Google Workspace: Add or delete an alternate email address (email alias)

Let's make sure you're in the right place. These steps are for admins who manage Gmail accounts for a company, school, or other group. To use email aliases with your [e-mail],follow these steps instead.

What's covered in this article:

• What is an email alias?
• When should I use alternate emails (email aliases)?
• Before you begin
• Add an email alias for a user
• Remove a user's email alias
• Find a user’s email alias in the Admin console
• How users send email from an alias

As a Google Workspace administrator, you can create an alternate email address (email alias) for a user so they can send and receive email with another address. You can add up to 30 email aliases for each user at no extra cost.

What is an alternate email address (email alias)?

Analternate email address, also called anemail alias,is a forwarding email address that an admin adds to a user's primary email address. Messages sent to the email alias automatically route to the user's primary email account's inbox.

Tip: Only one user can use an email alias. If you need an email address that's used by multiple users, we recommend usingGmail delegationinstead. Learn how to delegate a user's email address.

To read messages sent to the email alias, a user signs in to their primary Google Workspace account. For example, the Solarmora.com admin assigned Emily the email [e-mail]. To read and respond to messages sent to the alias, Emily signs in to her email account [e-mail].

When should I use alternate emails (email aliases)?

Google Workspace email aliases are useful for small businesses where someone fills multiple rolls. For example, Juan owns a one-person business and created three aliases:[e-mail] customer inquiries,[e-mail] handle invoices, [e-mail] manage sales. Juan receives all messages in his primary email account,[e-mail],  

Here are more examples:

• You need a temporary email address—Use an alias to sign up for a particular service or to run a temporary project.
• An employee left your organization and you deleted their account—To forward email messages sent to the old employee, add their previous email address as an email alias to a current user. Learn about redirecting incoming messages.

Before you begin

• Multiple users can’t share an email alias.
• Email aliases are not Google Accounts, so you can't sign in with an email alias address and access Google services, like Google Drive.
• You can’t create an alias with the same name as an existing Google Account in your organization. For example, if you created a Google Account [e-mail], you can’t create an alias [e-mail].
• You can add up to 30 aliases for each user, at no extra cost. If you need more aliases, you must create another Google Account and add aliases to it.
• Email aliases aren't private. Sometimes, they’re visible to other users. For example, if a recipient searches Gmail for messages [e-mail], search results might also include messages from Bill's alias,[e-mail].

Add an email alias for a user

1. Sign into yourGoogle Admin console.

   Sign in using anadministrator account, not your current account [e-mail]

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu DirectoryUsers.
3. To open the user settings page, click a user's name.

   If you need help with finding the user in the list, go to Find a user account.

4. On the left, under the user's name, click Add Alternate Emails.
5. ClickAlternate emailand enter a name for the alias (the part of the address before the @ sign).
6. (Optional) If needed, select a secondary domain.
   Note: User alias domains don't show in the Domain menu. Learn more aboutuser alias domains and secondary domains.
7. (Optional) If you want to add more email aliases, repeat steps 5 and 6.
8. Save.

Within 24 hours (often sooner), the user begins receiving email sent to this address.

Remove a user's email alias

1. Sign into yourGoogle Admin console.

   Sign in using anadministrator account, not your current account [e-mail]

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu DirectoryUsers.
3. To open the user settings page, click a user's name.

   If you need help with finding the user in the list, go to Find a user account.

4. On the left, under the user's name, click Add Alternate Emails.
5. Next to the email alias, click Remove.

   Note: If you don’t seeRemove, the alias was automatically added as a domain alias. A domain alias is available to all users, so you can't remove it for just one user. Instead, you must remove the domain alias. For details, go toRemove a domain from your Google Workspace account.

6. ClickSave.

It can take up to 24 hours for the alias to be removed.

Find a user’s email aliases in the Admin console

1. Sign into yourGoogle Admin console.

   Sign in using anadministrator account, not your current account [e-mail]

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu DirectoryUsers.
3. Click the userAdd Alternate Email.

   If you need help finding the user in the list, go to Find a user account.

4. ClickShow all alternate emails.

How users send email from an alias

To send email from an alias, the user must set up a custom Fromaddress in Gmail. This task is done by the user and is not visible to you in the Admin console. To set up the From address, tell your users to review Send emails from a different address or alias. 

Although only one user can receive mail from the alias, multiple users can send email from an alias if they set up a customFromaddress. Depending on the user, they must check or uncheck theTreat as aliasbox in Gmail. For details, tell your users to review Should I uncheck “treat as an alias” in Gmail?