If you have a Gmail account that you don't want anymore, you might find yourself wanting to delete it. Deleting your Gmail account will erase all of the messages saved to it, and you won't be able to send or receive emails using it anymore.
But deleting your Gmail account isn't the same as deleting your entire Google account. This means that you'll still be able to use other Google apps like YouTube or Docs.
If you're certain you want to do it, here's how to delete a Gmail account using your PC or Mac computer — along with how to delete your other Google-linked accounts.
How to delete your Gmail account
Once you go through these steps, you'll lose all access to your Gmail account. There's no undoing this, so make sure that you really want to delete it before you do anything.
1. Open the Gmail account that you want to delete on your PC or Mac computer. You can use any internet browser.
2. Click on your profile icon in the top-right corner to open your account menu, and then click Manage your Google Account.
3. In the left-hand sidebar, click the Data & privacy tab.
4. Scroll down to the Download or delete your data section, and then click Delete a Google service.
5. Enter your password to confirm that it's you.
6. Find the Gmail option and click the trashcan icon next to it.
7. Enter a new email address to connect your Google account to — it can't be another Gmail address — and click Send verification email.
8. Log into the email account you provided and open the email that Google just sent. Click on the link inside to finish the deletion process.
How to delete other Google services
Google runs all sorts of sites, like YouTube and Stadia.
If you want to delete your accounts on these sites, you can usually go through the same steps as above. When you reach the page with the trashcan icons, just click them instead of Gmail.
You can also delete your YouTube channel by going through the site itself. Check out our article on how to delete your YouTube account for more details.
And if you just want to delete your entire Google account at once, you can do that too — and just like Gmail, you can download all your data beforehand too. See our article on deleting your Google account for all the information.
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