by The Computing Australia Group | How to Free Up Space
in Gmail
The downside? That “free” storage fills up fast.
When your Google storage is nearly full, you might notice:
- Gmail running slowly or freezing in your browser
- Messages bouncing because your mailbox is full
- Attachments failing to send
- Difficulty searching or loading older conversations
If you rely on Gmail to get work done every day, this hits your productivity hard.
The good news: you don’t need to be a tech expert to fix it. In this 5-minute helpdesk style guide, we’ll walk through practical, non-technical steps to free up space in Gmail and keep it running smoothly. We’ll also cover smarter habits so you’re not constantly fighting a full inbox.
How Gmail Storage Actually Works
Before you start deleting messages at random, it helps to understand how Google storage works.
When you use a free Google account, you typically get 15 GB of storage. That space is shared across:
- Gmail – emails + attachments
- Google Drive – files, shared folders, backups
- Google Photos – photos and videos (depending on quality settings)
- Other Google services – Docs, Sheets, Slides files stored in Drive
So even if your Gmail inbox doesn’t look that full, your storage may be eaten up by:
- Old backups in Google Drive
- Large PDFs or ZIP files shared months or years ago
- Full-resolution photos and videos
Your goal is to target the big space hogs first, instead of spending hours deleting tiny emails one by one.
Step 1: Check What’s Using Your Google Storage
The fastest way to start is to get a clear picture of where your storage is going.
1. Sign in to your Google account.
2. Go to your Google Account Storage page (you can search for “Google Account storage” in your browser while logged in).
3. You’ll see a breakdown showing how much space is used by:
- Gmail
- Google Drive
- Google Photos
This helps you decide where to focus:
- If Gmail is the main culprit → focus on email clean-up.
- If Drive or Photos are huge → you’ll need to clean those up too (we cover Drive later in this guide).
Step 2: Do a Quick Inbox Clean-Up (Tabs, Spam & Trash)
Let’s start with the low-effort, high-impact clean-up.
2.1 Clear Social & Promotions Tabs
If you use Gmail’s default inbox, you’ll see tabs such as:
- Primary
- Social
- Promotions
- Updates
- Forums
The Social and Promotions tabs are usually full of newsletters, marketing emails, notifications, and automated messages. Useful sometimes… but rarely worth keeping forever.
You can quickly clear them:
1. Click the Promotions tab.
2. Tick the checkbox at the top to select all emails on the page.
3. At the top, click Select all conversations in Promotions.
4. Click the trash bin icon to delete.
Repeat this for the Social, Updates, and Forums tabs if you don’t rely on them.
2.2 Empty Spam & Trash
Spam and Trash still count towards your storage until they’re emptied.
- Go to the Spam folder on the left sidebar and click Delete all spam messages now.
- Go to Trash and click Empty Trash now to permanently delete those messages.
This alone can free up a surprising amount of space.
Step 3: Bulk Delete Old Newsletters & Promotions
Even after clearing the tabs, your Primary inbox often hides countless newsletters, promotions, and automated alerts.
Instead of hunting them one by one, you can search by sender and delete in bulk:
1. Open an email from a newsletter or retailer you don’t need to archive.
2. Copy the sender’s email address.
3. Paste it into the Gmail search bar and press Enter.
4. Click the checkbox to select all results.
5. Click Delete.
Repeat this for a few heavy senders (think online stores, SaaS tools, social networks). In a few minutes, you can remove hundreds or thousands of emails.
Step 4: Find and Delete Large Emails & Attachments
Now it’s time to target the real storage hogs: large attachments.
Gmail includes powerful search operators that most people never use. Here are the most helpful ones:
- larger:10M → shows emails larger than 10 MB
- larger:5M → shows emails larger than 5 MB
- has:attachment → shows only emails with attachments
- filename:pdf → shows emails with PDF attachments
- filename:zip → shows emails with ZIP files (often very large)
4.1 Search by Size
In the Gmail search bar, type:
Steps:
1. Review the list to identify emails you no longer need.
3. Select and delete messages you don’t need to keep.
If your storage is still high, repeat with larger:5M or larger:2M.
4.2 Combine Filters
You can combine filters too:
- has:attachment larger:5M
- has:attachment filename:pdf larger:2M
This is especially useful in business environments where a few large reports, backup files, or slide decks are consuming gigabytes.
Step 5: Clear Up Drive Files That Count Against Gmail Storage
Remember: Gmail storage is shared with Google Drive.
If you’re still low on space after cleaning emails, move over to Google Drive:
1. Open Google Drive.
2. Click Storage in the left sidebar.
3. At the top right, sort by Storage used (largest files first).
You’ll now see which files or folders are the worst offenders.
Actions to take:
- Delete old backup files you no longer need.
- Remove large one-off files (e.g. old video drafts, installers, ZIP archives).
- Delete duplicate files or older versions.
When you delete:
1. Files go to the Trash (or Bin) in Google Drive.
2. You must empty the Trash in Drive for that space to be truly freed.
Step 6: Save & Delete – Archiving Important Messages Safely
Some emails are large but important – think contracts, signed documents, invoices, legal correspondence, or critical project history.
You don’t have to keep the email in Gmail to keep the information.
6.1 Save Emails as PDFs
To save an email outside of Gmail:
1. Open the email you want to save.
2. Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the message.
3. Choose Print.
4. In the Destination field, choose Save as PDF instead of a printer.
5. Save the PDF to a secure location (your company’s file server, SharePoint, OneDrive, or another cloud storage system).
Once you’ve confirmed it’s safely stored, you can delete the original email from Gmail.
