What you can actually delete from Google
Google stores information about you in two separate places, and what you can delete depends on which one you're dealing with. The first is your Google Account — the email, passwords, photos, and documents you've uploaded to Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, or other Google services. The second is Google's search index, which is the list of web pages Google has found and catalogued across the internet. You can delete your account entirely, remove specific items from your account, or ask Google to remove pages from its search results. You cannot delete information that other people have posted about you unless you own that website.
Most people confuse these two systems. Deleting your Gmail account does not remove old emails from Google's search results if those emails were forwarded to someone else or posted publicly. Removing a page from Google Search does not delete it from your Google Drive. Understanding which system holds the information you want gone is the first step to actually removing it.
Key Takeaways
- You can delete your entire Google Account, which removes Gmail, Drive, Photos, and other Google services you own, though this takes about two months to fully process.
- You can delete individual items like emails, photos, or documents from your Google Account without deleting the account itself.
- You can ask Google to remove a specific web page from its search results using Google Search Console, but only if you own that page or have permission from the owner.
- Information posted by other people on their own websites or social media cannot be removed through Google — you must contact the website owner directly.
- Removing something from Google Search does not delete it from the internet; it only removes it from Google's index.
Deleting your entire Google Account
If you want to remove yourself from Google entirely, you can delete your Google Account through your account settings. Go to myaccount.google.com, click "Data & privacy" on the left menu, scroll down to "Your data & privacy options," and select "Delete your Google Account." Google will ask you to confirm your password and will show you what will be deleted: your Gmail inbox, Google Drive files, Google Photos, YouTube channel (if you have one), Google Calendar, and any other Google service linked to that account.
The deletion is not when ready. Google keeps your data for about two months in case you change your mind and want to restore it. After two months, the data is permanently deleted from Google's servers. During those two months, you can still sign back in and cancel the deletion. After two months, it cannot be undone. Some information — like your YouTube history or search history — may take longer to fully disappear from Google's systems.
Before you delete your account, read anything you want to keep. You can use Google Takeout (takeout.google.com) to read your Gmail, Drive files, Photos, and other data as a backup before deletion.
Removing individual items from your Google Account
You do not have to delete your entire account to remove specific information. You can delete individual emails from Gmail, photos from Google Photos, or documents from Google Drive one at a time or in bulk. Open the service, select the items you want to remove, and click the delete button. For Gmail, deleted emails go to the Trash folder and stay there for 30 days before being permanently deleted. For Google Drive and Photos, deleted items go to Trash and stay there for 30 days.
If you want to remove your search history — the record of what you have searched for on Google — go to myactivity.google.com. You can delete individual searches, delete all searches from a specific date range, or turn off search history recording entirely. Turning off search history means Google will not store future searches, but it does not delete searches that are already recorded.
You can also remove your location history, YouTube watch history, and Chrome browsing history from the same page. Each service has its own delete option, and you can control them separately.
Removing pages from Google Search results
If you own a website or blog and want to remove a page from Google's search results, use Google Search Console (search.google.com/search-console). Sign in with the Google Account associated with your website, select your site, and go to "Removals" in the left menu. Click "New request" and enter the URL of the page you want removed. Google will remove it from search results within a few days, though the page itself stays on the internet — it just will not appear in Google searches.
This removal is temporary. Google will re-index the page after about six months unless you also add a robots.txt file or a noindex tag to the page's code to tell Google not to index it permanently. If you want the page gone forever, you can delete it from your website entirely, which will cause Google to remove it from search results within a few weeks.
If you do not own the website but want a page removed — for example, a page with your personal information posted by someone else — you can request removal through Google's removal tool at google.com/webmasters/tools/removals. You will need to verify that you own the page or have permission to request its removal. Google will review your request, but removal is not may provide. If the page contains sensitive personal information like your home address or financial details, Google is more likely to remove it.
Removing personal information from Google Search
Google has a specific form for removing sensitive personal information from search results without removing the entire page. This includes your home address, phone number, email address, or financial account numbers if they appear in search results. Go to google.com/webmasters/tools/removals, click "Remove information from Google," and select the type of information you want removed. Describe where it appears and why it should be removed.
Google reviews these requests manually, which takes several days. They will remove the information if they determine it poses a real privacy or safety risk. They are more likely to remove information if you can show that it was posted without your consent or that it is being used for harassment or fraud. If the information is on a news site or public record, Google may decline the removal request.
What you cannot delete through Google
You cannot remove information that other people have posted about you on their own websites, social media accounts, or public forums through Google. You can only remove it from Google's search results, which means it will not appear when someone searches for your name on Google, but the original post will still exist on that website. To actually delete information posted by someone else, you must contact the website owner or the social media platform directly and ask them to remove it.
Most social media platforms have their own removal processes. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn all have forms where you can report content that violates their policies or request removal of your own information. If someone has posted your photo without consent, most platforms will remove it. If someone has posted false information about you, removal depends on the platform's policies about misinformation.
If information about you appears in Google News results, you can request removal through the same Google removal tool, but Google will only remove it if the content violates their policies — for example, if it contains your financial account numbers or home address. News articles themselves are not removed just because you do not want them indexed.
Controlling what Google knows about you going forward
Beyond deleting existing information, you can limit what Google collects about you in the future. In your Google Account settings under "Data & privacy," you can turn off Web & App Activity, which stops Google from recording your searches and browsing history. You can turn off Location History to prevent Google from tracking where you go. You can turn off YouTube History so Google does not record what videos you watch.
These settings only affect new activity. Turning them off does not delete information that is already recorded. If you want to delete everything Google has recorded about you up to now, use myactivity.google.com to delete your entire activity history before turning off these settings.
You can also adjust your ad preferences at myaccount.google.com/ads to see what topics Google thinks you are interested in and remove topics you do not want used for targeted advertising. This does not stop Google from collecting data about you, but it does limit how that data is used to show you ads.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I delete my Gmail account, will my emails disappear from Google Search?
Not when ready. Your emails will be deleted from your Gmail inbox, but if those emails were forwarded to other people or posted publicly somewhere, they may still appear in Google Search results. You would need to remove them from Google Search separately using the removal tool, or contact the person or website that has them and ask them to delete them.
How long does it take for Google to remove a page from search results?
If you own the page and use Google Search Console, removal usually takes a few days to a week. If you request removal of someone else's page containing your personal information, Google reviews it manually, which can take several days to a few weeks. Removal is not may provide — Google only removes it if they determine it poses a privacy or safety risk.
Can I remove my name from Google Search entirely?
You cannot remove your name from Google Search if other people have posted information about you on public websites. You can only remove specific pages or specific pieces of information like your address or phone number. If you want your name to appear less often in search results, you can delete your own public profiles and ask websites you control to remove your information.
What happens to my data after I delete my Google Account?
Google keeps your data for about two months after deletion in case you want to restore it. After two months, it is permanently deleted from Google's servers. Some information like YouTube history may take longer to fully disappear. You cannot recover your data after the two-month window closes.
Does removing a page from Google Search delete it from the internet?
No. Removing a page from Google Search only removes it from Google's index, which means it will not appear in Google search results. The page still exists on the website where it was posted. Other search engines like Bing or DuckDuckGo may still index it, and anyone with the direct link can still access it.