Search
Search looks through all the mail Mail keeps on your server, across every account, so it's quick even with years of mail.
Search your mail
Type in Search at the top, or press / to get there. Mail finds your words anywhere in a message, including its attachments' names. Trash and Junk are left out unless you ask for them.
Under the results, quick filters narrow them with one press: Has attachment, Unread, Flagged and Past week. Your recent searches are kept in this browser, and Clear recent searches forgets them.
Search options
Press the sliders at the end of the search box for a form with From, To, Subject, Words, Look in, Since, Until, Has an attachment, Unread and Flagged. It writes the search for you. Make a filter turns the search into a filter; see Filters and away replies.
Search terms
You can type terms too, the way Gmail reads them.
| Term | What it finds |
|---|---|
from:bea |
Mail from Bea. from:me is mail you sent |
to:bea |
Mail to Bea, in To or Cc |
subject:dinner |
Dinner in the subject |
has:attachment |
Mail with an attachment |
filename:pdf |
Attachments with pdf in their name |
after:2026-10-01 |
Mail from that day on |
before:2026-11-01 |
Mail before that day |
newer_than:7d, older_than:1y |
Days (d), weeks (w), months (m) or years (y) |
in:archive |
One place: inbox, sent, drafts, archive, snoozed, trash, junk, a folder's name, or anywhere |
category:promotions |
An Inbox tab: primary, updates, promotions or social |
is:unread |
Also is:read, is:flagged and is:snoozed |
Days are in your time zone. Put a value with spaces in quotes, like from:"Bea Smith". OR between words, or between from:, to: or subject: terms, finds either one:
subject:invoice OR subject:receiptIf Mail can't read a search, like a date that isn't one, it says why in the list.