How do I attach a file in Gmail on iPhone?

Last reviewed: September 27, 2026 · Markdown version

In the Gmail app, tap Compose, then Attach at the top right, and choose where the file lives: Photos, Camera, Files, Google Photos or Google Drive. Those five sources are the list on Google's iPhone help page (Send attachments with your Gmail message (iPhone & iPad), read 27 September 2026). A PDF saved on the phone is under Files; a document you keep in Google's cloud is under Google Drive.

The steps in the Gmail app

Open the Gmail app and tap Compose at the bottom right.
Tap Attach at the top right.
Pick the source: Photos, Camera, Files, Google Photos or Google Drive, then the file.
To take one back out, tap the attachment and tap Remove.

You do not have to wait for a big file. Google's tip on the same page: "You can send an email even if the attachment is still uploading. The upload finishes before sending in the background."

Why a single photo lands in the text

This catches people out. According to that Google page, "When you select a single photo, Gmail inserts the photo into your message text." To make it a real attachment, tap the photo and choose Send as attachment. Pick several at once (the page allows "up to 5 at a time") and they arrive as attachments; to put one of them into the body instead, tap it and choose Send inline.

If you send Gmail from Apple's Mail app

Apple's route starts inside the message: tap where the attachment should go, tap the button above the keyboard, then choose Attach File (the Files app), Photo Library, or Take Photo or Video (Add email attachments in Mail on iPhone, read 27 September 2026). Mail can also turn paper into a PDF on the spot: Scan Document, hold the page in view, and the iPhone "automatically captures the page".

For oversized files Apple points to Mail Drop: "If your file exceeds the maximum size allowed by your email account, follow the onscreen instructions to send it using Mail Drop." Apple's guide does not say how that interacts with a Gmail account's own limit, so read the prompt you get rather than assuming.

When the file will not go

Too big. For a personal Gmail account "the limit is 25 MB", counted on the total attachment size, and above it "Gmail automatically removes the attachment and adds it as a Google Drive link in the email" (the Send attachments page). The recipient gets a link, not a file. More on the limit.
Blocked type. "Gmail doesn't let you attach executable files, like files ending in .exe" (same page).
"Couldn't send message". Google's explanation is that files "didn't upload to Drive", perhaps because "you don't have enough space, your internet is slow, or something else"; the fix it gives is to remove or re-add the attachment.
Account full. "If you have reach your storage limit, you can't send or receive attachments" — Google's typo, their sentence. That is an account problem, not a phone one; start here.

A sent attachment is stored twice

By our reading of Google's rule that "Attachments count toward your Google storage" (the Send attachments page), the copy in your Sent folder counts against your storage for as long as you keep that email, on top of any copy you also keep in Drive or Google Photos. For the occasional PDF that is nothing. For a habit of emailing yourself videos, it adds up, and finding those messages later is a search.