How do I block a sender in Gmail?

Three methods. First, the Block button in the message dropdown (three dots in the upper right of an open message), which sends future mail from that exact address to spam. Second, a custom filter that sends specific senders to Trash automatically. Third, the Blocked Addresses list under Settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses, which manages your existing blocks.

Does blocking a sender in Gmail actually stop the mail?

No, not completely. Blocking sends future mail from that exact address to spam. The mail still arrives at Gmail's servers and is filed in your Spam folder. It does not stop the sender from sending; it changes where the mail is filed when it arrives.

Can a blocked sender just use a new address?

Yes, and most spammers do. The Block list works on exact addresses, not domains. Any cold outreach campaign that rotates senders can bypass your Block list immediately. This is the fundamental limit of address-based blocking.

How do I block an entire domain in Gmail?

Create a custom filter with the criterion 'from:@domain.com' and the action 'Delete it' or 'Skip Inbox + Apply label.' The Block button works only on exact addresses; the filter system can match domains. This is more useful for blocking specific sender domains that send mail you never want.

How to Block a Sender Permanently in Gmail

Q: What works when block lists do not?

A structural filter that asks unknown senders for a small cover charge. The Block list approach is reactive: you wait until a sender bothers you, then you block them, then they switch to a new address. A cover charge is proactive: every unknown sender pays before reaching you, regardless of whether you have seen their address before.

Gmail has three different ways to block a sender. Here is what each one does, where it falls short, and what works when block lists do not.

Gmail has three different ways to block a sender, and most users have only ever used one of them. This post walks through what each method actually does, where it falls short, and what works when block lists hit their structural limits.

Method One: The Block Button

The most-used method. Open any message in Gmail, click the three-dot dropdown in the upper right of the message, and select “Block [sender].” Gmail confirms with a notification, and future mail from that exact address goes to your Spam folder automatically.

What it does:

Adds the sender’s exact address to your Blocked Addresses list.
Routes future mail from that address to Spam.
Surfaces an option to also unsubscribe (using List-Unsubscribe header, where the sender provides one).

What it does not do:

Does not block the entire domain. Only the exact address.
Does not stop the mail from being sent or arriving at Gmail’s servers; it just changes where the mail is filed.
Does not retroactively move existing mail from that sender (you have to use Sweep or a filter for that).
Does not tell the sender they have been blocked. They will continue to send and assume it is being delivered.

The Block button is fine for the casual case where you want to stop hearing from a specific address you have already corresponded with. It is not enough for the volume problem where senders rotate addresses constantly.

Method Two: Custom Filters With Block Actions

The more powerful approach. Settings > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses > Create a new filter. The filter dialog accepts a wide range of conditions and actions.

The block-equivalent setup:

Condition. “From” field with the sender address, or domain (e.g., “from:@spamdomain.com” to block the entire domain), or pattern (e.g., “from:newsletter*” to block addresses starting with “newsletter”).

Action. Choose either “Delete it” (sends to Trash, auto-purged after 30 days) or “Skip the Inbox” plus “Apply the label” (with a custom label like “Blocked”) to keep the mail visible in case you ever need to recover it.

Why this is more useful than the Block button:

Domain-level blocking. The Block button is per-address; filters can match a domain.
Pattern-based blocking. You can block any address matching a pattern, useful for catching newsletter senders or marketing systems that use predictable address structures.
Combinable conditions. Block a sender only when they include a specific subject pattern, only on certain days, only when above a certain message size. The full Gmail search-operator syntax is available.
More transparency. Blocked Addresses are buried in settings; filters are listed and editable.

We covered the broader filter system in the complete guide to Gmail filters in 2026 and Gmail’s hidden spam settings most people miss.

Method Three: The Blocked Addresses List

The reference list. Settings > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses > scroll down to “The following email addresses are blocked.” This is the central registry of every address you have blocked using the Block button.

What you can do here:

Review the list of blocked senders.
Unblock specific senders.
Edit the list manually.

