How to Quickly Send a Group Email in Gmail

Email groups instead of typing out email addresses

What To Know

  • Open Gmail, and press Compose. In the To field, enter the name of the group. Gmail will add every member of the group.
  • To pick group members, select To > My Contacts > the group name. Choose the contacts, and press Insert.

This article explains how to email groups set up in Gmail and send email to select members of a group that you've set up in your Gmail contacts. These instructions apply to the desktop version of Gmail.com.

How to Send a Group Email in Gmail

  1. Open Gmail and select Compose. If the side menu is collapsed, select the Plus sign (+).

    Gmail compose button
  2. Enter the name of the group in the To field. As you type, Gmail suggests possible recipients. Select the group from the list of suggestions.

    Gmail group email

    If you don't want the group to be the main recipient, enter the group's name in the Cc or Bcc fields to send the group a carbon copy or blind carbon copy of the email.

  3. When you select the group, Gmail automatically adds every email address from the group.

How to Choose Which Contacts to Email From the Group

If you don't want every person in the group to receive the email, first enter the group into the message so that all the names appear. Then, delete a person in the list by selecting the small X next to their name or email address.

Screenshot showing how to edit Gmail group recipients before sending an email

Doing this doesn't delete the contact from the group or remove the contact from Google Contacts, it only prevents them from getting this specific email.

Another option that's more appropriate if you're planning to cut out a lot of addresses from the group, is to handpick which recipients should be included from the group.

  1. In a new message window, select either To, Cc, or Bcc to open the Select contacts screen.

    Screenshot of the Gmail To, Cc, and Bcc fields
  2. Select the My contacts dropdown arrow and choose the group name.

    Screenshot showing how to select a group of Gmail contacts before sending a message
  3. In the list of contacts for the group, select the check box next to the people you want to include in the email and clear the check box next to the people you want to exclude from the email.

    Screenshot showing how to insert addresses into Gmail fields
  4. Select Insert to import those email addresses into the field you chose in Step 1.

To move a contact from one field to another without retyping those addresses, drag the name or email address of the contact. This is a quick way to move a contact in the To field to the Cc field.

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