Wondering if a document is too big to store in Google Drive? Find here the file size limit (max file size) for your Google Drive account.
First, a Bone Appears in a Cave at the Border
With its appropriate name, Border Cave lies at—the border between Eswatini and South Africa in the Lebombo mountain range. The mountains in turn lent their name to a curious fibula of a baboon, some 37,000 years old.
Carved into the Lebombo bone are twenty-nine notches, which—speculation has it—helped count the days since and to the new moon, possibly the oldest mathematical aid known.
Now, if you want to count the bytes up to the maximum allowed for files in Google Drive, here’s where you should stop counting:
This Is the File Size Limit for Google Drive
The maximum file size in Google Drive is
- 5 TB (terabyte).
On Google Drive, this is equivalent to
- 5⨉1 024 = 5 120 GB (gigabyte) or
- around ¼ of the Library of Congress’s collected content (as text) or
- some 200 90-minute movies in 4k.
Important: Your entire Google Drive size may be smaller than the maximum for individual files. In this case, the largest file is limited to the space still available on Google Drive.
Time needed: 1 minute
To find the maximum file size for your account:
- Open Google One Storage in a browser.
- Subtract the used space from the storage allotted to your account.
Example: If you see 11.55 GB of 15 GB used, the largest file can be 15 – 11.55 = 3.45 GB.
Note: If the result is larger than 5 TB, the general limit of 5 TB applies, of course.
Wondering where all that space has gone? You can find (and delete) large files in Google Drive.
Maximum File Size for Google Apps Documents
For documents that you convert to a Google app for online editing (such as Google Docs, Google Sheets or Google Slides), Google Drive has different (and significantly more restrictive) limits:
| Type | Maximum Size |
|---|---|
| Text documents | 50 MB (for conversion to Google Docs) 1.02 million characters |
| Spread sheets | 10 million cells (or up to column ZZZ) 50,000 characters per cell |
| Presentations | 100 MB |
This Is the File Size Limit for Google Drive: FAQ
Can I upload documents larger than the editable Google apps size?
Yes.
While you will not be able to convert the document to its Google apps equivalent or edit it directly using your browser, you can, of course, store and download documents, spread sheets, and presentations up to 5 TB in size.
(Google Drive file size limit updated April 2024)