How-To Guides

Beginner

2 min read 5 stepsMarch 31, 2026Verified March 2026

How to Stop Receiving Unwanted Emails

Spam and mailing lists clogging up your inbox? Here are the best ways to unsubscribe and clean up your email in minutes.

At a Glance

Unsubscribe from newsletters and marketing emails

~15s

Open the unwanted email and scroll to the very bottom. Look for a link that says "Unsubscribe" or "Manage preferences" and click it. Legitimate companies are legally required to include this link. It may take up to 10 business days to take effect.

Use Gmail's built-in unsubscribe button

~17s

In Gmail, many marketing emails show an "Unsubscribe" link right at the top of the email, next to the sender's name. Click it for a quick one-click unsubscribe — much faster than scrolling to the bottom.

Quick Tip

This top-of-email unsubscribe link only appears on emails Gmail recognizes as marketing or newsletters.

Mark genuine spam as junk

~23s

If an email is real spam (not something you ever signed up for), click the spam or junk button instead of unsubscribing. This trains your email filter to catch similar messages in the future. In Gmail, click the exclamation mark (!) icon. In Outlook, right-click the email, choose Junk, then Mark as Junk.

Warning

Never click links inside a suspicious spam email. Use the spam button in your email app instead.

Block a specific sender

~15s

In Gmail, open the email, click the three dots menu, and choose "Block" followed by the sender's name. In Outlook, right-click the email, choose Junk, then Block Sender. You will no longer receive emails from that address.

Create a filter to automatically delete or archive

~19s

If unwanted emails keep getting through, you can set up a filter. In Gmail, open an email from the sender, click the three dots menu, and choose "Filter messages like these." Then set it to automatically delete or archive those messages. In Outlook, go to Rules and create a rule for that sender.

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