How to Create a Group in Gmail in 2026 and Send a Group Email

To create a group in Gmail, open Google Contacts at contacts.google.com, click Create label next to Labels, name it and click Save. Then tick the contacts you want, click Manage labels, pick the label and click Apply. To email the group, click Compose in Gmail and type the label's name in the To field. Google's Contacts help covers both steps.

Typing the same eight addresses every Friday gets old fast, and sooner or later one of them gets left off. A group fixes that, and you only build it once. Below: computer and Android steps, what to do on an iPhone, how to keep everyone's address private, Gmail's sending limits, and when you need a real shared address (a Google Group) instead of a contact label.

Three ways to email a group from Gmail

Gmail has no separate group feature. What people call a Gmail group is usually a label in Google Contacts, but two other tools solve nearby problems, and picking the right one first saves rework.

For most people the Contacts label is the answer, and it's free with any Google account. The rest of this guide starts there.

How to create a Gmail group on your computer

A Gmail contact group is a label in Google Contacts, and you create it on the Google Contacts website. These steps come from Google's help page on grouping contacts.

1. Go to contacts.google.com, using the same Google account as your Gmail.
2. Find Labels in the left menu and click Create label beside it.
3. Type a name for the group, then click Save.
4. Tick each contact you want in the group. To pick everyone, use Selection actions at the top and choose All.
5. At the top, click Manage labels.
6. Click the label you just made, then click Apply.

Name the label for what you send, not who's in it. "Friday project update" tells you which list to use six months from now; "Work people" doesn't. I keep one label per recurring email, even when two lists overlap, because the moment I share one list between two purposes, someone ends up on an email that isn't for them.

Add or remove people later

To add someone, find them in Google Contacts, tick the box beside their name, click Manage labels, choose the label and click Apply. To take someone out, click the label name on the left, tick the people to remove, click the Label icon at the top right and uncheck the label. Removing a person from a label leaves the contact itself in place.

You can also do this without leaving Gmail. In a new message, click To, Cc or Bcc to open the contact picker, tick a contact, click Manage labels, and add or remove the label from there, per Google's steps.

To rename or delete a whole group, go back to Google Contacts, point to the label under Labels on the left and follow the options that appear.

How to send a group email in Gmail

Once the label exists, sending to the group takes three clicks: compose, type the label name, send. Gmail swaps the label for every address in it.

1. In Gmail, click Compose at the top left.
2. In the To field, start typing the group's name.
3. Select the group from the list that appears. Gmail fills in each contact in the group.
4. Write your subject and message, then click Send.

Because Gmail expands the label into individual addresses, you can still remove one person before you send. That comes in handy. When I send a group update about something one person on the list is already handling, I take that person off for that one email and write to them separately, so they don't get a recap of their own work.

Everyone in the To field can see everyone else's address, and anyone who clicks Reply all writes to the whole group. If the people on your list don't know each other, or you'd rather not invite a reply-all thread, type the group's name in the Bcc field instead, and your own address in To. The Cc and Bcc guide explains what each person sees.

I put the list in Bcc any time it mixes people from different parts of my life, say a neighborhood email that also goes to two people from work. Nobody asked to have their address shared with strangers, and Bcc means I never have to think about it.

How to create a contact group on Android

On Android you create a group in the Contacts app. Google's Android steps note that some of them need Android 14 or later.

1. Open the Contacts app.
2. At the top, tap Label, then tap New label.
3. Enter a name for the label and tap OK.
4. Tap the Add contact icon and pick a contact. To add several, touch and hold one contact, tap the others, then tap Add.

One detail matters more on a phone than anywhere else: if a contact has more than one email address, only their default address goes into the group. To change it, open the contact, touch and hold the address you want and tap Set default. I learned to check this after a group email went to someone's old work address instead of their personal one, and the reply I was waiting for never came.

Can you make a Gmail group on iPhone?

Google's help page gives steps for the Google Contacts website and the Android Contacts app, but none for iPhone. The dependable route on an iPhone is the website: open contacts.google.com in Safari with your Google account and follow the computer steps above.

