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How to Change Your Gmail Address in Five Simple Steps

Follow this simple 5-step guide to quickly change your Gmail address and eliminate most of the frustration you'd get by going it alone. It's based on what we learned after helping thousands of people change Gmail addresses smoothly, and you'll find referenced links with deeper explanations when necessary.

Step 1: Get acquainted with Google's "How to change Gmail address" policy

Spoiler alert: Google doesn't let change Gmail addresses for personal accounts.

But you should convince yourself anyway, here's how:

  1. Google offers settings for you to manage the email addresses associated with your Google Account (if there is any place where you'd be able to change a Gmail address, this would be the place!)
Google account settings management
Manage your Google email addresses
  1. But, when you look closely at your Google Account email, underneath the Gmail address you want to change, you'll see the text "You can't change this address."
Google account email you can't change this address
Primary Google Account email address
  1. If you are adventurous, you might try clicking Advanced, and you'll think you've struck gold when you see the section called "Alternate emails" describing how you can add "other email addresses you can use to sign in to your account"... but this will ultimately result in more frustration as you cannot use a Gmail address as your alternate email address (ref: Google Answer 176347).
Google alternate email address requirements
Alternate email address requirements
  1. Searching the web leads to scores of articles telling you to create a new Gmail account.
  2. And eventually, you'll realize that the only way to CHANGE your Gmail address is to create a NEW Gmail address... Yes, it's a difficult realization for everyone because years of your life probably went into your old Gmail account. But don't fret: you can easily change your Gmail account and still easily keep your email, contacts, calendars, and drive files from your old Gmail address!

Step 2: Change Your Gmail ID - Decide on your new Gmail Address and create it

Choose your address wisely. Your new Gmail address is more than "your account" … it's the account of your future YOU!

Here are some things to consider:

What do you want to achieve by learning how to change your Gmail address?

  • Will you be establishing yourself for professional success?
    Cute and funny email addresses like "mike-the-crazy-monkey-man@gmail.com" may get you through a few opportunities, but it has disadvantages, too!
  • Will you be proudly asserting your independence?
    Nothing can be more self-assuring than re-establishing yourself in your community under a name that represents you!
  • Will you proudly associate yourself with a family name (i.e., after marriage)?
    Consider that your future self might be sending this email address to your spouse's colleagues, your children's future teachers, your future home loan officer, your future medical staff, and others.
  • Or, is this just a place for you to store backups of email & files?
    In that case, something like "jane.smith.archive@gmail.com" might do the trick!

What type of account do you want?

  • You can create a FREE Gmail account (which ends in @gmail.com)
    You'll get 15GB of free storage.
  • Or, you can create a paid Google Workspace account (which ends in your own personal domain URL). Whether it's for professional or family reasons, having your own personal URL makes a clear statement. Google Workspace is easy because your account works just like a Gmail account! You get Gmail, Drive, Contacts, Calendars, and more. And you get an Admin console to add more family members or future colleagues to your account. You can claim your free trial at Google Workspace free trial.

Ok, now is your moment of truth... Go ahead and create your new account!

  • To set up a free Gmail account (ending in @gmail.com), navigate to the following page**:** Create a Gmail Account.
  • To set up a paid Google Workspace account (ending in your custom domain name), go to the following page: Sign Up for Google Workspace.

Step 3: Quickly copy all your email, contacts, calendars, and drive files to your new Gmail address… and keep all your labels and folders intact!

Just because you're changing your Gmail address doesn't mean you should lose everything you've got. You'll need and want all those emails and Drive files jam-packed with important info; and your list of contacts that auto-populate the "To:" field when drafting a new email; and the all those upcoming birthdays and anniversaries; and... more!

Here are some options to make sure you've got them:

Option A: Use VaultMe.com, and you'll be good to go in a minute!

VaultMe will quickly & securely copy your Gmail emails, Contacts, Drive files, and Calendar events from your old Gmail address account to the new account with your new Gmail address.

Pros of using VaultMe to change Gmail address:

  • You'll keep all the folders and labels that you've organized in your Gmail & Drive over the course of time
  • You'll keep a copy of all those items 'Shared with Me' by others
  • You'll save hours of your own time over the next week (versus doing it all yourself for "free")

Cons of using VaultMe to change Gmail address:

  • We can't really think of any, except that you have to pay for VaultMe. But as they say, time is money. You're valuable and your data is valuable... VaultMe is going to save your data for you and a lot of time!

