Is a Gmail account free?

Yes. A personal Gmail account costs nothing. Accounts created since 9 March 2026 start with 5 GB of free storage and get 15 GB once a phone number is verified. Paid storage plans are optional.

Can I create a Gmail account without a phone number?

Yes, the phone step is optional. Without a verified number a new account stays at 5 GB of storage, and without a phone or a recovery email, getting back into a locked account is much harder.

How many Gmail accounts can I have?

You can create more than one and switch between them from the profile picture at the top right of Gmail. Each needs its own username and password.

Gmail guide

How to create a Gmail account

6 October 2026 · 5 min task · Tested

By Elias Brandt

Elias Brandt writes about marketing, email and analytics tools for Appcyclopedia, working on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 and a Galaxy S25.

Web
Android
iOS

Short answer

Sign out of any Google account, go to accounts.google.com, select Create account and then For my personal use. Enter your name, birthday and gender, pick or type a Gmail address, set a password, and follow the remaining screens. The new inbox opens when you finish.

Before you type a username: Gmail accepts 6 to 30 characters made of letters, numbers and periods. Underscores, dashes and plus signs are refused, and any name that someone has used and deleted stays taken.

Below: each sign-up screen, the username rules in one table, the case where you do not need a Gmail address at all, and why skipping the phone number costs a new account 10 GB of storage.

Create a new Gmail address in seven steps

To create a Gmail account, you create a Google Account and choose a Gmail address as its username. The screens are the same in a browser on a computer or a phone; only the starting point changes.

Start the sign-up

Sign out of the Google account you already use

If a Google account is signed in on this browser, sign out first, or open a private window. Google asks for this before you create a new account, and it stops the new address from being added as a second profile on someone else’s computer.
Open the sign-in page and choose Create account

Go to accounts.google.com. Under the sign-in box, select Create account. A short menu opens with options for personal use, for a child and for work or business. Choose For my personal use. The other two lead to Family Link and to business set-up.
Enter your name, birthday and gender

Type your first and last name and select Next. On the next screen Google asks for your birthday and gender. The birthday matters: 13 is the minimum age in most countries, and several countries set it at 14, 15 or 16. An account that turns out to be under age gets 14 days to be fixed before Google disables it.
Pick the address and password

Choose a suggested address or type your own

Google now offers a few addresses built from your name. Pick one, or choose to create your own Gmail address and type a username. It has to be 6 to 30 characters long and may contain only letters, numbers and periods. If the name is taken, Google says so under the box and you try another.
Set a password you have not used anywhere else

Type the password twice and select Next. Use one that is unique to this account: your Gmail address becomes the reset address for everything else you sign up for, so a reused password here puts the rest at risk. A password manager can generate and keep it.
Finish and protect the account

Add and verify a phone number

Google offers to add a phone number and sends a code by text to verify it. The step is optional, but it does two jobs: it gets you back in when you forget the password, and it unlocks storage. Since 9 March 2026 a new account starts with 5 GB, and verifying a phone number adds the other 10 GB.
Read the privacy choices and open your inbox

Follow the remaining screens to the end. Google shows its privacy and personalisation choices before you agree, so read them rather than accepting them all. When you finish, your new Gmail inbox opens. Sign in on your phone with the same address and password to get the mail there too.

Say you want jane.miller@gmail.com and Google says it is taken. Try a version you would still be happy to read out loud, such as jane.miller.studio, rather than adding a birth year you will end up sharing with every company you email.

The username is the choice that is hardest to undo, so spend your time on that screen and move quickly through the rest.

More about Gmail

Google’s free email service, included with every Google Account.

Read Gmail’s profile →

When Google will not let you finish

Every username you try is taken: Gmail rejects names that are in use, very close to an existing one, once used and then deleted, or reserved by Google against abuse. Add a period or a word you would use professionally, such as your town or trade. Periods cannot sit at the start or end, and two in a row are refused.
The username field shows an error about characters: Remove any &, =, _, ', -, +, ,, <** or **>. Gmail usernames allow letters, numbers and single periods only.
The new account appeared next to your old one: You were still signed in when you started. Nothing is broken: the browser now holds two accounts. Use the profile picture at the top right to switch between them, or sign out of the one you do not want on this device.
Google says you do not meet the age requirement: The birthday you entered is below the minimum for your country. A parent can create a child account through the For my child option instead, which is managed with Family Link.

