Group email in Gmail at a glance
- A saved group is a list of people you save under a Google Contacts label, then select by name in Gmail’s To field.
- Put the group in Bcc when the people shouldn’t see each other’s email addresses.
- A personal Gmail account can send one email to up to 500 people.
- A Google Group has its own email address that authorized people can email, unlike a saved contact list.
How to create a group in Google Contacts
To save a group for Gmail, Google's email service, start in Google Contacts on a computer. You'll save the people first, then put them together under a name you'll recognize when writing an email. For example, "Volunteer team" could be the name you use for the people helping at your next event.
If someone isn't saved yet, add them as a contact before creating the group.
Click Create contact.
Choose Create a contact.
Enter the person's name and email address.
Click Save.
If several people aren't saved yet, use the multiple-contact option.
Click Create contact.
Choose Create multiple contacts.
Enter the people you want to save.
Click Save.
Create the label and add your saved contacts.
Click Create label in Google Contacts.
Enter a group name, such as "Volunteer team".
Click Save.
Select the contacts you want in the group.
Click Manage labels.
Choose the label you just created.
Click Apply.
How to send an email to the group in Gmail
Select To when the people should see the group's addresses. Otherwise, select Bcc to keep those addresses hidden.
In a new email in Gmail on a computer, select To for visible addresses or click Bcc to open the hidden-recipient field.
Type your label's name in the recipient field you chose.
Select the group from the suggestions. Gmail shows the group's contacts as recipients.
Write your email.
Send the email.
You can also click To, Cc, or Bcc in the email you're writing to open Gmail's recipient picker for selecting contacts and managing their labels.
How to hide the group’s email addresses
If you're emailing people who shouldn't see each other's addresses, select Bcc and put the group there. Those recipients can't see the names or addresses of the other hidden recipients. If you're emailing a group whose addresses should be visible, select To for the recipient list.
When someone selects Reply all, the hidden recipients won't receive that later reply.
Check this choice before sending sensitive information. In one real case, four IRCC mass emails exposed information about 636 people seeking Afghan emergency assistance. The senders used a visible recipient list, creating potentially serious safety risks.
How to change the people in the group
When someone leaves your team or class, remove them from the contact label. Group emails go only to each person's default email address. If someone uses more than one address, make sure the address they want for group emails is set as their default.
Remove members in Google Contacts on a computer.
Open the contact label you want to change.
Select the people you want to remove.
Click Label.
Uncheck the group's name.
If a contact has several email addresses, the label uses only their default address. You can change that default in Android Contacts.
Open the person's contact in Android Contacts.
Long-press the email address you want the group to use.
Select Set default.
Using a contact group on a phone
You can organize a group in Android Contacts or sync your Google contacts with the iPhone Contacts app. To email the saved group, use the computer procedure above.
Create a label in Android Contacts.
Tap Label in Contacts.
Tap New label.
Enter the name you want to use for the group.
Tap OK.
Add one person to your Android label.
Open the label.
Tap Add contact.
Select the person you want to add.
Add several people to your Android label.
Open the label.
Tap Add contact.
Hold one contact.
Select the other contacts you want to add.
Tap Add.
Sync your Google contacts with the iPhone Contacts app. This gives you your contacts on the phone, not a group-sending procedure in the Gmail app.
Open Settings on your iPhone.
Open Contacts.
Select Add account.
Under the account list, select Add account.
Select Google.
Follow the prompts to sign in to your Google account.
Select Save.
Open the iPhone Contacts app.
Create a group from an existing contact file
If you already have a contact file, you can import it instead of saving each person manually. Google Contacts accepts CSV and vCard files with .csv or .vcf extensions.
If you're importing a CSV, find the Labels column to assign contacts to your group. In Google's sample CSV format, that column holds the label names, with ":::" between names when a person belongs to more than one group.
Select Import in Google Contacts on a computer.
Click Select file.
Choose your contact file.
Click Import to bring the contacts into Google Contacts.
If you've imported a VCF, select the imported contacts and add them to your group with the label procedure above before sending.
How many people you can email at once
Gmail counts every person in your group toward the recipient limit, not the group as one recipient. There's a limit on recipients per email and on emails you can send per day.
- If you use personal Gmail, more than 500 recipients in one email or more than 500 emails in a day can trigger the sending limit.
- If you use Google Workspace, the standard limits are 2,000 recipients in one email, including no more than 500 people outside your organization, and 2,000 emails in a rolling 24-hour period.
If your personal account shows "You have reached a limit for sending mail", you've hit a sending-limit block. Sending can resume within 1 to 24 hours.
When the group needs its own email address
If other people need to email everyone through one address, set up a Google Group. For example, members of a volunteer team could write to the group's address when they need to reach one another.
You can control who may send messages to the group's address. Find Who can post to choose whether the group should accept messages from members or a wider set of people.
Replies can go to all members, managers, owners, the original author, a recipient chosen by the sender, or a custom address. Find Post replies to to choose who needs to receive the next response.
Your organization's policy determines whether you can create groups with a work or school account. If you can't create one, ask your IT administrator to set it up.
When each person needs a separate email
Mail merge lets you write one email with each person's name or details filled in. Gmail sends each person a separate copy and keeps their replies in separate threads. Personal Gmail accounts don't have mail merge. It's available only on these Google Workspace plans:
- Google Workspace Individual.
- Business Standard and Business Plus.
- Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus.
- Education Standard and Education Plus.
On one of these plans, select To and enter your Contacts label to fill in the mail-merge recipients automatically. You can reuse your saved list without rebuilding it. For the full setup, follow the steps for personalized mail-merge emails.
If the group email is rejected
Read the returned error before changing the list. Sending to a large group at once can contribute to a spam flag or temporary rejection, even when the send is below a numeric limit.
If the failure concerns a large group, put the recipients in a Google Group and send to its single address.
If the returned message points to one bad address, examine the details for that recipient. Check the spelling and whether the person's current email address has changed before retrying. If the error needs more investigation, use the email bounce-back guide to work through it.
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Draft individual replies and follow-ups with dreamif.ai
After a group update, you still need to answer people individually. Once you connect Gmail, dreamif.ai drafts replies in Gmail Drafts using the thread and earlier emails with the person. You can review and edit each draft, and nothing sends until you approve.