Email addresses that forward to your primary email are known as aliases. There are a variety of ways that you can create Gmail and Workspace (formerly G Suite) aliases.

1. Gmail users: Create Gmail email aliases using the plus and dot notation
2. Google Workspace: Create Gmail email aliases without admin permissions
3. Google Workspace: Create Gmail email aliases if you have admin permissions

Read on below to learn how you can create, send mail from, and receive mail from Gmail aliases.

Gmail users: Create Gmail email aliases using the plus and dot notation

When you create a Gmail email address, you’re getting more than just yourusername@gmail.com. You can modify your Gmail address in the following two ways and still control your mail:

1. Append a plus (“+”) sign, with any combination of letters or numbers to follow, after your email address. For example, if your email address was yourusername@gmail.com, you could send mail to yourusername+friends@gmail.com or yourusername+mailinglists@gmail.com and still receive mail at yourusername@gmail.com.
2. Insert one or several dots (“.”) anywhere in your email address. Gmail doesn’t recognize periods as characters in addresses—it just ignores them. For example, you could tell people your address was yourusername@gmail.com, youruser.name@gmail.com or you.ruser.name@gmail.com.

This means that, if your email address is hello@gmail.com, emails addressed to he.ll.o@gmail.com and hello+world@gmail.com will both deliver to your main inbox—since Gmail ignores dots, and anything that’s after the plus symbol, in email usernames.

All you need to do is add these aliases to your Gmail settings.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. In the top-right corner of your Gmail window, click Settings See all settings.
2. Click the Accounts and Import or Accounts tab
3. In the “Send mail as” category, you’ll see a list of your email addresses and aliases:
   
4. Under the list of email addresses, click on Add another email address.
5. Enter your alias (for example, yourname+world@gmail.com) and click Next Step.
6. You’ll be prompted to verify the email address. Click Send Verification.
7. Enter the confirmation code from the verification email in the box; alternatively, click the link in your confirmation email.
   
8. Your email alias is now verified and will appear below your primary email address in the Send Mail As section of your Settings -> Accounts page. You’ll be able to choose which mailing addresses should show up in the From field. Since this a plus and dot notation alias, all emails sent to your alias will be delivered to your primary Gmail account.

Google Workspace: Create email aliases without admin permissions

Follow the next set of directions if these conditions apply:

1. You’re using Google Workspace, but you don’t have Google Workspace admin permissions
2. The alias email address already exists.

Google Workspace: Add ability to send from your alias email address

1. In the top-right corner of your Gmail window, click Settings See all settings.
2. Click the Accounts and Import or Accounts tab
3. In the “Send mail as” category, you’ll see a list of your email addresses and aliases:
   
4. Under the list of email addresses, click on Add another email address.
5. Enter your alias (for example, tips@example.com) and click Next Step.
6. You’ll be prompted to verify the email address. Click Send Verification.
7. Enter the confirmation code from the verification email in the box; alternatively, click the link in your confirmation email.
   
8. Your email alias is now verified and will appear below your primary email address in the Send Mail As section of your Settings -> Accounts page. When you send emails, you’ll be able to choose which mailing addresses should show up in the From field.

Google Workspace: Configure forwarding so that all emails sent to your alias will be also delivered to your primary email

In order to receive emails from an alias, you need to set up automatic forwarding of your messages from the alias email address to your primary email address. For example, rmails sent to tips@example.com are also received by realname@example.com You can choose to forward all new messages or just specific emails.

1. On your computer, open Gmail using the account you want to forward messages from (your alias—e.g., tips@example.com).
2. In the top-right corner of your Gmail window, click Settings See all settings.
3. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
4. In the Forwarding section, click Add a forwarding address.
5. Enter the email address you want to forward messages to (e.g., realname@example.com).
   
6. Click Next; then click Proceed; then click OK.
7. A verification message will be sent to that address. Click the verification link in that message.
8. Return to the Settings page for the alias account you want to forward messages from. Refresh your browser.
9. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
10. In the Forwarding section, select Forward a copy of incoming mail to.
11. Choose what you want to happen with the Gmail copy of your emails. We recommend “Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox.”
12. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes. 
13. All email messages sent to your alias will be now forwarded to your primary account.

Google Workspace: Configure aliases via the Google Workspace admin console

The aliases you create don’t have to come from the same domain name. For example, if your Google Workspace (G Suite) address is realname@company.com, you can set up a separate address for another Google Workspace address, support@example.com.

You can use this alias when you don’t want to give out any version of your primary address, but you still want emails delivered to your main Gmail inbox.

In addition, you can create new email addresses within your domain as aliases. For example, if you run a website at example.com, you can have one address at realname@example.com, and then set up aliases like tips@example.com (for blog tips), advertise@example.com (for advertisers) and more.

To set up an email alias in Google Workspace (G Suite), follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Google Workspace admin console an admin. The URL for admins is https://admin.google.com/a/example.com.
2. Click Users:
3. Click on the user for which you want to create an alias (for example realname@example.com):
4. Click User information:
5. Under Email aliases, click Add alternate email:Google Workspace allows you to associate up to 30 different nicknames per user. Note that you can’t create an alias currently assigned (as a primary address or alias) to someone else.
6. Add the alias (e.g., tips@example.com) in the box entitled “Alternate email.” Then, click Save:

You can also follow these steps:

1. Login into your primary Google Workspace (G Suite) account (e.g., realname@example.com).
2. In the top-right corner of your Gmail window, click Settings See all settings.
3. Click the Accounts and Import or Accounts tab.
4. Click on Add another email address.
5. Type your new email alias (i.e. tips@example.com) and verify it.