How to Quickly Delete a Gmail Account Permanently

How to Delete a Gmail Account on Desktop

First, go to your profile picture on the top right and click on it.

Then click on “Manage your Google Account“.

Click on the “Data & privacy“ option on the left side menu.

Scroll down until you find “Delete your Google Account“ under More options.

WAIT! ✋

What are we deleting exactly?

Will this delete YouTube as well?

Yes … Please note:

Deleting the account will erase all data, emails, files, and access to Google services.

If you want to delete only Gmail Service, feel free to jump to that part down below 😉.

For now, go ahead and re-enter your password when prompted.

After entering your password, it will take you to the confirmation page.

On this page, you can download your entire data (it’s good practice), just in case.

Just click on the giant “Download your data“ button. 👇

Scroll down a bit and depending on the Google Services you are using it will list all the content that you are deleting.

If everything is looking good, tick the confirmation check boxes.

And click finally on “Delete Account“.

Boom! 😎

That’s how to close a Gmail account.

How long does it take to delete a Google account?

After initiating the deletion process for a Google Account, it generally takes around 2 Months for Google to completely remove all associated data.

This includes an initial period of up to 1 Month where the data is no longer visible but still stored in case of unintentional deletion, (followed by another month for the data to be securely and thoroughly erased from Google’s storage systems).

Okay, so what if I want to recover it back?

According to Google, if you change your mind later, you may not be able to retrieve it after a specific timeframe has passed.

But you can still recover it shortly after deletion.

Here’s how:

How to Recover Deleted Gmail Account

On the same page you were back there simply click on “Recover your account“.

Whoops!

I closed that page 👀

No problem!

Just go to accounts.google.com.

And enter your email as if you are signing in normally.

It will say “Account Deleted”.

Good, just press “Next“.

Again, enter your password and click on “Next“.

Congrats!

You have now recovered/undeleted your Google Account.

Click on “Continue” and you’ll be brought back to your Google Account Home Page.

Sweet!

So, how long is this recovery Window?

Google doesn’t give an exact timeframe for how long you can recover a deleted account. Their official statement says “After a certain amount of time” … 💀

But based on what others have experienced, it generally takes weeks to a couple of months for complete deletion after initiating the process.

Oh, you also mentioned you’ll show me

How to delete Gmail service only …

Alright, let’s get into that …

How to Delete a Gmail Account Service Only

In that same Data & Privacy Page, scroll down until you find “Delete a Google Service“ (under “Download or delete your data”).

Sign in as before, and click on the Trash Icon for Gmail.

It will ask you to enter the email address to use for the other services since you’re deleting this email address.

Also, please note that you can’t use @gmail.com address here 🤷‍♂️ … it must be something else like a business account.

After entering the new email, Gmail will send a Gmail deletion confirmation link to that email.

Which will take you to this page 👇

Just like before you have an option to download a backup of your data as a precautionary measure.

Scroll down and tick “Yes“, then finally click on “Delete Gmail“.

Done.

Hurray!

Now you have deleted only Gmail, and you can use the other Google Services using the new email.

Read: How to Delete All Unread Emails in Gmail at Once

How to Delete a Gmail Account on iPhone or Android (Mobile)

The process is essentially the same once you get to the Data & Privacy Page.

But I will show you how to get to that page on the Gmail Mobile App.

Go to your Gmail App, and tap on that hamburger icon in the top left.

Then, scroll down and tap on “Settings“.

Tap on your account/email address.

Tap on “Manage your Google Account“.

Go to the “Data and privacy” tab.

Tap on Delete your Google account.

From this point forward the process is exactly the same as before.

FAQs