Manage files in your Google Drive storage

Your storage is shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. When your account reaches its storage limit, you can’t upload or create files to Drive. Learn more about Google storage policies.

To see how much space you have left, on a computer, go to google.com/settings/storage. If you use Google Drive for work or school, you can check if your administrator set an individual storage limit.

If you're close to or over your limit, you can:

• Permanently delete files to clear space.
• Get more storage:
  • For a personal account, sign up for Google One or buy more Google One storage.
  • For a work or school account, ask your administrator for more storage. You can't buy more storage yourself.

Learn more about storage with Drive

How to clear space

To delete your Google Drive files and make space available, move them to the trash and then empty your trash. If you delete, restore, or permanently delete multiple files or folders at once, it might take time for the changes to take effect.

Important:

Files in trash are automatically deleted after 30 days. Before the time window closes, you can restore your files. After the 30-day window, you may lose those files permanently.

Free up storage space

Delete files by size in Google Drive

1. Use a computer to see your files listed from largest to smallest.
2. Put files you don't want in your Trash, then permanently delete them.

Tip: Within 24 hours, deleted items will show in the available space in your Google Drive account.

Permanently delete large emails in Gmail

1. In the Search box, type has:attachment larger:10M.

2. Click Search .
   Note: Replace "10" with a higher number to delete larger files.

3. Select the emails you don't need, then click Delete .
4. On the left side of the page, click Menu  Trash.
5. At the top, click Empty trash now.

Permanently delete emails in your Spam folder

1. On the left, click Spam. If you don't see Spam, click More.
2. At the top, click Delete all spam messages now. Or, select specific emails, then click Delete forever.

For other ways to search for email, learn about Gmail search operators.

Move photos & videos to Trash

1. On your computer, go to photos.google.com.
2. Point to an item you want to move to Trash.
3. At the top left, click Select .
4. At the top right, click Delete   Move to trash.

Delete and recover files using Google One Storage Manager

• To delete single or multiple files that take up storage, use the Google One Storage Manager. Learn how to free up Google storage space.
• If you delete a file by mistake, learn how to recover a deleted file.

Remove hidden data from apps in Google Drive

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. Click Settings Settings.
3. On the left, click Manage apps.
4. If there's hidden data, you can find the amount under the app's description.
5. To delete this data, click Options Delete hidden app data.

Items that use storage space

Google Drive

Important: As of June 1, 2021, newly created Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files count toward storage. Files that already exist don't count toward storage unless they're modified on or after June 1, 2021. 

• Most files in your My Drive take up space. My Drive contains files and folders you upload or sync, such as PDFs, images, or videos. It also contains files you create, such as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms.
• Items in your Trash also take up space. Learn how to empty your trash.

Gmail

Messages and attachments, like items in your Spam and Trash folders, take up space.

Google Photos

• Photos and videos backed up in Original quality take up space.
• Photos and videos backed up in High quality (now named Storage saver) or Express quality after June 1, 2021. Any photos or videos you backed up in High quality or Express quality before June 1, 2021 will not count toward your Google Account storage. Learn more about Photos backup options.

Storage differences in Google Drive

Items in Google Drive for desktop take up a different amount of space than the same items in drive.google.com.

• Items in your Trash take up space in Google Drive, but aren't synced to your computer.
• Shared items will take up space on your computer, but not Google Drive.
• Items that are in multiple folders will be synced to all folders on your computer, taking up more space.
• If you only sync some folders to your computer, the storage on your computer will be less than what is shown on Google Drive.
• Your computer may show a slightly different file size than drive.google.com because of Mac or PC requirements.

Items that don't use storage space

Google Drive

• Files in "Shared with me" and shared drives don't use space. These files only take up space in the owner's Google Drive.
• Google Sites.
• Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Jamboard, and Drawings files you create before June 1, 2021, and don't edit after that date.

Google Photos

Photos and videos backed up in Storage saver quality or Express quality before June 1, 2021 don't use space.

What happens if you run out of space

If you're over your storage quota for 2 years, we may delete your content across Gmail, Drive, and Photos.

Gmail

You can’t send or receive messages. Messages sent to you are returned to the sender.

Google Drive

You can’t sync or upload new files. You can’t create new files in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard. Until you reduce the amount of storage you use, neither you nor anyone else can edit or copy your affected files. Syncs stop between your computer's Google Drive folder and My Drive.

Google Photos

You can’t back up any photos or videos. If you want to add any more photos and videos, you can free up Google storage space or buy more Google storage.

Free up storage space