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  3. Change your Gmail address

Change your Gmail address

About 5 minutesFor: People who already have Gmail and want a different address

First: this changes the address — it doesn’t add a mailbox

Google now lets you change an existing account to a new @gmail.com address. Afterwards:

  • you still sign in to the same Google account — mail, Drive, photos and contacts are all there;
  • the old address keeps working as an alias, so mail sent to it still arrives;
  • you just get a nicer, easier-to-remember address — not a second, separate mailbox.

Change the address, or create a new account?

Change it if you simply dislike the current address, or it contains an old name or year. Create a new account if you need a completely separate mailbox — for example one used only for a non-China Apple ID or a BandwagonHost account, kept apart from your main account. See Create a Google account.

Steps

  1. Open myaccount.google.com/google-account-email in a browser and sign in. Or in your Google Account: Personal info → Email → Google Account email.
  2. If your account is eligible, there’s an option to change the address — open it.
  3. Enter the new address (the part before @gmail.com); the page tells you whether it’s taken. If so, try another.
  4. Confirm as prompted — you may need to enter your password or complete 2-Step Verification again.
  5. Afterwards, send yourself one email at the new address and one at the old address to check both arrive.

You should see

Your Google Account page shows the new address, and mail sent to both the new and old addresses lands in the same inbox.

Limits

Rule Details
How often Once a year, at most three times in total
Switching back You can return to an address you used before
Old address Becomes an alias that keeps receiving mail; nobody else can take it
Region Launched in the US first in 2026, rolling out to other countries and regions

Before you change

Sites that use your old address

The old address still receives mail, but some sites use it as your username. After changing, you may still need to sign in to them with the old address; to switch them to the new one, change it in each site’s settings.

  • Server provider, Apple ID, GitHub and similar accounts: their login doesn’t change automatically. Update the email in each account’s settings if you want.
  • People who have your old address: no need to tell them; it still receives mail. Share the new one when you like.
  • Sites you sign in to with “Sign in with Google”: usually unaffected — it’s the same account.

Stuck?

No option to change the address?

Your account can’t use the feature yet. Common reasons: not available in your region yet, a work or school account (controlled by an admin), already changed once this year, or already changed three times. Check again later, or just create a new account.

The address I want is taken?

Try another: add numbers, initials and so on. Dots don’t matter in Gmail (a.b@gmail.com and ab@gmail.com are the same address), so adding a dot doesn’t make a new one.

Can I still sign in with the old address?

Yes. Both addresses point to the same account; either works for sign-in.

Changed my mind?

You can switch back to a previous address, but it uses up one of your changes (once a year, three in total).

Before moving on, check

This setup is for you and your family only. Follow local laws and each site's and AI tool's terms of use. Open source (MIT) — code and feedback on GitHub.