Turn off Facebook email notifications in your account settings

Facebook sends emails about comments, friend requests, messages, and activity on your posts. You can turn off any or all of these emails without leaving Facebook or changing your password. The setting lives in one place: your Notifications preferences, which you reach through your account menu.

On a computer, click the downward arrow in the top right corner of Facebook, then select Settings and privacy, then Settings. On a phone or tablet, tap the three horizontal lines (the menu icon) in the bottom right, scroll down to Settings and privacy, then tap Settings. Either way, you are now in your account settings.

Look for Notifications in the left sidebar on a computer, or scroll down on a phone. Click or tap it. You will see a section called Email — this is where Facebook lists every type of email it can send you.

Key Takeaways

  • All Facebook email notification settings are in one place: Settings and privacy > Settings > Notifications > Email.
  • You can turn off individual notification types (comments, messages, friend requests) without affecting others.
  • Turning off email notifications does not stop notifications inside Facebook itself — only the emails sent to your inbox.
  • Changes take effect when ready, and Facebook will stop sending those emails within a few hours.
  • You can turn notifications back on at any time using the same settings menu.

Which notification types you can control

Under the Email section, Facebook lists the notifications it sends. The most common ones are: Comments (when someone comments on your post), Messages (when you receive a message), Friend requests, Birthdays, Video and photo tags, and Suggested for you (recommendations for pages, groups, or people). You may also see notifications about events you are invited to, group activity, or pages you follow.

Each notification type has a toggle switch next to it. The switch is on (blue) if Facebook is currently sending you emails about that topic, and off (gray) if it is not. You do not have to turn off all notifications — you can keep the ones you want and turn off only the ones you do not.

Turn off individual notification types

To stop emails about one specific thing, find that notification in the Email list and click or tap the toggle switch next to it. The switch will turn gray, and Facebook will stop sending you emails about that topic. For example, if you want to keep getting emails about messages but not about comments, turn off the Comments toggle and leave Messages on.

You can change your mind at any time. If you turn off a notification and later decide you want it back, go to the same menu and toggle it back on. The change takes effect when ready, though it may take a few hours for Facebook to stop sending the emails that were already queued.

Turn off all Facebook emails at once

If you want to stop all email notifications from Facebook in one action, look for an option at the top or bottom of the Email section that says something like Unsubscribe from all or Turn off all email notifications. Not all accounts show this option — it depends on your Facebook version and region — but if it appears, clicking it will turn off every notification type at once.

If you do not see an unsubscribe-all option, you can achieve the same result by toggling off each notification type individually. It takes a minute or two, but the result is the same.

The difference between email notifications and in-app notifications

Turning off email notifications only stops the emails that arrive in your inbox. It does not affect notifications that appear inside Facebook itself — the red number badges on the app icon, the alerts that pop up when you are using Facebook, or the notifications you see in your Notifications tab on the website.

If you want to control those in-app notifications as well, you need a different setting. On a phone or tablet, go to Settings and privacy > Settings > Notifications > Push notifications (or In-app notifications, depending on your device). On a computer, in-app notifications are controlled separately and may require adjusting your browser settings. But if you only want to stop the emails, the Email section in Notifications is all you need.

What happens after you turn off notifications

Once you toggle off a notification type, Facebook stops sending new emails about that topic. Emails that were already sent before you changed the setting will still arrive — Facebook does not recall emails that are already in transit. But any new activity of that type will not trigger an email.

The change is when ready on Facebook's end, though your email provider may take a few hours to stop delivering emails that were already sent. If you turn off a notification and still receive an email about it hours later, it was likely sent before your change took effect.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will turning off email notifications affect my friends or family?

No. Turning off notifications only changes what you receive — it does not affect what other people see or receive. Your friends will still be able to message you, comment on your posts, and send you friend requests. You just will not get an email about it. You will still see the activity inside Facebook itself.

Can I turn off notifications from one person but keep them from everyone else?

Not through the Email notification settings. Those settings control notification types, not individual people. However, you can mute a specific person's posts or messages through their profile or conversation, which stops notifications from them without affecting notifications from others.

What if I turned off notifications and now I am missing important messages?

Check your Messages folder inside Facebook — the emails were turned off, but the messages themselves are still there. You can also turn the notification back on at any time. If you want to stay informed without email, consider turning on only the most important notification types, like Messages or Friend requests.

Do I need to turn off notifications on my phone and computer separately?

No. Email notification settings are tied to your Facebook account, not your device. When you turn off an email notification, it stops on all devices. However, push notifications (the alerts that appear on your phone) are controlled separately and may need to be adjusted on each device.

Why am I still getting Facebook emails after I turned off notifications?

Check that you toggled off the correct notification type — you may have turned off Comments but still have Messages on, for example. Also check your email spam or promotions folder in case the emails are being filtered there. If you turned off all notifications and still receive emails, log back into Settings > Notifications > Email to confirm the toggles are actually off (gray, not blue).