By Steven Melendez Updated August 10, 2018
If you use email for multiple purposes, it can be useful to have multiple addresses, such as an address for business and one for personal use. You might also prefer to use a different address for situations in which you’re likely to receive a lot of junk mail, such as signing up for offers in a store or when you have to post an address online.
Tip
In the free version of Gmail, you can use variations on your email address but can only have one username per account. With the paid G Suite software line, you can have a Google mail login with multiple usernames to receive mail.
Using Variations of Your Gmail.com Login to Receive Mail
While you generally can only have one username and email address associated with your Gmail account, you can use variations of your address to receive mail.
Specifically, you can often add or remove periods in your email address, so “myaddress@gmail.com” and “my.address@gmail.com” are both valid addresses and will send mail to the same account. Additionally, you can add a plus sign and text after your username and still receive messages, so messages to “myaddress+business@gmail.com” will automatically be delivered to “myaddress@gmail.com.”
You can use these techniques to manually or automatically filter messages based on which address they were sent to, but be aware that since these techniques are public knowledge, they don’t prevent someone from removing the plus sign string or periods to discover your initial email address if they want to do so.
Forwarding Email to Another Account
One way to access mail from different accounts in one inbox is to forward the mail from one account to another. That way, you can see messages from both accounts without having to go to Gmail and log in as a different user.
Use the Settings Menu
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To forward mail from one Gmail account to another, log in to Gmail in your browser using the address you want mail to be forwarded from and click the "Settings" gear button, then the word "Settings."
Use the Forwarding and POP/IMAP Submenu
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In the Settings menu, click "Forwarding and Pop/IMAP." Then click "Add a Forwarding Address."
Enter the Address
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Enter the address where you want to forward your mail. Read the messages that pop up and click to accept the conditions.
Confirm in the Other Account
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Log in to the account where you want the messages to be forwarded. Look in the inbox for an email confirming you want to receive the forwarded messages. Click a link in the email to confirm.
Confirm in the First Account
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Log back in to the first account, where you want the messages forwarded from, and return to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP submenu. There, click to confirm you want to forward messages to the other account and specify whether you want to keep a copy of the messages in the Gmail inbox the messages are being forwarded from.
Using G Suite Aliases
If you are using G Suite, Google's paid business line of email and office software, you can create multiple aliases for an email address. The administrator on the G Suite account for your business can add or remove aliases for individual users that they can use to send and receive mail.
You cannot use the aliases to sign in to your account, only to send and receive mail.