Option B: Do it manually using "free" methods (but warning: this could take hours/days)

If you've got plenty of time to spare, an amazing internet connection, you're pretty handy with a computer, and you don't mind losing some of your data / organization, then you can take a number of manual steps along with some "free" methods to get your data from one account to the other.

To make it a little easier on you, we've put together this lengthy guide that will walk you step-by-step through doing it yourself with "free" tools like Google Takeout. It's literally no sweat off our back (because you're doing all the work), but this guide will definitely help you! And if you take the time to follow it carefully you'll get pretty close to what VaultMe would get you (with some minor drawbacks).

Step 4: (Optional) Set up your old Gmail address to auto-forward all new emails to your new changed Gmail address

Now that you've got all your old emails in your new account, you can optionally take a few minutes to ensure all your future emails make their way to your new account, too! (Or, instead, you can check your old email address occasionally if that's an option for you.)

To forward emails, follow these steps:

  1. On your computer, go to https://mail.google.com and sign in with your old Gmail address (make sure you're signed in to that OLD account)
    1. In the top right, click the Gear Icon to see a list of menu options drop-down
    2. In the drop-down menu, click Settings
    3. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
    4. In the "Forwarding" section, click the button Add a forwarding address
    5. Enter the email address you want to forward messages to (this is the email you changed your Gmail address to)
    6. Click Next, then Proceed, and then OK
    7. A verification message will be sent to your new Gmail address.
  2. Now, open a different browser window, go to https://mail.google.com and sign in to your new Gmail address
    1. Find the verification email sent by Google and open the email
    2. Click the verification link in that email message
  3. Now, go back to the settings page for the Gmail account you want to forward messages from (your old Gmail address), and refresh your browser tab
    1. Select Forward a copy of incoming mail to
    2. Choose what you want to happen with the Gmail copy of your emails. We recommend "Keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox"
    3. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes
  4. Now, test to make sure that your emails are forwarding
    1. Ask a friend to send you a test email to your old Gmail address and confirm they've sent it
    2. Go into your inbox in your old Gmail account to confirm the test email was received
    3. Now, go into the inbox of your new Gmail account and confirm that a copy of the email is there as well

(ref: Google Answer 10957 )

Step 5: (Optional) Use this unique feature to email all your family, friends, and colleagues the news that you've changed your Gmail address - then enjoy this new chapter of your new life!

If you used VaultMe to copy your contacts to your changed Gmail address account, then you can VERY quickly send one email to privately reach ALL your contacts you copied from your former account!

Here's how:

  1. Once your VaultMe copy is finished, take note of your unique VaultMe Copy ID (which you'll get notified about once you use VaultMe)
  2. On your computer, go to https://mail.google.com and sign in with your NEW changed Gmail address
  3. In the top left of your Gmail inbox, click Compose to bring up the compose window
Compose new gmail message window
Compose a new email in Gmail
  1. In the new message window that pops up, click on the BCC tag (Note: We suggest you use the BCC field so that you can send one email to hundreds of email addresses in such a way that each recipient will see only their address on the email and won't see the entire list of email addresses the email was sent to. Plus, by doing it this way, nobody can "Reply-all" and say something unintentionally embarrassing to them or you!)
Compose new gmail message bcc option
The BCC button in the new message window
  1. In the BCC field that appears, type in the first few letters of your VaultMe Copy ID to bring up the auto-suggested group of all your contacts from your previous account, and choose the first group on the list that matches your VaultMe Copy ID
Compose new gmail message select copy id group
Add a group of email addresses to the BCC field
  1. Once you've selected the Group, you'll see all the email addresses that were copied from your old Gmail account populate into the BCC area. Inspect the list of email addresses quickly and click the x next to any email address you'd like to remove from the distribution
Compose new gmail message copy id group added
Review the list of added email addresses
  1. Now type a Subject line and Message to let everyone know that you've changed your gmail address (and if you're so inclined, let them know how VaultMe.com helped you!)
Notify contacts of your new gmail address
Send a message to all contacts in the group
  1. Push "Send" and away the message goes! Now it's official - so go enjoy this new chapter of your life!

Want to explore other options when changing your Gmail address? This article provides a lot of useful information: How to Change a Gmail Address.

Need to transfer Google Drive to another account? Learn how you can do that: How to Transfer Google Drive to Another Account.

Planning to transfer your Google Photos to another account as well? Explore your options using this guide: How to Transfer Google Photos to Another Account.

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