What Is the Size Limit for Yahoo Attachments vs. Gmail Attachments?
By Todd Bowerman
One of the great conveniences of modern email is that you can send images, videos and other media along with your messages. Email attachments are a critical component of both business and personal communication—it’s hard to imagine a world in which you couldn’t include relevant documents when touching base with the people in your life. Attachments, depending on their content, can take up considerable space, and not all email services are open to massive data transfers. Gmail and Yahoo, two free email providers, offer simple solutions for managing attachments.
Understanding Attachments
When you send an email attachment from one location to another, the file doesn’t just travel through the Web and land in someone’s inbox. First it is uploaded to your email provider’s Web server; next, the message arrives at your recipient's email Web provider's server; and finally, your friend or co-worker downloads the file from the email provider. Because it is not a direct transfer from computer to computer, most email services place limits on how big your attachments can be.
Attachment Types
Over the course of your email usage, you may find it necessary to share a variety of file types. Email providers have special policies regarding what can and can’t be sent. For instance, most email services block the sharing of .EXE files, since these can be viruses that damage the recipient’s computer. Before attempting to send an attachment, consult your email provider’s rules and regulations to get an idea of which files are appropriate to upload and share.
Yahoo Mail
Yahoo Mail allows for unlimited storage in your inbox and other folders, and gives you the ability to share file attachments up to 25 megabytes in size. Note that this size limit includes the actual message in addition to the attachment, so you won’t be able to send an attachment that is exactly 25 megabytes. Yahoo upgraded its attachment size rules in 2007 to match with its competitors.
Gmail
Google’s Gmail has the same file limitation as Yahoo Mail: 25 megabytes, including the message. However, Gmail also has a storage limit of 10 gigabytes total for your inbox and included folders. If you need to work up a document that will be larger than 25 megabytes, you may want to consider using Google’s Drive application instead. Drive lets you build spreadsheets, word processor documents and other files, store them on Google’s Web servers and share them with other users.