How to Set Email Forwarding & Routing in Gmail in Google Workspace Admin Console 2026 Easily

Sign in with an administrator account and land on the Admin Console home screen, which shows the Recommendations panel plus quick links for managing Users and Billing. Routing settings aren't on this landing page; you get there through the Apps section. In the left sidebar, expand Apps, then Google Workspace, and you'll see the full list of Workspace services, including Gmail, Calendar, Drive and Docs, and Google Chat underneath it.

Click Gmail under Google Workspace to reach Settings for Gmail, where you'll see a status card confirming Gmail is ON for everyone, followed by a stack of expandable sections: End-user access, Spam, phishing and malware, Compliance, and Routing near the bottom. Routing is where both forwarding rules and SMTP relay settings live, so it's easy to miss since it's the last item and collapsed by default. Note that Routing is a different setting from Default routing higher up the list; click to expand Routing before continuing.

Inside Routing, click Add setting and choose "Email forwarding using recipient address map." This opens a dialog where you build the mapping: an Address column for the original recipient and a Map to address column for where mail should land. Give the setting a name, then use Search address or Bulk add to populate the map.

Bulk add takes comma-delimited entries, which is faster than typing rows one at a time if you're pasting from a spreadsheet, and Google caps the total at 5,000 recipient addresses across all address maps combined. Every row needs both fields filled in; Google flags an empty address with "Email address cannot be empty" and blocks the save until it's fixed.

Scroll down inside the same dialog to see the mapped rows you've added, for example admin@pmntechfix.nl mapped to pmn.admin@gmail.com, followed by two sets of choices. Under Messages affected, pick All incoming messages to catch everything sent to that address, internal or external, or Only external incoming messages if mail from inside your domain should stay put.

Under Routing options, Also route to original destination keeps a copy in the original mailbox instead of redirecting it entirely, which is the safer choice while you're still testing. Add X-Gm-Original-To header sits next to it and writes the original recipient into the message header, useful if the receiving mailbox needs to tell forwarded messages apart from its own mail.

Before saving, check the organizational unit shown in the left panel. Routing settings in the Admin Console apply at whatever OU level you're currently viewing, so confirm you're not about to push a rule meant for one shared inbox out to the entire company.

Click Save once everything looks right. Google states changes can take up to 24 hours to apply, though in practice they usually land sooner, and any change you make is recorded in the audit log if a rule behaves unexpectedly later.

Send a handful of test emails to the addresses covered by your new rule and confirm they land where you expect, especially if you enabled both forwarding and Also route to original destination at once. If you're setting this up ahead of an employee's last day, test the rule a day or two early instead of the morning they leave, since a typo in the recipient map still needs time to be caught and fixed.

Use the Email Log Search link at the top of the Routing panel to check how a specific message was handled if something looks off. Revisit the rule after organizational changes, such as a domain move or a new hire replacing someone whose mail was being forwarded, since stale routing rules are a common source of "why didn't I get that email" support tickets.