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.

    Change your storage plan
     

  • For a work or school account, ask your administrator for more storage. You can't buy more storage yourself.

Learn more about how to manage your 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

Learn how storage policies vary by plan

Storage policies vary by plan:

• Your account, , is a Personal account with 15 GB of storage at no charge: This storage is shared among Drive, Gmail, and Photos.

• Your account, , is a Personal account with 15 GB of storage at no charge: This storage is shared among Drive, Gmail, and Photos.

• You’re not signed into a Google account: To find out what plan you have, log into your Google account and reload this article.

Google Workspace storage

Google Workspace storage is shared between Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Learn how storage use is calculated.

The amount of storage for each user depends on your Google Workspace edition. Most Google Workspace editions have pooled storage. Pooled storage is indicated in the following tables as total storage or a storage amount times the number of End User licenses.

Google Workspace Edition or Subscription	Storage Limits
G Suite Basic No longer available for new customers	30 GB per End User
G Suite Business G Suite Business - Archived Users No longer available for new customers	Unlimited storage 1 TB per Archived User
Google Workspace Business Starter	30 GB times the number of End Users, including Archived Users
Google Workspace Business Standard	2 TB times the number of End Users, including Archived Users
Google Workspace Business Plus	5 TB times the number of End Users, including Archived Users
Google Workspace Enterprise Starter	1 TB times the number of End Users
Google Workspace Enterprise Standard Google Workspace Enterprise Plus	5 TB times the number of End Users, including Archived Users For customers with 5 or more End Users, more storage may be available at Google's discretion upon reasonable request to Google Workspace support.

Google Workspace for Education

Google Workspace Edition or Subscription	Storage Limits
Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals Google Workspace for Education Standard	100 TB total for all End Users
Google Workspace for Education Teaching and Learning Upgrade	Additional 100 GB times the number of End User licenses
Google Workspace for Education Plus	Additional 20 GB times the number of End User licenses

For more information about storage for Google Workspace for Education storage, go to Understand storage availability and usage.

Google Workspace Essentials

Google Workspace Essentials editions do not include Gmail.

Google Workspace Edition or Subscription	Storage Limits
Google Workspace Essentials Starter	15 GB per End User
Google Workspace Essentials No longer available for new customers	100 GB times the number of End User, up to a maximum of 2 TB
Google Workspace Enterprise Essentials	1 TB times the number of End Users
Google Workspace Enterprise Essentials Plus	5 TB times the number of End Users

Google Workspace Frontline

Google Workspace Edition or Subscription	Storage Limits
Google Workspace Frontline Starter Google Workspace Frontline Standard	5 GB per End User*

*This storage limit applies to all End Users using a Google Workspace Frontline edition, even if the Customer purchased another Google Workspace offering with different storage limits.

Google Workspace for Nonprofits

Google Workspace Edition or Subscription	Storage Limits
Google Workspace for Nonprofits	30 GB per End User

Google One storage

Google One storage is shared between Drive, Gmail, and Photos and across family accounts, where applicable. The amount of storage for each user depends on your Google Workspace edition.

Google One Plan	Payment	Availability
100 GB	Monthly or yearly	Everyone
200 GB	Monthly or yearly	Everyone
2 TB	Monthly or yearly	Everyone
5 TB	Monthly or yearly	Upgrade for existing members
10 TB	Monthly	Upgrade for existing members
20 TB	Monthly	Upgrade for existing members
30 TB	Monthly	Upgrade for existing members

Google One members can share their plan features with up to 5 family members.

Everyone gets 15 GB of cloud storage at no charge with their Google Account. The rest of the paid Google One storage is shared between family members. Learn how to start or stop sharing with your family.

You can also use the storage manager to Clean up & troubleshoot your Google storage.

Related resources

• How your Google storage works
• Start or stop sharing with your family
• Google Workspace for Education storage