How to delete duplicate photos in Google Photos (2026)

Google Photos does not have a built-in duplicate finder, so to delete duplicate photos in Google Photos you either find them by hand (search a date, select the copies, move them to the trash) or use a desktop tool that scans the library for you. Manual works for a few dozen; for a library of thousands, a Chrome extension such as Doppelgone can group exact duplicates, similar shots and bursts, keep the best of each, and move the rest to the trash, where they can be restored for 30 days. Either way, nothing is final until you empty the trash.

Why there is no "find duplicates" button

Google Photos uploads from a phone or the web uploader are checked for exact byte-for-byte matches at upload time, so uploading the very same file twice from the same device usually does not create a second copy. But almost every real duplicate is not byte-for-byte identical. It is the same photo saved by WhatsApp at a slightly different size, a burst of eight near-identical frames, an edit saved as a new file, a copy re-downloaded from a shared album, or the same shot backed up by two phones with different metadata.

Google Photos treats all of these as different photos. Its Manage storage page offers suggestions for large files, blurry photos and screenshots, but at the time of writing there is no duplicate review. The reasons duplicates appear in the first place are covered in why Google Photos has duplicates.

Before you start: how deletion works

It helps to know the safety net before you use it.

• Moving a photo to the trash removes it from your library and from every device that syncs with it, but it is not gone. It stays in Google Photos' trash for 30 days.
• Photos in the trash still count toward your storage until the trash is emptied, either by you or automatically after 30 days.
• Restoring from the trash puts the photo back exactly where it was, including albums.
• Emptying the trash is permanent.

So the safe pattern is: move to trash, live with it for a few days, then empty the trash to get the space back. More in Google Photos trash explained.

Method 1: find and delete duplicates by hand

This is free, needs nothing installed, and is fine for small libraries or a known problem area such as one holiday.

1. Open photos.google.com on a computer. The grid is far easier to compare on a large screen than on a phone.
2. Use the search bar to narrow things down. A date ("June 2024"), a place or a person all work. Duplicates almost always sit next to each other in the timeline because they share a capture date.
3. Scan the grid for pairs. Exact copies look identical; bursts look like a flicker of the same scene.
4. Hover over the first copy and click the tick in the corner to select it. Hold Shift and click another photo to select everything in between, or click each copy one by one.
5. Press the bin icon (or the Delete key) and confirm "Move to trash".
6. Repeat for the next date range.
7. When you are done, open Library, then Trash, check the contents and empty it.

The limits of doing it by hand

Manual works well for exact copies that sit side by side. It struggles with everything else.

• Near-duplicates are hard to judge from a thumbnail. Two shots of a group may differ only by someone blinking. You need to open both at full size to choose.
• Bursts are tedious. A single burst can be twenty frames, and a year of a toddler can be hundreds of bursts.
• Copies separated in time are easy to miss. A WhatsApp copy of a 2019 photo lands in your library on the date it was saved, which might be 2023.
• There is no "select all duplicates" option, so you select every one by hand and it is easy to accidentally remove the only copy.
• You cannot tell exact duplicates from similar ones. Both look the same in the grid, but one is safe to remove and the other needs a decision.

Method 2: use a desktop tool

A dedicated tool looks at every photo, groups the copies and shows you each group for a decision. There are a few kinds.

Approach	How it works	Trade-offs
Download everything, dedupe locally	Export your library with Google Takeout, run a desktop duplicate finder on the files, re-upload the keepers	Slow, needs a lot of disk, and the re-upload can create its own duplicates
Phone cleaner apps	Scan the phone's own gallery for duplicates	Only sees what is on the phone, not the cloud library; removing local copies does not change Google storage
Browser extension that works on photos.google.com	Reads the library in your browser, groups copies, moves extras to the trash through Google Photos itself	Needs desktop Chrome; limited to what Google Photos exposes

Doppelgone takes the third approach. It is a free Chrome extension for desktop Chrome that works on photos.google.com. Duplicates are found right inside Chrome. Your photos never leave your device. There is a comparison of the options in duplicate photo finders for Google Photos compared.

