17 Gmail Statistics to Share with Your Network in 2023

Updated · Jun 21, 2023

Chances are that you used your Gmail account to type your last email of the day. And we’re willing to bet that you sent it to another Gmail account, too.

How can we be so sure?

Well, with 1.8 billion people using Gmail, it’s frankly not that hard to guess.

We can also bet that you’re anxious for some cool Gmail statistics, so we don’t want to keep you waiting much longer.

Just, before we begin, take a second and try to imagine the expansiveness of this number—1.8 billion! If we wanted to pack all Gmail fans into a single country, they’d fit within the most populous one out there and still surpass the current number of Chinese inhabitants.

Impressive, right?

Fascinating Facts about the Fastest-Growing Email Platform in the Galaxy (Editor’s Choice)

  • When it first launched, people thought Gmail was a joke, as the date was April 1st, 2004.
  • After a five-year beta-testing phase, Gmail celebrated its official release on July 7th, 2009.
  • The total number of Gmail users in 2020 was 1.8 billion, making it the most widely used webmail service worldwide.
  • One in every five people has a personal or business Gmail account.
  • 92% of all US start-ups have switched to Gmail. 
  • You can have as many Gmail accounts as you want, but you can only send up to 500 emails per day.
  • Gmail inboxes can sometimes feel like black holes, pulling and housing 17,000 emails on average.
  • Gmail’s core competitors remain Outlook and Yahoo!, but newcomers like Zoho Email and Tutanota are making valiant efforts to get up there.

Gmail History Facts

Sometimes, it feels like Google and all its services have been around since forever.

It’s hard to remember a time when we couldn’t share white-collar correspondence with our C-level bosses—or memes of water-drenched cats with our nearest and dearest (no one’s judging)—via Gmail.

But exactly how long has Gmail been around?

Let’s dive deep into how this worldwide phenomenon started. 

1. Gmail was out and about as early as 2004.

(Source: Britannica)

But it wasn’t until 2009 that it became available to the masses.

And, boy, were the masses eager to take advantage of additional email storage space! Google’s 1GB offer was something that Gmail’s competitors simply could not match.

Fun fact: On the same day that Gmail launched—which just so happened to be April Fools’ day, by the way—Google hired Sundar Pichai, who would develop Google Chrome a few years later.

2. The mastermind behind Gmail also toiled over Google’s AdSense.

(Source: Techgig)

Paul Buchheit was the creative genius whose fingers typed the Gmail code. He was Google’s 23rd employee back in 2001.

Currently, though, more than 156,500 people are working for Alphabet (Google’s parent corporation).

3. Gmail was only supposed to serve… Garfield fans?

(Source: Ranker)

We aren’t entirely convinced that this statement ranks among tried-and-tested Gmail facts, but we thought it was quirky enough to warrant a mention.

Some conspiracy theorists are pretty insistent that the domain name of Gmail.com was once upon a time in the possession of Jim Davis, Garfield’s cartoonist dad. Consequently, they argue, Gmail was originally meant as a webmail platform for Garfield fans only.

Yeah… logic isn’t really on their side, but we’ll leave it up to you.

4. Gmail is free, but it’s willing to take a payment in exchange for more storage space.

(Source: Wired)

What made Gmail the most popular email account today?

We at Hosting Tribunal would say the constant updates and competitive incentives might have had something to do with it.

Google really scaled up its competitive offer from 1GB of storage space to 2GB in 2005. In 2012, it expanded to 10GB. Fast-forward a decade, and we get to luxuriate in a whopping 15GB—true, that cloud space is split among Google Drive and Google Photos, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Still, if you need more, a mere $1.99 a month will get you 100GB extra storage.

5. Gmail is more than a gatekeeper for spam.

(Source: Google Cloud)

Other Gmail updates over time have been known to save us from a meltdown or two. Take the tab separation feature, for instance.

The tabbing system is based on a complex machine-learning algorithm that helps Gmail decide whether an email belongs to the “primary”, “social”, or “promotion” tab. Google factors in the email sender, the text of the message, and your previous interactions.

It’s extremely handy but also kind of scary how deep Gmail can delve in your private convos.

Anyway, Gmail statistics show that about 4% of all emails fall under the “promotions” tab, whereas 22.1% end up under “updates”.

Fun fact: The odds of people reading an email in the “social” tag are the same as for the “primary” tag—around 22%.

6. You’re probably utilizing less than 30% of Gmail’s full potential—unless you’ve heard about Gmail tools like Labs and Boomerang.

(Source: doist)

No? Neither had we.

Labs acts as a sandpit area for Gmail updates where, for instance, you can test out cool keyboard shortcuts.

Boomerang, on the other hand, is a handy plugin that controls the delivery time of the emails you write. It also lets you set a convenient time for you to re-receive an email, lest you forget about it.

7. Fun question: How many queries per second does Gmail get?

(Source: Medium)

Pending an official answer, we can rely (ironically) on a good old Google search. Apparently, Gmail processes around 135,000 queries each second.

This is considering that every time you send, receive, or search for an email, you’re sending Gmail a query.

That’s some serious server power.

Gmail Users

We already established that an extravagant number of people use Gmail, but do they have anything in common?

Do they actually use their Gmail account?

