What a contact group does and why you need one
A contact group in Gmail is a saved list of email addresses that you can send a message to all at once. Instead of typing five or ten email addresses into the "To" field every time you want to reach the same people, you type one group name. Gmail calls this a "label" when you are organizing existing contacts, but the feature works the same way — you create it once, then reuse it.
Contact groups are useful if you regularly email the same set of people: your book club, your project team, your family, or a committee. You create the group once in Gmail Contacts, add people to it, and then send to the group name from the compose window. The group itself lives in your Contacts, not in your email folders.
Key Takeaways
- Contact groups are created in Gmail Contacts, not in the main Gmail inbox, and you reach Contacts through the Google Apps menu or by going to contacts.google.com.
- You can add people to a group either by creating the group first and then adding members, or by selecting multiple existing contacts and labeling them together.
- Once a group is created, you send to it by typing the group name in the "To" field of a new message, just as you would type a single email address.
- You can edit a group at any time to add or remove people, and changes take effect immediately for future messages.
How to create a new contact group from scratch
Open Gmail Contacts by clicking the Google Apps menu (the grid of nine dots in the top right of Gmail) and selecting "Contacts". You can also go directly to contacts.google.com in your browser.
On the left side of the Contacts page, you will see a section called "Labels". Below that, click "Create label". Type a name for your group — for example, "Book Club" or "Project Team" — and press Enter. The label is now created, but it is empty.
To add people to the group, click the label name on the left. The main area will show "No contacts yet". Click the "Add contacts" button (or the plus icon), then search for or select the people you want to add. You can add them one at a time or select multiple people at once by holding Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and clicking each name. Once you have selected everyone, click "Add" to confirm.
How to create a contact group from existing contacts
If you already have contacts saved in Gmail, you can create a group by selecting them. Go to contacts.google.com and find the people you want to group together. Click the checkbox next to the first person's name, then hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and click the checkboxes next to the other people you want to include.
Once you have selected all the people for your group, look for the "Label" option in the toolbar at the top. Click it and select "Create label". Type the name of your new group and press Enter. All the selected people are now added to that group automatically.
How to send an email to your contact group
Open Gmail and click "Compose" to start a new message. In the "To" field, type the name of your contact group. Gmail will show you a dropdown suggestion with the group name — click it to select it. The group name will appear in the "To" field, and when you send, the message goes to every person in that group.
If the group name does not appear as a suggestion, you may have typed it slightly differently than you named it, or the group may not be saved yet. Go back to Contacts, check the exact spelling of the group name, and try again.
How to add or remove people from an existing group
Go to contacts.google.com and click the group name on the left side under "Labels". You will see all the people currently in that group. To add someone new, click "Add contacts" and search for or select the person you want to add. To remove someone, click the three dots next to their name and select "Remove from label".
Changes to a group take effect immediately. The next time you send to that group, it will include the updated list of people. You do not need to do anything else — Gmail remembers the change automatically.
Troubleshooting: Why your group name is not showing up
If you type a group name in the "To" field and Gmail does not suggest it, the most common reason is that you created the label in Contacts but have not added any people to it yet. Gmail will not show an empty group as an option. Add at least one person to the group, and then the name will appear as a suggestion when you compose.
Another reason is that you may have created the label with a slightly different spelling or capitalization than you remember. Go back to contacts.google.com, look at the exact name under "Labels" on the left, and use that exact spelling when you type in the "To" field. Gmail's suggestions are case-insensitive, but the name has to match word-for-word.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I send to a contact group from my phone?
Yes. Open the Gmail app on your phone, tap "Compose", and type the group name in the "To" field. The group will appear as a suggestion, and you can tap it to add the whole group to your message. The process is the same on iPhone and Android.
What happens if I delete a contact group?
Deleting a group removes the label from your Contacts, but it does not delete the individual people in it. They remain in your Contacts list. You can recreate the group at any time by creating a new label and adding those people back to it.
Can I create a group that includes another group?
No. Gmail does not support nested groups or groups within groups. You can only add individual contacts to a label. If you need to email multiple overlapping sets of people, create separate groups for each set.
How many people can I add to a contact group?
Gmail does not have a published limit on group size. You can add as many people as you need. However, if a group gets very large, sending to it may take longer to process, and some email providers may flag very large sends as suspicious.
Can I share a contact group with someone else?
Contact groups in Gmail are personal to your account and cannot be shared directly. If you need someone else to have the same group, you can tell them the names of the people in it, and they can create their own matching group in their own Contacts.