Gmail has over three billion active users, with many relying on it as their primary email service or linking it to various online accounts as a single sign-on method. Consequently, ensuring its security is essential. Regularly changing your passwords is the first step to keeping your Gmail account — and, therefore, your overall online presence — safe and sound. Learn how you can change your Gmail password and how to reset it if you’ve forgotten it.
Contents:
How to reset a Gmail password on a computer
Gmail doesn’t have a standalone desktop app, so to change your password on a computer, you can use your preferred browser:
Go to the Gmail website.
At the top-right corner, click your profile picture and select “Manage your Google Account.”
Select the “Security and sign-in” tab.
Select “Password” and enter your current password to continue.
Enter the new password. Google requires it to be at least eight characters long.
Re-enter the new password and click “Change password” to verify.
How to change a Gmail password on Android
You can change your password using an Android phone or tablet directly in the device settings:
Go to your device's settings and select “Google.”
Under “Google services,” tap on your profile. Then tap “Google Account.”
Select “Security and sign-in.”
Tap “Password.” Enter your password or verify your passkey to proceed.
Enter the new password and confirm it.
Tap “Change password” to verify.
Pro tip: For security reasons, Google has added an anti-theft security mechanism for devices running Android 5.1 or higher. Once you change your Google Account password, you must wait 24 hours before you can factory reset your device. This prevents thieves from easily wiping stolen phones and gives you time to locate and retrieve your device.
How to reset a Gmail password on iPhone and iPad
If you have Gmail installed on your iPhone or iPad, you can change the password using the app:
Open the Gmail app and tap on your profile picture in the top right.
Tap “Manage your Google Account” and select “Security and sign-in.”
In the “Profile” tab, choose “Password.”
Sign in to verify your identity.
Enter and confirm your new password.
Tap “Change password” to verify.
If you’re not using the Gmail app on your iOS device but need to quickly change the password, you can do so via the Gmail website on your mobile browser:
Open the Gmail website and log in to your account.
Tap the hamburger menu at the top-right corner to view the Gmail sidebar.
Tap the button displaying your email address to access your Google Account.
Select “Manage your Google Account.”
Tap “Security and sign-in.”
In the “Profile” tab, select “Password.”
Sign in to verify your identity.
Enter the new password for your Gmail account.
Tap “Change password” to confirm.
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How to reset a Gmail password you forgot
To reset a forgotten Gmail password, you need to:
Visit the Gmail recovery page.
Enter your email address and click “Next.”
If you’ve enabled a passkey, you can use it to verify the access. If not, select “Try another way.”
You will then be asked to enter your password. Since you’ve forgotten it, select “Try another way” again.
From here, you can select a recovery method that applies. It helps if you already have your authentication device, the phone number you used to sign up to Google, or a device where you’re already logged in on hand.
Mobile number:
If you’ve set up a recovery phone number associated with the account, enter it to proceed and select “Next.”
Google will send a pop-up notification to your phone to verify you’re trying to recover the account. Open it and tap “Yes, it’s me.” Then, select the matching number on the screen.
Choose to receive the recovery code by either text message or call.
Recovery device:
On the recovery screen, choose “Tap Yes on the device your recovery email is signed into.”
Have your recovery device on hand and verify the attempt.
Backup email address:
If you have another email associated with your Gmail account, Google will allow you to receive the recovery code to that email. Click “Send” to start this process.
Open your recovery email inbox and find the email from Google.
Enter the recovery code on the screen to verify.
Logged in on another device:
If you’re already logged in to the account on another device, you can select “Try another way.”
Check the device you’re logged in to. Google will send a sign-in link to your email address in 48 hours.
No mobile phone or recovery device:
If you don't have access to the recovery email account or have not set up your recovery phone, you need to click “I don’t have my phone.”
You will then see your legacy security questions if you’ve set them up before. Enter the correct answers.
If you didn’t have security questions set up, select “Try another way.”
Google will then ask for an alternative email address that you can access. The team at Google will assess your situation individually to help you recover the account.
Setting up MFA
While you're in the process of resetting your Gmail password, you can also set up multi-factor authentication. You can find it in your Google Account settings:
In the “Manage your Google Account” screen, select the “Security and sign-in” tab.
Tap “2-step verification.” You might need to verify your identity by entering your Google Account password or using a passkey.
Choose your preferred two-step authentication method from the available options and follow instructions on the screen to verify.
You have a few verification options to use, so pick what you find the most convenient. For instance, you can set up a passkey and prove that you — and not someone else — are trying to sign in. You can also use an authenticator app, a Google prompt, or a backup code as your second step. You can learn more about Google’s two-step authentication and how to secure your Google Account in our dedicated guide.
Pro tip: NordPass has a built-in Authenticator that lets you generate one-time codes whenever you need to log in to Gmail. You can store it securely in the encrypted vault right next to your password and autofill it for a quicker login process.
Why is MFA so important?
The most common passwords that people use are short, simple, and memorable. A decent hacker can crack them in a few hours or even mere minutes if they have the right tools. Security questions are not a good way to protect your account either. The answers can be found online because they ask for common things, like pet or street names, and most people willingly give away this information about themselves. MFA offers an extra layer of reliable protection that drastically reduces the chances of your accounts getting hacked.
Remember to always pick a strong password
People don’t usually reset passwords for fun — in fact, a survey on password habits conducted by NordPass showed that 14% of users in the US couldn’t remember the last time they changed their password.
It usually takes a serious threat to get users to act, like finding out their device was hacked or infected by malware or learning that a service provider was impacted by a data breach. If you’ve found out your Gmail password was compromised, you need to act quickly to secure it — after all, Gmail getting breached will impact your other accounts within the Google ecosystem as well as those you use Google’s SSO to access.
When you change your password, pick one that is hard to guess or crack. That means a password that has at least 15 characters, including upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special symbols. Try our Password Generator for the best results — it will also tell you how strong your password is.
Remember not to reuse the newly created password for any of your other online accounts. You may follow all the rules for making your password strong, but it won't matter if you reuse it across multiple accounts. If one of the online services or sites that you use gets breached and hackers get their hands on your super strong passwords, they can use that password as a master key to your sensitive data.
You might think that long strings of random characters will be nearly impossible to remember. And you're right! So use a password manager like NordPass to store all your passwords safely.
NordPass syncs across all your devices so that you can use it at home, at work, and on the go. It encrypts your passwords on your device and then sends them to the cloud for safe storage. This way, even if someone manages to break into your vault, they won’t be able to decipher your passwords.
Get NordPass and enjoy peace of mind.