Using Doppelgone, step by step

1. Install Doppelgone from the Chrome Web Store in desktop Chrome.
2. Open photos.google.com in the same Chrome profile and make sure you are signed in to the account you want to clean. If you have more than one account, Doppelgone uses the one your Google Photos tab opens with.
3. Click the Doppelgone icon and start a scan. The first scan looks at every photo, so a large library takes a while. You can close the popup; the scan continues in the background, and later scans only look at new photos.
4. Review the results. Doppelgone sorts what it found into exact duplicates, similar shots and burst photos. In each group it marks the best shot to keep, chosen for open eyes, sharpness and good lighting, and marks the others for removal. Click any other photo in a group to keep that one instead, or skip a group entirely.
5. Approve the clean-up. Nothing happens until you do. The removed photos go to Google Photos' trash, where they stay for 30 days.
6. If you change your mind, use the one-click undo in Settings under Recent clean-ups, or restore photos individually from the Google Photos trash.
7. After a few days, when you are comfortable, empty the trash in Google Photos to get the space back. Doppelgone never empties the trash for you.

Favourites, videos, motion photos and photos shared with you are never touched. In our testing on a real library of about 15,000 photos, Doppelgone found roughly 4 GB of duplicates. The free plan includes unlimited scans and 200 clean-ups; Pro is a one-time payment for unlimited clean-ups on up to 3 accounts, Google Photos and iCloud together. For a closer look at the similar-shot and burst side, see find similar and burst photos in Google Photos.

Choosing which copy to keep

Whichever method you use, the choice is the same.

• For exact duplicates it does not matter; they are identical files.
• For similar shots, open them at full size. Look for open eyes, a sharp subject and the better exposure. If one is an edit, keep the version you actually like.
• For bursts, keep one or two frames at most. The others exist only because the shutter was held down.
• If you are torn, keep both. Storage is cheaper than regret, and you can come back later.

How to stop duplicates coming back

Deleting duplicates once is useful. Stopping the source is better.

1. In the Google Photos app on your phone, open your profile, then Photos settings, then Backup, then Back up device folders. Turn off folders for WhatsApp Images, Telegram, Instagram, Screenshots, Downloads and anything else that mostly holds copies.
2. If you use the desktop uploader or the Drive sync client, pick one source for each photo. A photo backed up from your phone and again from a Drive folder on your computer will show up twice.
3. If a partner shares their library with you, do not also save their photos to your own library unless you want them in both places.
4. Turn off burst mode where you do not need it, or make a habit of picking the keeper on the day.
5. Re-scan every few months. Doppelgone's later scans only look at photos added since the last one, so they are quick.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google Photos automatically delete duplicates?

Only exact byte-for-byte matches uploaded from the same source are skipped at upload time. Everything else, such as a WhatsApp copy, a burst, an edit saved as a new file, or the same shot from two phones, is stored as a separate photo. There is no duplicate finder in the app or on the website at the time of writing.

Is it safe to delete duplicate photos in Google Photos?

Yes, as long as you keep one copy. Removed photos go to the trash for 30 days and can be restored with everything intact. The one thing to be careful about is similar shots, where the two photos are not identical and you should pick the better one yourself. There is more in is it safe to delete duplicate photos.

Why did my storage not go down after deleting duplicates?

Photos in the trash still count toward storage until the trash is emptied. Open Library, then Trash, and empty it. It can also take a few minutes for the figure on your Google One storage page to update.

Can I delete duplicates from my phone?

You can select and trash photos in the Google Photos app, but you cannot easily compare them, and phone cleaner apps only look at the phone's local gallery rather than your cloud library. For a large library, a computer with Chrome is the practical route.

What to do next

Pick one recent holiday and try the manual method to see what your library looks like. If you find yourself selecting copies for more than ten minutes, install Doppelgone, run a scan, and review the groups it finds; the free plan covers 200 clean-ups, and Pro is a one-time payment if you need more.