How to Use Filters in Outlook to Sort and Organize Your Emails

Quickly sort and manage emails using filters in Outlook

Written by Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: March 4, 2026 Fact Checked

• Sorting Your Inbox (All Versions)
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• Filtering by Email (New & Web)
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• Filtering by Email (Classic)
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• Filtering by Words (New & Web)
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• Filtering by Words (Classic)
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• Video
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• Q&A

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Is your Outlook inbox so unorganized that you can't find what you're looking for? Fortunately, it's easy to filter messages into different folders based on email address (sender or receiver), words, and phrases in any version of Outlook. including Microsoft Outlook 365. We'll show you how to create rules in Outlook to automatically filter incoming email messages, plus how to sort your existing emails.

Filtering Outlook Mail

• To sort emails, click the filter button above your inbox, then choose a filter.
• To sort by email, create a new rule that will move messages sent by a particular email address to a folder.
• To filter by word, create a new rule that will move messages that contain a specific word in the header, subject, or body to a different folder.

Steps

Method 1

Method 1 of 5:

Sorting Your Inbox (All Versions)

1. 
   1
   Click the filter button. On the new Outlook or Outlook on the web, the filter button looks like three horizontal lines. In classic Outlook, it looks like a funnel. This button is located above your email list on the left-hand side.
2. 
   2
   Select your filter. You can see all the emails marked as unread, have attachments, when they were received, if they are categorized, flagged, or marked important, or based on the "Sent to" field.

   • For example, if you select "Has attachments," you will see a list of emails that have attachments (even if they are categorized into email folders that aren't the Inbox).
   • To clear the filter search, click the x in the search box.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 5:

Filtering by Email (New & Web)

1. 
   1
   Right-click on an email from a sender that you want to filter. This will open a contextual menu.
2. 
   2
   Hover "Rules" and click Create rule. This will open a pop-up.
3. 
   3
   Choose the folder where you want to move emails from that sender. To do so, click the dropdown. If the folder you want to move the emails to isn't created yet, click Create new folder in the dropdown, then make a new folder.

   • Click More options at the bottom of the window to open the full Rules window, which gives you more ways to filter your email. If you click More options, click Save at the bottom of this window to save your rule.
     • Click Add another condition if you want to add other parameters to the filter.
     • Add another action besides moving the emails to a folder, such as deleting them, marking them as read, or forwarding them.
     • Click Add an exception if you want to add any exceptions to this rule.
4. 
   4
   Click OK. The rule will be created. You can edit your rule at any time by right-clicking on any email in the left-hand sidebar and going to Rules > Manage rules.
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Method 3

Method 3 of 5:

Filtering by Email (Classic)

1. 
   1
   Click a message sent to or from an address you want to filter. This opens the message in the right panel.

   • For example, if you want to filter all mail sent from one email address, click an email from that sender.
   • If you want to filter messages sent to one of your email addresses, click a message addressed to that address.
2. 
   2
   Click Rules. It’s in the row of icons near the top of the screen, toward the center.

   • If you don't see this option, click the three dots at the far-right corner of the toolbar.
   • You can also right-click a message or folder and select Rules.
3. 
   3
   Click Always Move Messages From/To <sender>. You can choose to filter messages based on the sending address or the receiving address. A list of folders on your account will appear.
4. 
   4
   Select the folder to which you want these messages filtered. If you don’t see a folder you want to use, click New to create one, then select it.
5. 
   5
   Click OK. Future emails sent to or from the email address you selected will be moved to the selected folder upon receipt.
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Method 4

Method 4 of 5:

Filtering by Words (New & Web)

1. 
   1
   Click File > Settings. This will open the settings menu as a pop-up over your email inbox.
2. 
   2
   Click Mail > Rules. The Mail option is in the far left-hand sidebar, and the Rules option is in the inner left-hand sidebar.
3. 
   3
   Click Add new rule. It's in the upper-right part of the settings pop-up.
4. 
   4
   Give the rule a name. Make it a descriptive name so you'll remember what it does. For example, if you're filtering all the emails you get with a specific name in it, include that name in the filter's name.
5. 
   5
   Click the Select a condition dropdown. A condition is what must occur for the rule to run. In this case, we are filtering emails that have a specific word in them.
6. 
   6
   Choose which condition works best. If you're filtering by word, choose any condition under the "Subject" or "Keywords" header. The condition you choose depends on where you want the rule to find the specified word. You can choose for the rule to look for the word(s) in the subject only, in the subject and body, in the body only, in the sender's email address, in the recipient's email address, or in the message header.
7. 
   7
   Add the word(s) the rule should look for. Separate each word with a comma, if you want to have the rule look for multiple words.

