Best app to bulk delete emails, and free up space

The best app to bulk delete emails depends on where your mail lives. Gmail's own search deletes thousands of emails by sender, date or size for free, and Outlook's Sweep does the same for one sender at a time. Clean Email and Mailstrom group your whole mailbox so you can delete it in a few clicks, from a Mac, a phone or the web. Trimbox deletes everything from a sender in one click in Gmail. Alrighty is the pick if you want the mail you deleted to stop coming back: it is a mail app, not a bulk deleter, and its Stop mail moves a sender's mail to Archive and keeps their new mail out.

Most lists of bulk delete apps stop at the delete button. Two things decide whether the cleanup works. First, deleted mail goes to Trash, and in Gmail and Outlook.com it still counts against your storage until Trash is emptied. Second, deleting old mail does nothing about tomorrow's mail from the same sender. This page covers both for each tool.

How we checked

We read each tool's own help, pricing and privacy pages, and their App Store listings, on November 4, 2026. Every fact about another product links to its source. Where a vendor's page didn't state something, we say so. We did not test the tools. For each one we noted the price, the accounts it takes, where it runs, how it picks mail to delete, and where it reads your mail. Alrighty is our app, and it is listed first.

Bulk delete tools at a glance

Tool	Price	Accounts	Runs on	How you pick what to delete	Where your mail is read
Alrighty	14-day trial with no card, then Free or Pro	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook	Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux	Check rows and click Delete; Stop mail archives a sender	Your computer; Clean up on its server
Gmail (web)	Free	Gmail	Web	Any Gmail search: sender, age, size	Google
Outlook Sweep	Free	Outlook.com, Microsoft 365	Outlook on the web, new Outlook for Windows	One sender: all, all but the latest, or older than 10 days	Microsoft
Apple Mail	Comes with macOS	Any account in Mail	Mac	Select messages; sort by size	Your Mac
Clean Email	First 1,000 emails free; paid plans	Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, work mail	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, web	Groups by sender, rules, Auto Clean	Clean Email's servers
Mailstrom	$9 to $29.95 a month	Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, others	Web	Groups by sender, subject, time, size	Mailstrom's servers
Trimbox	Free to start; in-app purchases	Gmail for inbox tools	Browser extension, web, iPhone, Android	One click per sender	On your device, it says
Cleanfox	Free	Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail, iCloud, AOL	iPhone, Android, web	Newsletters and order mail	Its servers; data shared with customers

Why doesn't deleting emails free up space right away?

Deleted mail goes to Trash first, and Trash still counts. Empty it, or wait 30 days.

• Gmail. Google gives each account "up to 15 GB of storage, which is shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos," and it counts "Gmail messages and attachments, which includes your Spam and Trash folders" (Google). The total can take 48 to 72 hours to update. Mail in Trash is "permanently deleted" after 30 days, or now with Empty Trash now (Google).
• Outlook.com. You get 15 GB of mail storage, and "Microsoft 365 subscribers get 100 GB of space." Deleted Items counts toward the limit until you empty it or the mail is "automatically deleted after 30 days, whichever happens first" (Microsoft). Microsoft also says "Items deleted using Sweep will not count toward reducing your storage quota until they are also deleted from the Deleted Items folder" (Microsoft).
• iCloud. The free plan has 5 GB (Apple). A deleted email is "saved in your Trash for 30 days, after which it's permanently erased" (Apple).

If you're cleaning up because the mailbox is full, delete the largest mail first, then empty Trash. Gmail's search finds big mail with larger:10M, and Apple Mail sorts any mailbox by size.

Alrighty: best for keeping the mail you deleted from coming back

Alrighty is a desktop mail app for Mac, Windows and Linux that puts iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts in one inbox. It is not built to delete 50,000 old messages in one pass. For that, Gmail's search or a cleanup service on this page is faster. What Alrighty does is end the mail you keep deleting.

• Delete what you check. In any list, check messages one by one, Shift-click to check a range, or check every message the list shows, then click Delete. They go to Trash.
• Stop mail. One click on a sender unsubscribes you in every way the message offers (one-click, email, or the list's page). It moves their mail in that Inbox to Archive, and moves their new mail out as it arrives. It archives. It does not delete, so the mail still uses your provider's storage until you delete it.
• Clean up. It lists the senders you probably don't want: scams, cold outreach and newsletters you never open. You stop them all at once, with the same result as Stop mail.
• Search. One search covers every account and matches what you mean as well as the words, on your computer.

