Closing a Google or Gmail account after a death
A Google account is often the center of someone's online life. Gmail, Google Photos, Drive, YouTube and Fitbit all sit behind the same sign-in. When the person dies, the account stays open until someone asks Google to act. This page explains what Google offers, what it asks for, and the one decision to make before you start.
What Google can do
Google's request page offers three things for a deceased person's account.
Close the account. The account and everything in it is deleted.
Request funds. Money held in the account, such as a Google Play balance.
Request data. A copy of some of the account's contents, such as emails or photos.
Each request is reviewed individually. Google decides what to grant.
Decide this first
Order matters with Google. Once the account is closed, its contents cannot be recovered. If the family wants photos, documents or emails from the account, ask for them before asking for closure.
Closing a Google account closes all of it at once: Gmail, Photos, Drive, YouTube and Fitbit. If the only problem is a subscription still charging a card, stopping that charge may be all you need for now.
Your loved one may also have set up Google's Inactive Account Manager. If they did, Google may contact the people they chose after a period of inactivity, without anyone asking.
What Google asks for
- To start any request: the death certificate and your own government-issued ID.
- For data: Google may ask for more before releasing any content, including a U.S. court order. It is worth knowing that before you begin.
- For funds: court-certified letters testamentary or similar proof of authority over the estate.
Google does not ask for the person's password, and no one should ever ask you for it.
How to do it yourself
Google's request page is here: Submit a request regarding a deceased user's account. You choose the request, give your details and the person's email address, and upload the documents.
Responses have tended to take weeks, sometimes longer, because each one is reviewed by hand.
If you would rather not do this twenty times
Google is usually one of many. Email, photo storage, shopping, streaming, subscriptions still charging a card. Most families do not know what accounts exist until the statements arrive.
We check your loved one's identifiers against the platforms people actually use, confirm what each one requires, and submit the closure or memorialization requests through each platform's official process, including Google. We work from a death certificate and proof of authority. We never ask for a password. If the family wants data from the account first, we say so before anything is closed. Requests that need a court order stay with the family and their attorney. When the last platform has replied, you receive one closure report covering every platform we checked, including where no account was found.
Standard Closure is $300. Custom Closure, which adds the accounts you name, is $400. The fee is agreed before we begin.
We are not affiliated with Google. Google's process and timing are Google's, and can change. Financial, investment and government accounts are outside what we handle; the executor deals with those directly.