How to delete all promotions in Gmail: A step-by-step guide

Gmail has several useful email management features, including separate tabs for promotional emails and social updates. This categorization ensures that important mail reaches your main inbox while the rest goes to the corresponding tab.

It also simplifies inbox organization as you can find unnecessary mail in one place and delete it in bulk to free up storage. This guide will show you how to delete all promotions in Gmail at once and teach you about the additional steps you can take to keep your inbox clean.

To mass-delete all promotional emails, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Promotions tab next to Primary above your inbox

2. Click the checkmark underneath the search bar

3. Doing this will select all emails from the given page. To expand the selection to all emails, click Select all [XXX] conversations in Promotions

4. Click the bin icon above the inbox

5. Confirm the action in the pop-up window

All emails will move from the Promotions tab to the Trash folder, which Gmail will empty on its own after 30 days. If you want to permanently delete emails from Trash without waiting, take these steps to do it manually:

1. Click the down-facing arrow in the left-hand menu to expand the folder list

2. Go to Trash

3. Click Empty Trash now above the inbox

4. Confirm the deletion

Note that deleting promotional emails won’t help you avoid Gmail’s ads, which are placed quite prominently in the Promotions tab. They can distract you and damage the overall user experience, but there is no way around them besides signing up for one of Gmail’s paid plans.

Keep reading: Find out what happens to your old Gmail emails after some time.

Deleting promotions in Gmail’s app is far more inconvenient than doing it through the web version because the app doesn’t have a bulk-select feature—you must select conversations one by one. If you don’t mind this and still wish to delete emails through the app (perhaps because you don’t have many promotional emails), you can take the following steps:

1. Click the hamburger icon in the upper-left corner of the screen

2. Go to Promotions

3. Press and hold the email you want to remove (skip the first email or two if they’re marked with Sponsored because these are ads)

4. Tap on all the emails you want to delete

5. Tap the bin icon above the inbox

You can remove the emails from Trash the same way you would in the web version. 

Besides deleting promotional emails, you can remove the entire Promotions tab from your inbox if you don’t want the tabbed view. Here’s how to do it on the desktop/browser version:

1. Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen

2. Go to See all settings

3. Open the Inbox tab

4. Deselect Promotions under Categories

5. Scroll down and click Save changes

You can remove the tab from the app by taking these steps:

1. Tap the hamburger icon and scroll down to Settings

2. Under Inbox, go to Inbox customizations > Inbox categories

3. Toggle Promotions off

Deleting promotional emails is only the first step to organizing your inbox. It doesn’t do much in the long run because you will keep receiving new messages from advertisers. Worse yet, you may be receiving spam that doesn’t get sorted to its dedicated folder automatically, so it ends up in your inbox.

To prevent these issues, you should take two steps that go beyond deleting emails:

1. Unsubscribe from newsletters you no longer follow

2. Block and report spam emails

Keep reading: If dealing with clutter manually seems like a chore, check out our guide to the best Gmail cleaner apps.

To prevent unwanted ads and updates from the newsletters you’re not interested in, use Gmail’s convenient unsubscribe feature. Take the following steps to remove yourself from email lists:

1. Open the email you want to unsubscribe from

2. Click Unsubscribe in the header next to the sender’s email

3. Confirm the unsubscription

This button isn’t visible in the app, so you have two options for unsubscribing once you open the mail:

1. Find the sender’s unsubscribe button (typically placed at the end of the email)

2. Tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner and choose Unsubscribe

Spam emails might evade Gmail’s detection and reach your inbox, causing distractions and potentially exposing your data to significant risks. Deleting them isn’t enough because you will most likely receive more from the same sender, so you should block them and report the email. Take the following steps to do so:

1. Open the spam email

2. Click the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner

3. You’ll see the option to block the sender and report spam or phishing. Choose the corresponding option and confirm it

As you report spam, Google’s detection algorithm should get better at identifying it. In case the email is a phishing attempt, refrain from taking any action that would reveal your sensitive information.

A cluttered inbox can make it much harder to spot spam and phishing emails. When your inbox is overflowing with promotions and other non-essential messages, it’s easy for malicious emails to slip through and compromise your account. 

This is why it’s useful to have an email service that helps you maintain an organized inbox. In other words, choosing an email service that offers robust organizational tools and also prioritizes your important messages allows you to quickly identify anything suspicious.

Email services like Gmail provide some basic communication and organizational tools. However, if you’re looking for specific features that really help you manage your email efficiently and productively, you might find them a bit lacking. 

You may encounter challenges that impede your workflow and productivity, as explained in the table below: 

To overcome these challenges, you need an email service that empowers you to:

• Organize your inbox effectively

• Automate your routine tasks

• Streamline your workflow

• Customize your email experience

If achieving all the above sounds appealing, consider Notion Mail, a smart, personalized alternative to Gmail that helps you reclaim your time and keep your inbox focused. 

If you’re ready to move beyond a basic inbox and enhance your email management experience, Notion Mail is an excellent solution. It’s an AI-first, builder-focused email client that transforms how you manage your communication, allowing you to turn your inbox into a command center that adapts to your unique workflows.

With Notion Mail, you’re not spending hours on simple tasks—you can manage every aspect of your workflow quickly. Here’s how:

• Effortlessly schedule meetings by using the short command /schedule or inserting a scheduling button directly into your emails, so you can skip the email ping-pong of coordinating times.

• Automatically organize your inbox by using the AI autopilot to auto-sort, label, and filter your emails without your manual input. 

• Create custom views by tailoring your inbox to focus on specific projects, clients, or tasks so you can see only what’s relevant at the time. 

• Save time by creating snippets—reusable, pre-written templates that you can insert into your emails with a single click. 

• Instantly reply to emails using auto-replies or rely on AI-powered summaries to grasp the essentials of lengthy emails.

By combining AI-powered automation with customizable workflows, Notion Mail enables you to take better control of your inbox and boost your productivity.

Notion Mail isn’t just a standalone tool; it seamlessly integrates with other powerful Notion tools to help you achieve full-on efficiency beyond email. This means all your favorite Notion tools are accessible to you without switching between apps. You can gain access to all of the above features in a single step—all you need to do is sign up using your Gmail or Google account!

If you need more advanced AI-powered or automated features, you can get the Notion AI add-on feature. 

Bonus read: Get the most out of Gmail with our resourceful tutorials or find the perfect alternative with our comparison guides:

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