How to Extract Email Header from Gmail Fast?

  

Mark Regan
Published: February 24th, 2026 • 9 Min Read

This happens most of the time with most of us that we get some strange emails sometimes and feel unsure if these are real. In such critical cases, when security is at risk, checking email headers of these emails becomes a significant step. Here, in this blog, we will be explaining how to extract email header from Gmail manually, which is limited, and thus we will move on to the professional alternative that handles emails headers from Gmail securely & properly.

Has this ever happened to you that received some email, which looked somewhat suspicious to you, so you thought where has it really come from?

As per the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), phishing attacks worldwide are rising with each passing day, with a large number of phishing emails being reported each year. This indicates why knowing how to get email header from Gmail app is crucial. Email headers tend to contain technical details, which help in checking whether the sender is real or fake.

Why Know How to Get Email Header from Gmail App?

Email headers in Gmail are hidden technical parts of emails, they are the hidden block of metadata, which are attached to emails, detailing their technical journey, including senders, recipients, dates, subjects, & routing path through servers. Accessible through the “Show original” option, email headers are important to diagnose any email issues, to identify phishing/spam, & to validate authentication (SPF, DMARC, DKIM). The key components of Gmail email header are as follows:

• Senders’ IP addresses
• Mail server details
• Date/Time stamps
• Routing info & received path
• Messages’ IDs
• From/To/Subject
• Authentication results (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

This data tends to help in verifying if such emails are safe or they are fake. Many people ask how to get message header from Gmail as such info isn’t visible straightaway in the inbox view. So, learning how to extract email header from Gmail inbox actually protects you from any online fraud(s). There are certain real-life situations where people need to know this:

• At the time of getting any suspicious email.
• While reporting phishing/spam to their IT teams.
• While checking if some email was really sent by a known user.
• While tracking the sender’s IP address.
• For legal purposes.
• During investigations.
• While checking phishing emails on mobile.
• While reporting abuse from Android devices.
• While verifying any business communication.
• While extracting email data for legal usage.

How to Get Email Header from Gmail Manually on Computer?

Follow the simple steps given below on your desktop system:

1. Firstly, you have to log into your Gmail account using a web browser.
2. Then, you need to open the email that you wish to inspect by extracting its header.
3. After that, you must click the More button (three vertical dots) that’s in the top-right corner of the email pane (beside the Reply button/arrow).
4. Now, paste the header into the Notepad or some other preferred text file.
5. Further, from the dropdown menu, select “Show original”.
6. Subsequently, a new tab will open, which will display the raw email headers & body with full header details.
7. Here, click “Copy to clipboard” for copying the entire raw data, or Download original to save this as a .eml file.

Important to Note: This is a way to know how to copy email header in Gmail manually. Using the official Gmail feature, this process is quick & free to use, and there is no extra software installation needed. However, the process takes a lot of time in case of multiple emails, and also there is no bulk extraction option here. You can’t even filter headers automatically using this process as it requires manual copying, which is quite hard for non-technical users.

How to Extract Email Header from Gmail Manually using Mobile Apps?

Mobile users usually look for these processes as the steps here are slightly different than those performed on a desktop system.

Method 1: Extract Email Header from Gmail on iPhone

1. Firstly, open your Gmail app.
2. Then, open the desired email.
3. Now, tap the three dots (inside the email, next to the Reply button).
4. After that, select “Show original.”
5. You can copy the header manually.

Method 2: Extract Email Header from Gmail on Android

1. First of all, you have to open the Gmail app.
2. Then, you must open the message that needs to be checked.
3. Now, tap the 3 dots (which are inside the email, besides the Reply button).
4. After that, you need to select the option of “Show original.”
5. Next, you can copy the full header text from here.

Alerts!

• The process of copying complete email header details may require manual text selection.
• “Show original” may be seen in a browser-like window, as per the app version.
• Some older Gmail application versions might not show this option of “Show original” at all. If this option of “Show original” is missing, Gmail can be opened in a mobile browser using the desktop mode.

Important to Note: Mobile applications tend to allow viewing email headers. However copying large headers could seem to be a tedious job. This is the reason why many people wish for a simpler alternative to do this. If you need email headers for a large number of emails or wish for much more advanced control, then manual steps might not be sufficient as these aren’t suitable in case of bulk emails, have no advanced search filters, and can’t even automate extraction. Also, there is always a risk of missing lines while copying using these steps, which are not ideal for business purposes and investigation needs.

Unique Features of This Tool

The following software features are very much useful for users who are looking to do the task in bulk or under professional settings:

•  35+ saving options like EML/PST/PDF/MBOX etc.
• It is even possible to backup in bulk/batch mode.
• Dedicated “Exclude Exporting Email Content & Attachments” option to export Gmail headers.
• The tool downloads Gmail emails with contacts/calendars/attachments etc.
• The software can backup Gmail emails from any mailbox folder (Inbox/Sent Items etc).
• This tool backs up all labels & sub-labels maintained in hierarchy.
• With an easy UI, this tool supports FREE trial.

How to Extract Email Headers from Gmail with Tool?

1. First, download the tool on your machine.
2. Next, enter your Gmail login address, and click Sign In with Google.
   
3. Then, click Select all, and after that, press the Continue button.
   
4. Now, check/uncheck the email folders you want to backup.
   
5. Further, in the Advanced Filter Option, Select the “Exclude Exporting Email Content & Attachments” to extract email headers from Gmail..
   
6. Afterwards, select the preferred Saving Option from the list.
   
7. In the end, hit “Backup” to initiate the process to download the required emails with complete details including email headers’ information.
   

Manual Steps vs. Professional Tool

Check how the pro software works in a much better way for large-scale requirements than the limited manual steps:

FAQs

Here’s answering some commonly asked questions below:

Q 1: How do I get the email header from Gmail?

Ans: First, you have to open the required email in Gmail, click on the 3 dots next to Reply, and then select the “Show original” option to view the full email header info. For bulk extraction, manual steps are slow, while the professional tool is fast.

Q 2: How to copy email header in Gmail?

Ans: After opening the “Show original” option, copy the complete email header text and then paste that into a text file for analysis/sharing purposes. However, in the case of bulk, doing this would be tedious, where the automated tool proves to be fast.

Q 3: How to extract email header from Gmail Inbox for multiple emails?

Ans: If you require headers from a large number of emails, manual copying is slow & risky too. In such cases, using a dedicated tool ensures accuracy & also saves time & effort considerably. Also, many users confuse email header extraction with email list extraction; these two are totally different processes. Email headers tend to show technical routing details, while email lists tend to show contact addresses.

Conclusion

Knowing how to extract email header from Gmail proves useful for safety purposes, investigation needs, & verification requirements. Manual steps can be done if you only have a few emails to be tested. However, for bulk/professional requirements, manual steps would be tiresome, and only a dedicated utility provides best results.