Price. A 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro.

Where your mail goes. Your mail stays with iCloud, Google or Microsoft. Alrighty keeps its copy and its search index on your computer. To sort senders for Clean up, it sends each sender's address, three facts the receiving server found, and up to 3 of their newest emails to Alrighty's server, which asks an AI model. Signed out, nothing goes to Alrighty's server.

What it can't do. There is no iPhone or web app, so you can't clean from your phone. It takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts only, not Yahoo, AOL, Fastmail or other IMAP. It has no delete-by-date or delete-by-size tool, and no calendar. It's a new app with no long track record.

Pick it if the problem isn't only the old mail, but the senders who keep filling your inbox.

Gmail search and select all: best free way to delete thousands of Gmail emails

You don't need an app for Gmail. On a computer, Gmail's search picks the mail, and one checkbox selects all of it.

1. In the search box, type what to delete. Google's search operators include from:, older_than:1y, before:2004/04/18 and larger:10M.
2. Click the select-all checkbox above the list.
3. Gmail selects the mail on the page. "To select all conversations, click the link in the notification" (Google).
4. Click Delete.
5. Open Trash and click Empty Trash now if you need the space at once.

What it can't do. It covers Gmail only. In the phone app, "Gmail selects up to 50 messages to delete," so you repeat the step for each 50 (Google). Use a computer for a big cleanup.

Pick it if your mail is Gmail and you can describe what to delete as a search.

Outlook Sweep: best free way to bulk delete in Outlook.com

Sweep "gives you options to automatically delete all incoming email from a particular sender, to keep only the latest email, or to delete email older than 10 days" (Microsoft). You select a message, click Sweep, and choose the option. You can apply it once or to all future mail from that sender.

Where it works. Microsoft's Sweep steps cover Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows. They don't mention Outlook for Mac. Sweep isn't available in Junk Email, Drafts, Sent Items or Deleted Items.

Free up space. Swept mail counts against your storage until you empty Deleted Items. Under Settings, Account, Storage, Outlook.com can "permanently delete all items (or those older than 3, 6, or 12 months)" in a folder (Microsoft).

What it can't do. It works one sender at a time, with fixed choices. It covers Outlook accounts only.

Pick it if your mail is Outlook.com and a handful of senders fill most of it.

Apple Mail: best free way to bulk delete on a Mac

Apple Mail comes with macOS and works with every account you add to it. Select the messages in the list and delete them. To find the biggest mail first, "choose View > Sort By > Size" (Apple).

Free up space. "Choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items, then choose an account." In Mail's account settings, the pop-up menu under Erase deleted messages sets when Mail removes deleted mail for good (same page). For iCloud, deleted mail is erased after 30 days in Trash.

What it can't do. It has no view that groups mail by sender. Its search depends on Spotlight and can miss mail; see our Apple Mail search guide.

Pick it if you want to delete from the Mac you already use, with no new company reading your mail.

Clean Email: best for bulk deleting from a phone or several accounts

Clean Email lets you "Remove, archive, move, label (and more!) groups of emails," and "works across iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac, and the web" (Clean Email). Auto Clean can "apply selected rules and actions to emails arriving to your mailbox without any manual work," so the next batch of the same mail goes on its own. It supports "Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, and your company email account."

Price. It "lets you clean up to 1,000 email messages at no cost" (Clean Email). The plans page offers 1, 5 or 10 accounts at $9.99, $19.99 or $29.99 a month. The App Store listing lists in-app purchases from $7.99 to $99.99, with no billing period shown.

Where your mail goes. Your mailbox is indexed on Clean Email's servers. It reads "email metadata, including sender and recipient details, subjects," and fetches a body when you open a full preview (privacy). It says it won't sell or rent your email address.

What it can't do. It's a cleaner, not a mail app, so you clean in one place and read in another. Its help page says deleted mail can be restored if it "was moved to your deleted mail folder and is still there," and doesn't say every delete goes to Trash (Clean Email).

Pick it if you want to clean from your phone, or across Yahoo, AOL and work accounts.

Mailstrom: best for one big cleanup of a huge mailbox

Mailstrom promises to "Unsubscribe and delete thousands of messages in just a few clicks" (Mailstrom). It groups mail by "sender, subject, time period, size, and other attributes," so you can delete a whole group at once (Mailstrom). It connects to Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo with OAuth2, so it never has your password.

