Gmail Inbox Cleanup: Retention Policies, API Limits, and a CLI That Actually Works

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Google launched Gmail in 2004. If you’ve been using it since then, you have 22 years of accumulated email — newsletters you never unsubscribed from, notification spam from services that no longer exist, and thousands of conversations you’ll never open again. Cleaning this up should be straightforward. It isn’t.

The 15 GB ceiling

Every Google account comes with 15 GB of free storage shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. A decade of email with attachments fills this quickly. When you hit the limit, Google’s solution is Google One — starting at a couple of euros per month for 100 GB.

Google-Workspace on Martin's Blog

Gmail Inbox Cleanup: Retention Policies, API Limits, and a CLI That Actually Works

The 15 GB ceiling