What a contact group is and why you might want one
A contact group in Gmail is a folder that holds multiple email addresses under a single name. Instead of typing five email addresses one by one, you type the group name once and Gmail sends your message to everyone in it. Gmail calls these "labels" when you're organizing existing contacts, but the feature that lets you email a whole group at once is officially called a "group".
The main reason to create one is speed. If you email the same set of people regularly — your book club, your project team, your family — a group saves you from retyping the same addresses every time. You create it once, then reuse it forever.
Key Takeaways
- Contact groups live in Gmail's Contacts app, not in the email inbox itself, so you have to open Contacts first.
- You can create a new group and add people to it in the same step, or add existing contacts to a new group later.
- When you send an email to a group, Gmail shows you how many people are in it before you hit send.
- You can add or remove people from a group at any time without affecting the original contacts.
- Groups only work for sending — you cannot receive mail to a group address or use a group as a mailing list that others can join.
How to create a new group from scratch
Open Gmail and click the Google Apps menu — the grid of nine dots in the top right corner. Select "Contacts" from the dropdown. You are now in Google Contacts, which is separate from your inbox.
On the left side of the screen, you will see a section labeled "Labels". Below that, click the plus sign next to "Create label". Type the name you want for your group — something like "Book Club" or "Project Team". Press Enter. The group now exists, but it is empty.
To add people to it, click the group name you just created. A panel opens on the right. Click "Add members" and start typing a contact's name or email address. Gmail will show you matching contacts. Click the person you want to add. Repeat until everyone is in the group. If someone is not yet in your contacts, you can type their email address directly and Gmail will add them.
How to add existing contacts to a group
If you already have people saved as individual contacts, you can add them to a group without creating new entries. Open Contacts and find the person you want to add. Click their name to open their full contact card. Scroll down to the "Labels" section and click the pencil icon. A dropdown appears showing all your groups. Check the box next to the group name. Click outside the dropdown to save.
Repeat this for each person you want in the group. You can also select multiple contacts at once by clicking the checkbox next to each name in the main contacts list, then clicking the label icon that appears at the top. This is faster if you are adding five or more people.
How to send an email to your group
Open Gmail and click "Compose" to start a new email. In the "To" field, type the name of your group. Gmail will show you the group name as an option — click it to select it. The group name will appear in the To field, and Gmail will show you a small note saying how many people are in the group.
Write your subject and message as usual. Before you click Send, take a moment to look at the recipient line. You will see the group name, not the individual addresses, so double-check that you are sending to the right group. Once you click Send, the email goes to everyone in that group at the same time.
What happens when you change a group
If you add someone to a group after you have already sent emails to that group, the new person will not receive those old emails. They only get messages sent after they were added. Similarly, if you remove someone from a group, they stop receiving future emails to that group, but they keep any emails they received while they were a member.
You can rename a group at any time. In Contacts, right-click the group name and select "Rename label". Type the new name and press Enter. This does not affect the emails already sent — it only changes what the group is called going forward.
Limits and things that do not work with groups
Gmail groups are one-way only. You cannot set up a group email address that people outside Gmail can send to, and you cannot create a mailing list where people sign themselves up. Groups are purely a tool for you to send emails to multiple people at once from your own account.
If you need a shared inbox where multiple people can send and receive messages, or a mailing list that people can join, you would need a different tool — Google Groups (a separate product), a mailing list service, or a team communication platform like Slack. For straightforward "send to multiple people" needs, Gmail's contact groups work fine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see who is in a group before I send?
Yes. When you type the group name in the To field, Gmail shows you the number of people in it. Click the group name to expand it and see the full list of email addresses before you send.
What if someone's email address changes?
Update their contact card with the new address. Open Contacts, find the person, and edit their email field. The group will automatically use the updated address the next time you send to that group.
Can I create a group inside a group?
No. Gmail groups cannot contain other groups. You have to add individual contacts to each group separately.
Do people know they are in a group when they receive the email?
They see all the other recipients in the To or Cc field, depending on how you sent it. They do not see the group name itself, only the individual email addresses.
Can I use groups on the Gmail mobile app?
You can send to groups on mobile, but you cannot create or edit groups from the app. You have to use the web version of Gmail or Google Contacts on a computer to set up or change groups.