Mail Drop is an iCloud feature built into Apple Mail. When an attachment is too big for your email provider, Mail uploads it to iCloud and the recipient gets the file, or a download link, instead of a bounced message. It handles messages up to 5 GB, and the files expire after 30 days.

What Is Mail Drop? How to Send 5 GB Files from iPhone, Mac and iCloud

Q: What is the Mail Drop size limit?

A single message, including all its attachments, can be up to 5 GB. Separately, there is a 1 TB Mail Drop storage limit for the files you have sent that have not yet expired. Each file expires 30 days after sending, which frees that space again.

Q: Does Mail Drop use my iCloud storage?

No. Apple states that Mail Drop attachments do not count against your iCloud storage, so a free 5 GB iCloud account can still send a 4 GB video. You do need to be signed in with your Apple Account.

Q: How do I use Mail Drop on iPhone?

Write an email in the Mail app, attach the large file, and tap Send. If the message is too big for your email provider, Mail asks whether to use Mail Drop. Tap Use Mail Drop and keep the phone online while the upload finishes from the Outbox.

Q: Do recipients need an iPhone or an Apple account to download Mail Drop files?

No. Recipients using Apple Mail on a Mac get the attachment inside the message. Everyone else, including Gmail and Outlook users on Windows or Android, gets a download link with the expiry date and can open it in any browser.

Q: How long do Mail Drop links last?

30 days. After that the file is deleted from iCloud and the link stops working. You also cannot delete a Mail Drop file early once the email has been sent.

Q: Why is Mail Drop not showing up?

Common causes: you are not signed in to your Apple Account, Mail Drop is turned off for that account on your Mac, you attached an uncompressed folder, the message is over 5 GB, you hit iCloud's daily sending limits, or a work or school device profile has disabled Mail Drop.

Q: Can I use Mail Drop with a Gmail or Outlook account?

Yes, as long as that account is set up in Apple Mail on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Mail Drop is part of Apple Mail and iCloud, not Gmail or Outlook, so it is not available in the Gmail or Outlook apps or on their websites.

By Hieu DinhPublished September 4, 2026

What Is Mail Drop? Apple's Fix for Oversized Email Attachments

Mail Drop is an iCloud feature in Apple Mail that sends attachments up to 5 GB by uploading them to iCloud instead of stuffing them into the email. Recipients get the file or a download link that lasts 30 days, and the upload does not count against your iCloud storage.

If you have asked "what is Mail Drop" because your iPhone just offered it after you tried to email a video, the short version is: say yes. It is free, it works for recipients on any device, and it is the easiest way to get a large file out of Apple Mail.

The rest of this guide covers the exact limits, how to use Mail Drop on iPhone, Mac and iCloud.com, what Gmail and Outlook recipients see, and what to do when Mail Drop does not appear.

How Mail Drop Works

Normal email attachments travel inside the message. That is why providers cap them: iCloud Mail limits ordinary messages to 20 MB, Gmail to 25 MB, and Outlook.com to 25 MB.

Mail Drop sidesteps that cap. When you send a message that is too large:

Mail uploads the attachment to iCloud, where it is encrypted and stored for up to 30 days.
The email goes out without the heavy file inside it.
Recipients using Apple Mail on a Mac see the attachment in the message as normal.
Everyone else gets a link to download the file, along with its expiry date.

With Mail Drop on, the iCloud Mail message size limit rises from 20 MB to 5 GB. Nothing about the file itself changes. Mail Drop does not compress anything; the recipient downloads the same bytes you attached.

Mail Drop Limits at a Glance

These figures come from Apple's Mail Drop limits and iCloud Mail sending limits support pages, checked October 2026.

Limit	Value
Maximum message size (message + attachments)	5 GB
Total Mail Drop storage per account	1 TB of unexpired files
How long files stay available	30 days, then deleted
Counts against iCloud storage	No
File types	All file types
Folders	Not allowed uncompressed; zip them first
iCloud Mail messages per day	1,000
iCloud Mail recipients per day	1,000
Recipients per message	500
Where you can send from	Mail on Mac, Mail on iPhone and iPad, iCloud.com/mail in a browser on Mac or PC
Minimum versions	OS X Yosemite (Mac), iOS 9.2 (iPhone/iPad)
Recipient requirements	None; any email app and browser

Two caveats from Apple's own page that most guides skip:

The recipient's email app may have a smaller message size limit that prevents delivery. This is rare with modern webmail, but it happens with strict corporate servers.
Links can become inaccessible after excessive downloads or high traffic. Apple does not publish a number. Mail Drop is built for sending a file to a handful of people, not for distributing a file to a large list.