   • If you want to add more conditions, click Add another condition, then repeat steps 6 and 7.
8. 
   8
   Click the Select an action dropdown. Once Outlook finds an email that matches the condition, you'll need to tell it what to do with that email message.
9. 
   9
   Choose the action you want Outlook to take. If you want to move all emails with a specific word into a folder, click the Move to option, then select the folder you want those emails to be moved to. If you'd like Outlook to take a different action, select it in the dropdown, then add any additional information if requested.

   • Click Add an exception if you'd like to do so. Exceptions will keep the rule from running if the specified criteria are met. For example, say you're creating a rule that moves all emails containing the word "coupon" to a folder. If you want emails from a specific email address to not be moved to that folder, even if they contain the word "coupon," you would add an exception for that specific email address (by clicking the From option under the "People" header).
10. 
    10
    Click Save. This will save your rule and run it the next time you get an email that satisfies that particular rule.

    • If you want Outlook to not run any more rules on an email after this rule has been run (in the case of conflicting rules), keep the "Stop processing more rules" checkbox marked. Outlook will run your rules in the order they're in in the "Rules" menu.
    • If you want Outlook to run the rule immediately after you create it, check the "Run rule now" box before clicking Save.
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Method 5

Method 5 of 5:

Filtering by Words (Classic)

1. 
   1
   Click a message containing a word or phrase you want to filter. The word or phrase can appear anywhere in the message, including the subject, body, or header.
2. 
   2
   Click Rules. It’s in the row of icons near the top of the screen, toward the center.

   • If you don't see this option, click the three dots at the far-right corner of the toolbar.
   • You can also right-click a message or folder and select Rules.
3. 
   3
   Click Manage Rules & Alerts.
4. 
   4
   Click New Rule. It’s at the top-left corner of the window.
5. 
   5
   Select Move messages with specific words in the subject to a folder. Even if you don’t want to filter only words in the subject, select this option for now.

   • Click Next to continue.
6. 
   6
   Remove the check mark from “with specific words in the subject.” You can skip this step if you only want the filter to look at words in the subject line.
7. 
   7
   Select the parts of the message where the filter will look for the words. Choose at least one of these options, then click Next to continue.

   • with specific words in the subject or body
     • Example: You want to filter messages with the word “coupon” in either the subject or the body to a folder called Coupons.
   • with specific words in the message header
     • Example: You want messages sent through a certain mail server to go straight to the trash.
   • with specific words in the recipient’s address
     • Example: You want mail sent to support@yourdomain.com to go to a folder called Support.
   • with specific words in the sender’s address
     • Example: You want messages sent from anyone with the word “wiki” in their email address to a folder called Wiki.
8. 
   8
   Type the word or phrase and click Add. You can add multiple words and phrases if you wish.

   • Click OK to continue.
9. 
   9
   Click the specified link. It’s in the box at the bottom of the window as a part of the phrase “specified folder.” A list of folders on your email account will appear.
10. 
    10
    Select the folder to which you want these messages filtered. If you don’t see a folder you want to use, click New to create one, then select it.

    • Click OK, then Next to continue.
11. 
    11
    Check the boxes next to what you’d like to happen. Make sure “move it to the specified folder” (the second option) is checked so the message lands in its folder. The others are optional, but can be helpful based on your needs.

    • Click Next to continue.
12. 
    12
    Enter a name for the filter. This is how it will appear in your list.
13. 
    13
    Check the box next to “Turn on this rule.” If you’d like, you can also check “Run this now” so the filter will scan the mail you’ve already received.
14. 
    14
    Click Finish. Future incoming messages will now be sorted based on the word or phrase you entered.
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Community Q&A

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• Question

  How do you include multiple words in an email filter? Is it like this "job done" to filter only when these two words are seen together (using speech marks)?

  

  Darlene Antonelli

  Community Answer

  Yes, the multiple words should be inside the quotation marks, like "job done"

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