Google Drive accepts a single file of up to 5 TB, and each user can upload up to 750 GB a day across My Drive and shared drives. Those two numbers almost never stop anyone; the limit people hit is the storage of their plan, 15 GB shared by Gmail, Drive and Photos on a free Google account, and, for files converted to Google's own formats, the size of the document itself.
Which limit applies?
| Limit | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Size of one file | Up to 5 TB | Google's "Files you can store in Google Drive" page |
| Uploads per user per day | 750 GB across My Drive and shared drives | Google Workspace Admin Help, "Google Drive limits" |
| Storage, free Google account | 15 GB shared by Gmail, Drive and Photos | Google One |
| Storage, Google One | 100 GB, 2 TB and larger plans | Google One |
| Google Docs | Up to 1.02 million characters; 50 MB when converted | Google's "Files you can store" page |
| Google Sheets | Up to 10 million cells or 18,278 columns | Same |
| Google Slides | Up to 100 MB when converted | Same |
The figures come from Google's own pages: Files you can store in Google Drive for the per-file and per-format caps, and Google Drive limits in the Workspace Admin Help for the daily upload cap. Verified 2026-09-20.
Why does an upload fail under 5 TB?
- Storage is full. A 3 GB video is far under the 5 TB file cap and still fails when the account has 2 GB of the 15 GB left. Check the space at one.google.com/storage; Gmail attachments and Photos count against the same pool.
- The daily cap. After 750 GB of uploads in a day, Drive queues everything until the next day. A single file over 750 GB still completes.
- A converted document is over its own limit. A Word file converted to Google Docs stops at 50 MB and 1.02 million characters; uploading it as a plain file, without conversion, removes that cap.
- The connection dropped. Multi-gigabyte browser uploads restart from zero on a network change; the Drive desktop app resumes.
How do you share a large file from Google Drive?
Upload it, right-click, choose Share and set the link to Anyone with the link, then send the link. The recipient downloads the original from the browser; when they select several files, Drive zips them and splits the download into 2 GB parts. A large file shared this way stays in your storage until you delete it.
How do you send a file that does not fit?
A transfer service does not use your Drive storage: the file uploads once and the recipient gets a link to a download page. Brault Transfer sends up to 2 GB per transfer on the free plan (5 transfers a month) and up to 250 GB per transfer on Growth, with a branded page, an optional password and an expiry date; the table is in plans and limits. For video, the guide on how to send large video files compares the options by size and quality loss. And if the files should live somewhere searchable after the send, import the Drive folder into Brault and share from there.