How Much Does Gmail Storage Cost? (2025)

Gmail storage full? Compare Google One prices vs free alternatives like Yahoo and Outlook. Plus strategies to clean up without paying.

You're running out of Gmail storage. Maybe you've gotten the warning emails, or your inbox has already stopped receiving new messages. It happens to everyone eventually.

Gmail gives you 15 GB of free storage, but there's a catch: that 15 GB gets shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. Your old vacation photos and work presentations compete with your emails for space. When you hit the limit, Gmail stops sending and receiving emails until you fix it.

So what do you do? You've got three options: pay Google for more storage, switch to a different email provider with more free space, or clean up what you have and keep using Gmail for free.

This guide breaks down all three paths with real numbers, so you can make the right call for your situation.

Why Is My Gmail Storage Full? How to Check What's Using Space

Before you pull out your credit card or start hunting for alternatives, it helps to understand what's eating up your storage.

That 15 GB isn't just email. It includes:

• Your Gmail messages and attachments

• Everything in Google Drive (docs, spreadsheets, PDFs)

• Google Photos (unless they were uploaded before June 2021 in "high quality")

Most people run out because of email attachments. Years of PDFs, photos sent via email, and videos add up fast. But sometimes the culprit is actually Google Photos or an old Drive folder you forgot about.

Here's how to check: Go to one.google.com/storage while logged in. You'll see a breakdown showing exactly which service is using how much space. Maybe it's not Gmail at all. You might have 8 GB of photos and only 3 GB of email.

Critical insight: Knowing which service is consuming your storage changes your strategy. If Photos is the problem, cleaning up Gmail won't help much.

Once you know where you stand, you can decide whether to upgrade, switch, or clean up.

How Much Does Google One Cost? Gmail Storage Upgrade Pricing

If you need more space, Google One is Google's storage subscription service. It raises your combined limit across Gmail, Drive, and Photos.

Google One Pricing Plans: 100GB to 2TB Options

Here are the standard plans as of 2025:

Plan	Storage	Monthly Price	Annual Price
Free	15 GB	$0	$0
Basic	100 GB	$1.99	$19.99
Standard	200 GB	$2.99	$29.99
Premium	2 TB	$9.99	$99.99

The 100 GB plan is the sweet spot for most people. It's roughly 7× your free storage for about $20 a year. That's one of the cheapest cloud storage deals per gigabyte you'll find anywhere.

The 2 TB plan gives you over 130× the free allotment, essentially guaranteeing you'll never worry about storage again. Google also offers larger plans (10 TB, 20 TB, 30 TB) at higher price points.

Can You Share Google One Storage? Family Plan Explained

All Google One plans can be shared with up to 5 other people (6 total) at no extra cost. Each person's content stays private, but everyone draws from the same storage pool.

So if you get the 200 GB plan for $2.99/month and share it with two friends, you're each effectively paying $1/month for about 66 GB of space. That's a fantastic deal if you can split the cost.

What to Know Before Buying Google One Storage

A few things to consider:

→ It's a recurring charge. That 100 GB isn't a one-time purchase. If you cancel Google One, your limit drops back to 15 GB. And if you're over 15 GB when that happens, your email stops working again until you clean up.

→ Regional pricing varies. The prices above are U.S. rates. In some countries, Google adjusted pricing in 2025 due to currency changes. Check one.google.com for your local pricing.

→ You get some extras. Higher-tier plans include perks like access to Google support, occasional rewards, and a VPN on mobile (2 TB and above). Google also recently launched an AI-enhanced plan that bundles premium Gemini AI features with 2 TB for a higher price. Nice, but not essential for most people.

→ Upgrading is instant. You can upgrade from the Google One website or mobile app in about 30 seconds. Once you do, your new storage takes effect immediately (though Google notes it may take up to 24 hours in rare cases).

For many people, paying $2-3 a month solves the problem with zero hassle. But before you do, you might want to check out your other options.

