How Email Addresses Work
Period (Dot) Handling
Periods in the username part of a Gmail address are ignored. All of the following are delivered to the same mailbox.
example@gmail.com
e.x.a.m.p.l.e@gmail.com
exam.ple@gmail.com
↑ All treated as the same address
Plus Sign (+) Aliases
You can add a plus sign and any string after your username. These all go to the original address.
example@gmail.com
example+shopping@gmail.com
example+news@gmail.com
↑ All delivered to the same address
gmail.com and googlemail.com
gmail.com and googlemail.com are treated as the same domain.
example@gmail.com
example@googlemail.com
↑ Same address
We do not restrict account creation with email aliases. However, sign-up benefits are distributed only once per normalized email address. If you create multiple accounts with aliases derived from the same email address, the second and subsequent accounts will not receive benefits.
Normalization examples (Gmail)
- example+test@gmail.com → example@gmail.com
- e.x.a.m.p.l.e@gmail.com → example@gmail.com
- Example@Gmail.com → example@gmail.com
Other email providers like Outlook and iCloud also treat plus sign (+) aliases as the same address. However, dot handling is specific to Gmail and does not apply to other providers.
