How to create a new Gmail account (2024)

1. Go to the Gmail website

First of all, visit the Gmail website which you'll find at https://www.google.com/gmail. Then click Create an account which you'll find in the top-right corner.

2. Create a Google Account

You will now need to sign up for a new Google Account. Enter your name in the two boxes (you don't have to input your surname if you don't want to) and click Next.

3. Input basic information

Next enter your date of birth (you can select the month using the dropdown menu) and enter your gender (you can select Rather Not Say or select custom if you wish). Click Next.

4. Choose an email address

Now for the fun part — choosing an Gmail address which will always end in @gmail.com. Simply enter a username (periods will be ignored) and click Next.

But be warned: you may not be able to get the email address that you want. Gmail has been around since 2004 and lots of usernames have been taken since then. Unless your name is really unusual, it's very unlikely that you'll get the dream firstnamelastname@gmail.com address.

You may need to be creative — perhaps include an initial, your profession or a series of numbers that's memorable to you. Avoid anything that could be useful to cybercriminals looking to steal your details for phishing attempts.

5. Enter a password

To ensure your Gmail account is secure, you will need to enter a password — you will have to type it twice to ensure that it's typo free.

For your safety, it's important to know how to create strong passwords.

6. Add a recovery email/phone number

Next, for added security, enter a recovery email address. You can skip this step if you wish but it's not advisable. It's very useful should you find yourself locked out of your account.

Likewise, you can enter your phone number for added security or you can skip this step — you may feel it's less necessary than adding a recovery email and you can always add it later.

7. Finish setting up

Take a look at your new Gmail address. Looks great, doesn't it? At this stage, just click Next.

8. Choose your personalization settings

You now have two choices. You can click express personalization in which case Google will get you up and running very quickly while deciding what data it should collect or you can click Manual personalization which takes longer but lets you decide which settings are turned on and off.

9. Make some decisions

If you selected Express Personalization, read about the settings and cookies that will be used then scroll down and click Confirm (or click Back if you then decide to choose Manual Personalization).

If you have chosen manual personalization, then work through the pages, deciding for example, whether you want your web and app activity to be kept until you delete it, retained for 18 months or never retained. Just click the buttons to make your choices and click Next.

10. Agree to to the privacy terms

Now agree to Google's terms and conditions — just click I Agree. This confirms that you agree to abide by Google’s rules and agree to have your information processed according to the privacy policy.

11. Choose smart features... or not

You will now be taken to your Gmail account.

Before you can start to send and read emails, decide if you want to click continue with smart features or click turn off smart features. Your choice will depend on whether you want Gmail to automatically filter your emails, make suggestions and extract event details from your messages for calendar entries. Click Next when you have made your decision.

12. Decide how to share data

Now decide if you want your Gmail data to be used to personalise other Google services. Click Personalize other Google products with my Gmail, Chat and Meet data if you do otherwise click use limited versions of other Google products. Select Done.