Many people need a free Google Account. However, they don’t want or need a Gmail address. This includes longtime users of a personal email service from Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast, and others.
In business, this includes individuals whose company uses Microsoft 365 as its email platform.
Just a few of the reasons you may want to create a Google Account (without Gmail) are:
- You were invited to join a Google Meet that was created from a Gmail account (as opposed to from a Google Workspace account)
- You were sent an email inviting you to edit a Google Doc, Sheet, Presentation, or another app (some Workspace organizations can also let you in with a visitor session instead)
- You want to set up Google Analytics using a business email address
- You want 15GB of free cloud storage for backups and for sharing large files
- You want to use Google Wallet or Google Pay
- You want to create a free website using Google Sites
- You want a personal YouTube channel
- You purchased one or more Nest products from the Google Store and need a Google account to set them up in the Google Home app
Here are the steps for creating your Google account and skipping over the Gmail address option:
Note: the screens you see may vary — the most important point is to look for text like ‘use your existing email.’
1. If you are already logged into a business Google account, open a private or incognito browser window.
2. Go to the Google Account sign-in page at https://accounts.google.com
3. Click the ‘Create account’ button and select ‘For my personal use’ from the dropdown.
4. Enter your first name and, optionally, your last name.
5. Enter your birthday and gender. You can choose not to specify your gender or you can add a custom gender.
Note: Your date of birth will not be displayed anywhere. This is requested because some Google services have age requirements.
6. When Google suggests Gmail addresses or asks you to create one, click ‘Use your existing email’ instead.
7. Enter your existing email address.
8. Click the Next button. Google sends a verification code to that email address; enter it and click Next.
9. Follow the onscreen instructions to create your password.
Tip: Enter a strong password or passphrase that you have never used before. A randomly generated, four-word passphrase takes on the order of millions of centuries to brute force crack.
10. If you’re prompted for a phone number, enter it and type in the verification code Google sends by text. Google’s help page lists adding a phone number as optional, but you may still be asked for one.
Recommended: Add a recovery phone number and email, then turn on 2-Step Verification under Security & sign-in in your Google Account. You can also create a passkey so you can sign in with your fingerprint, face, or device screen lock instead of a password.
Once your Google account is set up, you’ll find other options that are not listed at the beginning of this article. For example, you can back up photos to Google Photos.
If you need more than the free 15 GB (shared across Drive, Gmail, and Photos), a Google One plan adds 100 GB for $1.99 per month or 2 TB for $9.99 per month (U.S. pricing). Then, you can back up any or all files from your computer’s local drive to the cloud using a free app called Google Drive for desktop.