Wondering how to delete a Gmail account with an embarrassing ID that you created in your teenage years? Getting too many spam emails? Or even worse, is your account hacked? Another reason could be that you want to switch to a different email provider and explore more emailing service options.

With over 4.1 billion users worldwide, Gmail is the most popular email service out there. It’s easy for anyone to create an account on Gmail, and chances are you’ve created one (or multiple) accounts that you want to get rid of. Whatever your reason, fret no more; we’ve got your back and in this article we will explain how to delete your Gmail account.

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Before you delete your Gmail account, here are some important things to keep in mind.

Before deleting your Gmail account, here are five things that you should consider first:

Like an arrow leaving a bow, there’s no coming back from deleting your account? Once you commit, your email ID, emails and account data will disappear. You also won’t be able to send or receive email on the same Gmail ID. In this case, you or anyone else can’t use the same ID in the future.

Time is of the essence in account recovery for Gmail accounts. If you deleted your account a few days back, you can retrieve it using account recovery. If it’s been a while already, get ready to let it go.

You can continue to use other Google account services such as Meet, Calendar, Gdrive, Docs, Sheets and more.

Chances are, you used your Gmail ID to sign in or register for several apps and services, say, a Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription. Deleting your account may remove access to these platforms forever.

If you can’t remember the password to any account created using your Gmail account, consider them gone. Without the original Gmail account, you won’t be able to request or retrieve forgotten passwords.

You can download or export a copy of your emails using an email program or through Google Takeout. In case you are using IMAP, it will only save locally stored emails on your system. Any email saved on the server or in a folder you’ve synchronized with the Gmail account will be removed once you delete your Gmail account.

Here’s how to completely shut down your account via desktop, Android and iPhone.