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Home Innovation Cloud Cloud Storage

How to easily manage your Google Workspace storage

If your Google Workspace is running low on available storage, there’s a quick and easy way to find out what files are taking up the most space.

Written by Jack Wallen, Contributing Writer on

storage containers — Abstract Aerial Art/Getty Images

I’ve been a Google user for nearly two decades. Over that time, you can be sure that I’ve collected too many emails, documents, photos, and various files. I’ve had to add more storage until I’m currently standing at 2TB. Thankfully, that 2TB of storage only costs me $9.99/month, otherwise, I might find myself constantly having to shed files and emails on a weekly basis.

Also: Why that cheap ‘lifetime cloud storage’ deal might cost more than you bargained for

But not everyone needs or wants to shell out the money for that extra storage. If that’s you, you’ll be glad to know it’s actually pretty easy to manage your Google storage. With an easy-to-use storage dashboard, you can take care of Drive, Photos, and Gmail. You’ll get an updated glance at how much space deleted emails and files are consuming, how many unsupported video files you’ve saved, and how many spam emails can be deleted.

With this dashboard, you are empowered to manage your storage your way. If you want to keep every single email you have, you don’t have to worry about it. If, on the other hand, you want to delete all unsupported video files…have at it.

Also: How to find which files are taking up the most storage space in Google Drive

Even if you have expanded your Google Storage, it’s always a good idea to keep things neat and tidy. If you shrug off this kind of maintenance, you could wind up with zero space left, and going through that many files and emails can be time-consuming. To that end, you should make a habit of emptying your storage of unwanted garbage.

Let me show you how easy it is.

How to manage your Google Workspace storage

What you’ll need: The only things you’ll need are a valid Google account and a web browser. This of course can also be done on an Android device with Google One, but I’m going to show you how to take care of the task from within a web browser. You can use any browser that supports Google Workspace (which includes nearly all popular browsers).

1. Open the Storage Manager

The first thing to do is open your default web browser and point it to the Google Storage Manager.

2. Clean up by suggested items

Once there, you should see three sections:

Storage summary
Clean up suggested items
Clean up by service

The first thing I would recommend doing is going through each suggested item. You’ll want to empty your email and file trash as well as spam emails. For example, if you click Review, under Emails in Trash, you’ll see a list of every email you’ve deleted. At the top right of the page, click Delete All if you want to get rid of them in one fell swoop. If you want to pick and choose, go through the list, select the emails to be deleted, and then click the Delete button.

Also: Google’s Duet AI for Workspace can create presentations, write emails, and attend meetings for you

Do the same for the other options under Clean up suggested items.

The Delete All button for deleted emails. — The fastest way to delete all of your trashed emails is to click Delete All.

Jack Wallen/ZDNET

2. Clean up by service

Next, click to expand any one of the three services and you’ll be presented with a file picker, where you can select any (or all) of the files you want to delete.

The Google Storage Manager file picker. — The file picker makes it easy to select the files you want to delete and retain those you want to keep.

Jack Wallen/ZDNET

One thing to keep in mind is that, after you’ve deleted files, it’ll take a while for that gained space to be reflected in your Storage Summary. Give it time and you’ll see the change.

Also: The best cloud storage services of 2023: Expert picks

And that’s how you can easily manage your Google Workspace storage. Keep on top of this and you won’t have to worry about running out of room.