Google collects a lot of information about its users and their activities online. Why would you need to know when your Google account came into being? Well, for one thing, if you ever get locked out of your Google Account, the date you created it is one of the recovery questions you can use to regain access to the account. Second, you may have several Google accounts and want to know when a particular account got created.
This article shows you how to find out the creation date of your Google Account, plain and simple.
Use Your Gmail to Find the Creation Date of Your Google Account
Most users got a Google account as a side effect of opening a Gmail account, and it is from within Gmail that you can find out when you created it. The start date of your Gmail account is the same as your Google Account. You can never have the two established at different dates—only aliases within your Gmail account.
Here are the steps to find the creation date of your Google Account:
- Open the correct “Gmail” account and select the “cog icon” (Settings).
- Select “Forwarding and POP/IMAP.” from the “Settings” menu at the top.
- Look at the “POP Download” section. Look at the first line, “Status: Pop is enabled for all mail that has arrived since [MM/DD/YY],” which displays the date you created the account.
The date on that line is the date you created your Google Account. See how easy that was? Feel free to check out all your Gmail accounts.
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15 thoughts on “How To Find the Creation Date of your Gmail or Google Account”
I distinctly remember the year because it was the year I bought a house that was the same model as the guy who invited me…which is how we met as we were both closing on our houses around the same time (Oct 2003). Well at least I know it was around that time, but would be nice to know the exact date. It was probably between Nov 2003 and Jan 2004.
Your oldest email is possibly a better indication of when you opened your account. That is, if you do not delete/purge everything (including sent) on a regular basis. For this, find the “All Mail” folder in the left-hand pane. Then, click on the email count toward the upper-right of the screen (E.g. – 1-100 of X,XXX), and select “Oldest”. This will display the oldest mail in the account.
Your oldest email is possibly a better indication of when you opened your account. That is, if you do not delete/purge everything (including sent) on a regular basis. For this, find the “All Mail” folder in the left-hand pane. Then, click on the email count toward the upper-right of the screen (E.g. – 1-100 of 7,555), and select “Oldest”. This will display the oldest mail in the account.
but I am pretty sure I had my account at least back in 2008 (and even before that)
I got the account by invitation when that was a thing and I got 3 invitations to send to friends Not sure was in the summer of 2004 or 2005 or even 2006
what I am sure of it is there is no way it was 2013