Have you had enough of your Gmail account? Perhaps you don’t use it any more, or you're wary of what Google knows about you.
While Google doesn’t make deleting your Gmail account so simple that it can be done accidentally, it’s nonetheless a fairly straightforward process. If you’re certain you want to do it, here’s how to delete your Gmail account.
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How to delete your Gmail account
1. Head to your Google account page
That’s here (opens in new tab) – myaccount.google.com (opens in new tab).
2. Click the 'Data & personalization' button
On the left-hand side of the screen, the third option down reads “Data & personalization”. Click it to be taken to a new page.
3. Select 'Delete a service or your account'
Scroll down the page until you come to a section called “Download, delete, or make a plan for your data.” Click the “Delete a service or your account” button.
4. Decide what exactly you want to delete
A Google account handles more than just Gmail. There are different procedures if you want to get rid of Gmail but keep other Google services (such as a YouTube account) and if you want want all traces of your Google account gone.
Let's start with deleting the Gmail service. (If you want to delete your entire Google account, skip ahead to Step 7.) Click “Delete a service.”
5. Delete the Gmail service.
You'll be taken to a new page that looks like this. (You may have to log into Google again for verification purposes.)
Select Gmail and click the trash-can icon on the right.
6. Provide a new email address and confirm it.
If you delete your Gmail account, you’ll need to give Google another address belonging to you so that you can keep using other services like Google Play, Docs or Calendar. (It doesn't need to be another Gmail address.)
On that email account, you'll receive an email message that looks like this. You'll need to click a link to confirm that you want to delete your Gmail account.
Read through the text, tick the box labelled “Yes, I want to delete youremailaddress@gmail.com permanently from my Google Account” and press “Delete Gmail”.
7. Read the warning page before you delete your Google account.
If you want all traces of your Google account gone, then press “Delete your account” on the page you were on in Step 4.
You'll be taken to a page that looks like this.
8. Press the delete button
Google wants you to be absolutely certain this is something you want to do, because it can’t be undone.
You'll have to check off two boxes: One confirms that you acknowledge any pending financial transactions on the account will still be paid, and the other confirms that you want to delete your Google account.
Then click the "Delete account" button.
9. You’re done!
And that’s it: Your Gmail account — and possibly your whole Google account, depending on your decision above — is gone. You'll be getting a final notification that looks like the one below.
Your Google account is not necessarily gone forever, though. On the final screen, Google says: “If you accidentally deleted your Google Account, you have a short amount of time to try and recover it.” This is done via the account recovery site (opens in new tab), but this link won’t work for you if your deletion was older than a couple of days.
More Gmail tips
- How to use Gmail — essential tips and tricks
- How to create a new Gmail account
- How to delete your Gmail account
- How to log out of Gmail
- How to change your name in Gmail
- How to block emails in Gmail
- How to recall email in Gmail
- How to mark all as read in Gmail
- How to delete all emails in Gmail
- How to create folders in Gmail
- How to empty trash in Gmail
- How to change your password in Gmail
- How to archive email in Gmail
- How to activate Gmail dark mode
- How to turn on Gmail's two-factor authentication on your desktop
- How to set up Gmail two-factor authentication (2FA) on your phone