Once the label exists, it belongs to your Google account, so it's there the next time you write a new Gmail message on your laptop. Building the list is the fiddly part on a phone; I'd save it for a laptop if one is nearby.

When a Google Group is better than a contact label

A Google Group gives the list its own email address that anyone you allow can write to, and owners and managers can share the work of looking after it. A Contacts label lives only in your account: you're the only one who can use it, and you maintain it by hand.

Pick a Google Group when other people need to post to the list, when membership changes often, or when the list should outlive your involvement, like a parents' association or a volunteer rota. For a list that a few of us run together, a Google Group was the obvious call, because I didn't want to be the only one who could email it or the one forwarding every message.

To create one, per Google Groups help:

1. Sign in to groups.google.com.
2. At the top, click Create group.
3. Enter the group's name and email address, and choose its settings, including Who can post (who may send messages to the group address).
4. Click Create group, then wait a few minutes before you email it. Google says a new group can take a few minutes to become active.

Group names can be up to 73 characters, and the part of the address before the @ can be up to 63. To add people, open the group, select Members, then Add members, and enter their addresses. With a personal account the group ends in @googlegroups.com, and Google notes that you can invite, but not directly add, people who don't have a Google Account. Invited people join only once they accept, and until then they wait under Pending members, where you can resend the invitation.

Be careful with Who can post. A group address that anyone on the web can write to is an open door for spam. For an announcement list, I'd keep posting to owners and managers.

Gmail group email limits

A personal Gmail account can send one email to at most 500 recipients and up to 500 emails a day, according to Google's sending limits page. Every address in a group counts, so a 40-person label is 40 recipients, not one.

The Workspace figures come from Google's Workspace sending limits, which apply over a rolling 24 hours and can change without notice. Go over a limit on a personal account and Gmail blocks sending for a while; Google says you should be able to send again within 1 to 24 hours. For lists in the hundreds, Google itself suggests a Google Group instead of a long To line.

Why your Gmail group email isn't working

Most group email problems come down to an address that isn't where you think it is. Run through these before anything else:

• The label doesn't appear when you type it. Check you're signed in to the same Google account in Gmail and Google Contacts. A label made in one account won't show in another.
• Someone in the group never gets the email. Open their contact and check which address is the default. Only the default goes into the group.
• A contact is in the label but missing from the To line. The contact may have a phone number and no email address. Add an email to the contact.
• Gmail says you've reached a sending limit. You've gone past 500 recipients in one email or 500 emails in a day on a personal account. Wait, then split the list, or move it to a Google Group.
• A new Google Group bounces your first email. Give it a few minutes to become active, and check Who can post includes you.
• A Google Group member says nothing arrives. Look in Pending members: they may still have an unaccepted invitation.

Send each person their own copy instead

If the email should feel personal, or you don't want replies landing in one shared thread, Gmail's mail merge sends a separate copy to each person and can fill in their first name. Google's mail merge page lists the plans that include it: Workspace Individual, plus the Standard and Plus tiers of Business, Enterprise and Education. A free gmail.com account isn't on the list.

Mail merge works with the same Contacts labels: type the label in the To line with mail merge on, and the group fills in. Each person sees only their own address, and replies come back as separate threads. It allows up to 1,500 mail merge recipients a day.

I reach for this for anything with a personal ask in it, like asking a dozen people to confirm a date. People answer a question addressed to them by name. They tend to leave a question addressed to a crowd for someone else.

Before you send to the group

• Read the To line once. Gmail shows every address; one wrong autocomplete is easy to spot there and hard to undo after.
• Decide To or Bcc on purpose. Visible addresses invite reply-all; Bcc keeps everyone's address private.
• Put the one thing you need from people in the subject, so the email is findable later.
• Prune the label every few months. People change jobs and addresses, and a stale list quietly stops reaching them.
• If you might need to take it back, set Gmail's undo window before you hit Send. The unsend guide shows how.