How to Sort Gmail by Sender

Summary

While Gmail can’t truly sort your inbox by sender, you can:

• Use Gmail’s search bar with from: to find senders
• Right-click a message and choose “Find more by”
• Create filters to label or auto-archive messages
• Use Clean Email to sort, group, and clean by sender instantly

Why You Might Want to Organize Gmail by Sender

Sometimes, locating all emails from a particular person in your Google Mail inbox can be difficult. Perhaps you want to see all messages from a colleague or clean up emails from a newsletter you no longer read. Sorting by origin can help you take control of your inbox and quickly act on groups of emails.

Quick Navigation

• Sorting Gmail by Sender on Desktop
• Gmail Limitations: You Can Search, But Not Sort
• Organize Gmail Inbox by Sender on Mobile
• Tool that Truly Sorts Emails in Gmail by Sender

How Gmail Lets You Find — But Not Truly Sort or Group by Sender

Google’s mail doesn’t let you sort messages by contact like traditional email clients do. There’s no column header or dropdown that lets you organize senders alphabetically or by message count.

Still, if you’re just looking to see messages from a certain person, there are a few workarounds you can try.

1. Use the Gmail Search Bar (Desktop)

To find all emails from a specific contact, use the search bar with the from: operator.

Example:

Type from:john.doe@example.com and press Enter.

You can also:

1. Click the Show search options icon
2. Fill in the From field
3. Click Search or Create filter

But you can still find what you’re looking for by searching for messages from a specific email address using built-in search filters.

2. Right-Click and “Find Emails From” (Desktop Only)

Right-click on any email, and choose Find Emails From to instantly display other messages from the same contact.

3. Create a Filter to Organize by Sender (Desktop)

You can create a filter that automatically applies actions to emails from a specific sender:

1. Click the filter icon
2. Add contact’s email in From
3. Click Create filter
4. Choose actions like Apply label, Mark as read, or Skip inbox

This can be useful if you receive a lot of emails from certain addresses and want to group them together for easier viewing later.

Gmail Limitations: You Can Search, But Not Sort

There’s no button to sort messages by sender, and Gmail doesn’t include the author as a column you can sort by.

• ❌ No way to group contacts alphabetically
• ❌ No visual message source view
• ❌ No true bulk management by sender

If you’re used to seeing emails grouped by sender or sorted by name, Google’s Mail current system might feel restrictive.

How to Search Gmail Inbox by Sender on Mobile

These steps apply to the Gmail mobile app on both Android and iPhone.

In the Gmail mobile app, sorting options are even more limited:

• You can use the search bar to type from:email@example.com
• You’ll see matching emails
• You can’t sort alphabetically or in any other way, label, or apply filters directly in the app

So if you're checking your inbox from a phone, this won't help much either.

A Way to Truly Sort by Sender in Gmail (Desktop & Mobile)

If you want to sort Google mail’s emails by name of a person or company in just a few taps — whether you're on desktop or mobile — Clean Email is the fastest, most intuitive solution.

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Try it for Free →

Sorting Gmail Emails by Sender, Step-by-Step:

1. Sign up for free using your mail account.
2. Let the app scan your mailbox. It only takes a moment.
3. Open the All Mail view from the left sidebar, or any other view—all your emails are already grouped by sender.

To change how the results are displayed, click the Sort by menu (e.g., Newest on Top, Number of Messages, Total Size).

Apply bulk actions like Archive, Delete, Label, Move, or Star with a single click.

Want to See All Senders Sorted Alphabetically in One Place?

If you’d rather see a complete list of all contacts, head to the Senders tab in Clean Email.

There, you can:

• View how many messages each sender has sent
• Star priority contacts
• Block or mute unwanted email addresses
• Set up automatic rules like Auto Delete, Move to Folder, or Mark as Read
• Use Auto Clean to apply rules the moment emails arrive