How to Get More Storage for Your Gmail Account

Find out what is—and isn't—taking up your Google storage space

What to Know

  • Log in to your Google account and select profile image > Manage your Google Account. View your storage space under Account storage.
  • To buy more, go to Manage storage and scroll down to view storage add-on options.
  • Workaround: Sign up for another Gmail account with 15 GB storage and forward recent messages there.

Every Google user receives 15 GB of free online storage for use with Google Drive, including your Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard files, as well as Google Photos. Your Gmail account is tied in there, too. If you have a hard time deleting messages or frequently receive large email attachments, you could easily approach that 15 GB limit. When this happens, Google will sell you additional storage space on its servers.

How to Buy More Storage for Your Gmail Account

To see how much Google storage you have left or to buy more storage, go to the Drive Storage screen of your Google account. Here's how:

  1. Log in to any of your Google apps, such as Gmail, and select your profile icon or image.

    Gmail page with Google account profile icon highlighted
  2. Select Manage your Google Account.

    Gmail screen with Account menu and "Manage your Google Account" highlighted
  3. Go to the Account storage section to see how much storage you've used and how much is allotted to your account.

    Manage your Google Account page with Account Storage amount highlighted

    If you're a Google One subscriber, this option is called Go to Google One. From there, you can use the Free up account storage link to find those options, or select See plans at the bottom of that page to upgrade for more storage.

  4. Select Manage storage.

    Google Account with Manage Storage highlighted
  5. You'll see a breakdown of how you use your storage by type.

    Google account breakdown of storage used
  6. To buy more storage, select Get More Storage.

    Google storage breakdown with "Get more storage" highlighted
  7. View the available subscription plans and select one to purchase it.

    Google One subscription plans available
  8. If you don't want to buy more storage and want to find ways to free up your existing storage, scroll up a little and select Free up account storage.

    "Free up account storage" highlighted in the Google Manage Accounts page
  9. On the Manage Your Account Storage page, explore the options presented for clearing out your existing storage. These include permanently deleting trashed emails, deleting spam emails, and viewing emails with large attachments to see if you can delete them.

    Google's Manage your account storage page with options

Other Solutions

Beyond clearing out existing storage, there are other ways to gain more storage.

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