The Scenario
You are a system administrator. A colleague on the security team flagged a concern this morning: someone may have added an unauthorized forwarding rule to the shared team Gmail inbox three weeks ago, and nobody noticed.
There are 45 filter rules on the inbox. You need to audit all of them and get the list to the security team by noon.
The bad version:
- You open Gmail Settings > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses
- Gmail shows you 45 rules in a cramped settings page
- You start copying each rule into an Excel workbook: from address, subject keyword, actions
- Row 12 has two actions and does not fit cleanly into your columns
- You lose your place twice
- At noon you have 30 filters logged and the security team is waiting.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI uses Gmail's filters API to pull every rule in one operation, so you are not reading a settings page and typing into Excel.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
List all Gmail filters for my account and write their filter ID, criteria (from address, subject, has words), and actions (apply label, forward to, delete, skip inbox) into this workbook. One row per filter, headers in row 1.
SheetXAI calls Gmail's filter list endpoint, fetches all 45 rules, and writes them into the workbook. Every filter, every criterion, every action — in under a minute.
What You Get
A complete filter audit workbook, one row per filter:
- Column A — filter ID (needed if you want to delete specific filters later)
- Column B — "from" criterion
- Column C — "subject" criterion
- Column D — "has words" criterion
- Column E — actions: apply label, forward to, delete, skip inbox
Forwarding rules are in column E. Anything forwarding outside your company domain is the first thing to investigate.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Filter audits often require follow-up actions based on what you find.
When you want to flag external forwarding rules automatically
List all Gmail filters and write filter ID, criteria, and actions into columns A through E. In column F, write "FLAG — external forward" for any filter forwarding to an address not ending in '@company.com'. Write "OK" otherwise.
When you need to delete specific filters after reviewing the list
You have identified the bad ones in column A and marked them in column G.
Delete the Gmail filters whose IDs are in column A where column G says "delete". Leave all other filters. Write "deleted" into column H for each one removed.
When you want a summary count by action type
The security report needs aggregate numbers.
List all Gmail filters into columns A through E. On the Summary tab, write a count of filters by action type: how many apply labels, how many forward, how many delete, how many skip inbox.
When you want the full audit and an action plan in one pass
List all Gmail filters into columns A through E. Flag any external forwarding rules in column F. Then on the Recommendations tab, write a list of the filter IDs I should delete and a one-line reason for each.
The pattern: the Gmail filter API returns the full list in one call. SheetXAI handles the fetch, the formatting, and any follow-up logic you add to the same prompt.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open any workbook, then ask it to pull your Gmail filter list for review. The Gmail integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For related workflows, see how to search Gmail and pull results into an Excel workbook or the Gmail in Excel overview.