Gmail system labels:
INBOX yes SPAM yes TRASH yes UNREAD yes STARRED yes IMPORTANT yes SENT no Applied automatically to messages that are sent with drafts.send or messages.send, inserted with messages.insert and the user's email in the From header, or sent by the user through the web interface. DRAFT no Automatically applied to all draft messages created with the Gmail API or Gmail interface. CATEGORY_PERSONAL yes Corresponds to messages that are displayed in the Personal tab of the Gmail interface. CATEGORY_SOCIAL yes Corresponds to messages that are displayed in the Social tab of the Gmail interface. CATEGORY_PROMOTIONS yes Corresponds to messages that are displayed in the Promotions tab of the Gmail interface. CATEGORY_UPDATES yes Corresponds to messages that are displayed in the Updates tab of the Gmail interface. CATEGORY_FORUMS yes Corresponds to messages that are displayed in the Forums tab of the Gmail interface. Note: The above list is not exhaustive and other reserved label names exist. Attempting to create a custom label with a name that conflicts with a reserved name results in an HTTP 400 - Invalid label name error. Manage labels on messages & threads
Labels only exist on messages. For instance, if you list labels on a thread, you get a list of labels that exist on any of the messages within the thread. A label might not exist on every message within a thread. You can apply multiple labels to messages, but you can't apply labels to draft messages.
Add or remove labels to threadsWhen you add or remove a label to a thread, you add or remove the specified label on all existing messages in the thread.
If messages are added to a thread after you add a label, the new messages don't inherit the existing label associated with the thread. To add the label to those messages, add the label to the thread again.
To add or remove the labels associated with a thread, use threads.modify.
When you add a label to a message, the label is added to that message and becomes associated with the thread to which the message belongs. The label isn't added to other messages within the thread.
If you remove a label from a message and it was the only message in the thread with that label, the label is also removed from the thread.
To add or remove the labels applied to a message, use messages.modify.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-08-04 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-04 UTC."],[],[]]
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