---
title: "How to Create a Global Email Filter in cPanel"
description: "Create a global email filter in cPanel that discards, redirects or files matching messages for every mailbox on the account, and test it before relying on it."
url: "https://docs.noiz.ie/email/how-to-create-a-global-email-filter-in-cpanel/"
section: "Email"
categories:
  - "Email > Spam & Filtering"
last_reviewed: "27 July 2026, against the current cPanel & WHM interface (Jupiter theme)"
---

# How to Create a Global Email Filter in cPanel

You cannot stop spam reaching the mail server entirely, but you can decide what happens to it once it arrives. A **global email filter** in cPanel lets you match messages on their content and then discard, redirect, or file them automatically. Because it is created at account level, one global filter applies to *every* mailbox on the cPanel account at once, so you do not have to repeat the same rule for each address.

Global email filters are sometimes called *account-level filters*. They are different from the per-mailbox **Email Filters** tool, which affects only a single email account. Use a global filter when you want the same rule to protect the whole account; use a per-mailbox filter when only one address needs it.

**Last reviewed:** 27 July 2026, against the current cPanel & WHM interface (Jupiter theme). This guide is written for Noiz hosting and is kept current against cPanel. It complements, and does not replace, the official cPanel documentation linked below.

### Official Documentation Reference

- [Global Email Filters](https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/email/global-email-filters/): the account-level interface used in this guide.
- [Email Filters](https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/email/email-filters/): filters for a single mailbox only.
- [How to Configure Email Filters](https://docs.cpanel.net/knowledge-base/email/how-to-configure-email-filters): the full list of rule fields, comparison operators and actions.

## Prerequisites

- A hosting account with cPanel access (included with all Noiz cPanel plans).
- Your cPanel sign-in details.

## Open Global Email Filters

1. Log in to your cPanel account.
2. In the **Email** section, click **Global Email Filters**.

![The Global Email Filters icon in the Email section of cPanel](/img/account-level-filtering-icon.gif)

## Create a New Filter

1. Click **Create a New Filter**.
2. Enter a name for the filter in the **Filter Name** box. Choose something you will recognise later, for example `Discard Lottery Scams`.

## Define the Rule

A rule has three parts: the part of the message to inspect, how to compare it, and the value to match. To act on any message whose body contains a word such as **Lottery**, select **Body** in the first list, select **contains** in the second list, and type the word in the value box.

![A global email filter rule set to match when the message Body contains a given word](/img/create-filter-body.gif)

You can inspect other parts of the message instead of the body, such as **From**, **Subject** or **To**, and you can use operators such as **equals**, **begins with**, **ends with** or **matches regex** for more precise matches. Click **+** to add further conditions when you need to match on more than one criterion.

## Choose the Action

From the **Actions** drop-down, choose what happens to a matching message. To silently delete it, select **Discard Message**, then click **Create**.

**Before you discard:** **Discard Message** deletes the email with no bounce and no notice to the sender, so a legitimate message caught by an over-broad rule is gone without trace. For spam handling it is often safer to choose **Deliver to Folder** and send matches to a dedicated folder you can review, or **Redirect to Email** to route them elsewhere. Use **Discard Message** only once you are confident the rule matches spam and nothing else.

## How Global Filters Are Applied

- A global filter runs against mail for every mailbox on the account, so a single rule covers all current and future addresses.
- Rules are processed from the top of the list downward. Order matters: a message that has already been discarded by an earlier rule is not seen by later ones.
- Global filters run before any per-mailbox **Email Filters**, which are evaluated afterwards for the specific address.

## Test the Filter

The Global Email Filters page includes a **Filter Test** box. Paste a sample message into it and run the test to confirm the rule behaves as expected before you rely on it. This is the safest way to check a discard rule, because you can prove what it catches without losing real mail.

## Troubleshooting

**Symptom**: legitimate mail has stopped arriving. Review your global filters for an over-broad rule (for example **Body** **contains** a very common word) and either narrow the condition or change the action from **Discard Message** to **Deliver to Folder** so you can inspect what is being caught.

**Symptom**: the filter only affects one mailbox. You may have created it under the per-mailbox **Email Filters** tool instead of **Global Email Filters**. Recreate it under **Global Email Filters** to apply it account-wide.

If you are on a Noiz managed plan and want help building or tuning spam filters for your account, contact Noiz support and the team will assist.

---
Source: https://docs.noiz.ie/email/how-to-create-a-global-email-filter-in-cpanel/