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty details.

8. One in five people actively uses a Gmail account.

(Sources: 99firms)

Despite the lack of Gmail stats for 2022, we might hazard a guess that the number of Gmail aficionados has topped two billion by now.

Back in 2020, Gmail already boasted 1.8 billion total active users, a number that surpassed all other email providers. Considering that four billion people worldwide used emails back then… We’ll let you do the math.

(You got it—Gmail takes nearly 50% of the market.)

9. The typical Gmail user is a Millennial.

(Source: rightinbox)

Specifically, the median person behind a Gmail account is 31 years old.

Furthermore, Gmail stats reveal that 61% of those aged 18-29 in the US prefer Gmail over competitors. The same is true for 54% of those in the 30-44 year-old cohort.

10. Only 18.2% of users check Gmail on a desktop screen.

(Source: FinancesOnline)

In 2019, most users scrolled through their emails using the Gmail mobile app (41.9%), whereas 39.9% of users opted for the webmail service instead.

All in all, Gmail was responsible for 26.2% of all email usage in Q1 2019.

11. You can check how many emails you send per minute, day, or year.

(Source: Drag)

Many users ponder the same thing: does Gmail have analytics? Or, better yet, are these analytics visible to me as a simple user?

In 2018, Google unveiled its Email Analytics tool, which can be installed as an add-on to Google Sheets. It can then track fun Gmail stats, such as how quickly you reply to emails, how many words you use on average, how much action your inbox sees, and more!

Tip: If you have a business and want to up your emailing performance, you might want to check out some email automation tools, like Mailchimp or GetResponse.

How Many Gmail Accounts Are There?

We’ve now covered how many people use Gmail, but the number of users isn’t the same as the number of Gmail accounts—big shock there.

So, let’s get down to it.

12. On average, a person has 1.9 email accounts.

(Source: rightinbox)

Unfortunately, Google hasn’t given official numbers regarding Gmail accounts specifically, but we can make an estimate.

Assuming that Gmail subscribers are no different than regular email users, then 1.9 email accounts per person times 1.8 billion Gmail users gives us 3.42 billion Gmail accounts.

But that’s also assuming that people choose Gmail for all their accounts, so take that number with a handful of salt (a pinch might not cut it).

13. Fortunately for everybody involved, you can’t send unlimited emails.

(Source: GMass)

Don’t worry—unless you’re a pro spammer, you probably haven’t pushed that limit. (Please don’t.)

On a personal account, you get 500 emails for every 24 hours. Google Workspace lifts the ceiling to 2,000 emails. (Still, please don’t.)

Fun fact: 2021 recorded 300+ billion emails sent per day. Naturally, the credit goes to spam bots and automated emails.

14. You could have 100 Gmail accounts—if you had 20 working phone numbers, that is.

(Source: Tab-TV)

If the question “how many Gmail accounts can I have in 2022?” ever crossed your mind, you should know that the sky’s the limit.

There is no cap, but there’s a catch—you can only re-use the same phone number for 4-5 new accounts in total.

15. The average Gmail inbox houses 17,000 emails.

(Source: SaaS Scout)

Disclaimer: This colossal number doesn’t exclude spam.

When was the last time you received a tempting and poorly worded email telling you you inherited a few millions from a stranger in a distant land?

Hopefully, a long time ago. Because even though 92% of malware travels via email, Gmail statistics say that the platform correctly identifies 99% of threats.

And certainly (on the off chance that you saw it), you didn’t open it because you’re aware that even clicking on such emails is a big no-no when it comes to keeping your identity safe online.

And, even if you had hypothetically clicked on it, nothing bad could have happened because you have an awesome antivirus and identity-theft protection, right?

Right.

16. Gmail’s market share is the largest (43%) among email providers.

(Source: litmus)

Gmail scored the highest on webmail opens in Q1 of 2021—an overwhelming 75%. Every other service, as you can imagine, didn’t even come close. Yahoo! sat at roughly 14.8%, whereas Outlook contributed a mere 2.4%.

Fun fact: The Gmail app has 10 billion downloads from the Google play store in the US. This represents a 53% market share.

18. Most of Gmail’s revenue comes from AdSense.

(Source: SEOAves)

Let’s admit it—Gmail probably knows more about each and every one of us than we know about ourselves. We might have forgotten that purchase we made years ago from an Etsy store that specializes in hand-crafted wooden bookmarks, but Gmail hasn’t.

The platform sends out precious data to advertisers, targets users with personalized ads, and then charges marketers everytime you click on them.

Fun fact: Google now makes more than $145 billion a year from ads alone.

Wrap Up

To say that Google’s horse is ahead of the race is an understatement. Gmail statistics show it’s pretty unlikely that any other webmail service takes over the market any time soon.

As it currently stands, if Google servers were to break down irrevocably, and we were left stranded on a Gmail blackout (we dare not imagine the abyss of having no Google search), can you imagine how much data would be lost? 

How much damage would businesses—large and small alike—suffer even for a single day without Gmail?

But let’s not go down that route.

Let’s just try to get through the day one email at a time.

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Nick Galov
Nick Galov

Unaware that life beyond the internet exists, Nick is poking servers and control panels, playing with WordPress add-ons, and helping people get the hosting that suits them.