Gmail Storage vs Competitors: Which Email Provider Has the Most Free Space?

What if you don't want to pay Google? You might wonder if switching to a different email provider gets you more free space.

Here's the breakdown:

Yahoo Mail Storage: How Much Free Space Do You Get?

Yahoo now offers 20 GB of free storage for all accounts. That's 5 GB more than Gmail.

But there's a catch. Yahoo used to offer 1 TB free (yes, a full terabyte). In August 2025, they slashed it to 20 GB, a 98% reduction. Even longtime users who had the 1 TB limit got downgraded to 20 GB.

If Yahoo can change their terms that drastically, can you really trust them long-term?

Yahoo's paid plans aren't competitive either. Yahoo Mail Plus costs around $5/month for 200 GB, or $10/month for 1 TB. That's more expensive than Google One, which gives you 2 TB for $10/month.

The verdict: Yahoo offers slightly more free storage than Gmail, but their reliability is questionable, and their paid plans are overpriced.

Outlook Storage Limits: How Much Free Email Storage?

Outlook.com gives you 15 GB of free email storage, same as Gmail. But there's an important difference:

Outlook's 15 GB is just for email. Your email attachments are stored on OneDrive (which has a separate 5 GB free allotment). So in effect, you get 15 GB for email plus 5 GB for files. That separation means your family photos on OneDrive won't eat into your email quota.

If you hit 15 GB of email on Outlook, that's purely email content. At that point, you probably have millions of messages.

Paid upgrades: Microsoft offers Microsoft 365 Personal for $69.99/year, which includes 50-100 GB for email plus 1 TB of OneDrive storage plus the full Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). If you need Office apps anyway, this is great value. There's also Microsoft 365 Basic for $1.99/month, which gives 100 GB OneDrive and a 50 GB Outlook mailbox.

The verdict: Outlook's free tier is roughly equivalent to Gmail's. The paid plans offer good value if you want Office apps, but for pure storage, Google One is simpler.

iCloud Mail Storage: How Much Free Space Does Apple Give?

Apple iCloud Mail gives you just 5 GB, and that's shared with your iPhone/iPad backups, iCloud Drive, and Photos. Most Apple users burn through 5 GB quickly.

Paid iCloud+ plans start at 50 GB for $0.99/month, then 200 GB for $2.99/month, and 2 TB for $9.99/month.

The verdict: Unless you're deeply committed to Apple's ecosystem, iCloud Mail isn't a good choice for free email storage. The 5 GB is too small.

Proton Mail Storage Limits: How Much Is Free?

Proton Mail is about privacy, not generous storage. The free plan gives you 500 MB by default, expandable to 1 GB.

Paid plans start at 15 GB for around $3.99/month. That's about double the cost of Google's 100 GB plan for one-sixth the storage.

You're paying a premium for end-to-end encryption and Switzerland-based privacy protections. If that matters to you, great. But Proton is not economical for storage.

The verdict: Use Proton if privacy is your top priority. But be ready to either delete emails regularly or pay significantly more than Google charges.

AOL Mail Storage: Does It Really Offer 1TB Free?

Yes, AOL still exists. And surprisingly, AOL offers 1 terabyte (1,000 GB) of free storage.

That's effectively unlimited for personal email use. So why isn't everyone using AOL?

Because it's AOL. The interface is dated, spam protection is mediocre, and the mobile app lacks modern features. Some people keep an AOL account purely for archival purposes thanks to that massive storage, but it's not something you'd want as your primary email in 2025.

Also, AOL (like Yahoo) has changed ownership multiple times. There's no guarantee the 1 TB policy won't disappear someday.

The verdict: AOL has the most free storage by far, but the tradeoffs in functionality make it impractical for most people.

Other Free Email Storage Options to Consider

• Mail.com: 65 GB free, which is generous among lesser-known services.

• Zoho Mail: 5 GB free for personal use.