Price. Basic is $9 a month or $59.95 a year for 1 account and up to 10,000 emails. Plus is $14 a month or $99.95 a year for 3 accounts and up to 250,000 emails. Pro is $29.95 a month or $199.95 a year for 20 accounts with no size limit (pricing). There's a free trial. One Mailstrom page says 14 days; its pricing page doesn't say.

Where your mail goes. It's a web service. Its privacy policy says it doesn't share data with third parties for their direct marketing, and keeps data "up to three months" after you delete your account.

What it can't do. No free plan. Basic stops at 10,000 emails, which a busy Gmail account passes fast.

Pick it if you have years of backlog and want one session to clear it by size and age as well as sender.

Trimbox: best one-click delete by sender in Gmail

"Trimbox lets you delete all of the past emails from a sender with just 1 click," and says "None of your email data ever leaves your device" (Trimbox). It comes as a browser extension, a web app, and iPhone and Android apps (downloads).

Price. Its site shows no price. The App Store listing says unsubscribes are "free for your first 10; unlimited with subscription," with in-app purchases from $4.19 to $89.99 and no billing period shown.

What it can't do. Its download page marks the inbox tools "(for Gmail only)." The App Store listing says "Connect unlimited email accounts" but names no provider. It deletes by sender, not by date or size.

Pick it if you're on Gmail and a few hundred senders make up most of your mail.

Cleanfox: free, if you accept its data model

Cleanfox says it "is 100% free" and "detects newsletters and order confirmation emails" (FAQ). Its App Store listing says you can "delete thousands of unwanted emails with one tap," for "Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, iCloud, and AOL" (App Store). It runs on iPhone, Android and the web.

What it really does. It doesn't unsubscribe you. Future mail from a sender goes "in your mailbox trash folder," and "Cleanfox never permanently deletes your emails" (FAQ). So the mail still sits in Trash until your provider empties it.

Where your mail goes. Cleanfox is run by AC Nielsen SAS, part of NielsenIQ. Its privacy notice says "we provide data about and derived from the Commercial Emails that you receive to some of our customers." This is the same model our email cleaner guide describes for Unroll.me.

Pick it if you want a free phone cleaner for newsletters and you're comfortable with your shopping mail feeding a data business.

How to choose

• On a computer, and you want the senders you delete to stop for good: Alrighty.
• Gmail, thousands of emails, free: Gmail's search, select all, then Empty Trash now.
• Outlook.com, a few senders fill the inbox: Sweep, then empty Deleted Items.
• Free, on a Mac, any account: Apple Mail, sorted by size.
• From your phone, or Yahoo and AOL accounts: Clean Email.
• Years of backlog, by size and age: Mailstrom.
• Gmail, one click per sender: Trimbox.
• Free phone cleaner, and the data model is fine with you: Cleanfox.

After you delete: stop the mail at the source

Deleting clears the past. A newsletter you deleted 2,000 of will send the 2,001st tomorrow. Unsubscribe from lists you signed up for; our unsubscribe app guide compares the tools. For senders that ignore it, block them: the steps are in how to block a sender in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail. Big senders like LinkedIn have their own email settings. See what Alrighty does about all three on its features page.

Questions

How do I delete thousands of emails at once in Gmail?

On a computer, search for the mail, such as older_than:2y or from:shop.com. Click the select-all checkbox, then the link that selects all conversations that match. Click Delete, then Empty Trash now. The phone app selects only 50 at a time.

Does deleting emails free up storage?

Not until Trash is empty. Google counts Trash against your 15 GB, and Outlook.com counts Deleted Items until you empty it or 30 days pass. Gmail, Outlook.com and iCloud all erase deleted mail after 30 days on their own.

Is it safe to give a cleanup app access to my email?

The app reads at least your senders and subjects, often on its own servers. Clean Email and Mailstrom say they don't sell your data. Cleanfox, run by NielsenIQ, says it provides data derived from your commercial email to customers. Gmail's search, Outlook's Sweep and Apple Mail add no new company.

What's the fastest way to delete all emails from one sender?

In Gmail, search from: the address, select all and delete. In Outlook.com, select one message and use Sweep. Trimbox does it in one click for Gmail. In Alrighty, Stop mail moves that sender's Inbox mail to Archive and keeps their new mail out.

Can I bulk delete emails on my iPhone?

Gmail's app deletes 50 at a time. Clean Email, Trimbox and Cleanfox have iPhone apps for bigger batches. Alrighty has no iPhone app.