Is Gmail Free to Use for Email?
By Kay FleuryUpdated on June 27, 2018
If you’ve followed our course on Gmail until now, you’ve read up on what Gmail is and how it works, and you know how to keep yourself safe while using the email service. Another question that you may want to ask is: “How much is Gmail?” In this article, we’ll answer that question by outlining any features of Gmail that you must pay for, as well as explain how Google makes money with Gmail.
Does it cost money to make and use a Gmail account?
Gmail is free to sign up for and use, and has no hidden fees. There is no limit to how many emails you can send or receive, the number of people you can contact, or how much time you can spend using it. Gmail has some features you can purchase, but they do not drastically change user experience. Most people who use Gmail do so for free. There is also no limit to the number of accounts you can create, so long as you use a unique email address (username) that no other person has yet registered.
How does Gmail make money if it’s free to use?
Gmail makes money through the sale of extra features, which are especially popular with businesses that want to use Gmail as their email platform. Gmail is also part of the Google family of applications, and so it makes money in many of the same ways — including displaying banner advertisements on its web pages.
What parts of Gmail do require you to pay for them?
As we said above, you never have to pay for the basic Gmail service, and its paid features aren’t all that vital to its operation. In most cases, payments are made to increase the effectiveness of free features. Some ways that you can do this include:
- Extra storage – A standard account offers 15 gigabytes of free memory storage space. To obtain more than that, you can set up a monthly plan to pay for 100 gigabytes ($1.99/month) or 1 terabyte ($9.99/month) of additional storage.
- Increased storage across Google apps – Gmail is linked to Google Drive and Google Photos, and shares your memory storage capacity across these three applications. You can increase your storage on any one of these applications to increase your storage as well.
- G Suite – Google’s Office Suite package includes Gmail for employees, as well as a plethora of other features. These include voice and video conferencing, access to Google’s full line of online office applications, synchronization across all of your devices, 24/7 phone and email support, and more.
That’s how much Gmail costs, and how it makes its money. Now that you know that you can use it for free, you may want to create an account.