How to download your Google data, and how long Takeout actually takes
Google Takeout is requested on the web in about nine steps. The reported wait is minutes for a small selection and days for a large one, and Google states the finished archive stays available for one week. Written 2026-08-24.
The exact taps, in order
Your part of this is about two to four minutes. Everything after that is Google taking its time, and
nothing you do speeds it up.
Go to Takeout Open takeout.google.com in a browser and sign in to the account you want. It is not in the Google app.
Deselect all Takeout ticks every product by default. Click Deselect all first, or you will be waiting days for an archive of photos you did not want.
Tick My Activity This holds Search, Assistant, Maps, News and the rest, product by product.
Set My Activity to JSON Click Multiple formats inside the My Activity row and change HTML to JSON. HTML is one enormous page built for a person to scroll.
Tick YouTube and YouTube Music Then use its own options button to include history, and set the history format to JSON as well.
Tick My Ad Center if it is listed Many accounts have it. That is where the estimated age range, estimated gender and interest topics sit.
Click Next step Choose delivery by email link, file type zip, and a size of 2 GB or larger so the archive splits into fewer parts.
Click Create export Google starts building. You can close the tab.
Download from the email When the email arrives, download every part. The link is stated to last one week and allows a limited number of downloads.
How long it actually takes
What
How long reported
Reported typical wait
Minutes to a few hours for My Activity and YouTube history alone.
Reported for large archives
Days, sometimes longer, when Photos, Drive or Gmail are included.
Platform stated
Google warns some exports take hours or days and emails you when it is done.
How long the file stays
Google states the archive is available for one week, with a limited number of downloads.
Your own time
About 4 minutes to request.
How big the file is
My Activity plus YouTube history as JSON is usually tens of megabytes. Add Photos, Drive or Gmail and the same request becomes tens or hundreds of gigabytes, split into numbered parts. reported
What is actually inside
My Activity MyActivity.json per product, with a timestamped row for every search, every Assistant request and every visit Google recorded while the setting was on.
YouTube and YouTube Music watch-history.json and search-history.json in the history folder, plus subscriptions, playlists and comments.
My Ad Center, when included Google's own word for it is estimate: what they estimate about your interests based on your activity, an estimated age range and an estimated gender.
Everything else you ticked Location History if it was ever on, Chrome, Maps, Contacts, Drive, Photos, Gmail as mbox.
What is missing from it
Not in the file, whatever anyone tells you
Anything from a period when the activity setting was paused, or that auto delete has already removed. If auto delete was set to 3, 18 or 36 months, everything older is gone and no export brings it back.
Incognito activity, which was never attached to the account.
Why a result or an ad was chosen for you. The ranking model is not in the archive.
The interest topics, unless My Ad Center was included or you read them on screen at myadcenter.google.com.
The download expires
Do not lose the link
Google states the finished archive stays available for one week and can be downloaded a limited number of times. Download all parts the day the email lands.
Read this before you trust a number on this page
Every wait window and every file size here is reported, not measured by us. It comes
from the platform's own published help pages and from what people consistently say happens, and platforms
change both without telling anyone. When we have a request we timed ourselves, this page will say measured
and print the date the measurement was taken. Until then, treat these as the range to plan around rather
than a promise.
Written 2026-08-24. Export screens move every few months. If a step here has gone stale, tell us and it
gets fixed rather than quietly rotting.
When the file arrives
When the file lands, you do not have to unzip it or understand it. Drop it into the free Google Count and read the real numbers in about ten seconds. It runs entirely in your browser, there is no account, no email field and no card, and nothing is uploaded.
The full Reading is 6.99 a week or 69.99 a year. No free trial. There is a Refund button in
your dashboard for 7 days, one tap, no reason required. The Count stays free forever either way.
Reported at minutes to a few hours for My Activity and YouTube history, and days for archives that include Photos, Drive or Gmail. Google emails you when it is ready and states the archive is available for one week. We have not measured this ourselves yet.
Where does Google keep what it estimated about me?
In My Ad Center. Google's own word is estimate: an estimated age range, an estimated gender, and a long list of interest topics. Many accounts can include My Ad Center in Takeout, and the same list is readable on screen at myadcenter.google.com, where you can also switch topics off.
Why is my Takeout archive split into parts?
Because of the file size you chose. Set 2 GB or 10 GB on the delivery screen to get fewer parts, and download every part, not only the first.
The free Count pages
One page per file. Each is the same browser local tool scoped to a different export, and none of them
ask for an email.