How to move emails from promotions to primary in gmail

Sort your emails into different inbox tabs, like Social or Promotions. When you open Gmail, you won't have to see all emails at once.

Add or remove category tabs

Tip: If you've turned on notifications, you'll only get notifications about emails in your Primary category.

Move an email to a new category

1. Drag an email to a category tab to add it.
2. To move all future emails from that sender to that category, on the bottom left pop-up notification, click Yes.  

Find emails in a category

Can't find emails in a category

Archived emails won't show up in their category tabs.

To find emails you've archived, search for the email in the box at the top of the page.

Search a category

Type category: then the category name before your search term.


For example, category:social party shows you emails in the Social tab that include "party."


These categories can be used in searches, even if the category isn’t currently enabled as a tab:

  • Primary—Emails from people you know and messages that don’t appear in other tabs.
  • Social—Messages from social networks and media-sharing sites.
  • Promotions—Deals, offers, and other promotional emails.
  • Updates—Notifications, confirmations, receipts, bills, and statements.
  • Forums—Messages from online groups, discussion boards, and mailing lists.
  • Reservations—Flight confirmations, hotel bookings, and restaurant reservations.
  • Purchases— Order, shipping, and delivery emails.

Tip: “Reservations” and “Purchases” can’t be enabled as tabs, but can be used in searches and filters.

Turn promotion bundling off

If you use the Default inbox type, Gmail bundles promotional emails under the Promotions tab.

Turn this setting off:

  1. Open Gmail.
  2. In the top right, click Settings
    How to move emails from promotions to primary in gmail
     
    How to move emails from promotions to primary in gmail
     See all settings
  3. Click Inbox 
    How to move emails from promotions to primary in gmail
     untick "Enable bundling of top promo emails in Promotions."

Learn more about how Gmail ads work.

Change notifications for each category

You can choose different notifications for each category. Learn more about notifications.

Check the number of messages in your inbox

In Gmail, replies to a message are grouped into conversations. In your inbox, you'll see the number of conversations you have, but not messages.

Follow these steps to see how many messages are in your inbox:

  1. On your computer, open Gmail. You can't find your total number of messages from the Gmail app.
  2. In the top right, click Settings
    How to move emails from promotions to primary in gmail
    How to move emails from promotions to primary in gmail
    Settings.
  3. Scroll down to the "Conversation view" section.
  4. Select Conversation view off.
  5. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.
  6. Go back to your inbox to see the number of messages you have. If you have multiple sections or categories, make sure to add together the number from each section.
  7. When you're done, go back to settings and turn on "Conversation view."

I can't turn on inbox categories

If you have more than 250,000 messages in your inbox, you won't be able to turn on inbox categories.

To get below this limit, you can archive or delete messages.

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?

Gmail Help

Sign in

Google Help

  • Help Center
  • Community
  • Gmail
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Submit feedback

Send feedback on...

This help content & information

General Help Center experience

  • Help Center
  • Community
  • New to integrated Gmail

Gmail

Stay on top of the new way to organize a space. Learn more about in-line threading.

How do I stop emails from going to promotions in Gmail?

Click the Settings gear icon and then select See all settings from the drop-down. Click the "Inbox" tab. Then, uncheck the box next to Promotions and any other unwanted tabs to remove them from the inbox. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen.

How do I make emails go to primary in Gmail?

Please click and drag our message to the Primary tab at the top of your Gmail interface to indicate it's important.” When users do so, they'll get a message from Gmail asking if this is where they'd like your future emails to land.

How do I change emails from promotions to primary?

How to Move Emails from Promotions to Primary in Gmail App.
Tap Promotions in Gmail app..
Open the email you want to move..
Tap the three dots..
Tap Move to..
Choose Primary and you're done!.

Why are emails going to promotions in Gmail?

Why do emails end up in the Gmail Promotions Tab? When a business sends an email blast, Google scans the incoming mail, and depending on the kind of information received, assigns the email to the Primary Inbox, to the Social Tab, or the Promotions Tab.