6.2 Download Attachments
If the attachment itself is what matters:
1. Open the email.
2. Click the attachment and choose Download.
3. Save it to a managed storage location (e.g. departmental folder or project drive).
4. Delete the email once the file is backed up.
This method keeps your business records safe while reducing your Gmail footprint.
Step 7: Use Plain Text Where Possible
HTML emails (those with fancy layouts, images, buttons, and colours) are heavier than plain text emails. One email doesn’t matter much, but hundreds or thousands over years do add up.
Switching to plain text for some of your outgoing messages can help:
Benefits of plain text emails:
- Smaller in size
- Faster to load on slow connections
- Easier to read on mobile devices
- Less likely to break in different email clients
In Gmail, when composing a new email:
1. Click the three-dot menu in the bottom-right of the compose window.
2. Select Plain text mode.
Gmail will remember your last preference for future messages.
Step 8: Remove Irrelevant Quoted Text in Long Threads
Every reply adds a little more to the total size.
To reduce this:
- When replying, highlight and delete the parts of the quoted conversation you don’t need.
- Keep only the most recent relevant messages or the key points for context.
For long, ongoing threads (especially with attachments earlier in the conversation), this can save significant space over the life of the project.
For critical threads, consider:
- Saving the full history as a PDF at key milestones.
- Starting a fresh thread once a project phase is completed.
Step 9: Automate Ongoing Clean-Up With Filters
One clean-up is good. Automatic ongoing clean-up is better.
Gmail filters can:
- Automatically label newsletters and promotions
- Skip the inbox for low-priority emails
- Auto-archive or even delete certain types of messages after a while
9.1 Create Filters for Promotions & Newsletters
1. In Gmail, click the search options icon in the search bar.
2. In the From field, add a sender (e.g. a retailer or tool that sends regular updates).
3. Click Create filter.
4. Choose actions such as:
- Skip the Inbox (Archive it)
- Apply the label “Newsletters” or “Promotions”
- Mark as read
This keeps your main inbox clean and makes it easier to bulk delete later.
9.2 Time-Based Clean-Up (For Admins / Power Users)
If you’re on Google Workspace (business edition), admins can configure:
- Retention rules to automatically delete emails older than a certain age in specific folders, or
- Apply policies for different user groups (e.g. sales vs operations).
If you’re not an admin, you can still periodically search:
- older_than:1y
- older_than:2y
Then bulk delete or archive non-critical emails.If you’re not an admin, you can still periodically search:
Step 10: When It Makes Sense to Buy Extra Storage
Cleaning up should always be your first step, but there are cases where paying for more storage is the most practical solution:
- You work with large design, video, or CAD files.
- Your business must keep extensive email records for compliance or audit.
- You’ve already cleaned up and still sit near the limit.
Google offers Google One (for personal accounts) and flexible storage options for Google Workspace business users.
However:
- Review your existing storage usage first.
- Implement retention and archive policies.
- Back up critical files in a structured, centralised system.
That way, you’re not just throwing money at poor digital housekeeping.
Step 11: Gmail Storage Best Practices for Remote Teams & Businesses
If you manage a team, you’ll see the best results when everyone uses good inbox habits.
Consider:
- Training staff on:
- Using larger: and has:attachment searches
- Saving important attachments to shared drives
- Avoiding sending very large files as email attachments (use share links instead)
- Introducing shared drives or document management systems for:
- Contracts
- Project assets
- Client documentation
- Implementing policies around:
- How long emails should be kept
- Where final documents are stored
- How to handle large files (links over attachments)
With the right workflows in place, Gmail becomes a communication tool again – not a filing cabinet.
Step 12: Quick 5-Minute Gmail Clean-Up Checklist
If you’re short on time, here’s a rapid-fire sequence you can run through regularly:
1. Empty Spam and Trash.
2. Clear Promotions, Social, and other secondary tabs.
3. Search for big emails:
- larger:10M → review and delete or save/attach elsewhere.
4. Go to Google Drive → Storage view and delete the top few largest unnecessary files.
5. Save any critical email threads as PDFs and delete the originals if they’re no longer needed.
6. Unsubscribe from at least 3 senders you never read.
Repeat this monthly and you’ll rarely see storage warnings again.
Need help with clearing up your Gmail account? Contact us or email us at helpdesk@computingaustralia.group. Our IT helpdesk team from Perth can support you in fixing any space storage issues, and they can assist with all your IT-related concerns.
Jargon Buster
HTML email – A subset of HTML is utilised to provide emails with formatting and semantic markup capabilities that are not feasible with plain text.Plain text – Regular text with no formatting capabilities such as bold, italics, underlines, or unique layout options.
FAQ
Why is my Gmail storage full even after deleting emails?
Does archiving emails in Gmail free up storage space?
No. Archiving does not reduce storage usage. It simply removes emails from your inbox view and stores them in All Mail. The message and any attachments are still stored in your account and continue to use space.
To free up storage, you must delete the email (and eventually clear Trash), not just archive it.
Can I recover an email if I accidentally emptied the Trash?
Once an email is permanently deleted from Trash (or has been in Trash for more than 30 days), it generally cannot be recovered by standard users.
If you’re using Google Workspace (business), your IT administrator may have limited options to recover messages within a certain timeframe depending on retention policies. In that case, contact your IT support or admin as soon as possible.
Does Google Photos affect my Gmail storage?
Yes, in many accounts Google Photos uses the same storage pool as Gmail and Google Drive. If you’re backing up photos and videos in high quality or original quality, they can consume a large portion of your space.
Do labels in Gmail use extra storage?
No. Labels are essentially tags that point to the same underlying message. Applying multiple labels to one email does not create extra copies, so it does not increase storage usage.
However, if you duplicate content by forwarding messages to yourself or copying attachments into new emails, those additional messages will consume more space.
