How to Delete a Google Account

This article explains how to completely delete your Google account (emails, photos, etc.) and remove your Google account (i.e., disconnect it from your phone). These directions work for desktop and mobile users, whether Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS.

How to Delete a Google Account

Follow these steps to delete your Google account from a computer or mobile web browser:

1. Open the Data & privacy section of your Google account. If you're not already logged in, select Sign in on that page.

2. Locate the Your data & privacy options heading, and then choose More options under it.
   

3. From the More options area, select Delete your Google Account.
   

4. Carefully read through what will happen when you delete your Google account. You might need to enter your password again to see this screen.

   You can see the number of emails that will be erased and a reminder that all your Google Photos, YouTube channels and videos, calendars, contacts, and more will also be deleted.

   These steps are for deleting your whole Google account. See the next set of directions if you want to just disconnect your Google account from your phone, without erasing everything that comes with it,

5. Check both boxes at the bottom of the page, and then select Delete Account.

6. You'll see this final page to confirm that your account will be removed shortly. If you already regret your decision, select Recover your account to log back in.

How to Remove a Google Account From Your Phone

Follow these steps to remove your Google account from your phone or tablet. There are three sets of directions here: one for Android, one for iOS and iPadOS, and another for web users (helpful in removing a Google account from a device you've lost).

Remove a Google Account on Android

Disconnecting your Google account on Android will sign you out of all the Google apps you're using, like YouTube, Gmail, Play Store, Keep, etc. This won't delete anything that's backed up to your account, but it will erase any messages, contacts, and other data that isn't backed up.

The process is basically the same for both Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy devices:

1. Open Settings.

2. Swipe down and select Passwords & accounts if you're on a Pixel phone.

   On a Samsung Galaxy phone, go to Accounts and backup > Manage accounts.

3. Select a Google account from the list.

4. Tap Remove account.

5. Tap Remove account again to confirm.

Remove a Google Account on iPhone or iPad

Removing a Google account from an iOS or iPadOS device prevents Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Notes from syncing with Google.

1. Open Settings.

2. Tap Mail.

3. Select Accounts.

4. Select Gmail.

5. Tap Delete Account.

6. Confirm by selecting Delete from My iPhone or Delete from My iPad.

Remove a Google Account Remotely

If you've lost your phone, you can still delete your Google account remotely from any web browser. This is the best way to ensure that the person who has it or might find it, doesn't access your emails and other Google data.

1. Log in to the 'Your devices' area of your Google account.

2. Select your device from the list.

3. Choose Sign out.

4. Confirm by selecting Sign out again.

What Happens When You Delete Your Google Account?

You might not be aware that a Google account can be tied to lots of services. When you delete your Google account, you're deleting all of information:

• Gmail messages and attachments
• Google Drive files
• Google Calendar events
• Google Photos uploads
• Google Keep notes
• YouTube accounts and videos
• Contacts you've backed up
• YouTube and Google Play subscriptions and purchases (e.g., apps, movies, music, games)
  

You'll also no longer be able to use Google hardware, like Chromecast, Google Home, and Google Wifi.

What to Do Before Deleting Your Google Account

There are two significant areas to focus on before you delete your Google account: backing up your data and changing the email address associated with all your online accounts.

If you want to save any of the above information, it's necessary before you delete your Google account. Of course, you can download or print individual emails, photos, documents, etc., but your account has a tool to make this much more straightforward: Google Takeout.

When you go through the process described through that link, you'll see everything you can download from your account and pick and choose which things to save. This is free to do, so I suggest looking through the list of things you can download to get an idea of what you'll lose if you delete your Google account.

Something else to consider is that your Gmail account will be closed along with your Google account. Since everything on Gmail will be erased, any accounts (banks, social media, etc.) that use that email address will no longer have somewhere to send password reset emails, account alerts, and other important information.

To remedy this, log in to all your online accounts that use this email address and edit the address so that any new emails the service wants to send you will start going to your other email account. There are lots of free email accounts to pick from.

Alternatives to Deleting Your Google Account

Depending on why you want to erase your Google account, you might be better off keeping it, just in case.

For example, if you've run out of storage for your Google Drive files, you might consider erasing your Google account to get another 15 GB of free storage. Doing so, however, will erase all the files you already have in your account. Some better alternatives would be to delete the Google Drive files you no longer need, buy more Google account storage, or put excess files in a different free cloud storage service.

Or, maybe you've switched over to a Yahoo email account. Even if you don't plan to get into Gmail again, keeping your Google account lets you continue using all that an account affords you, like your YouTube profile, Keep notes, etc. There are no rules on a person's number of email accounts.

Below are some other actions you might be interested in taking that don't require you to delete your Google account:

• Clear Your Google Search History
• Delete Your Gmail Account
• Change Your Default Google Account
• Remove a Gmail Account From Your Android Device
• Unlike Multiple Gmail Accounts From Your Browser
• Change Your Google Name
  

Alternatively, if you just want to disconnect it from your phone or tablet, follow the directions above. All the data remains online, accessible from a web browser or another device (if you log in again).

Are you giving your phone away? Then it's time to wipe the phone so none of your data remains. You can do it on Android [How to Factory Reset an Android] and iOS [How to Factory Reset an iPhone].