• Tutanota and Mailfence: 1 GB and 500 MB free respectively (both security-focused).

Important note: Switching your primary email address is a huge hassle. You'd have to update contacts, logins, subscriptions, everything. Only consider it if the storage problem is severe and you genuinely prefer the alternative service. In most cases, staying with Gmail and either cleaning it up or paying a small amount is simpler.

Best Paid Email Storage Options Besides Google One

If you're willing to pay for storage, Google One isn't your only option.

Microsoft 365: Best Value If You Need Office

For around $70/year, Microsoft 365 Personal gives you:

• 50-100 GB Outlook mailbox

• 1 TB OneDrive storage

• Full Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

If you already use Office apps or work in the Microsoft ecosystem, this is a better deal than Google One. You get productivity software plus plenty of storage.

For pure email storage, the Microsoft 365 Basic plan ($1.99/month) gives 100 GB OneDrive and a 50 GB mailbox, which is comparable to Google's 100 GB plan.

Yahoo Mail Plus: Not Recommended

Yahoo's paid plans are around $5/month for 200 GB or $10/month for 1 TB. Since Google gives you 2 TB for $10/month, Yahoo is objectively a worse deal unless you have a specific reason to stay with Yahoo.

Proton Mail Plus: Premium Privacy

Proton's Mail Plus at around $4/month gives 15 GB. Higher tiers like Proton Unlimited ($10/month) give 500 GB.

Again, you're paying for privacy and security, not raw storage capacity. Only invest in Proton if those features are worth the cost difference to you.

Storage Comparison: Who Wins?

In pure price-per-GB terms:

Service	Price	Storage	Value
Google One	$1.99/mo	100 GB	Best
Microsoft 365 Basic	$1.99/mo	100 GB + 50 GB email	Best (if you want Office)
Microsoft 365 Personal	$5.83/mo	1 TB + Office	Great value
Yahoo Mail Plus	$5/mo	200 GB	Poor
Proton Mail Plus	$4/mo	15 GB	Privacy premium

Google One and Microsoft 365 offer the best bang for your buck. Yahoo and Proton serve niche use cases but aren't price-competitive for storage alone.

How to Free Up Gmail Storage Without Paying (Complete Guide)

Before spending money or switching providers, consider this: you might be able to free up several gigabytes in an afternoon.

Research shows that most users have a lot of stuff they don't actually need. Old newsletters, giant attachments from years ago, duplicate photos. By cleaning up strategically, you can recover enough space to avoid paying anything.

Here's how:

How to Find and Delete Large Emails in Gmail

Big attachments are the easiest wins. In Gmail, search for size:10m or larger:10m to find emails that are 10 MB or larger. These are typically:

• Old videos sent via email

• Large PowerPoint presentations

• High-resolution photos

• Multiple-attachment email threads

Deleting a single 25 MB email is equivalent to deleting 500 fifty-kilobyte emails. Go after the big fish first.

Google's Storage Manager (at one.google.com/storage) has a one-click filter for "Emails with large attachments" that makes this easy.

How to Empty Gmail Spam and Trash to Free Space

Gmail auto-empties Spam and Trash after 30 days, but if you're tight on space, why wait?

In Gmail on desktop, click Spam > Delete all spam messages, then Trash > Empty Trash now. Until you empty Trash, deleted emails still count against your quota.

How to Delete Old Gmail Emails by Date

Do you really need emails from 10 years ago? Use searches like:

→ older_than:5y (emails older than 5 years)

→ older_than:2y (emails older than 2 years)

Combine size and age for laser-targeted cleanup:

→ larger:1m older_than:3y (emails bigger than 1 MB that are also older than 3 years)

Scan these results for obvious deletables: old newsletters, outdated bills, social media notifications. You can mass-select and delete thousands at once.

Pro tip: After selecting the first page of results, Gmail shows a link to "Select all conversations that match this search." This lets you delete thousands of emails with a few clicks.