How to Use Mail Drop on iPhone and iPad

There is no switch to flip on iPhone. Mail offers Mail Drop automatically once a message is too large for your email provider.

Make sure you are signed in with your Apple Account. Apple's older iPhone and iPad guides also note that iCloud Mail should be turned on under Settings > [your name] > iCloud.
Open Mail and tap the compose button.
Add the recipient and subject, and choose which account to send from if you have several.
Attach the file using the attachment controls above the keyboard. You can also start from the Photos or Files app, tap Share, then choose Mail.
Tap Send.
When Mail warns that the message is too large, tap Use Mail Drop.
Keep the phone connected. The message sits in the Outbox until the upload finishes, which can take a while for a multi-gigabyte video on a slow connection.

This works for iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or any other account added to the iPhone Mail app. It does not work inside the separate Gmail or Outlook apps, because Mail Drop belongs to Apple Mail, not to your provider.

For a quick clip to a friend, Messages may be simpler; see how to send long videos through text for when that works and when it quietly compresses your video.

How to Use Mail Drop in Mac Mail

On a Mac, Mail Drop behaves slightly differently depending on the account:

iCloud email address: if you are signed in to iCloud when you click Send, Mail uses Mail Drop automatically for large attachments. No prompt.
Any other provider (Gmail, Outlook, work email): Mail asks whether to use Mail Drop. Tick Don't ask again for this account if you always want it.

Turn Mail Drop on or off in Mac Mail

Open Mail and choose Mail > Settings.
Click Accounts and select the account.
Click Account Information.
Select or deselect Send large attachments with Mail Drop.

If Mail never offers Mail Drop on your Mac, this checkbox is the first thing to check. It is set per account, so turning it on for iCloud does not turn it on for Gmail.

How to Use Mail Drop on iCloud.com

iCloud.com is the only way to use Mail Drop from a Windows PC, and it works in any up-to-date browser.

Go to icloud.com/mail and sign in.
Write your message and attach files with the attach button, or drag them into the message.
If the attachments are too large, iCloud asks whether to deliver them with Mail Drop. For files from iCloud Photos, you may also see an iCloud Link option, which is not available in every country or region.

To make Mail Drop the default:

On icloud.com/mail, select the Settings button at the top of the Mailboxes list, then Settings.
Choose Composing in the sidebar.
Turn on Use Mail Drop when sending large attachments.

What Gmail and Outlook Recipients See

This is where most people worry, and it is mostly a non-issue.

A Gmail or Outlook recipient receives a normal email with a link to download the attachment and the date it expires. They click it, the file downloads from iCloud in their browser, and that is it. They do not need an iPhone, a Mac, an Apple Account or iCloud storage.

A few things worth telling the recipient, especially for business email:

The link expires in 30 days. If they need the file long term, they should download it rather than bookmark the email.
Corporate filters sometimes flag download links from senders they do not recognise. If a client says "nothing arrived", ask them to check quarantine.
Anyone with the link can download the file. Treat it like any shareable link and do not use Mail Drop for anything you would not forward.

Mail Drop vs Gmail and Outlook Attachment Limits

Every major provider has a workaround for big files. Here is how Mail Drop compares, based on the providers' current support pages.

	Normal attachment limit	Large-file method	Large-file ceiling	Recipient needs an account?	Expiry
Apple Mail + Mail Drop	20 MB (iCloud Mail)	Mail Drop	5 GB per message	No	30 days
Gmail	25 MB	Automatic Google Drive link	Set by Drive and the file's sharing	Depends on sharing settings	None; file stays in your Drive
Outlook.com	25 MB (including message text)	OneDrive link	2 GB per linked file	Depends on sharing settings	None; file stays in your OneDrive

The meaningful differences:

Mail Drop does not touch your storage. Gmail's Drive links and Outlook's OneDrive links live in your cloud account and consume quota until you delete them. Mail Drop files cost you nothing and clean themselves up.
Mail Drop expires. Drive and OneDrive links do not. If the recipient needs the file next quarter, a cloud link is the better fit.
Mail Drop needs Apple Mail or iCloud.com. You cannot trigger it from the Gmail or Outlook apps, even on an iPhone.

For the full picture by provider, see Gmail attachment size limit, Outlook attachment size limit, and the complete guide to email attachment size limits.

