Google Drive's 15GB of free storage is generous compared to many competitors, but can quickly run out if you don't use it carefully. However, upgrading your hosting plan is not your only option. With just a few simple steps, you can free up Google Drive storage space without losing important files.
1. Identify and delete large files
One of the fastest ways to free up space in Google Drive is to locate and delete any large files, photos, and videos that you no longer need. These files can include 4K videos, high-resolution photos, or ZIP files that are taking up gigabytes (GB) of storage space.
Google Drive's Storage menu makes it easy to quickly identify large files. Here's what to do:
- Open Google Drive in your favorite web browser.
- Click options Storage in the left pane.
- All of your Google Drive files will be sorted by size, with the largest files displayed at the top. Scroll through the files to select the ones you don't need, click the three-dot icon at the top and select Move to bin.
- Once deleted, go to the tab Bin and click options Empty bin.

2. Delete emails with large attachments
Not only do files appearing in Google Drive take up space, but the Gmail inbox can also be the culprit. Emails and attachments stored in Gmail also count toward your Google account's total storage capacity. Deleting unnecessary emails, especially those with large attachments, can help free up space without incurring additional storage costs.
To free up storage space on your Gmail account, go to Gmail and enter has:attachment larger:10M go to the search bar. This will list all emails with attachments larger than 10MB.
Browse the list and delete emails you no longer need, such as old chats, forwarded attachments, or project files you saved elsewhere. Once done, make sure to empty the folder Trash to permanently delete these emails and reclaim storage space.

3. Compress photos and videos in Google Photos
Similar to Gmail, your Google Photos storage also contributes to your total Google Drive storage. Deleting media files from Google Photos is an effective solution to this problem. However, if you don't want to lose those precious memories, you can download all your Google Photos data and create an offline backup.
Additionally, you can take advantage of Google Photos' Storage Saver option, which compresses photos and videos without significantly reducing their quality. Doing so will allow Google Photos to reduce photo size to 16MP and resize videos to 1080p if they have a higher resolution. This alone can free up a significant amount of storage space, especially if Google Photos takes up most of the storage in your Google account.
To compress photos and videos stored in Google Photos:
- Open the Google Photos website on your computer and click the gear icon at the top.
- Select options Storage saver and click options Manage storage.
- Scroll down Recover storage and click Learn more.
- Check the checkbox and click Compress existing photos and videos to confirm.

4. Delete outdated phone backups
If you've used Google Drive to back up data on your Android phone over time, outdated backups may be taking up some of your storage space. Deleting old and unnecessary backups can help free up that storage space. Here's how to do it.
- Open Google Drive on your computer and click the tab Storage in the left pane.
- Click Backups in the upper right corner to see all the backups associated with your Google account.
- Browse through the list of backups and find any that are outdated or unnecessary. Select the backup you want to delete and click the trash icon at the top of the page.

5. Clean up application and game data stored in Drive
An often overlooked source of storage space consumption in Google Drive is data stored by apps and games you've used over time. Many apps, especially games, save their data to your Google Drive. This may include saved game files, application settings and other data that may not be useful to you.
Luckily, Google Drive makes it easy to delete unwanted data stored by these apps and games. Here are the steps you need to take.
- Open Google Drive on your computer, click the gear icon in the upper right corner and select Settings.
- Select tabs Manage apps.
- Locate app or game data that you don't need. Click the button Options next to and select Delete hidden app data.
- Press Delete to confirm.
- Repeat the above steps for each app and game data you want to delete.

6. Exclude videos from WhatsApp backup
Previously, Google did not count WhatsApp backups towards the Google Drive storage quota, but that is no longer the case. This means that if you use WhatsApp every day, especially to send and receive media content like videos, photos and audio messages, backups can quickly eat up your Google Drive storage space. your.
One way to reduce the impact on storage is to exclude videos from WhatsApp backups. Here's how to do it.
- Open WhatsApp on your phone, tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner and select Settings.
- Enter Chats > Chat backup.
- Turn off the toggle button Include videos.

By excluding videos from your WhatsApp backup, you can keep the backup size smaller and ensure your Google Drive storage is used more efficiently. If you want to keep important videos, you can manually save them to Google Photos or another cloud service.
7. Use Storage Manager's cleaning suggestions
Even after you've made the effort to delete large files and old backups, chances are your Google Drive storage will fill up again over time. Ultimately, this will lead to an annoying banner urging you to upgrade to a paid plan. Luckily, Google Drive offers a handy tool called Storage Manager, which provides cleaning suggestions to help you manage storage space and prevent unnecessary buildup.
To access, go to the menu Storage in Google Drive and click options Clean up space. From there, you can review suggested items to delete, such as junk emails, files in the trash, etc. You can also clean up specific services, like Gmail or Google Photos, to target Target areas that are taking up more space.

Managing your Google Drive storage may seem like a complicated task, but with the tips mentioned above, you can easily reclaim a significant amount of space and avoid paying extra for storage. amount of storage.