Most people stumble across the +1 email trick by accident. Someone fills in a form online, notices the address field auto-populates with a slightly different version of their email, and wonders whether it actually works. It does, and once you understand how, it changes the way you think about your inbox entirely.
The +1 email trick, more precisely called subaddressing or plus addressing, is a feature built into most major email providers that lets you create unlimited variations of your existing email address without registering anything new. You simply add a plus sign after your username, followed by any word or number you choose, and any message sent to that variant lands directly in your standard inbox.
What Does Adding a +1 to an Email Address Do?
Adding a +1, or any text after a plus sign, to your email address creates a tagged alias of your real address. If your address is yourname@gmail.com, then yourname+newsletter@gmail.com, yourname+shopping@gmail.com, and yourname+1@gmail.com all route to exactly the same inbox. The email provider simply strips everything from the plus sign onwards when delivering the message.
The practical value here is significant. Because the tag travels with every email that uses that alias, you can set up Gmail or Outlook filters to automatically sort, label, or archive messages based on which tagged address they were sent to. It is one of the most underused organisational tools in everyday email management, and it costs nothing to use.
Looking for some help with your Email Marketing? Feel free to speak to a member of our Professional Email Marketing Team Here
How to Make a +1 Email Address and Start Using It
Creating a plus address requires no setup, no registration, and no technical knowledge. You simply type your existing email address with a plus sign and a chosen tag wherever an email address is required, such as when signing up for a website, a mailing list, or an online service.
Here is a quick reference for how plus addressing works across the main providers:
| Email Provider | Plus Addressing Supported | Example Format |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | Yes | yourname+tag@gmail.com |
| Outlook / Hotmail | Yes | yourname+tag@outlook.com |
| Apple iCloud | Yes (via Hide My Email) | yourname+tag@icloud.com |
| Yahoo Mail | Yes | yourname+tag@yahoo.com |
| ProtonMail | Yes | yourname+tag@proton.me |
| Fastmail | Yes | yourname+tag@fastmail.com |
The tag you choose is entirely up to you. Common approaches include using the name of the website (+amazon, +bbc, +ebay), a date (+jan2025), or a category (+work, +finance, +newsletters). Once you start applying this consistently, sorting your inbox becomes far more straightforward.
Using the +1 Trick to Spot Who Is Selling Your Data
One of the most powerful applications of the +1 email trick is identifying which companies share or sell your contact details. When you sign up to a service using yourname+thatservice@gmail.com and subsequently receive unsolicited marketing from an entirely unrelated company addressed to that exact alias, the source of the leak becomes obvious.
This is particularly relevant in the UK, where the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) sets out clear rules on what organisations are permitted to do with your personal data, including your email address. If a company has shared your data without consent, knowing precisely which alias was used gives you a clear basis for raising a complaint with the ICO or exercising your rights under UK GDPR.
Email Subaddressing Comparison: Key Use Cases
| Use Case | How the +1 Trick Helps | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Spam detection | Use a unique tag per sign-up | Identifies which service leaked your address |
| Inbox organisation | Pair with filters and labels | Automates sorting without multiple accounts |
| Free trial reuse | Register with a new tag | Access trial periods on some platforms |
| Marketing tracking | Tag by campaign or date | See which source drives the most email |
| Online shopping | Tag per retailer | Group order confirmations automatically |
What Is +++ Looping in Mail and How Does It Relate?
While the +1 trick is a deliberate and useful feature, +++ looping in Apple’s Mail app is something quite different. Looping refers to a bug or misconfiguration where an email client repeatedly attempts to send or process a message, creating an infinite loop that floods an inbox or causes delivery failures. It is not a feature; it is a fault.
The two are worth distinguishing because they both involve the plus symbol in email discussions, which creates understandable confusion. Subaddressing using a single plus sign is a supported RFC 5321 standard that major providers implement intentionally. Looping issues in Mail, on the other hand, are typically caused by conflicting filter rules, misconfigured server settings, or corrupted message rules rather than anything to do with subaddressing. If you encounter looping behaviour in Apple Mail, the GOV.UK Cyber Aware guidance on securing your accounts and reviewing connected devices is a practical first step before contacting your mail provider.
Does the Gmail Dot Trick Still Work Alongside Plus Addressing?
The Gmail dot trick is a separate but related quirk: Gmail completely ignores dots in the username portion of an address, meaning your.name@gmail.com and yourname@gmail.com are treated as identical. This has been the case since Gmail launched and, as of now, it still works in the same way.