Mail Drop Not Working? Common Causes

If Mail never offers Mail Drop, or the message fails, work through this list:

Not signed in to your Apple Account. Mail Drop requires it on every device.
Mail Drop is off for that account (Mac). Check Mail > Settings > Accounts > Account Information.
The message is over 5 GB in total. Split it across several emails or compress the attachments.
You attached a folder. Uncompressed folders are not allowed. Right-click the folder on a Mac and choose Compress to create a .zip first.
You hit iCloud's sending limits. 1,000 messages or 1,000 recipients per day, 500 recipients per message.
You have 1 TB of unexpired Mail Drop files. Unlikely, but space frees up as files reach their 30-day expiry.
The device is managed by work or school. Apple's device management includes an Allow Mail Drop restriction that can hide the option entirely. Check Settings > General > VPN & Device Management for a profile, and ask your IT team.
iCloud is having an outage. Check Apple's System Status page.
The email is stuck in the Outbox. The upload is still running. Stay on Wi-Fi and keep Mail open until it sends.

When Mail Drop Is the Wrong Tool

Mail Drop is excellent for "send this one big file to a few people, this week." It is a poor fit when:

The recipient needs the file after 30 days. Use a shared cloud folder instead. Our Dropbox file size limit guide covers how far that route stretches.
The file is larger than 5 GB. Mail Drop simply will not take it. How to send large video files compares the alternatives.
Many people will download it. High-traffic links can become inaccessible.
You need to revoke access. Once sent, a Mail Drop file cannot be deleted before it expires.

Compress First and You Often Do Not Need Mail Drop

Mail Drop moves a big file. It does not make it smaller. Your recipient still downloads every byte, and you still wait for every byte to upload from your phone.

Most files that trigger Mail Drop are much larger than they need to be:

iPhone and screen-recording videos are captured at high bitrates. As an illustrative example, a 4K clip of a few minutes can run to several gigabytes, while a 1080p version for viewing on a laptop is often a fraction of that.
Scanned PDFs are mostly full-resolution images. Compressing the embedded images frequently brings a PDF from tens of megabytes to under the 20 MB iCloud or 25 MB Gmail limit, so it travels as a normal attachment that never expires.
Photo batches exported as full-size PNG or HEIC add up fast.

Shrinking a file before sending gives you three wins: the upload finishes sooner, the recipient gets a smaller download, and small enough files skip Mail Drop's 30-day clock entirely. Reduce file size for email attachments walks through the methods by file type.

The same habit helps elsewhere in iCloud. Mail Drop is free, but your iCloud Photos and Drive are not; how to free up iCloud storage covers that side.

Compressing Files Before You Hit Send

Compresto compresses videos, images, GIFs and PDFs in batch on your Mac. Drop in a screen recording, an iPhone video or a scanned PDF, choose a quality level or target size, and it processes them locally with hardware acceleration. Often the result is small enough to attach directly; when it is not, Mail Drop uploads a much smaller file and your recipient waits less.

Download Compresto for Mac →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mail Drop?

An iCloud feature in Apple Mail that uploads oversized attachments to iCloud and delivers them as a download link or in-message attachment. It handles messages up to 5 GB, and files expire after 30 days.

What is the Mail Drop size limit?

5 GB per message, including all attachments, plus a 1 TB storage limit for your unexpired Mail Drop files. Each file expires 30 days after sending.

Does Mail Drop use my iCloud storage?

No. Mail Drop attachments do not count against your iCloud storage, so a free iCloud account can send multi-gigabyte files. You do need to be signed in with your Apple Account.

How do I use Mail Drop on iPhone?

Attach the file in the Mail app and tap Send. When Mail says the message is too large, tap Use Mail Drop and keep the phone online until the upload clears the Outbox.

Do recipients need an iPhone or an Apple account to download Mail Drop files?

No. Mac Mail users see the attachment in the message; everyone else, including Gmail and Outlook users on Windows or Android, gets a browser download link with the expiry date.

How long do Mail Drop links last?

30 days. After that the file is deleted and the link stops working. You cannot delete a Mail Drop file early once it has been sent.

Why is Mail Drop not showing up?

Usually one of: not signed in to your Apple Account, Mail Drop turned off for that Mac account, an uncompressed folder attached, a message over 5 GB, iCloud sending limits reached, or a work or school profile blocking it.

Can I use Mail Drop with a Gmail or Outlook account?

Yes, if the account is added to Apple Mail on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. It is not available in the Gmail or Outlook apps or on their websites.