What Gmail accepts as a username

Most failed sign-ups stop at the username screen, and the reason is usually one of these rules.

Rule	Allowed	Refused
Length	6 to 30 characters	5 or fewer, 31 or more
Characters	Letters a to z, numbers 0 to 9, periods	& = _ ’ - + , < >
Periods	One at a time, inside the name	At the start, at the end, two in a row
Reserved names	Ordinary names and words	“abuse”, “postmaster”
Old addresses	New names	Any address used before and deleted

Deleted addresses are the rule that surprises people. When someone deletes a Gmail account, the address is not released, so a name that looks free on every social network can still be refused here.

Changing the address later is possible but rationed. A personal account can switch to a new @gmail.com address once every 12 months, three times in total, and Google is still rolling the option out, so not every account has it yet. The old address keeps receiving mail as an alternate.

Pick a username you will be happy to type into a job application in ten years, and you will never need that option.

Do you need a Gmail address at all?

A Google Account does not have to come with Gmail. If you already have an email address at work, school or another provider and only need a Google Account for YouTube, Google Docs or the Play Store, select Use your existing email on the address screen instead of picking a Gmail name.

Google then sends a code to that address. You enter it, set a password, and the account works across Google’s services. You simply have no Gmail inbox.

The difference shows up later. With your own address, password resets and Google’s security alerts go to that other mailbox. With a Gmail address, they arrive in the account itself.

What the phone number step decides

The phone screen looks like a formality and is easy to skip. For accounts created since 9 March 2026, it decides two things at once.

If you	Storage	Getting back in after a lost password
Verify a phone number	15 GB, shared by Gmail, Drive and Photos	Code by text to that phone
Skip it, add a recovery email	5 GB until you verify a number	Code to the recovery email
Skip both	5 GB	The hardest case: Google has nothing to send a code to

You can add the number later from your Google Account, and the extra 10 GB arrives once it is verified. Add a recovery email at another provider as well, so one lost phone does not lock you out.

What to do after creating a Gmail account

Creating the address takes five minutes. The problems that come later are a username you outgrow and an account you cannot get back into, and both are settled on the first day.

Pick the username with care, verify a phone number, then start using the inbox. Before your first message, add a signature in Gmail so your name and details go out with every email. Once mail starts arriving, filters that archive automatically keep it from piling up, and if a message goes missing, recovering deleted Gmail messages shows where Gmail keeps it.

Questions people ask before signing up

Is a Gmail account free?: Yes. A personal Gmail account costs nothing. Accounts created since 9 March 2026 start with 5 GB of free storage and get 15 GB once a phone number is verified. Paid storage plans are optional.
Can I change my Gmail address later?: It can be done on accounts where Google has rolled the option out. You can switch to a new @gmail.com address once every 12 months and three times in total, and the old address keeps working as an alternate.
Can I create a Gmail account without a phone number?: Yes, the phone step is optional. Without a verified number a new account stays at 5 GB of storage, and without a phone or a recovery email, getting back into a locked account is much harder.
How many Gmail accounts can I have?: You can create more than one and switch between them from the profile picture at the top right of Gmail. Each needs its own username and password.

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Followed the steps? Tell us how it went on your device. Entries appear here after we check them.

Worked Every step, start to finish · Daniel Okonkwo Team 6 October 2026

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Steps performed and confirmed 6 October 2026 16 days ago

When you need this

If you need an email address for a job form, a new phone or a first online account, a free Gmail account is the one most people start with. Google’s sign-up asks for more than an address, and the username you have in mind is probably taken.

Describes: accounts.google.com in a desktop or mobile browser · Personal Google Accounts
Takes: About five minutes, longer if your first usernames are taken
Platforms: Web · Android · iOS
Published: 6 October 2026
Facts checked: 6 October 2026

Steps repeated and verified by Daniel Okonkwo on 6 Oct 2026, 11:38 AM EDT

Daniel Okonkwo: the iPhone steps on an iPhone 15 (iOS 27.0.1), the Android steps on a Pixel 9 Pro (Android 17) and the web steps on a MacBook Pro (macOS 27.0.1).

Limits quoted here come from Gmail’s documentation and were not tested.

Sources: Gmail Help, Create a Google Account for Gmail Google Account Help, Create a Google Account Gmail Help, Create a username Google Account Help, Change your Google Account email Google One Help, How your Google storage works Google Account Help, Age requirements on Google Accounts