Where things get interesting is when you combine dot variations with plus addressing. In theory, y.ourname+shop@gmail.com and yourname+shop@gmail.com both reach the same inbox, which means the number of technically valid alias combinations for a single Gmail account runs into the thousands. However, it is worth noting that many websites and services have become wise to both tricks: some now strip plus signs and dots from email addresses during registration to prevent users from signing up multiple times. Whether a particular site honours these aliases is something you would need to test on a case-by-case basis, and relying on either trick to bypass verification systems may breach a platform’s terms of service.
Everything You Need to Know About the +1 Email Trick
The +1 email trick is one of those features that, once properly understood, makes you wonder how you managed without it. It requires no new account, no app, and no configuration beyond simply typing a plus sign and a chosen tag into any email field. The result is a flexible, free system for managing your digital life with far greater precision than a standard inbox allows.
For anyone navigating the volume of marketing emails, account notifications, and service updates that accumulate over time, the ability to filter by source rather than by guesswork is genuinely useful. Businesses, sole traders, and individuals alike can benefit from knowing exactly where each email originated, particularly as data privacy awareness continues to grow across the UK. Whether you are managing personal accounts or running a side project, plus addressing brings a level of intentionality to your inbox that is hard to replicate by any other means.
It is a small feature with a large reach. The more consistently you apply it, the more clearly you can see the shape of your digital footprint and take action where needed.
What Is the +1 Email Trick: Frequently Asked Questions
The majority of mainstream providers, including Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and ProtonMail, support plus addressing as part of the widely adopted RFC 5321 email standard. A small number of older or more restrictive systems may not recognise the plus sign as a valid character in an address, so it is worth testing before relying on it for important accounts.
Yes, messages sent to any plus-addressed variant of your email arrive in the same inbox as all other mail. The email provider removes the tag before delivery, so you will not see a separate folder unless you create one using filters.
No, not by default. When you reply to a message received at a tagged alias, your reply will come from your standard email address rather than the aliased version. Some providers allow you to set up custom sender addresses, but this is a separate process.
No. A plus address is not a separate account and has no independent password, storage, or settings. It is simply a routing label attached to your existing address, which means it cannot be used to create a genuinely separate identity. For more detail on how email addressing works, the Wikipedia article on email addresses covers subaddressing in the context of the broader addressing standard.
Some websites and services do check for and strip the plus sign and everything after it during registration, treating yourname+tag@gmail.com as simply yourname@gmail.com. This means the alias may not always be accepted as a unique address, and some platforms block it deliberately to prevent duplicate sign-ups.
Using plus addressing for inbox organisation and spam detection is entirely standard. However, using it to create multiple accounts on a platform that permits only one account per user, or to repeatedly access free trials, may breach the relevant terms of service. Always check the platform’s rules before doing so.
In Gmail, go to Settings, then Filters and Blocked Addresses, and create a new filter using the “To” field populated with your tagged alias. From there you can apply labels, skip the inbox, mark as read, or take any other automated action whenever mail arrives at that address.
Most .gov.uk email addresses are hosted on managed platforms that may or may not support subaddressing depending on their configuration. If you need to contact a government body or register for a public service, it is safer to use your standard address, as some systems will reject the plus sign as invalid.
Indirectly, yes. If you used a tagged alias when signing up to a service and later wish to submit a Subject Access Request, knowing the exact address you registered with helps establish a clear paper trail. The ICO’s guidance on Subject Access Requests outlines what organisations must provide in response to such requests.
A catch-all address is a domain-level setting that routes all emails sent to any address at a given domain to one inbox, regardless of the username used. Plus addressing is a user-level feature that works within a single fixed address. A catch-all requires your own domain; plus addressing requires only a compatible email provider.
It is generally not advisable to use a plus address as a recovery email for two-factor authentication. Because it is not a separate account, if your primary address is compromised, any alias is equally at risk. Use a distinct, secure secondary email address for authentication recovery purposes.
Plus addressing only applies to receiving emails, not sending them. Your outgoing messages will always originate from your standard address, and the plus address has no effect on deliverability, reputation, or authentication records such as SPF, DKIM, or DMARC.
Some developers write validation rules that reject anything other than letters, numbers, and a small set of standard characters, treating the plus sign as invalid even though it is permitted under the RFC 5321 standard. Others strip plus signs deliberately to prevent alias-based workarounds. This is a common frustration for users who rely on plus addressing regularly.
If a company continues to contact you after you have unsubscribed and you can identify the alias they are using (confirming where your data came from), you can escalate the matter to the ICO. Under UK GDPR, organisations must honour opt-out requests and cannot continue sending direct marketing without a lawful basis; persistent violations can result in enforcement action from the ICO.