How many MB can you send in an email
The maximum attachment size you can send in a single email varies by provider, but it’s typically between 20 and 25 megabytes (MB).
Here’s a breakdown of common limits for popular email services:
| Provider | Max Size | Information |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | 25 MB | files larger than 25 MB are automatically uploaded to Google Drive, with a download link |
| Yahoo Mail | 25 MB | supports Dropbox or Google Drive for larger files |
| Outlook / Hotmail | 20 MB | OneDrive for larger files |
| Apple Mail (iCloud) | 20 MB | with Mail Drop, you can send attachments up to 5 GB via iCloud |
| ProtonMail | 25 MB | Proton Drive for larger files |
| Zoho Mail | 20 MB | needs cloud sharing for larger files |
| Yandex Mail | 22 MB | free 5 GB cloud storage |
Note: Because email attachments are encoded (such as with MIME), the usable file size is typically about 40-50% less than the stated limit due to encoding overhead. So, although the limit is 20 - 25 MB, the effective maximum file size for a single attachment is about 10 - 12.5 MB due to this encoding overhead.
To put it in perspective using gigabytes (GB): Since 1 GB equals 1,024 MB, the common 25 MB attachment limit is equivalent to about 0.024 GB per email. For more size conversions: MB to GB
So, what should be done?
If you need to send files larger than these limits, a common solution is to upload the files to a cloud storage service (like Google Drive, WeTransfer, OneDrive, Dropbox) and then share a download link in your email.