How to see folder sizes in Google Drive

Google Drive shows the size of every file, but never the size of a folder. Click a folder's details and the size line simply isn't there. That's why a Drive can be full without anything in it looking big. Here are the ways round it, from quickest to most complete.

Why Drive doesn't show folder sizes

In Google Drive a folder is more like a label than a box: a file can be reached from more than one place, and folders can hold thousands of files nested many levels deep. Adding all that up for every folder would be slow on Google's side, so Drive doesn't do it.

The closest built-in view is Storage in Drive's left-hand menu. It lists your files from largest to smallest, but files only, never folders. A folder of ten thousand small files can be your biggest folder and never show up there.

1. Drive for desktop, if your files are mirrored

If you use Google Drive for desktop in mirror mode, your files really are on your computer, so Finder's Get Info (Mac) or Properties (Windows) gives a true folder size.

In stream mode, the default, most files aren't on your computer at all, and the size your computer reports can be partial or zero. Mirroring a large Drive just to measure it also means downloading all of it.

2. Download the folder

Right-click a folder in Drive and choose Download: Drive zips it and the download size gives you a rough idea. It's slow, large folders are split into several zip files, and Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are converted along the way, so the number isn't exact. Fine for one folder, not for finding which folder is the problem.

3. A command-line tool

If you're comfortable in a terminal, rclone can connect to Google Drive and its rclone size command adds up a folder and everything inside it. It's accurate, but you have to know which folder to ask about, and it measures one folder at a time.

4. Every folder, ranked by size

What most people actually want is the list Drive doesn't have: every folder in the Drive, with all of its subfolders added up, biggest first. That's the first thing TidierCloud was built to show. It reads your Drive's file list (names, sizes and folders, never the files themselves), adds up every folder, and lets you click down from the biggest one to the files that make it big. A map of the whole Drive shows the same thing as shapes, so the heaviest corners stand out at a glance.

Size and storage aren't always the same

Files someone else owns, even inside your folders, count against their storage, not yours.
Shortcuts take no space.
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides created or edited since June 2021 count towards storage.
The trash still counts until it's emptied. See why Google Drive is full for the rest.

Questions

Can you see folder size in Google Drive?

Not in Google Drive itself. Drive shows the size of each file but not of folders, on the web or in the mobile app. You can see a folder's size with Drive for desktop in mirror mode, by downloading the folder, with a command-line tool such as rclone, or with a storage analyser such as TidierCloud, which adds up every folder and ranks them by size.

Why doesn't Google Drive show folder sizes?

In Drive a folder can contain thousands of files nested many levels deep, and a file can appear in more than one place, so Drive doesn't calculate a total for each folder. Its Storage view lists files by size, never folders.

How do I find the biggest folders in Google Drive?

You need a tool that adds up every subfolder, because Drive won't. TidierCloud scans the file list of your Drive, adds up every folder and lists them biggest first, with a map of where the space goes. It only reads, and nothing leaves your computer.

See it for your own Drive

TidierCloud scans your Drive and shows all of this in one place: the biggest folders with every subfolder added up, the biggest files, exact duplicates and the trash, on a map of where the space goes. It only reads, and nothing leaves your computer.

Open TidierCloud

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