How to Free Up Space in Google Drive

Google gives every personal account 15 GB shared across Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. When it fills up, uploads and new emails stop, so the fix is to find the biggest items in each service and delete them.

Check where the space is going

Open one.google.com/storage. The page shows a bar split into Drive, Gmail, and Photos, so you know which service to clean first. The same number appears at the bottom of the left sidebar in Drive, under the storage meter.

Delete the largest Drive files

In Drive, click Storage in the left sidebar. The list shows every file you own, sorted from largest to smallest. Right-click a file you no longer need and choose Move to trash. Hold Shift to select a run of files and delete them together. Old video recordings, zip files, and installer downloads are usually at the top of the list.

Empty the trash

Files in the trash still count against your storage until they are permanently deleted. Click Trash in the left sidebar, then click Empty trash at the top right and confirm. The storage meter updates within a few minutes.

Clear large Gmail attachments

In Gmail, type larger:10M in the search box to list messages over 10 MB. Tick the ones you do not need and click the trash icon. Then click Trash in the Gmail sidebar and choose Empty Trash now, and do the same for Spam. Emails count toward the same 15 GB, and years of attachments add up quickly.

Shrink your photos

In Google Photos, open Settings, then Backup, and set the backup quality to Storage saver. To convert photos already backed up, open photos.google.com/settings and use Recover storage. Photos compressed this way still look fine on a screen but take far less room. Photos also offers a review tool for blurry shots, screenshots, and large videos under Manage storage.

Deleted items sit in the trash for 30 days. After that Drive removes them on its own, so a full trash empties itself over a month even if you do nothing. Empty it by hand when you need the space now.

Files shared with you do not count. Only files you own use your storage. A large file someone shared with you counts against their account, and removing it from your Shared with me list frees nothing. If you cannot find enough to delete, a Google One plan adds storage for a monthly fee.