How to Bulk Delete Emails from Specific Senders

Maybe you have 50,000 Facebook notifications you'll never read. Search from:@facebookmail.com and mass-delete them.

Or use Gmail's category labels:

① category:promotions (all promotional emails)

② has:attachment (all emails with attachments)

Another useful search: has:attachment finds all emails with attachments. You can sort by size in the Gmail app or with an email client to identify the biggest ones.

How to Archive Gmail Emails Offline Without Deleting

If you have emails you want to remove from Gmail but don't want to lose forever, you can back them up offline using Google Takeout.

Takeout exports your entire mailbox (or specific labels) to a file (MBOX format) that you can open with programs like Thunderbird or Outlook. After backing up to your computer or external drive, delete them from Gmail to free space.

This is useful if you have old work emails with attachments that you rarely need but aren't comfortable permanently deleting.

How to Free Up Google Drive and Photos Storage

Sometimes your Gmail is "full" because Drive or Photos are using most of the 15 GB. Check the storage breakdown.

For Google Drive:

• Go to Drive's Storage view (lists files by size)

• Delete large files you don't need

• Empty Drive's Trash (deleted files sit there until you do)

For Google Photos:

• Use the "Recover storage" option to compress old photos/videos

• Delete large videos or duplicates

Freeing space in Drive or Photos immediately benefits your Gmail quota.

How to Use Google's Storage Manager to Clean Up Space

Google's Storage Manager (available to everyone via one.google.com or the Google One app) surfaces large items automatically.

It shows categories like:

• Emails with attachments larger than 10 MB

• Emails in Spam

• Files in Drive over 100 MB

• Large Google Photos videos

You can review and delete in bulk from a clean interface. Many people have freed several gigabytes in under an hour using this tool.

How Much Storage Can You Actually Free Up?

By cleaning up, you might find you don't need to upgrade at all. If you free 5 GB and typically use around 2 GB a year, you've bought yourself 2+ years of breathing room.

Cleaning is also just good digital hygiene. Why pay to store thousands of emails you'll never open again?

That said, if you're extremely busy, paying $2 a month might be worth avoiding an afternoon of cleanup. And even if you do upgrade, periodic cleaning is smart. As one email expert put it: "A larger quota can just become a larger digital junk drawer if you never delete anything. Why pay for storing junk?"

Consider a hybrid approach: upgrade to a comfortable level and implement good cleanup habits.

How to Prevent Gmail Storage From Filling Up Again

Freeing space once is great. But how do you avoid being back here in 12 months?

Here are some habits to keep your email storage under control long-term:

How to Unsubscribe from Emails to Save Storage

One of the biggest drivers of email bloat is newsletters and promotions you ignore. They might not be huge individually, but hundreds per week compound over months.

Gmail often shows an Unsubscribe link at the top of mass emails. Use it. Less incoming mail means slower storage growth.

Tools can help here. Inbox Zero's Bulk Email Unsubscriber lists all your newsletter senders so you can unsubscribe from dozens in one click. It also shows how often you actually open each sender's emails, making it easy to identify which subscriptions are just noise.

How Often Should You Empty Gmail Spam and Trash?

These folders auto-purge, but doing it manually more frequently ensures deleted items don't linger and count toward your quota.

How to Set Up Gmail Filters to Auto-Delete Old Emails

Gmail filters can automatically archive or delete certain emails when they arrive. For instance, you could set up a filter to auto-archive all newsletters, then manually delete them in bulk every few months.

Some advanced users even set up filters that delete emails older than a certain date in specific folders. It requires a bit of setup, but it keeps old cruft from accumulating.

What Is Inbox Zero and How Does It Save Storage?

The Inbox Zero philosophy is about keeping your inbox cleared out by acting on emails when they arrive, not letting things linger indefinitely.