What is hidden: Gmail does not display the complete blocked list cleanly on mobile, and the list can become unwieldy over time. Most users accumulate hundreds of blocks over years and never review or trim the list. Most of those blocks are obsolete (the sender stopped using that address ages ago).

Periodic cleanup is worth it. A list with 50 active blocks is more useful than a list with 500 mostly-stale ones, because you can actually scan it for senders you might want to unblock.

Why Blocking Has Structural Limits

The Block button approach has a fundamental ceiling. Address-based blocking only works against senders who reuse the same address. Modern cold outreach and modern spam do not.

A typical cold outreach campaign uses a fresh sender domain for every batch, sometimes a fresh sub-account per recipient, and rotates infrastructure constantly. Blocking the address does nothing about the next campaign from the same operator on a different domain.

A typical spam operation has thousands of available domains and email-sending services. Each blocked address is one of an effectively unlimited supply.

The Block button is reactive. You wait until a sender bothers you, you block them, they switch to a new address, you wait until the new address bothers you, you block them again. The work is per-sender. The work scales linearly with the volume of new senders. This is the structural limit.

What Domain-Level Blocking Adds

Domain-level blocking with custom filters helps in some cases:

Specific newsletter providers you no longer want to hear from (block the domain, all subscriptions go away).
Specific outreach tools that use a consistent domain (block the domain, all senders using that tool are blocked).
Specific spam infrastructure providers (block known domains, catch the senders using them).

Domain blocking helps when there is a small set of high-volume sender domains. It does not help against the long-tail of single-use domains that mass campaigns rotate through.

What Works When Blocking Does Not

The structural answer is to invert the question. Instead of blocking specific senders you have already encountered, ask every unknown sender to clear a small bar before reaching you.

Rythm does this by asking unknown senders for a small cover charge (default about four cents). Senders on your auto-built guest list (people you have corresponded with) walk in for free. Unknown senders pay or wait in a separate folder for your review.

The economic effect is structural:

A spammer sending 100,000 messages at four cents each costs $4,000 to run. The mass campaign math collapses.
A real cold outreach sender pays the four cents and reaches you. They valued the contact enough to spend the money.
Every blocked-address problem becomes a paid-cover-charge or held-for-review event. The “block this sender” workflow is replaced by a “review the held folder” workflow that scales much better.

We covered the broader frame in what is an email paywall and why am I getting so much spam.

A Quick Practical Workflow

For Gmail users who want to handle blocking pragmatically without overhauling their filter setup:

Step one: use the Block button for one-off senders. When a specific sender annoys you and you do not expect to hear from them again, click Block. Five seconds. Done.

Step two: use domain filters for systemic problem domains. When you notice a pattern (a specific marketing automation tool, a specific outreach provider, a specific newsletter platform), set up a domain-level filter once and forget it.

Step three: do not waste time blocking new addresses from old senders. If a sender keeps coming at you from new addresses, blocking each new address is rearranging deck chairs. The structural problem is not addressable through Block.

Step four: clean up your Blocked Addresses list quarterly. Open the list, scan for stale blocks, remove the ones that are obsolete. Five minutes once a quarter.

Step five: consider a structural filter for the volume problem. If your inbox is overwhelmed by mail from senders you have never corresponded with, a cover charge gate is the right tool. Block lists are the wrong tool for that scale.

A Specific Honest Note

The Gmail Block button is fine for what it is. It handles the casual case adequately and does not pretend to do more than it does.

The volume problem is downstream of the Block button’s design. Modern cold outreach and modern spam rotate addresses, and an address-based block list cannot keep up. The structural answer is to filter on identity (auto-built guest list) and economic cost (small cover charge for unknown senders), which is what Rythm does.

For the related guides, see the complete guide to Gmail filters in 2026, Gmail’s hidden spam settings most people miss, and why unsubscribing makes spam worse. For the equivalent post on Outlook, see how to block a sender permanently in Outlook (forthcoming). Rythm is $1.65 per month, cancel anytime.