Search between two dates

How it works

after: keeps messages received after the date, before: those received before it. Google documents two formats: YYYY/MM/DD and MM/DD/YYYY. The two operators combine to bound a period.

Examples

• after:2004/04/16Open in Gmail ↗

  Messages received after April 16, 2004.

• before:04/18/2004Open in Gmail ↗

  Messages received before April 18, 2004, in month/day/year format.

• after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18Open in Gmail ↗

  Messages from a bounded period.

What it does well

• A fixed date: the result doesn't change over time, unlike older_than:.
• Two combinable bounds to isolate a precise period, such as a quarter of invoices.

What it does badly

• The documented formats are YYYY/MM/DD and MM/DD/YYYY. Day-first dates (DD/MM/YYYY), the norm in much of the world, are not among them: 04/05/2024 is documented as month/day (April 5), not May 4.Documented by Google · Gmail Help: search operators
• For the Gmail API, Google states that all dates in a query are interpreted as midnight in the PST time zone, and that you should pass seconds (epoch) for another time zone. The web help page says nothing about the time zone.Documented by Google · Gmail API: filtering and queries
• The section heading also mentions older: and newer:, but the help page neither explains them nor gives any example.Not documented by Google · Gmail Help: search operators

See also

• older_than:newer_than:Finds messages older or newer than a duration, without giving an exact date.
• ANDKeeps messages that match all of the criteria.
• from:Finds messages sent by a specific person or address.

Search examples that use it

• Find emails from a specific periodafter:2024/01/01 before:2024/04/01