How To Sort Gmail Emails by Size in Inbox

Gmail is one of the most widely used email services, with over 1.5 billion active users. With so many emails coming in daily, it’s easy for your inbox to get cluttered. Sorting emails by size can help you identify and remove large attachments that are eating up space.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to sort Gmail emails by size right from your inbox.

Why Sort by Size

Here are some key reasons for sorting Gmail emails by size:

  • Identify large attachments – Emails with big file attachments like videos and images can take up significant space in your inbox. Sorting by size helps spot these space hogs.
  • Free up space – By removing large unnecessary attachments, you can free up storage space in Gmail. This allows you to receive more emails without hitting the quota limit.
  • Improve loading speed – Large emails with big attachments tend to load slower. Sorting them out can help improve overall inbox loading speed and performance.
  • Organize inbox – Sorting by size also helps categorize and organize your inbox better by isolating the emails with hefty attachments.

How to Sort Gmail Emails by Size

Sorting Gmail emails by size is easy and straightforward. Here are the step-by-step instructions:

On Desktop

Follow these steps to sort emails by size on the Gmail desktop interface:

  • Go to your Gmail inbox on desktop.
  • Next to the search bar, click on the downward arrow icon to open search options.
  • Under the size section, select the minimum size of emails you want to view. For example, select 10 MB to view emails over 10 MB.
  • Click on Search. This will display all emails larger than the selected size.
  • Alternatively, you can manually enter a size query. For 10 MB, enter size:10000000.

On Mobile App

Here are the steps to sort Gmail emails by size on Android & iOS app:

  • Open the Gmail app and go to the inbox.
  • Tap on the search bar at the top. This will reveal additional search options.
  • Under size, choose the minimum size of emails to display. For instance, 5 MB.
  • The results will show all emails over 5 MB in size.
  • You can also type a size query manually in the search bar like size:5000000 for 5 MB.

Search Operators for Sorting by Size

Along with selecting a minimum size in search options, you can use search operators for more fine-grained control:

  • size: – Finds emails larger than the given size in bytes. For 5 MB, the query is size:5000000.
  • larger: – Same as size operator. larger:5000000 for greater than 5 MB.
  • smaller: – Finds emails smaller than the specified size in bytes.

You can use these operators in Gmail search on both desktop and mobile apps.

Tips for Managing Large Emails

When sorting emails by size, you may come across extremely large attachments unnecessarily eating up space. Here are some tips to deal with them:

  • Delete – Simply delete the large emails with attachments you don’t need. This can instantly free up storage space in Gmail.
  • Download – If you need to keep the attachments, download them to your computer or cloud storage. Then delete the emails.
  • Archive – Archive the bulky emails to move them out of the inbox. Archived emails don’t count towards storage quota.
  • Filter – Create filters in Gmail to automatically delete or archive emails over a certain size.

Conclusion

Sorting Gmail emails by size lets you identify and organize bulky emails hogging up space in your inbox. Use the size search options and operators to spot large unnecessary attachments quickly. Then take steps to delete, download or archive them based on your needs.

Implementing these sorting techniques will help you keep your Gmail fast, responsive and clutter-free.