Yahoo Mail Auto-Forwarding: Needs Plus? How to Set It Up

Short answer: yes. Automatic forwarding, the setting that copies every new message to another address, is a Yahoo Mail Plus feature. A free Yahoo account can still forward one message at a time by hand, but the Auto-forwarding field is not part of the free plan. Older guides and forum threads from before 2021 describe it as free because it was, so the free version of the advice is the part that is out of date.

How to set up auto-forwarding in Yahoo Mail#

This follows Yahoo's help page for New Yahoo Mail. Yahoo says to set it up from a desktop browser, and menu labels can differ slightly between layouts and regions. The feature is also marked as not available in all locales.

1. 1

   Make sure the account has Yahoo Mail Plus

   Auto-forwarding is set on the mailbox you want to forward from, so that is the account that needs the subscription. Yahoo's Plus page at mail.yahoo.com/plus/mail shows the current price and any trial.

2. 2

   Open Settings

   In Yahoo Mail on a desktop browser, select the More options icon and then Settings.

3. 3

   Go to Mailboxes and pick your mailbox

   Open Mailboxes, then click your primary mailbox under Mailbox list. Forwarding is a per-mailbox setting.

4. 4

   Enter the forwarding address

   Type the full destination address under Auto-forwarding, for example your Gmail address, then click Verify.

5. 5

   Confirm it from the destination account

   Sign in to the destination account and follow the instructions in the message Yahoo sent there. Treat forwarding as not started until you have done this.

How to forward Yahoo Mail to Gmail#

The steps are the ones above with Gmail as the destination. Enter your Gmail address under Auto-forwarding, click Verify, then open Gmail and look for the message from Yahoo. If it is not in the inbox after a few minutes, check Spam, and use the link or code in it to confirm.

Two Gmail-side changes affect this setup in 2027. Google has said Gmail will stop supporting Send mail as for third-party addresses such as yahoo.com in January 2027, so replying from Gmail while showing your Yahoo address is going away. Google is also removing Gmail's POP fetching (Check mail from other accounts) and Gmailify, which matters if you were thinking of having Gmail pull from Yahoo instead. Forwarding itself happens on Yahoo's side, so it is not what is changing. The detail is in Gmail Check mail from other accounts is going away.

Forward one Yahoo email vs forward everything#

These are different features. Auto-forwarding copies incoming mail to another address from now on, and it needs Plus. Forwarding a single message is the normal Forward action on an email you have opened, and it works on free accounts. If you only need a handful of messages elsewhere, forward them by hand and skip the subscription.

Yahoo's help page describes auto-forwarding as sending a copy of incoming messages to another address, so the original stays in your Yahoo mailbox. It lists one forwarding address field per mailbox and does not describe a per-sender condition, so plan on all incoming mail being copied.

Yahoo forwarding rules vs filters#

People search for Yahoo forwarding rules expecting one screen. In Yahoo Mail they are two things. Filters sort new mail by conditions such as sender or subject; Yahoo's help describes the outcome as moving it to a folder or the trash. Auto-forwarding is a separate setting under Mailboxes and needs Plus. For the filter side, see how to set up Yahoo Mail filters. For forwarding rules that apply a condition, auto-forward rules explained covers the options across providers.

Does your account type change what you get?#

Yahoo Mail is not one product. This table shows where the feature sits.

Why is Yahoo forwarding greyed out or missing?#

Three causes cover most cases. Check them in this order.

Yahoo Mail forwarding not working: what to check#

If setup went through and mail still is not arriving, work down this list.

• Look in Spam or Junk on the destination account. Forwarded mail can land there, especially at first.
• Confirm you completed the verification in the destination account, not just entered the address.
• Check that the Yahoo Mail Plus subscription is still active. If it has lapsed, expect forwarding to stop even if the address is still shown, and confirm on your account.
• Test with a plain message from an address you control before debugging a real sender.
• Check Recent activity and your forwarding address for anything you did not set up.

Free alternatives to Yahoo auto-forward#

If paying a monthly fee only to move mail elsewhere does not make sense, forwarding is not the only route.

• Forward messages manually. Free accounts can forward individual emails on demand.
• Connect Yahoo over IMAP to an email app. The app pulls Yahoo mail in, so you read it in one inbox without Yahoo copying anything out. Yahoo needs an app password for this: see how to generate a Yahoo app password and Yahoo Mail IMAP and SMTP settings.
• Use filters to sort Yahoo mail into folders if you only want to stop checking it constantly.
• Do not count on Gmail pulling from Yahoo. Google is removing POP fetching from Gmail in January 2027, so a setup built on it has a short life.

Reading Yahoo next to Gmail in AI Emaily#

Forwarding gets the mail somewhere else, but you still end up with two inboxes to keep in order. AI Emaily connects Yahoo Mail over IMAP with a Yahoo app password, next to Gmail (through the Gmail API), Outlook and other providers, so Yahoo mail arrives in the same unified inbox without a forwarding rule. The Yahoo connection guide has the steps.

It is a paid app, not a free workaround: there is a 7-day free trial on Pro or Autopilot, and a 14-day money-back guarantee. Copilot drafts replies for you to approve, using the Personal Context you set. What it does not replace is anything on Yahoo's side, so existing forwarding settings in your Yahoo account stay as they are.