Published Feb 13, 2026, 10:30 AM EST
Chris Hachey is a contributor for MakeUseOf with years of experience covering consumer tech. He has been published on XDA-developers.com, Pocket-lint.com, BGR.com, and other tech sites. He is passionate about finding great deals on tech, testing out new consumer electronics, and sharing his insights into smart home devices.
From Bluetooth speakers and earbuds to 2-in-1 laptops, Chris has tested hundreds of products to provide his audience with real analysis on how well something works. When he's not looking for the latest and greatest in tech, he's probably spending too much time on his phone, playing with his dog or daughter, or watching his favorite sports teams. Follow him on X @hach_tag
MuckRack
There are so many email providers that give you an account for free and offer a lot of storage space. If you have the option of choosing your own email provider, as in it's not dictated by your company at work, there are features you can weigh that help you make your decision better. Regardless of what you choose, you will likely have a certain amount of space within your email.
If you surpass that, or are getting close to it, you either have to buy more storage space or delete some of your emails. It probably makes sense to first attempt to clear out some unwanted emails before purchasing more storage space. You may want to look for the biggest emails, in terms of size, you have in your inbox and there are a few ways to do this, especially if you're looking for large emails with attachments in them.
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Use the search bar and filter your emails
It doesn't have to be hard to find what you need
The images for this will include Gmail screenshots. But other email providers will be mentioned in the text.
First, try searching for emails in the email search bar, usually found at the top of your inbox. Whether you're using Outlook, Gmail, or another provider, there is a search bar that you can use to look up different emails. You can search by phrase, person, and more. Usually, the email will start populating options based on what you've typed in.
If you're using Gmail, when you click into the search bar, three options populate with buttons below the search. They are Has attachment, Last 7 days, and From me. If you click Has attachment, this serves as a filter that weeds out any that don't have an attachment. From there, you can type in larger:10m or larger:20m and so on, looking for emails that are larger than 10 or 20 megabytes that have attachments. Proton Mail has a Has attachments in its search bar.
If you're looking for a specific file type, like a PDF, you can add in filename:.pdf as well as a larger: with a megabyte amount to find PDF attachments in emails larger than a certain size. You can do the same for pictures, documents, spreadsheets, and more. Taking care of these emails first will help you free up your space in Gmail.
You can also uncheck Has attachment and still type in the larger: prompt to find emails that don't have attachments that big. Chances are, you might not find many, but some threads that go on for a long time might qualify.
Do an advanced search to see where your files might be
This is a universal option in email services
Clicking into the search bar, you'll also see options to further filter your queries. Whether it's three dots or three lines to symbolize another filter or menu, most email clients and providers let you get more granular with your search. By typing into the search bar, you're asking your system to try its best to sort your prompts.
By using an advanced search or filter, you're giving it more parameters to sort through, hopefully making it easier to find specific types of emails. Gmail offers options like Size, which you can toggle to Greater than or Less than whatever amount you set. You can also change it and look up megabytes, kilobytes, or just bytes. There are other filters you can opt for, such as looking up to a certain date for emails, if you know you don't want to delete emails from a long time ago.
Outlook gives you the option to click Attachments when you're in the advanced search portion. You can choose which folders you want to look through and what dates you might want to include. There are other parameters you can set, such as read status, keywords, subject, and who the email is to or from. This will generate a list of emails that meet your criteria. Proton Mail lets you click on Has attachments in its advanced search and lets you narrow down the parameters.
Filter your inbox by size
Restructure the way your inbox looks
Credit: Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOf
Some email providers let you sort your email inbox by size. In Outlook, there is a logo with an up arrow and a down arrow at the top of the inbox. This is the sort by filter. You can choose to sort by Date, Category, Flag Status, Size, and more. You can choose Size and then sort by Oldest on top or Newest on top.
This sorts your emails into different categories based on how big they are. Microsoft's labeling consists of four categories. Enormous is > 25 MB, Huge is 10–25 MB, Very large is between 5–10 MB, and Large is between 1–5 MB.
Proton Mail has a similar logo at the top of its interface. It has three horizontal lines with an arrow pointing down that lets you sort by filter. It gives you Newest first, Oldest first, Largest first, and Smallest first. Largest first will bring the biggest emails to the top, regardless of when you received them.
Find those large emails with attachments and delete them
Every email provider, free or paid for, has ways for you to find the largest emails you have. Most of those large emails are the ones that have big attachments, so it makes sense to narrow those down first if you're trying to save storage space. Once you find those emails, you can delete the ones that you want to free up space.