Practicing this means you're regularly archiving or deleting mail that's done with. Over time, that prevents massive build-up. It also makes you conscious of what's coming in, so you can prune sources of clutter proactively.

Best Email Management Tools to Reduce Storage Usage

Modern email management tools can automate cleanup. For example, Inbox Zero has an Email Analytics dashboard that shows:

• Which senders email you the most

• What categories of mail you receive

• Your largest emails (so you can delete space-hoggers quickly)

With our AI-based automation, you could set certain emails to auto-archive or auto-delete after X days. For instance, auto-archive all newsletters and then auto-delete them after 90 days. The goal is to stay ahead of the clutter instead of reacting to it when you're in crisis mode.

How to Check Gmail Storage and Monitor Usage

Make it a habit to check the Google One storage meter once a month. You'll quickly spot if something caused a spike. Maybe one month you added 2 GB because someone shared a bunch of large attachments. Catching it early lets you address it before it becomes a crisis.

By combining a few of these email management strategies, you can often delay the need for a storage upgrade indefinitely. Plenty of users have been on Gmail since 2005 and are still within the free 15 GB thanks to mindful inbox management.

Should You Pay for Gmail Storage or Switch Providers?

Choosing between paying for storage, seeking alternatives, or cleaning up comes down to your priorities.

If convenience and time are your top concerns:

Pay Google for a larger storage plan. For $2-3 a month, you might solve your issue for years. Google One's family sharing and low cost per GB make it attractive, and it spares you the hassle of deleting and micromanaging.

Similarly, if you're already using Microsoft 365 or willing to pay for it, that's an even bigger bundle of value (Office apps plus lots of space).

If minimizing expenses is key:

Look at free solutions first. Can you free enough space by cleaning? Often yes. Many users find gigabytes of truly unneeded email when they actually look. That buys months or years of breathing room at no cost.

Or consider using a secondary free email account for certain purposes (like offloading newsletters to a separate Gmail account).

If you're considering switching providers:

Do it for the right reasons. Switching from Gmail to Outlook or Yahoo just for 5 GB more free storage probably isn't worth the ecosystem and feature differences.

But if you already prefer Outlook's interface or need better Microsoft Teams integration, then the storage situation is a fine excuse to make the jump. Outlook will serve you well, and you won't have Google's storage quota hanging over you.

Yahoo is harder to recommend now except as a secondary archive mailbox.

A hybrid approach works well:

You don't have to choose just one path. Many people do a round of cleanup and upgrade Google One. The cleanup ensures they're not paying to store junk, and the upgrade ensures they won't run out again soon.

Or you might upgrade to 100 GB for a year or two, then reevaluate if your needs change. These decisions aren't permanent.

Why Email Storage Policies Change (And What to Watch)

We saw Yahoo drastically cut free storage in 2025 (from 1 TB to 20 GB). Google could also change offerings in the future, though there's no indication of that right now. The 15 GB free quota has been stable for many years.

If you rely on a free service for important data, always have a backup plan in case terms change.

Gmail Storage: Best Practices for 2025

Your emails are important, but paying for storage is only one way to deal with running out. Often a combination of strategies works best.

For example: clean up 5 GB of old cruft, then opt for a 100 GB plan. That effectively gives you around 105 GB of headroom with little worry for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, cultivate habits like unsubscribing from junk that slow down the accumulation of new emails.

Whether you stick with Gmail or explore alternatives, remember that storage management is an ongoing process. Just as you occasionally tidy a closet, doing a digital cleanup once or twice a year is good practice even if you have plenty of space. It keeps you in touch with your data and can improve performance (a leaner mailbox is faster and easier to search).

Gmail remains one of the best email services. With the right approach, you can make the most of its free tier or scale up cost-effectively. And if you need help automating cleanup or organizing tasks, tools like Inbox Zero can act like a personal email assistant, automating labeling, unsubscribing, and surfacing your biggest storage hogs.

Good luck, and may your inbox stay under quota (and under control).